CRISIS OF HUMANITY (Part 1)

It is claimed by reserchers that the modern humans have been living together and migrating since one hundred to two hundred thousand years ago. Over the past fifty thousand years they have spread across the entire planet. History which can be seen or touched, is read or was heard goes back six to ten thousand years from date. Inspite of such a vast experience going through millions of generations, it is rather unfortunate that we humans have miserably failed on two counts; first our inability to stop exploitation of nature and humans and second our inability to avoid human sufferings. As life forms, today we are not too far away from the life condition that existed fifty thousand years ago. We are still primitive in our instinct, we still fear for our survival, inspite of several scientific advancements, machines and instruments to aid our ease and leisure. From such a perspective our performance has been an utter disappointment.

Currently since the past sixty odd years we have not had any major world wars. Apart from potentially threatening situations converting onto lighter and localised wars everywhere, there has not been a major human orchestrated killing of other humans. Around the world we no longer indulge in genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass scale wiping out of enemy population, looting of enemy wealth, raping of their women, etc. A few severe ones probably are the Sinhalese attack on Tamil population in Sri Lanka, the continued armed battles in middle Africa, Iraq and Syria. One other major cause of death over the past several decades has been natural disasters and disease. There has been a reasonable stability on that front, to assist better human conditions. However we are squandering away this window of opportunity. During this respite we have achieved nothing tangible except merely increasing our population which has compounded the problem instead of resolving or improving anything. We haven’t attained any greater heights in our understandings and feelings for life on this planet. Rather we have degraded ourselves to further exploit the planets resources and other life forms.

We have been rather short sighted in our approach over the past few decades. All our focus has been directed towards selfish aggrandisement, under the garb of individual liberty and freedom. We have placed or one could say misplaced all our faith on democracy as a conduit for better living. In doing so we have legalised exploitation of resources, permitted manipulation of ideas and sacrificed our combined happiness. We have allowed individuals and groups to increase production of every kind in an innocent assumption that doing so would spread wealth in the hands of everyone. Obviously wealth is still reflected as the main ingredient for happiness, more the wealth more the happiness.  Well, it seems that we have been wrong all along.

What we do to exploit and manipulate: We humans have bestowed on ourselves an unbridled expression to our desires without necessitating any evaluation of the justifications regarding its universal benefit. Our ambitions have transcended honourable limits. Post the industrial revolution we have encouraged consumerism in food clothing and shelter. It started with the West and seeing how wealthy they have become, the East aped it. Consumerism is a cycle where demand pushes production which results in increased earnings and therefore caters to additional demands. But behind the screen the production has to be supported by continuous supply of raw material and energy. We have assumed that demand can rise perpetually disregarding the fact that natural resources are limited. Today we are sailing in unchartered territories where we hardly discuss or know about how to limit our consumerism while being fully aware that every mineral on this planet is available to a finite quantity.

An informed look at our politics across the globe shows it appears that in several places we have replaced monarchy and autocracy, however we have merely converted into democracy under the camouflage of upholding citizen’s rights, freedom. The wine remains the same while the bottle has changed. Physical slavery has been replaced by psychological slavery. Elections are strategies in vote bank politics and uttering lies aloud, where manipulating of public opinion and spreading misinformation is the rule of the game. Those who aren’t in power or those who have been manipulated over the years have switched over to terrorism to make themselves heard. To counter the terrorist’s, weaponry of the official armies have also become sophisticated and nuclear. Crime has taken a white-collared reputation, becoming more skill and cyber based. The damage inflicted and benefit earned is enormous.  Child pornography is another area which is raising its head.

People around the globe have learnt to live in fear accepting it as a part of their lives. Power and wealth has become cherished aspirations to overcome the fear. Those who cannot become aggressive follow some or the other religion, which also is steeped into narrow-mindedness. Those in charge of these religions have understood the value of fear in retaining their individual importance. Even an open religion like Hinduism which has survived thousands of years today shamelessly talks of being subverted with threats of being wiped out because of divergent views. Spirituality was once a celebrated tradition in the East and also in other places has witnessed reduced importance in recent decades. India itself had several hundreds of spiritual and philosophical schools at the start of the Christian era, of which hardly a handful has survived.

Another situation which is visible is that the population explosion is coupled with huge advancements in medical science. On the one hand we witness disturbing trends in intrusive medical treatment which prolongs life even in a vegetative condition. On the other hand we also see wide scale proliferation of obesity, diabetes, BP, heart ailments and cancer. The medical profession has flourished. Urban pollution has spilled out of hand and we are constantly wrestling with air, river, sea, sound and plastic waste pollutants.

Inspite of all our labours at pseudo-development, poverty continues to exist and exploitation continues to prosper. The more we imagine that we are advancing the more we are suffering as a life form.

What we endure because of our exploitative tendencies: We humans are watching a phenomenon new to our experience; global warming. While the planet has become hot and cold several times before, we have never experienced it in our combined knowledge of fifty thousand years. This time around we reckon that the increasing temperature of the planet is our undoing and mainly rooted in our exploitative burning of fossil fuel. Assessing the correctness of whether the view is right or wrong is not going to matter because we are practically witnessing shrinking ice cover, vanishing forests, water scarcity on an ongoing basis which is disturbing the climate across the planet causing unprecedented variations in rainfall, winter cold and summer heat.

We are staring at a huge ageing population, our own population. In our unmanageable numerical growth, we have taken over every conceivable nook and corner of this planet, we have destroyed several species of plant and animal life, we have cut down oxygen producing forests, we have polluted the air, we have made our surroundings filthy. We humans have become so paradoxical that while the awareness of physical fitness has increased the numbers of sick and diseased has also increased.

Migration has been a human privilege right from the time we have walked out of Africa. We migrate for livelihood, for education, for a better life, to escape from atrocities and crime, basically to survive. The rich migrate individually and silently while the poor migrate in numbers and attract undue attention. Currently the volumes of migrations have increased to such proportions that societies are barricading against the migrants. We can imagine the extent of outrage causing the migrants to escape. While the voice against these new migrants have also become shrill and the number of countries which refuse to accept them are increasing.

The economic policies that we implement, the importance that we attach to earning money and wealth creation and the ruthlessness and with which we pursue freedom for selfish interests, have all resulted in vast disparities in wealth distribution in society. The poor continue to exist even in highly developed countries. There are people without basic quantities of food, clothing and shelter living in every country on this planet. We once thought that Socialism would help alleviate poverty and then realised that capitalism is probably the right way forward to eliminate human sufferings. Let us accept that this hasn’t happened. While Socialism is dead, Capitalism hasn’t delivered. We as a species have failed to protect even our own from exploitation.

We still have certain more wants that are exploitative too: It is claimed, by us humans of course, that we are the most intelligent creature living on this planet. However looking at our demands and expectations for the future, the claim stands open to argument. It is as if we haven’t learnt our lessons yet that we continue on the same treacherous path of self-destruction through exploitation of whatever the planet has to offer.

Protectionism has walked into our thoughts in every area of life. We have started feeling extreme insecurities about our lives, religion, country, local territory, local economy, caste, group life-style and culture, and the list is endless. A couple of decades ago in the international scene, cross border trade was demanded, all previous trade barriers were asked to be broken, benefits of globalization was promised and it did spread out. Just when it had taken roots, a U-turn is being demanded by those who pushed globalization in the first place. The reason is simply that the benefits were really flowing into the once upon a time developing and poor countries. Today the big powerful countries fear that globalization is taking the wind out of their sail. They aren’t interested in making every poor country a better place as theirs, atleast that wasn’t the supposed intention behind the theory of globalization.

Even in education we have ventured deep into subject specialisation where every specialist feels that his is the right way or rather the only way. We have become less tolerant about the views of others and consider them to be inferior to our own. A balanced view considering the opinions of all is slowly becoming an outdated concept. It is being viewed as primitive and a waste of time.

At a time when global warming is making life difficult for us humans, it is but common sense that we should pool our energies together to create a safe and practical environment so that we can survive in the long run. However it is right at this moment that across the world we chose to bicker about our rights of privacy and infringement of personal space. Yes, the Gay rights and freedom is a step in the right direction but beyond that everybody need to share information about their life, choices, consumptions, and vocations so that unwanted impact on the environment can be avoided. However we are moving in the opposite direction.

Our agricultural sector across the world is so constipated that our farmers can think of survival only with subsidies and grants. Food production in all countries still is dependent on a benign weather. Food prices are deliberately kept low to starve off inflationary tendencies in the economy. Food preservation and storage is never in the hands of the food producers who therefore lose out on prices. We also fear to introduce Genetically Modified food, which can help the food producers. These are age old problems which we don’t want to resolve. Every economist, every central bank, every politician, every learned intellect anywhere on this planet, merely pays lip service to agriculture. We are least concerned about how to feed the ever growing population in harsh climatic conditions of the future.

As if our exploitation of this planet is not enough, we now want to exploit the moon and Mars. Space tourism and space travel, is expected to become the fad of the future. It is anticipated by some enterprising money-bags that the rich of the future will prefer to spend their wealth on a short spin around the planet while the poor continue to struggle.

Artificial Intelligence and robotics is a growing technology and every new development should be welcome, evaluated and pursued. One should be cautious when a new development is expected to for the detriment of life forms on this planet, for instance the atomic bomb and nuclear war arsenal.  AI is expected to replace humans in the job market and none of us are too sure how this one will play out. With a huge population to feed, with few employment opportunities for them, under a harsh climatic condition, without a practical food strategy in place, how are we expecting us to survive?

                                                                                                                   (To be continued)

RANIGANJ - O - RANIGANJ

Raniganj basically a coal miner’s town in Bardhaman district of West Bengal holds a special place in my mind. It is situated on the banks of the Damodar River and because of its close proximity to the city of Asansol (my birthplace) it now comes under the Asansol Municipal Corporation. Couple of centuries back, Raniganj was merely a thick forest area rather infamous for its tribal dacoits and robbers. Infact incidents of armed looters and plunderers attacking homes continued as recently as about 1960’s. Raniganj became famous for its coal during the British era and therefore way back in 1855 they commissioned the rail track from Howrah to Raniganj under East India Railway. Today all the coal under the town has been extracted and it is said that the town rests on stowed sand. Of late the town has also become a medical hub of the region with several doctors and hospitals opening shop.     

The coal mining business attracted various people into the area. The buccaneers from the Rajasthani, Punjabi, Bihari and Gujrati communities got into various aspects of the business from mine ownership, coal production, manpower supply, coal handling and transportation. The entire region was rich in coal deposits and it wasn’t long before these buccaneers became rich too. The labour force consisted of the tribal population from Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand who ended up being exploited. Today the town with a population of above 1.2 lakhs (2011 census) has become a weird synthesis of the poor tribal who are the native sons of the soil, the white collared job oriented typical Bengalis and the rich businessmen Hindi speaking non-Bengalis.

Raniganj does hold a special place in my mind. My Ma belonged to the town, and my mama’s still continue to live there. As a kid, the only holiday vacation that I knew of were the annual trips to Raniganj. We always went to Raniganj like it was a pilgrimage. The intimacies with the family, the place and the journeys have created such embossed impressions on my mind that it continues to remain a major point of reference. My thoughts return to the place repeatedly. If I am travelling to West Bengal, I cannot keep myself away from Raniganj. My mind is rooted in Raniganj. While life knows no roots absolutely, the mind on the other hand is hell bent upon creating roots for itself. The mind is a strange creation. Its existence is hypothetical and its content is mostly based on experiences in life. Nostalgia is a creation of the mind. There is a feeling of comfort and security in nostalgia and therefore we chose to remember it fondly. In the rigmarole and strains of living, nostalgia materializes like a whiff of some favorite aroma mixed up in the dense fog. It appears suddenly with some memory, some face, some phone call and you wonder where it concealed itself all the while.

Whether we travelled from Margao or from Chennai, the journey always meant more than 24 hours in the train. One of my mama’s would travel with us both sides because my Babuji could never get the required leave from his office, or maybe he chose not to. From Margao it meant spending 2 or 3 nights journeying because the distance was longer and we had to change trains twice. Later on from Chennai we had to change train only once. We always travelled by second class which initially had hard metal seats. We usually went for a month’s duration and the luggage those days were huge iron trunks which were heavy and the equally big bedrolls. The luggage required several porters to handle them. Since we were four of us and later on after Biki was born five, the bedrolls were unrolled on the seat where all of us could sit, play or sleep. Food was home packed and a water jar accompanied us. During summer, the water was often rationed and if the train was delayed then my mama used to run to the water taps at the station to fill up the jar. Eating food from the stations was prohibited for us kids. So was accepting food offered by strangers. We were also never allowed to talk to fellow passengers fearing that we would step out of the train with them. Walking towards the door wasn’t permitted and either my Ma or mama accompanied us to the toilet. We carried story books with us to read and time passed by easily watching the scene through the window. Unfortunately the trains those days were steam engines which used to smoke a lot and all of us had our face blackened because of the coal dust. The first bath after the train journey was always rigorous. Tickets those days were thick rectangular 2 inches by 1 inch pieces of cardboard with punched in details like name, places, date and train and they had to be preserved very carefully. Exchanging seats with fellow passengers to bring all of us together was a famous activity of cajoling either the other passengers or the ticket checker. After reaching the destination, haggling with the taxi drivers who would take us home was yet another source of entertainment. I learnt a great deal about travelling and being alert right from those days. For instance, in the night somebody has to remain awake to watch over the luggage, footwear and also the items which passengers who are getting down carry with them at various stations.

Raniganj was the kingdom of my Didama, my lovely grandmother. Being her eldest grandchild, I ruled her heart and all my desires were treated like commands. I was pampered silly by her to the extent that my Mashi (Ma’s sister) used to make it a point to even it out with her own style of teasing and scolding. But if I started howling which I often did them my Didama used to come to my rescue. When I used to be taken to the market place, toys and street food only had to be pointed out by me and my Didama used to see to it that it was bought. My demands were unreasonable which I realise now, but when my Dadu (grandfather) as well as my mamas used to argue with her to restrict me, they never won. I remember vividly demanding and wailing for a toy train with rails, which after purchase didn’t even last to be taken back to Margao. Once later, it was about a movie to which my Ma and Mashi were going and I created such a big ruckus to be taken along. They had to give in. Didama used to tell me wonderful stories of demons and kings and princes and princesses. There was also a book of folk stories called ‘Thakumar Jhuli’ from where she used to read out loud. Very often when I used to fall sick, and it was always my Didama who used to nurse me and look after my needs. Watching her in the kitchen was also a favorite past time. She lit the coal Oonan (stove which used coal as fuel) right in the morning, cut vegetables, fish, cooked and entertained me. Those few days were the height of my mischievousness and I always ignored my Ma while at Raniganj. She used to threaten me saying that once we get back to Margao she would straighten me, but who cared! Those 3 weeks durations were like a dream where I lived the life of a prince in an otherwise depressing childhood. 

My Dadu was employed in the coal industry with ECL. He used to travel to and fro to work on his bicycle. Infact each of my four mamas rode a bicycle. While my Dadu had an extremely dark complexion, my Didama was absolutely fair. My Didama’s language was Bangal and not the typical Bengali which I learnt to speak. Her expressions used to intrigue me but somehow I never picked up the Bangal language. 

My Didama’s kingdom was a rented house, whose owner was Banarasi Lal Modi. It was a huge ground plus one floor bungalow and the owner himself used to occupy the upper floor. The entire space on the lower floor was rented out. A number of families occupied it amongst whom were my Dadu and Didama. The property was called Banarasi Oil Mill because it included a mustard oil producing mill. Shri Banarasi Lal Modi was a Marwari buccaneer who made his wealth from the coal trade. He was in the business of coal handling using labour. For whatever reasons his oil mill business couldn’t click but the name of the property stuck. My earliest memories also were of the huge factory shed and dead machineries catching rust. The area is called Girjapara and very near to the railway station. Girja is a church, and the Raniganj church still stand as a testimony to the times of the British. My Didama occupied a portion of the bungalow which had three huge rooms placed in a line facing a very big veranda, a big kitchen and a bathroom. Two of those big rooms were utilised as bedrooms. The toilet was separate, initially it was a manual scavengering one and a bit scary. A flight of stairs ran from the ground to a lower veranda to the next veranda from where one could access all the rooms simultaneously. The entire area was approved for us kids to play as long as we didn’t venture out into the road where the coal laden trucks frequented.  I also got to know a few of the other tenants.

The only easily accessible mode of public transport in Raniganj was the cycle rickshaw. We rode it to go shopping into the Badabazar area. The Netaji Bose bust has been there at the main junction of the market since I can remember. The market place was always full of traders of every kind with all material arriving from the outside. Sweetmeat shops and tea shops were the best adda places and all my mama’s could be located with their friends at their respective adda’s. My physician Doctor Somen had his clinic near the Netaji statue and if his imported black car was seen, then that meant the doctor was available. There were 3 cinema of which probably Anjana still continues. Of late the number of shopping complexes in Raniganj has increased.

The sights and sounds of Raniganj that I have experienced since my childhood continue to glow in my mind. I can still hear the noise of everyone. I can still smell the fragrance of charcoal lit cooking. Today Raniganj doesn’t look very different from what it used to 40 years ago. Whenever I go there time stands motionless.

BETWEEN THE GREAT DIVIDE by ANAM ZAKARIA A journey into Pakistan – administered Kashmir.

After having read the book I am thoroughly impressed with Anam Zakaria. It is quite evident that a great deal of perilous risk taking as well as physical effort has gone into her endeavor, travelling several times to the Pakistan administered Kashmir region and meeting various sections of people, experiencing their pain in trying to gather the different viewpoints. All this must have taken a pretty long period of time during which she held on to her idea of the book religiously. That is probably her only direct relationship with religion that she has maintained while writing this book. I wish to stress on the religion angle because it isn’t easy to avoid being partisan when dealing with human sufferings. 

Hats off to Anam Zakaria for her courage and to her simple yet extremely engaging presentation. Being a Pakistani citizen she could have easily towed the official line of argument, yet she chose to embrace facts.  Her subject matter were fellow Muslims and yet she saw them as human being first.  She wears a humanistic hat while detailing her information and analyzing her understanding of the ground reality. Neither does she indulge in sermonizing her readers nor does she pretend to be the intellect and play prophesy games about the future, thereby keeping a balanced and equanimous mind on the subject and leaving the readers to draw their conclusions. That is also probably the reason as to why the book has not been banned in either India or Pakistan which to my mind is rather fortunate. Shocking facts have been laid bare and false official narratives of both countries have been exposed. The media on both sides of the divide can now take some courage from the pages of the book and henceforth write without fear.

Independence is in a sense taking responsibility of own self. Individuals become independent when they become capable to deal with the uncertainties of the world, differentiate between good and bad, necessary and extravagant, to take correct decisions, take charge of their lives and its future course. Those that cannot be independent stay with others. Sometimes a bunch of individuals stay together to improve their strength and power to deal with the environment. Likewise communities are formed and on a larger scale countries are formed. All individuals, communities and a group of communities should have the right to decide whether they want to be independent or exist as a homogeneous or cohesive group. None else should decide for them. When the British hegemony in the subcontinent came to a close, the debate on independence of Kashmir took some rather unfortunate turns wherein the people were not aligned with their ruler and outsiders came into the scene to take the decision. 

The Kashmir region has been changing hands since time immemorial. The Hindu kings of Magadh and Rajasthan, the Chinese Huns, the Mongols, the Greeks, the invaders from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan region, the Turks, the Arabs and the Sikhs, several dynasties have come, settled and then given way to the next conqueror. The same is the story across the Punjab region and the Sindh region as well. However during the British orchestrated partition the other regions were taken and decided for rather fast. Kashmir held out, undecided for a while. That it had the strength to do so speaks about its own independent national pride or self-esteem of being an independent kingdom. It also meant that like all previous invaders, this strong, beautiful and strategic land was coveted by the both Pakistan and India. What followed every annexation happened once again, its ordinary innocent people suffered.

Because of its past, the Kashmir region was rather secular and had a population catering to multi-religion. Pakistan wanted Kashmir because its people to people contact between Kashmir and rest of Pakistan was better, and it sounds logical too. India wanted Kashmir for reason of its strategic position. It is rather easy to come to the simple conclusion that since nation is defined by its people, the choice and decision of the people would be paramount.

Subsequent to partition both India and Pakistan have blundered in their handling of Kashmir and thereby hurt the Kashmiri cause. Religious conversions, migrations for survival, ethnic killing, persecution and forceful evictions happened on a large scale. The local leadership starting from the last Dogra king was not strong and charismatic enough to carry their people along. Kashmiri culture stood abused.  Kashmir lost its secularity and thereby it’s societal strength. Had the demographic changes not taken place at such a scale, Kashmir could have easily held itself to be another Nepal, an independent country. Its peoples could have taken a unified stand for peace, and the strength of its diverse culture would have got them that independent status, sooner or later. It must have hurt the nationalists in Kashmir when Bangladesh which sided with Pakistan during partition could gain independence. That was because the Bangladeshi people stood firm by their Bengali pride as a stronger national character in comparison to their common Islamic religion shared with Pakistan. The Kashmiris could not emulate that because their strong Kashmiri culture was shattered and replaced by ordinary religious ethos.

Today we find both India and Pakistan playing games at various international forums blaming each other for the mess in Kashmir. Today the real Kashmiri people’s voice has been muzzled and manipulated. Today we no more hear the independent Kashmiri voice, it is lost. The sounds for independent Kashmiri voices are being cleverly squashed on both sides of the border. All that we hear at the ground level today is a voice that favours the Pakistani state simply because since pre-partition days, the people had closer ties with the rest of Pakistan. After the Hindus and Sikhs were expunged from the scene, India is more or less a foreign country for Kashmir.

Neither India nor Pakistan want to give up its self-assumed rights over the land of Kashmir. Today it has become a prestige or ego battle between the two countries. Kashmir will remain in this condition for a few more generations. This is a political game with international hands and stakes involved. The UN isn’t going to give Kashmir its due, rather it cannot. In the present circumstances the sufferings of the Kashmiri people is bound to continue.  

Education and prosperity is the only way ahead for the Kashmiri people. Accepting the present realities, they should focus on bettering their lot. They need to invite back the Pundits and the Sikhs, people who were driven out and try to become a secular place once again. Kashmiri culture should be encouraged and peace policies have to be applied with a vision for the distant future. Prosperity will follow. With better education, spread of knowledge and wealth, and people to people communication, the lost pride of the Kashmiri people would rise once again. Maybe both India and Pakistan would dread to see that day and therefore would be interested in keeping the conflict alive as long as possible.