INTRODUCTION
Primary objective here is not to give opinion on events, but to
analyze widely circulated opinions. This will involve summarizing the two main
opinions, understanding categories of thought elements involved in those
opinions, giving historical perspective of those thought elements, and infer wider
implications.
SUMMARY OF
OPINIONS
First opinion is Chetan Bhagat’s “Times of India” editorial[1],
urging Kashmiri youth to give up anti-India stance on practical grounds. Better
career prospects for Kashmiri youth is the practical aspect. Argument being
that India is economically strong, and therefore best equipped to enable good
life for the youth. It
goes on to give political options like eliminating article 370 for making India
integration complete and viable.
Second opinion by Barkha Dutt[2] criticizes Chetan Bhagat’s
editorial for not giving sufficient space to violent events in Kashmir valley. Events
like killing of a major, killing of aspiring cricketer, response of killed
major’s widow and so on. It goes on to give social option of “humanism”, that
is to integrate Kashmiri youth with rest of India by sympathizing with them.
MY OWN
OPINION ON THE SUBJECT
My opinion here essentially extends Chetan Bhagat’s opinion, to
make explicit certain terms which I think should have been articulated. Intention
here is to give moral foundations to his practical suggestions.
Chetan Bhagat rightly points out that Kashmiri people have 3
options. Politically integrate with India, or integrate with Pakistan, or get
independence. I think sustainable economic growth requires political
foundation, and that also should have been emphasized. Politics of Pakistan
widely involves Blasphemy laws[3] and Blasphemy culture[4], history of
dictatorships, and state sponsor of terrorism. These socio-political attributes
show that Pakistan has also rejected secularism like other Islamic societies,
in letter and more so in spirit.
No doubt there have been religious riots in post-independence
India. But relatively secular environment ensures that slowly we are coming out
from culture that breeds riots. Kashmir however remains the only place in India
where religion based violence caused permanent demographic impact, exodus of
Kashmiri Pandits. Article 370 and local support for it ensures lack of
accountability for government authorities. Accountability through rational
processes like audit and “Right to Information”, its absence making governance
implicitly dictatorial. So not to same degree as Pakistan, but still secularism
eludes Kashmir.
There are some more non-secular elements in India also. ShahBano case[5], and over
involvement of government executives in Hindu private schools[6] off late being the
examples. However, even implicitly blasphemous laws like censorship, or
clauses of National Security Act that led to the arrest of Kamalesh Tiwari for making derogatory remark against Prophet Mohammad[7]. Worse case these
penalties lead to ban or jail term for few years. There is no mass movement in India asking for severe punishment
of those who disagree - vilify Hindu or any non-Islamic, non-Christian
religion. Government involvement is complex and more in many cases, but
sufficient checks and balances from auditor to courts have ensured that society
remains relatively free [8, 9].
So my opinion is that Kashmir should integrate to India not on
democratic but secular grounds. Just because majority of neighbors want your
wealth does not mean that they have right to forcibly take it. Political
implementation of this ethical argument gives criteria for strongly integrating
Kashmir to India. From secularism, separation of religion and state, going to
idea of Liberty. Accepting polytheism and rejecting over involvement of
Government. Removal of License Raj by P.V Narasimha Rao government and its
extraordinary effects giving basic motivation for pursuing Liberty in all
social spheres.
Liberty and Secularism therefore offering foundations to
practical and more specific arguments of Chetan Bhagat.
THOUGHT
ELEMENTS IN OPINIONS
My own opinion in previous section was a digression. Central
objective is to extract two types of thought elements in diverse opinions, and
then analyzing nature and history of those thought elements. Different from
mainstream media, Chetan Bhagat’s opinion had some implicit conclusions. Making
those conclusions explicit was a preliminary step for analyzing the thought
elements.
Opinions like those on Kashmir present some facts, and then
interpret those facts. “Nature of interpretation” and “nature of facts
selected” offer window into the minds of opinion makers, and therefore
society’s culture in political realm. Accordingly I will analyze those thought
elements.
FIRST
THOUGHT ELEMENT, THE NATURE OF INTERPRETATION - EPISTEMOLOGY
Nature of
interpretation in Chetan Bhagat’s argument: Problem statement here is
that Kashmiri youth need a good future, and there are hurdles to it. Solution
offered is greater integration to India through removal of article 370. Root
cause analysis leading to solution being that article 370 empowers local politicians,
without making them accountable.
Nature of
interpretation in Barkha Dutt’s argument: Problem statement here is
that Kashmiri people are suffering, and Chetan Bhagat should have emphasized
that suffering more. Solution offered is integration with Kashmiri youth
through “humanism” and resulting compassion. Unlike Chetan’s argument, there is
no indication of how humanism will be achieved, and how does one sympathize
with rumor mongering, stone pelting culture. How humanism will normalize the
situation, perhaps by giving some specific historical examples where it worked.
Even for a specific case cited, the killing of young cricketer from bullet,
there is no indication whether the bullet belonged to terrorist or Army. And
what were the specific events
surrounding the killing.
Summary of
epistemological difference: So to
summarize, Barkha’s solution is abstract and floating, without concretizing how
it will be actualized. Chetan Bhagat’s solution can actually be implemented by
first creating a mass Kashmiri movement citing ills of Article 370, and finally
repealing it.
HISTORY OF
FIRST THOUGHT ELEMENT
Introduction:
Final
solution of Chetan Bhagat is connected to facts, and has historical basis. In
politics it’s the laws, good or bad, derived from mass movements that bring the
change. Further, the laws like repeal of article 370 will lead to more
government accountability and institutional integrity in Kashmir. American
history from 1776 to 1860 shows how idea of Liberty got organically integrated
into society from American Constitution. Ultimately leading to elimination of
slavery. Barkha Dutt’s idea of humanism lacks factual reference and context
(mentioning that same term was used by Vajpayee before is not a reference, but
an abstract echo without content). It is so abstract that unless this term is connected
to historical events and implementable methods, it can mean anything to
anybody.
So what is the history of these two approaches? Logically and
factually connected, history based opinion of Chetan Bhagat. And what is
philosophically termed as “floating abstraction”, given by Barkha Dutt?
Method of logic was discovered by Aristotle around 340BC. And
father of theory of “floating abstractions” in non-theological discourse is
Plato, ironically
who
is Aristotle’s master.
Platonic
and Marxist elements in Barkha Dutt’s arguments: It was
integration of ideas of Jesus to Plato’s by Augustine in 4th century
AD, which made Christianity sustainable. It gave strong supernatural foundations
to the idea of sacrifice by Jesus.
Plato considered every earthly object to be a pale reflection
from supernatural reality. In his opinion,
things like horse, ring, man, everything and every event had a supernatural
counterpart. While the earthly reflection was imperfect, the supernatural
source was perfect. Most importantly according to Plato, everything and every
event on earth had to be directly connected to those intuitively grasped
supernatural ideas. This approach intellectually justified floating
abstractions by philosophically sanctioning context dropping. Concept of
Christian God, everything in general and nothing in particular, was reached
after taking few more steps in Plato’s theory of pure forms.
With idea of supernatural having such strong (though still
illogical) explanation, it became easy to justify idea of sacrifice by Jesus. Since
heavenly dimension is superior to earthly, it is right to obey those who
command sacrifice in the name of God.
From 12th century to 18th century however,
rediscovery of Aristotle’s ideas (which I will elaborate later), started
undermining Christian thought process of sacrifice, based on intuitive grasp of
supernatural dimension. Christian intellectuals and their sympathizers started
looking for ways to bring back their deserting “flock”. And chain of ideas from
Immanuel Kant to Hegel ultimately lead to Karl Marx. He reintroduced method of
thinking which was essentially floating abstractions like Plato’s forms,
Augustine’s God, sacrifice by Jesus; but designed to appeal inside Industrial
society.
There was and never has been comprehensive evidence as to how
“Dictatorship of Proletariats, the workers” will lead to prosperity. But then, Platonic methods never demand historical context or factual connection. Only
connection demanded is to intuitively grasp very abstract ideals, “humanism”
and “compassion” in case of Barkha. As the following Video of young Barkha using
Marxist ideology on Kasmiri Pandit massacre and mass exodus, shows she is
indeed a closet Marxist.
And so the thought element, “floating abstraction” in this case,
has traveled from Plato to Augustine to Marx to her.
Aristotelian
and scientific elements in Chetan Bhagat’s arguments:
Lets come
back to Aristotle. Rejecting his master’s theory of forms, Aristotle further
conceptualized older Greek ideas, Anaxagoras’
existence in particular, to create philosophy that developed from idea of
single reality, without the supernatural dimension. Categories of different
things and events we perceive, using logic for understanding concepts of what
we observe, and then applying method of Posterior analytics which is very
similar to using experiments for developing understanding. These methods for
thinking and acting are key achievements of Aristotle. So influential were his
works in later part of Middle Ages in Europe, that Christian Saint Aquinas explained
God in earthly rather than supernatural terms – “The Unmoved Prime Mover”.
Rediscovery of Aristotle through Aquinas led to
Renaissance and Enlightenment in Europe. Scientific revolution started by
Galileo and Newton, Industrial revolution started by James Watt, Electrical
revolution by Edison and Tesla, Electronics and software revolution through
Turing’s machine. Also Aristotle’s rediscovery in Europe led to American Revolution,
and Adam Smith’s revolutionary ideas creating subject of Economics. “Never
again in history have so many owed so much to one man”, this is what Ayn Rand
wrote about Aristotle.
So brief adaptations and
transmission of Aristotle’s ideas are as follows – Rediscovery through Aquinas
in 12th century, Renaissance involving Galileo, enlightenment
starting with Newton, distortion of his ideas by Immanuel Kant in 18th
century, distortion of Logical Method by Hegel in 19th century,
rediscovery and improvement of Aristotle’s ideas by Ayn Rand in 20th
century, Libertarian movement partially adopting
Ayn Rand’s ideas through John Hospers[10], India’s Liberalization of 1990 due
to growing influence of Libertarian movement, and Chetan Bhagat becoming first
purely market driven intellectual post Liberalization.
Like Aristotle, in his editorial
Chetan Bhagat looks for facts, categorizes them, explains the relevant
attributes, connects those facts using key concepts, and is therefore able to
give practical solution. Unlike Barkha his abstractions are not floating, but
they are not completely comprehensive either. Just as Libertarian movement is
handicapped by distortions originating from Kant and Hegel, Chetan Bhagat is
not able to rise one more notch to connect using concepts of Liberty and
Secularism. But overall his opinion is breath of fresh air, in a way taking
forward solution gropings of past intellectuals like Shekhar Gupta’s argument[11], to their logical conclusion.
SECOND
THOUGHT ELEMENT, NATURE OF THE SELECTED FACTS – SENSIBILITY
Prior to interpreting facts for forming opinion, one has to
select some facts from array of events. Here I analyze the kind of facts two
opinion makers regard as primary.
Sensibility
of Chetan Bhagat: The primary focus here is to build one’s life,
career being the main aspect. The most suitable representatives are selected in
the context, Engineers. Negative events like antagonism of Kashmiri public
comes up, because it leads to situation like that in NIT Srinagar. And such
events act as hindrance to the student aspirations. So in the nutshell, achievements
of values involving positive life goals is a primary. Elimination of negative
forces is the means to enable and accelerate the positive achievements.
Sensibility
of Barkha Dutt: The primary focus here is negative, death and
misery. The violence, the recent protests against army, the killings, these are
the facts that concretize negative elements. In overall context, person
striving to be a cricketer is token fact at best, because he is selected for
his misery and not talent. Floating abstraction “humanism” is the only positive
piece offered. So in nutshell, death and misery is the focal point, particular
positive aspect is non-essential to the argument, and abstract ideal is
disconnected from reality.
History of
ideas behind Barkha’s sensibilities – ideas that enabled her to select certain
facts for the opinion: Here too we go back to Plato. Plato’s justification
of most ideas is rooted in his conception of two realities. The earthly reality
is imperfect, and supernatural world of forms is perfect. Idea of circle is
perfect, the circles in world like ring and round stone are imperfect circles
derived from perfect circle.
Augustine came up with his view of man’s nature from this
Platonic premise, the view that was later accepted by Christian intellectuals. He
identified man’s essential attribute, his knowledge as his original sin. Adam,
Eve, and humans being earthly are depraved, because they refuse to obey their
creator consistently. The depravity of man is not limited to some of his
actions, it’s in his nature, making it his original sin. So intellectuals with
Platonic premise who focus on earth, most of the times they focus on the human
imperfections like death and misery. For Marx focus was on class struggle and
resulting violence, and so is for Barkha. Her floating abstraction echoes
Plato’s “pure forms”, Augustine’s God, Marxist utopia – cut off from reality.
History of
ideas behind Chetan’s sensibilities – ideas that enabled him to select certain facts
for the opinion: Aristotle is the man of this world who rejected his
master’s supernatural. Desire to understand this world lead to discovery of
categories, logic, and analytics. His ethics of golden mean, though deficient,
always looked up to best and wisest Greek people for guidance on the right and
good. For him man was a magnanimous being capable of heroic deeds, and
literature should motivate him by projecting “as he ought to be” (rather than
what he is). Similar view of man was the premise of John Locke when he wrote
treatise on government around 17th century. And this view got
transmitted to America’s founding fathers and constitution.
Most of the corporate structures we see today are implicitly
derived from this American view, though even in corporations this view is
somewhat undermined by Marxist and Kantian ideologues. So when Chetan Bhagat
with his corporate background urges youth to focus on their careers, their life
goals deriving political choices. He is echoing Aristotle’s love for life on
earth. A man capable of building his life by applying reason, and if needed by
creating the right political environment that enables him to exercise reason.
CONCLUSION
So here we have our material. The problem of Kashmir, opinions
from two influential opinion makers, their epistemology and their sensibility.
The choices we make, like the followers of Plato and Aristotle, will determine
the destiny our lives and civilizations take.
We can focus on the greatness our lives are capable of. Or we
can stretch bad and miserable beyond necessary. We can either choose method of
thinking that connects to floating abstractions using intuition. Or we can
develop abstractions from facts using categories, logic, and analytics.
Applying the right principles to act purposefully.
I have made my choice…. Have you?
REFERENCES
[4] Pakistani teenager cuts his hand for accidental blasphemy - https://www.rt.com/news/329180-pakistan-boy-cuts-hand/
[6] How Sonia’s UPA Communalised India’s Education System - http://swarajyamag.com/ideas/how-sonias-upa-communalised-indias-education-system
[8] Striking down of Internet censorship by courts http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/supreme-court-strikes-down-section-66-a-of-the-it-act-finds-it-unconstitutional/article7027375.ece
[9] CAG Report on Coalgate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_coal_allocation_scam#March_2012._Draft_CAG_Report_on_Coalgate
[11] http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/national-interest-disarming-kashmir/1204466/5