“Idea of an Ideal India”

"The spirit of Advaita is not to keep away from anything, but to keep in tune with
everything." - Swami Chinmayananda

“In the end nothing less than the whole of everything can be the truth of anything
at all”- William James

All these three terms have to be very clearly defined, at least with legal fraternity
conducting it, i.e. Idea, Ideal, India.

Without clarity in definition it is difficult to proceed based on wishes, conjectures

and vague assumptions.

Definitions are also in peril , especially with professional lawyers and main stream
media personalities [ the two experts of terminological terrorism] around.

I am not saying this out of any bias, but because recently a combo of lawyers and
journalists have given a new definition for pedophilia as ' cross generational
physical attraction'.

They can kill everything with their verbal narratives, and sometimes, worse still,
these self acclaimed intellects act as mass opinion molders for the gullible public.

Debates with differing views are conducted with lot of dignity and panache in
BBC. I shall give just one link to show how it is done even on very controversial
topic without politicizing, sensationalizing, or extrapolating it with any exterior
influence or propagating it with any ulterior motive or hidden agenda.

Besides, ideas too, like everything else emerge and evolve in due course not
necessarily sponsored by any individual or group but by the exigencies of
life’s imperatives and as a result of the churning process of life and ends up
injecting meaning to life itself.

The individual who delivers those ideas or the group that espouses such ideas are
just the privileged and trust worthy means or tools.
It is ideas whose time has come and in certain cases it is hastened due to excessive
depravity, crisis or damage that want of such ideas can cause.

How to have a dignified debate or discussion? [You may listen to it at your

leisure time]

Very interesting group discussion on evolution especially with reference to gender

The Darwin Debate: Steven Pinker, Jonathan Miller, Steve Jones and Meredith
Small - BBC
Evolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjJAwbc5IaE

Coming back to the very interesting topic ‘Idea of ideal India’, and unfortunately
I don‟t have the luxury of changing the topic as „Idea for a greater or better India‟.

However, I request, the organizers, if possible to slightly ensure contextualizing

the topic as ‘Idea of ideal India at the moment’ as that would not imply there
was never an ideal India before and also ensure the speakers to confine to context
rather than resurrecting selectively historical events or issues or individuals, though
those things could be very spicy but not in Chennai‟s heat.

In fact the most ideal thing is not even to confine the idea of a nation by
identifying it to a real estate space in atlas with a name but to the real
contributions it has made, makes and its willingness and ability to create conducive
atmosphere to others everywhere to make similar contributions or at least enjoy the
benefits of such contribution for the sake of all species inhabiting a planet called
earth.

Hence forth for reasons of brevity let us confine the ideas and ideals to human
species.

When we look from any perspective at the functioning real world out there, we
know, does not allow practically a very conducive and cooperative atmosphere for
various reasons both justifiable and otherwise.
So, this dichotomy of natural variety and the inability to create unity bothers
humanity.

However, if we observe without any bias there are certain aspects, areas of life and
things that unite and generate enthusiasm among people everywhere. They can be
broadly summarized as:-

The benefits of systems of science further enhanced through tools of multiple

technologies ; the systems of economic developmental activities and the benefits
that they deliver; the humanitarian approaches to social systems; the systems of
spiritual aspects and philosophical concepts of religious sermons that contribute to
the betterment of life; various systems of artistic expressions like painting,
literature, music, dance and so on that help to manifest many human aspirations
and imaginations; multiple systems of optimum generation and better utilization of
natural resources and energy; different systems of agricultural growth; myriad
systematic ways of preparing food; certain fundamental humane value systems
and pleasant attitudes common to whole of humanity etc.

There is one common thing for all the above i.e. the word system.

So, if some systems are in place then competition is a healthy cooperation,

cohabitation leading to comfort and not a conflicting confrontation.

If systems are in place then the scope for individual or group whims and fancies
mutilating it are minimized, even if it cannot be totally avoided.

Each system generates its own beliefs, isms, ideology leading to the inevitable
identity.

This is a vicious circle which leads us back to square one i.e. Varieties of
identities trying to dominate and in the process homogenizing for uniformity
rather than contributing to unity.
So, it seems more complicated but then if we make a ven diagram of the statements
above and leave out the circle of systems and do not bother about generators of
systems and resulting isms, beliefs and so on. Then the items that stand out are
what humanity actually need and want.

However, unfortunately we create conflicts and confrontations clinging on to the

generators and the result, making dubious claims and appropriating credit for or
assigning labels and worse still look out for numerical strength to justify especially
through predominantly two wheels Politics and Religion and propagate everything
as if they run on only these two wheels.

We give more than due importance to politics and religion and try to look at,
perceive and portray everything and everyone only through these two prisms of
politics and religion.

Let us recapitulate the items that stand out which are what humanity actually need
and want:-

Science; [electricity has no political identity or religion]

Economic benefits; [currency has no political identity or religion]

Humanitarian approaches; [Kindness has no political identity or religion]

Spiritual aspects and philosophical concepts of religious sermons that

contribute to the betterment life; [Helping and sharing with others have no
political identity or religion]

Artistic expressions like painting, literature, music, dance and so on; [the
sound of music or the color of a painting have no political identity or religion]

Better utilization of natural resources and energy; [Sun light has no political
identity or religion

Agricultural growth; [plants and trees have no political identity or religion]

Food; [Coffee or a fruit has no political identity or religion]

Humane values; [compassion has no political identity or religion

Pleasant attitudes [helping a child or a old person has no political identity or
religion] etc.

So, in this context what an ideal India needs is not refrains of [repeated references
to] its past glory [which has survived and shall survive at any cost] nor restless
anti-nationalism masquerading as revolution and freedom of speech to restrain
ideological emancipation of Indian youth to benefit from multiple options as global
citizens with broader perspective and act as ambassadors with pride of ancestry
and hope for the future rather than sulk under the umbrage of projected and
exaggerated victim hood [whose sponsors have a political agenda] while media
which prioritizes sensationalism over sense propagates it.

All these negative influences want to leave the youth in suspended animation
in vacuous inanity or inane vacuity so that the sponsors can fill in that
vacuum or feed into that inanity with their ideology.

Idea that need to be emphasized for an ideal India are governance imbued
government;

Policy driven governance;

Execution and delivery of policies;

Economic development as a result of those executions and delivery ;

Deliveries of policies becoming the focus of parliamentary debates and

discussion;

Parliament debates not to be misused to settle political scores;

Political scores not to be projected over everything else by main stream

media;

Main stream media learning something known as positive aspects and

contributions by India, Indians and for India;
Indians must stop giving too much of importance to main stream media and
instead try to savor and share all the benefits of positivism through social
media;

Social media to emerge as a mass moment to ensure all the above are put in
place as a system;

That system will result in positive economic development and social welfare
oriented activities leading to a better India.

It is actually good and healthy to have debates and discussions with people with
various and different ideas and not pronounced biases, especially the ones
scrupulously nurtured through outdated ideological identities [ideologies which
deserve to be kept in the attic of a museum for fossil genetic samples- especially
the breed of leftover Indian Left not the real socialist Left of the West].

There is a world of difference between exchange of ideas, thoughts and

reasons on one side and ideology based masturbation of opinions ensconced
in pleasant vocabulary on the other side.

So, it would be better that participants speak with conviction and clarity, and
courage born out of them, which may not necessarily be liked by all, but will
motivate thinking and not generate and instigate controversies.

Besides, whatever idea that is envisaged to be made as a suggestion in good faith

must not be too idealistic and thereby becomes practically not executable and
hence, every idea proposed in any domain of activity must look into ground
realities.

Otherwise, they will only remain as sound policies only on paper or end up as
noisy theoretical headlines for debate and empty political rhetoric.

First, policy framers as well as ideas suggesting people must have a clarity about
what is meant by ground reality.

Preferably ground reality must include or at least create conditions to generate

synergy between feasibility factors region or sector wise and the necessary changes
required to be adopted to globally compete.
All said and done, no nation can afford to either haughtily or out of xenophobia or
any ideology think of either growing or functioning in isolation however, great or
large it may in its real estate area or its natural resources or its strategic
geographical location or its dominant military or economic or technologically
supremacy.

More and more, the world as a whole, and more so individual nations are being
pushed towards the inevitable realization that no nation can function in isolation in
a intricately and intrinsically inter-connected life where the planet earth [ which by
itself is wrongly named though more than 70% of it is water] is seen as single
entity where everyone has some role to play as global citizen with pride in one's
national identity.

Ideas must not pander to any ideologically confirmation biases but on the contrary
it must an exercise where multitude of ideas must be collated to generate some sort
of synthesis and synergy offering optimum benefit to humanity as whole in the
long run.

I always feel that there are some wise words handed down to us over the centuries
which must be running in the back ground to remain rooted in humility and certain
time tested vital values.

So, in a sense all ideas must be seriously studied and whenever necessary some
ideas must be shed for a humane evolution of life.

Here are some of vital words of wisdom :-

“We live in a changing universe, and few things are changing faster than our
conception of it”-Timothy Ferris

“There is no tomorrow. There is only a planet turning on its axis, and a creature
given to optimistic fancies”-Robert Brault

“Evolution itself is an open ended and indeterminate process”… “Given the

remarkable progress in our understanding of biochemistry, molecular biology, and
evolution as a whole … we have failed to develop concepts, ideas, even a language
that could capture the dance of this life” - Guy Murchie

“Humans have a need for a stable frame of reference. Religion apparently fills this
need. In effect, humans crave answers to questions that no other source of
knowledge has an answer to, which only religion may seem to answer. However, a
sense of free will must be given in order for religion to appear healthy. An
authoritarian notion of religion appears detrimental.”- Erich Fromm,

विद्या ददाति विनयं विनयाद्याति ऩात्रिाम ् ।

ऩात्रत्िाद्धनमाप्नोति धनाद्धमं ििः सुखम ् ॥ ५ ॥
vidyA dadAti vinayaM, vinayAdyAti pAtratAM |
pAtratvAddhanamApnoti, dhanAddharmaMtataH sukhaM || 5 ||

(true/complete) knowledge gives discipline[humility], from discipline

[humility] comes worthiness, from worthiness one gets wealth, from wealth
(one does) good deeds, from that (comes) joy.

This particular quote is an outer shell of the egg which contains these:-

"All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try
to think them again." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants”-
Isaac Newton

Shakespeare once said “I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people”.

William Lyon Phelps puts it, “One of our secrets of life is to keep our intellectual
curiosity acute”.

Or as Thomas H. Huxley says, “Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to
give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses
nature leads, or you will learn nothing.”
With this composition of the team I am not sure whether we can expect to get any
ideas at all which can be collated to the idea of India itself, leave alone ideal India.

It is actually good to have debates and discussions with people with various
and different ideas and not pronounced biases.

Polarity principle is inherent in nature; identity is also inevitable aspect of

evolution.

But nurturing polarization and creating divisions are negative aspects leading
to puerile perceptions based on petrified ideologies and putrefying the very
thought process with senseless slogans and this is precisely these lefties are
known for.

They exaggerate differences and instigate an imagined victim hood projection.

Importance of definition

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2015/10/definitions-and-debates-too-much-
of.html

Inevitability of evolution in everything

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/02/evolution-is-marvelous-map-of.html

What is wrong with the left?

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/03/left-isms-traditions-human-nature.html

Unity and Variety

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/02/unity-variety-and-i-identity-in-
middle.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/03/real-values-of-life-must-value-life-
in.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/02/indian-economics.html
How you define decides what you need as well as what you want

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/02/meetings-need-not-be-boring-why.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2009/04/i-love-india.html

I suggest reading Dr. S.Radhakrishnan‟s ‘Idealist View of Life’.

We must also be open enough to entertain works similar to the following in Indian
context like ' What Is Your Dangerous Idea?: Today’s Leading Thinkers on
the Unthinkable' and 'THIS IDEA MUST DIE' both by John Brockman

and 'Globalized Wisdom of the XXI Century' by Federico Sulimovich