NON-NEGOTIABLE IDEA OF INDIA

Two recent incidents that happened in the country and attracted attention of the media are worth taking note of. The incidents took place in close contiguity and are studies in contrast. One was about 10 brave soldiers who lost their lives guarding the post at Siachen. The other incident was the organising of the death anniversary of Afzal Guru’s hanging at JNU that was used for India bashing.

India continues to be a land of paradoxes and history has borne testimony to this time and again. There were always Mir Zafars for Surajudaullas. There were always Jaichands for Prithviraj. There may be umpteen such incidents that prove that traitors and martyrs have been a part and parcel of Indian history. Even in Aamir Khan’s blockbuster Lagaan there was a traitor who wanted Aamir’s team India to lose.

Why is this a part of most Indian stories is difficult to understand but then it does paint the Indian character in poor light. It may be a generalisation, but it does hurt when the foreign media and foreign people look at anything Indian with contempt.

However, coming to the JNU incident, the way the media and political parties are divided leaves little room for doubt that even after almost seven decades into freedom, the idea of India is still hazy. The apologists for the bunch of JNU hoodlums raising anti-India slogans while lionising Afzal Guru, the person hanged for the attack on the Indian Parliament, need to introspect. They are so obsessed with their ideological trappings that even their country comes second.

For anyone who has seen the rabble rousing provocateurs shouting anti-India and pro-Afzal slogans at JNU there cannot be an iota of doubt that it was clearly an anti-national congregation. Yet some sections of the media and a breed of pseudo-intellectuals are trying to fudge the issue by their misplaced logic.

In fact, more than those young students who were shouting the slogans about some outlandish ‘azaadi’, it is their defence counsels who should be brought to book for fomenting anti-India sentiments.

Ironically, it’s the same tribe that has been making a lot of noise about the so-called atmosphere of growing intolerance in India. What more tolerance do you want? To dismember the country? India has often been branded as a soft state. For a change let it be proved this time that the softness is conditional and not equivocal.

Our soldiers are dying to protect the borders while a class of pseudo intellectuals are fanning fissiparous tendencies. In fact, such people are worse than the likes of Afzal Guru. He at least was loyal to his own agency. What about these people?

Liberal democracy is not about laissez-faire and no ideology can be above the country. There must be stern action against those sections who are taking India for granted. Our country is often referred to as matribhumi or motherland. It was not without reason that when after the death of mighty demon king Ravana, his brother Vibhishan offered Ram the kingdom of Lanka, the Lord declined saying: “Janani Janmbhumishch swargadapi gariyasi”, which means that mother and motherland are greater than heaven.

Unity and integrity of India are non-negotiable and let this be known to one and all. The Jana-Gana-Mana must understand the value of Vande Mataram in no uncertain terms.

THE ESSENCE OF LOVE

Valentine’s Day is supposed to be a day dedicated to lovers. While the origin, the history and the existence of St Valentine may be of academic interest only, the fact is that young India will celebrate Valentine’s Day any case, antagonists notwithstanding. What is the notion of love is again a debatable issue, but yes, there is an emotion called love and it is a basic one. All humans and animals are born with it.

Obviously there is need to understand this basic emotion. What is it? How is it expressed? And is there a right way to express it? From roses to kisses, are all ways to express love. There are some who hate this and are hostile towards love because hate and rage are also basic emotions humans and animals are born with.

Coming back to the issue of understanding the nature of love. Love is the very essence of creation. This whole world exists because of love. Love keeps the world going. Essentially, it gives a feeling of liking for somebody, makes someone miss somebody and gives a longing for somebody. A positivity is generated. But what is the issue then? As it is understood, love seeks reciprocation. What if it is not reciprocated? Negativity creeps in, giving rise to pain, hatred or frustration. This negativity is the antithesis of love.

Psychologists have studied the emotion of love rather deeply but have failed to understand the essence of it and have only been able to explain the various forms of its expression. The problem is that for all practical purposes love is seen as a transaction where reciprocation is a necessary condition. This is erroneous and has created misconceptions.

A very interesting account of love can be found in an article by Harry F Harlow published in American Psychologist in 1958. The first few lines of the long article give quite useful insights about love and are quoted in an abridged form: “Love is a wonderous state, deep, tender and rewarding. Because of its intimate and personal nature, it is regarded by some as an improper topic for experimented research. But our assigned mission as psychologists is to analyse all facets of human and animal behaviour. Psychologists have failed in this mission. The little we know about love does not transcend simple observation and the little we write has been written better by poets and novelists. What concerns is that psychologists have given less attention to a motive which pervades our entire life.”

Though the whole article needs to be read in order to understand love, the sum and substance is clear. Love is a wonderous state, deep, tender and rewarding and contrary to the position held by most psychologists, it is a primary drive. But the difficulty is that this primary drive can be manifested in many ways from socially desirable to undesirable. However, the biggest problem is in the nature of relationship as love invariably seeks control. This is the main drawback.

Love is not give and take. It is transformational rather than transactional. God loved birds and he made trees. Man also loved birds but he made cages. This is the difference. Love should not seek captivity. Love captivates but it must be free of bondage. Love is a natural response and not a derived one. Naturally, freedom is the essence. Love the birds but let them fly.

THE BUSINESS OF SPIRITUALITY

No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.” Famous words from famous writer, philosopher Victor Hugo. But what is that idea? Twentieth century was about achievements in science and technology, about space and spacecrafts, about moon and mars. What about the present century? The 21st century. That idea may well be spirituality whose time has come.

As the Indian diaspora spreads its wings all across the globe carrying Indianism with it to the foreign shores, spirituality and its many variations from religion to ritualism seem to be catching up. The wheel seems to be coming a full circle. Spirituality was an Indian discovery that overawed the world once upon a time. It once again seems to be picking up after a long lull of the extended medieval as people seem to be keen to buy it.

Keynes once said that “a man shall do all the rational things but only after exploring all other possibilities”. Spirituality now seems to be that rational thing in the absence of other alternatives. Spirituality and its attendant markets are growing as emptiness and loneliness catches up with increasing number of people. Even the sluggish Indian markets are bullish on spiritual-religious stocks. From lockets to devices promising turn of fortunes, to totems to bring good luck are all the latest craze in the market place.

Indians known for their frugal buying habits become generous on those buys that can connect them to the divine or at least offer possibilities of divinity’s grace. Look at the way religious festivals and social customs lead to spending spree. The mindset seems to be affecting more and more people. Religion and spirituality could be the next big idea that may bring investments and see start-ups stand up.

Being one of the largest unorganised segments in the country, many estimate this to grow to somewhere around $30 billion by the next couple of years. A simple research on a sample of some 500 Hindu households carried out by an upcoming entrepreneurial venture estimated just the Delhi/NCR market to be at around $35 million per annum. That was only about pujas, customary rituals, religious festivals and some annually observed religious practices.

If the entire gamut of subjects like marriages, housewarmings, rituals related to births and deaths, occasional family pujas and festivities, astrology and fortune swinging practices is included, the quantum of the market may grow manifold. In fact pilgrimages and religious tourism may also form a part of this. Imagine the business opportunity that may be there for a one-stop shop or an app that provides packaged solutions to such religion-spiritual needs.

Ventures like mypujapaath.com in Delhi are eying precisely this opportunity as there is potential in spirituality. There is need for such efforts to cater to a target market which wants service providers to fulfill all its religious and spiritual requirements on one single platform.

These are the times when the religion-spiritual needs are growing but people are not finding time and the expertise to carry out steps to fulfill those needs. Puja rituals even otherwise involve a cumbersome process and the idea definitely has a market in India. More so because for Indians from Amritsar to Los Angles, puja is required. Thus mypujapaath.com and other ventures of its ilk have opportunities waiting for them. Visiting such sites may give an idea of the market.

REMEMBERING GANDHI

When around the turn of the last millennium the historians were asked to rank their preferences for the greatest leaders of the 20th century by editors of several leading global publications one person who was most widely named Mohandas K Gandhi according to the experts. Interestingly, his leadership philosophy has almost invariably been characterised as an ‘idealistic’ and impractical one. But we need to remember that by far Gandhi was one of the greatest mass leaders of the world who is admired globally even today, almost seven decades after his death. In fact, if a neutral analysis is made it would suggest that  Gandhi had advocated some very practical leadership actions and behaviours that  can be used effectively even today in any sphere of action be it  political, business or organisational.

Termed variously as ‘values-based leadership’ or ethical leadership, Gandhi’s style appears to be the style that’s universally admired. The crux of his approach was based on love and wisdom. Love is consideration for others and rooted in empathy while wisdom is the ability to see the right perspective and make right choices in the face of uncertainties and conflicts. William James’s quote is worth citing — “the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook’’. Usually wisdom is supposed to be the ability to know which side of the bread is buttered, but it requires greater wisdom to say no to that buttered side.

An often used phrase in management jargon is “To wink it over” that means that sometimes it makes sense to look over the other side. Gandhi’s leadership was embedded in his ability to exercise the right choices at right times about when to ignore, when to assert and when to negotiate. To use popular US President JF Kennedy’s words – “Gandhi never negotiated out of fear, but never feared to negotiate”.

While defining values based leadership may not be easy it definitely can be understood by observing the leadership approaches of those individuals whose behaviour was accepted by most people as ethical and effective. Examples from politics can be Sardar Patel or Lal Bahadur Shastri while from the business world it can be GD Birla or Ramkrishna Bajaj. While it may come as a surprise to the many corporate executives of the modern day businesses that practicality and morality could be blended harmoniously in the realpolitik of government and diplomacy or even in the competitive, profit-oriented corporate world in which they themselves work, the fact is that it is possible.

For the great majority of executives the belief is that it was Machiavelli and not Gandhi, who offered the most useful philosophy of leadership. Machiavelli who advocated that the ‘princes’  should ‘learn how not to be good’ because ‘a man who wishes to be good  in everything will come to grief in this world full of so many who are not good’.

Machiavelli made a case for realism over idealism suggesting that leaders must learn to manipulate their followers that is ‘be able by astuteness to confuse men’s brains’. For many, Gandhi’s leadership behaviour is ‘out of sync’ with the realities of our modern, high-tech, fast world. But it must be remembered that followers expect their leaders to be above board and it pays to be good. Understanding Gandhi of course is not easy. Let’s try as we march past yet another January 30, the day Gandhi was assassinated.

COPING WITH CAREERISM

The 21st century workplace is gradually becoming a ghetto with human beings getting gradually transformed into mechanical entities. The result has been that the emotional man is slowly but surely including towards his nemesis. The one reason has been the mad race for productivity.

Excessive digitisation has made human beings wired creatures getting mired in informatics and tied to electronic gadgets. The more a person tries to escape out of this the more he gets bogged down into the morass.

This predicament has led to an existential crisis. A situation in which an individual starts questioning the very purpose of his or her existence. The very foundation of their life begins shaking at the base. Does life has any meaning, purpose or value? The malady is certainly a modern phenomenon that has caught up with the Indian workplace where people are being made to “run twice as fast as they can”, in the words of the famous author Lewis Caroll of Alice in Wonderland fame.

As organisations try to fleece their people for that extra drop of blood, the human nature at a workplace is the first casualty. Everywhere we hear of growth rate, production targets and market shares as the human being is being haunted by the corporate culture that has become some kind of corporate vulture. What this corporate culture fails to appreciate is that the humanity has been pushed to the brink. In the words of biologist EO Wilson, humanity is facing its gravest crisis owing to “Paleolithic Emotions”, “Medieval Institutions” and delusions about its “God-like Technology.”

As technology replaces humans, rather enslaves them to almost total domination, glitzy computer screens do an irreparable damage to the human life that frantically searches for its real solace ina virtual world. Stability and peace are giving way to instability and conflict leading to a mechanical life style where the human being is converted into a robot, a productivity enhancing human machine devoid of all human qualities.

But the human being in this human machine still lives though at a much deeper subconscious level and at times rebels because it does not accept this subhuman reality. Thus, slowly, this productivity machine enters into a state of conflict with its two lives, one the mechanical that it has been forced into and the other the human that is its basic nature. This conflict gradually is becoming a perennial condition striking at the very core of work-life balance with a vengeance. Slowly the performance that had peaked plateaus subsequently declines.

This situation is now becoming a predicament with more and more people at more and more work places. Diminished enthusiasm at work, sense of alienation and lack of drive to excel are slowly becoming the reality for many. Where is the solution? There can only be two ways. One way is that the organisation tries to change its course but given the hectic pace of competition that those organisational entities think they are into, this is highly unlikely. The second way is that the individual defies its dilemmatic condition of being both a human and a robot so that it can regain the perspective and realise its real self. But for this it needs to come out of its self-imposed careerism that is the new disease that has inflicted the workplace today. The sooner the better.