Hiranmay Karlekar is arguably a good writer and very good in structuring of his points in argument.
A radical humanist with anathema towards communists (official species, although his secular mindset was unalloyed. The tragedy lies there as he is ed consultant to The Pioneer, virtually a BJP (not that way of RSS, outwardly) mouthpiece.
Once an anti-Soviet, he became an unabashed defender of Indira Gandhi, he became editor of HT during the Emergency, following the unceremonious exit of Khuswant Singh. HK had to quit somewhat humiliatingly soon after the Emeergency.
Indian way of development by Hiranmay Karlekar 31 Jan 08 (http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=EDITS&file_name=edit3%2Etxt&counter_img=3)
The passage of yet another anniversary of Republic Day is an occasion to ponder what sort of a country India should become. The answer invariably heard is that it should become a developed country, with Mr APJ Abdul Kalam, perhaps India's most popular President ever, setting 2020 as the target year. This, however, raises a further question: What does one mean by a developed country?
To most people it is a country like the United States or the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan or Singapore. Talking of ideal cities, one invariably mentions New York or Singapore. One has nothing against any of these countries or cities. I, for one, have greatly enjoyed my visits to the UK, the US, Japan and Canada. New York is at the top of my list of favourite cities.
One, nevertheless, needs to ask: Should India aspire to become like another country, however admirable? Should the heir to perhaps the richest metaphysical legacy in the world, not seek to be a model for other countries? An affirmative answer need not involve the rejection of the stupendous achievements of the developed countries mentioned -- political democracy; intellectual, religious and cultural freedom; technological and scientific progress and affluence for large sections. India's cultural heritage is inclusive and not exclusive. Rabindranath Tagore summed it all up in his seminal poem Bharat Tirtha in which he depicted India as a pilgrimage centre on the shores of an ocean of humanity, to which streams of people have come throughout the ages from all directions, given and received, and become one.
What defines the ocean is its soul. Tagore wrote: "Here once the ceaseless sound of Aum/ Resonated in heartstrings to the mantra of the One/ Sacrificing many in the fire of the One through austere worship/ It forgot schisms and awakened a great soul." (Translation from Bengali by the author).
The 'One' here is the Brahman, the Universal Consciousness, of which, according to Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas, the entire universe is a manifestation. Everything -- human and non-human living beings, trees, forests, rivers, mountains, oceans, land -- is therefore sacred, a part of a cosmic order that is governed by a common morality operating through the instrumentality of karma, which stands for both action and the fruits thereof, the balance of which determines one's destiny in next life. A human being can be reborn as an animal, an animal as a human being. Equally, both human and non-human living beings can find release from the bondage of births and rebirths through karma.
Unfortunately, the feeling of inferiority bred by the colonial experience and the dazzling impact of Western culture, evolving from the time of the ancient Greeks, and through the intellectual churnings of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, has made us forgetful, if not contemptuous, of our own heritage. Consequently, our intelligentsia has unquestioningly accepted the intellectual and cultural assumptions of the West that underline the prevailing doctrine of Humanism, which incorporates the essence of Protagorus's aphorism: "Man is the measure of all things," and which privileges reason over everything else.
Central to Western Humanism is a belief in the omni-competence of reason and in freedom as the basic urge behind human progress. A perceived absence of rationality sets non-human living beings apart from humans and excludes them from the moral universe of the latter. Hence non-human living beings have no rights and can be abused at will if human welfare so requires. From the late-18th century, however, there has emerged a movement in the West for humane treatment of non-human living beings and the grant of certain rights to them. Experiments on animals are now severely restricted in the West where cruelty to them is a punishable offence in most countries. Germany's Constitution has gone to the extent of incorporating fundamental rights for them.
The movement, which has started in India too, is, however, still at a nascent stage and abuse of non-human living beings is widespread. This is disconcerting, as is the fact that this is only one part of a wider attitude towards everything non-human, including the environment, which is being ruthlessly plundered and destroyed. This attitude again is a part of an anthropocentric world view - a skewed offshoot of Humanism -- which has acquired a grotesque dimension with the emergence of market capitalism, which privileges consumption and indulgence over everything else, including salvation of one's soul.
Powered by advertisement-driven, ever-increasing consumption, market capitalism has triggered an unprecedented expansion of infrastructural facilities, ever-increasing energy consumption, a media revolution, and a continuous rise in the emission levels of greenhouse gases -- with the economy going into an overdrive to meet not needs but created demands. It has also given a new impetus to massive urbanisation which, apart from generating more greenhouse gases, has contributed to global warming with concrete structures and roads in cities radiating the heat they absorb from Sun. The danger this poses is bound to increase alarmingly as urbanisation continues apace.
Technology can doubtless decelerate the process of global warming by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. It can also help tap new energy sources as the reserves of fossil fuel are exhausted through over-utilisation. The world's tardy response to the challenge of global warming, however, shows that it is difficult to generate the political will to spare the resources needed for all this. Heady with the economic success they have achieved, and filled with a sense of invulnerability instilled in them by the tremendous achievements of industrial civilisation, those who control the levers of economic activity tend to dismiss warnings of impending disasters as professional doomsayers' hyperbole.
Societal pressure, which can generate the political will needed, will remain elusive as long as people view consumption as an end in itself, and the whole of non-human nature as an object of plunder to sustain the indulgent lifestyle which they are unwilling to give up. Instead of preventive measures, global warming and a growing energy crisis may lead to conflict over shrinking spaces and vanishing resources.
The world needs a new way of living, one in which humankind is not the measure but the preserver and protector of all things, and which reveres non-human nature. For that, it requires a new philosophy and new coordinates of economic growth. India can provide both if it ceases to imitate but delves within to chart a new path to development.
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