SubscriberWrites: God, faith, belief and governance – an Indian perspective

A fan waves the national flag | Representational image | ANI file photo

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From any reckoning we can conclude that India is a unique place. A lot of people, many religions, rampant caste prejudices, a panorama spanning most modern cities to centuries old underdeveloped tribal areas, more than a score languages and hundreds of dialects, varied terrain to defend against constantly hostile neighbours, a long coast line, terrorism assisted by external forces and a political system whose priority is elections and power. If you say that there are more diversities you will not be wrong. 

In this environment, a brief examination of the four predominantly propelling forces, GOD, faith, beliefs and governance, on which the Nation is running may be pertinent. 

God

The eternal question still remains truly unanswered. What / Who is GOD?  A universally acceptable answer to this question is still not known. As the universal answer is still elusive even after several millennia of human existence it is imperative that each of us find our own answer to this question. Therein lies the meaning of life and possibly God.  If ever there is one, we can conclude God surely does not live inside edifices,  God is much more than mere faith, God does not belong to any particular religion, surely; God does not need a religion. God is not about methods and narrow paths. Faith can take you only thus far; beliefs may put you in a time warp acting as a cocoon giving a false sense of safety and wellbeing. 

Faith

Is it in our heritage or tradition to put our faith in somebody or something? We elevate individuals to high levels, put them on impossible pedestals and call them demi Gods. We suppose they can do no wrong. But every human is fallible. Blind faith in something or someone, even God, is fraught with danger. Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true. A belief is not considered to be knowledge, even if it is sincere. A sincere believer in the Earth as centre of universe theory does not know that it is not true. 

Belief

Any action has to be provoked by a reason well understood by the protagonist. Trusting somebody is different from believing somebody can be trusted. When you trust somebody, and not just believe in him, you know for sure the person will deliver.  Similarly, action on knowledge is preferred to action on beliefs. Why do people do something just because they are told by somebody to do it as it is the right thing for them? All individuals are fallible. They may be better informed…but they could go wrong in prescribing your needs or action(s). The Nation believed in their leaders rather than in themselves. Similarly, something everybody believes is not knowledge, because in order to be knowledge, there must be some person who knows it for sure.

Governance

The inherent flaw is in the way we flaunt our new found ‘freedom’ in the last seventy odd years. In the exuberance we just let things be and forgot that there is a country to be governed. In the process, our political system threw up a strange phenomenon much like going to the temple and forgetting GOD. A picture was presented that the end all of democracy is elections – the universal suffrage. Thus, governance never figured in the scheme of things for our elected leaders. 

Democracy is strange. The word itself is of Greek origin which vaguely means ‘rule of the people’. Some city states, each a small well contained polity, of ancient Greece followed this system which afforded equality and freedom to the people. In the Indian system of democracy there is none of the former (equality) and too much of the latter (freedom).  I think ‘rule of the people’ (democracy) is conflicting in itself, a sort of an oxymoron. Here is a system where everybody is a ruler as well as the ruled. Does that mean democracy is an impossible system? Of course not; it is not impossible but difficult to sustain in its real character.  The two basic factors for democracy to succeed are sadly missing in our system. They are 1. Self discipline – being rulers, the people have a perpetual responsibility towards the Nation.  2. A pan India Nationalism – which is only just a notion, nothing more as propounded by some and should not be anything less, based on the idea that the individual’s loyalty and devotion to the nation-state surpass other individual or group interests.

Tailpiece

This brief musing is only an attempt to tickle your thoughts in directions not often treaded. There is a need for the Nation to travel these paths 

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