Majority -Minority debate
Socially and politically naming, labeling, branding and
creating a clear cut classification and identity are inevitable in many domains
of life, but to adamantly insist that a particular way of labeling and specific
identities are superior and that all the rest must fall in line with it is a
clandestine and catastrophic method to homogenize the variety in nature. This
has been the problem of or the creation of not Abrahamic religions, why blame
them, but the very thought process, philosophical approach and political manipulation
used by the West to hegemonize the rest. They have applied this methodology in
almost all spheres and it has only been either destructive or counter-
productive but they have failed to address this faulty ideology because they seem
to be caught between two urges one as a social group the comfort that an affinity
to particular identity offers and the other an impulse to dominate through homogenization
and hegemonization which has proved to be a successful political tool.
“Human race, unlike
other species, because of its sixth sense and enhanced faculties and its
inherent urge to perform things beyond just the physical alone, tend to
perceive, act and react at different levels with varying degrees of intensities
based on the multiple
influences that it has been and is being constantly subjected to. So
manifestation of variety in each individual not only in physical form but also
in psychological perceptions and ensuing actions and reactions is inevitable.
At the same time human
beings will have to live inevitably as interdependent social beings. Society is
an organization formed and functions to carry on collective living of
individual human beings. I am not getting into the merits and demerits of
different forms of social set ups. I am approaching the basic fabric of what a
society is. So this social set up has to frame certain rules and regulations
for the collective smooth functioning that can help the activities of the
various individual psyches and souls. Very often interdependent human psyche
also becomes gregarious and willingly accepts certain set codes of conduct and
helps formation of specific social set ups in certain geographical areas with
specific socio-cultural commonalities and common religious beliefs. In such situations
the specific social set up helps the life and enhances the life aspirations of
many individuals. So far, so good.
The problem crops
when the promoters and proponents of a specific successful social set up with
its tested brand of socio- cultural characters, geographical suitability and
religious activities try to replicate and enforce it in other locations. They
carry too far and presume that their brand of homogenization that has worked in
a particular area should be the best option for the rest of humanity.
History bears witness to this obsession with homogenization. The obsession is because homogenization also offers opportunity to hegemonize. It has time and again disturbed peace and harmony and delayed the progress of western civilization and destroyed global development. It has been carried out in various ways through indoctrination, by force, through cultural invasion, through war etc and throughout history it has failed miserably, be it the Roman Empire’s greed to spread its tentacles, be it the attempt at religious homogenization which failed with the Spanish Inquisition, be it Nazism, be it Colonialism, Communism etc. Now that these same proponents of homogenization perceive economic power to be the panacea for all human ills have got hold of GATT and making trips into the global economic activities through TRIPS.
Now all types of homogenization are carried out very easily through the mass opinion molders, the ubiquitous Media. The negative effectsof media are like the negative effects of nuclear technology.”-from http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2009/10/peace-and-non-violence-harmony-and.html
And on religious
front more and more thinking and intellectually advanced individuals have
shunned traditional religions and dumped them along with their rituals to seek
greener pastures elsewhere to satisfy their spiritual seeking and that has created
NRMs which I have written about almost
20 years back you can find that article in this link
All these are more in
the realms of society, politics, religion etc but human race is actually beyond
the confines of all these confining concepts of all isms and ideologies because
all of us are inter-dependent, inter –related and interact with one another
either obviously or otherwise.
As R.W. Emerson used to
say “ Nature expresses unity through variety” and he writes in his Essay on-I
on The Poet “We stand before the secret of the world,
there where Being passes into Appearance, and Unity into Variety”.
This whole write up is in response to the following article
http://www.firstpost.com/india/minorities-heptulla-said-the-right-thing-but-at-the-wrong-time-1548461.html?utm_source=mail&utm_medium=alert_post
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