The Soul of the Nation

 

For the last few weeks a debate has started on the very idea of India. While there never was any doubt, the reaffirmation by the Prime Minister that ‘India first’ is the only religion and ‘Constitution’ the only ‘holy book’ should suffice to put to rest the tolerance-intolerance debate. It is consuming valuable time and energy of this country which has more constructive business to attend to. Such fantastic ideas often bordering on paranoia have little basis. The fact is that the soul of India is still the same. And it is the Constitution of India. Generalizing aberrations as the state of affairs may not show the correct picture. Like any other country, India too has its problems. But the difficulty arises when such problems are blown out of proportion. Why this is so is also not easy to find out. While for the political class it may be to derive some mileage or to corner political adversaries, but why the knowledgeable do it defies logic. If a celebrated author finds the atmosphere in the country as ‘fearful’ there is certainly some error in perception, some bias. Certain incidents that took place in the recent past are definitely condemnable, and have been condemned. But to suggest that those incidents are becoming a norm is certainly delusionary.

The Constitution of India is sacrosanct and its spirit the supreme guiding force of governance. In fact the founding fathers had been very careful to design the Constitution in such a way that no one would be able to succeed in playing with its spirit. There are institutions that stand guard to the Constitution and have always ensured that attempts to make a dent to its basic structure would not succeed. The Higher Judiciary has been playing its role sincerely and effectively. The media has been standing vigilant. Whenever in the past the Executive tried to interpret Constitution to its advantage the Judiciary stood firm. One needs to refer to the Preamble of the Constitution that sets out the aims and aspirations of the people of India. The implication is that the Preamble emanated from the people of India and the sovereignty lies with them. The Constitution has enough safe guards to make sure that no institution exceeds its brief. All governmental organs and institutions owe their origin to the Constitution and derive their powers from its provisions. They enjoy only such power as are conferred on them. Even the parliament is no exception. The power to amend Constitution has also to be exercised within the bounds of the Constitution. It has been proved time and again that the basic structure of the Constitution cannot be tampered with. Be it the land mark judgement in the Keshvananda Bharti case or the Minerva Mills Case, the Constitution and by extension the sovereignty of the people of India has always been established.

With so much of reassurance the fears raised on ‘’unity in diversity’ ’ appear to be rather farfetched. The very fact that people are openly exercising their freedom to express their views suggests that there is enough freedom and tolerance in the country. The responsibility of preserving unity in diversity is also of the people who must come out with solutions also rather than pointing out problems only. The Constitution exercises a perfect balance between Executive, Legislature and Judiciary and this ensures that the idea of India remains what it was.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

The childhood fairy tale of Snow white may be a forgotten saga these days, but it may make some sense in helping to understand the selfie-obsessed present day world where people are slowly but surely turning into megalomaniacs. Call it the impact of the media or the marketers or even a new genre of motivational gurus, but the fact is that narcissism is on the rise. And what in classical abnormal psychology was symptom of a diseased mind has become an accepted norm. Obsession of every kind is a sign of neuroticism. More so, obsession with the self. The tragedy is that such minor aberrations may turn into paranoid behaviour making delusions of grandeur a real experience. Look at those posts on the Face book. The more the likes, the more the delusion. Virtual world has replaced the real world for a considerable number. Coming back to the story of Snow White. There was a queen who had a magic mirror. Every day the queen would ask the mirror –“Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all”. As long as the mirror would respond saying that the queen was the fairest, everything was fine. However, one day the mirror said to the queen that it was the maid Snow White who was the fairest. And lo, all the hell broke loose.

Snow White became the enemy number one of the queen and was subject to all kinds of ridicule, pain and torture. Yes, in the end it is the queen who comes to grief, but that is besides the point. Too much of self-love, then, arouses a feeling of envy and hatred for others as the person obsessed with self cannot think of others as superior. Haughtiness and vanity take the driver’s seat and humility is replaced by false notions of grandeur. What happen is that the world for such a person centres around self and only self. Some do claim that this kind of obsession boosts confidence. But this is misplaced from reality. In fact, it gives over confidence, leading to complacence. It is the inflated sense of self that rules such person round the clock. This selfie obsession thus controls such a person’s behaviour. The result is contempt for others whose views a different. As a result instant evaluative judgements, almost always negative, of such views are passed. In psychologist Daniel Kanheman’s words it is the system one thinking that rules the minds of such persons for whom I, Me and Myself only have the right to rightness and righteousness. Many experts believe that such obsession with self is not just an obsession. It is economics too, that is driven by marketers and adds to the coffers of those who are capitalising on a craze that is already getting out of control. TV advertisements to films to mobile companies are all promoting this selfie craze. Observations prove that it has become a new life style pattern that is catching up. Yes, it is, but the big question is whether it is only a life style of a life style problem of mental health. As a student of psychology, I would like to keep my fingers crossed. But one final word. In the end it is the Mirror that is the soul arbiter of who is fairest of them all. Whether the queen likes it or not.