Anupam- The Dreamer

In the animal world, whenever any individual animal or a group of animals has(ve) to prove dominance over the other individual animal or a group of animals, there is only one way! No brownie points for guessing- it is the WAR and only WAR! War or synonymously violence, is their only mechanism to resolve the conflicts, because they don’t know the art of diplomacy, dialogue and discussion.

Even, the earlier humans, or nomads, were not very adapt at this art of conflict resolution. So, whenever there was a struggle for basic needs of life like food, shelter, clothing, procreation, they also resorted to the way of violence. They made different kinds of tools for the same, which one warring tribe used over the people from another tribe to kill people. All this violence and bloodshed continued till a very large period of human history. From the ages of hunter-nomad life, to the ancient history age of domination among kingdoms, to the medieval history era of expansionism till the very recent modern history when the nation-states came into being. Only, the tools of fighting continued to evolve, earlier they used stones, then they used iron tools, then came the knifes, swords and spears, then they started using artillery, gunpowder and guns, and now they are using stealth aircrafts, ships, submarines, cyberwarfare etc etc. What remained constant through all this period? It was violence and war!

Then amidst all this non-sense, came a remarkable awakening in human history- the rise of nation states based on the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. An era of democracy, where it was envisaged that there will be a rule of the people, by the people and for the people. And in this rule, although the majority will always rule over minority, yet there will be a protection of rights of each and everyone. The State will not discriminate between its citizens on the basis of race, religion, caste, creed, sex, or place of birth. The conflicts will be resolved through the art of diplomacy, dialogue and discussion. It is this period, that I truly believe is the age of human “civilization”. Because where there is violence of any sort like vandalism of public property, criminal acts against people, terrorism in any form, civil wars, wars between nation states, there can never be a true civilization! If we continue to use violent methods of conflict resolution, then how are we better than animals? Do we then have a right to call ourselves civilized? Never!

In a democratic state, the early thinkers in India and abroad, truly believed in granting of rights and certain freedoms to the citizens, so that they can rise to their true potential. What is a democracy, bereft of an environment which can protect its people and provide them the supporting conditions to live their best life? It’s nothing!

It is in this context, that I want there to be an eternal war in the humanity!!!! But this war will not have a shred of violence and bloodshed fuelling it, rather I want it to be a “ETERNAL WAR OF IDEAS”! A war where the people put forth their ideas in a debate, dialogue and discussion, and the ideas will battle out among themselves, and the winner will emerge on the basis of consensus. Often, we see that the battle is there to find “who is right” rather than to find “what is right”. As soon as the focus shifts to finding “what is right”, then the egos vanish away, the walls of ignorance crumbles, and the heart and mind opens the way to new fresh ideas. These ideas should then be tested on the pedestal of basic fundamental principles guiding our nations, the Constitution and the time-tested values of humanity. After the battle of ideas, the best idea will emerge out. It may not be the best for everyone, yet it will be the best among all other solutions available at hand. It is this consensus that I am talking about. The consensus to find the best working solution, given all different kinds of constraints like time-constraint, resource constraint etc.

In this scenario, even if we don’t like the idea of others, the listener must be receptive of what the other person wants to communicate with an open mind, and the speaker must be sensitive enough to keep in mind the basic tenets of democracy while exercising his/her right. No right or freedom is absolute in a democracy, and it cannot be so when there are a large number of people living together in a society. Absolute rights exist only on an isolated island devoid of humans! In reality, it’s always give and take in some sense.

A beautiful line I read long ago says that “I have an idea, and you have an idea, and if we both share our ideas, we will have two ideas each!” What a beautiful thought it is!

Let the eternal wars and battles of ideas and thoughts be in the battlefield our minds, rather than on the battlefield of violence where the humanity is slaughtered more than its people. And it’s nothing new. In earlier times also, there were large debates held by the kings where learned men and women gathered from far of places to learn from each other. Now, can we create a world where we call truly call ourselves “civilized”? For that, the violence of any kind has to be wiped off from the face of this earth! That’s sounds grossly utopian, isn’t it? But even then, I talk of utopian because utopian is what we aspire for, no matter how much closer we can get there.