E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

World Bank and poverty 
THE poor of the world have a new but surprising crusader: the World Bank. In its World Development Report-2000 it solemnly declares that it “will fight poverty with passion and professionalism, putting it at the centre of all the work we do”. 

Exit Kapil Dev
IN quitting his post as coach of the Indian cricket team, Kapil Dev has done a dignified thing. Allowing the dilly-dallying Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to give him the boot would have been a disgrace and going out after the CBI had submitted its report — possibly critical — would have been misconstrued as some kind of an admission of guilt. 

OPINION

No guilt feelings over aborigine issue
by V. Gangadhar
GUILT feelings. Repentance. Apology. These feelings obviously differ from nation to nation, community to community. It took several decades for Germany to realise the monstrosity of the crimes committed by the Nazi hordes on the Jews. More than six million Jews were killed in the holocaust, yet sections of German people were slow, almost unwilling to realise the magnitude of their crime. Successive West German governments, particularly of more recent times, were troubled by guilt feelings on what their armed forces had done during the war. 

MIDDLE

Operation “Gentleman”
by Anurag
WHEN a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: Whose? One who thinks that money does everything, will do everything for money, a la el-dorado.com.

OF LIFE SUBLIME

Triumph of spirit over reason
by Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia
MODERN Western civilisation, which mistakenly sought to de-code and locate the mystery of life in the mechanics of matter, is gradually giving way to the postmodern global civilisation of the third millennium. The outgoing civilisation was built on three enlightenment concepts: matter, reason and history. These three terms constituted the trinity of the scientific 'faith', of the godhead of scientism which promised emancipation of humanity and salvation of society here and now, as against redemption of the soul in the world hereafter, earlier covenanted by religious faith.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

World Bank and poverty 

THE poor of the world have a new but surprising crusader: the World Bank. In its World Development Report-2000 it solemnly declares that it “will fight poverty with passion and professionalism, putting it at the centre of all the work we do”. This is not a reversal of its ideology nor wearing a new mantle. In the past too the Bank has talked of basic needs and poverty reduction. What is, however, new is the vehemence with which the report goes about analysing worldwide poverty. There is a sharp and critical reference to the rich nations, almost in an accusatory tone. It points to the obscene levels of affluence, farm subsidy, tariff protection, shrinking development aid and insensitivity to the living conditions of the dispossessed. The richest 20 per cent of the world population has an income which is 37 times (yes, 37 times) higher than the poorest 20 per cent. Translated into numbers, 2.8 billion people, or nearly a half of the world population, live in poverty and of them 1.2 billion in abject poverty. Market promises a faster growth of the economy but this does not guarantee an attack on poverty. Often market distorts redistribution.

The same holds good for globalisation or, to use the newly minted expression, outward orientation. Intellectual property right (IPR) is fine but it threatens to block access to new medicines and farm technology. The developed countries excessively subsidise agricultural operation and erect tariff walls to choke off imports from the developing countries. For instance, world trade expanded by 5.8 per cent during the decade ending in 1994, but that of agricultural products by a mere 1.8 per cent. That is because import duty on the latter is five times higher than on manufactured goods. Meat attracts a savage rate of 826 per cent import duty in the Europeon Union. Since the poor countries can export only farm products — they constitute three-fourths of their total exports — and since they are cunningly denied market, they remain poor. Coerced by the World Trade Organisation, many poor countries have introduced reforms but there has been no matching reforms in the rich block, adding to their vulnerability. Making the market work for the poor is a fine piece of rhetoric but a practical absurdity. Official development assistance (ODA), low interest, long-term loan from the rich governments, has been shrinking, despite the promise of an increase in the wake of the so-called peace dividend.

Overwhelmed by this analysis, the Bank raises slogans it would not have in the past. It is plugging for land reforms to bring down the level of inequity in the rural areas. It wants state agencies to build infrastructure to ensure education, health and such like. Then comes the punch line. Poverty, it says in a ringing tone, is not about hunger; it is the ejection of the poor from the social space. The idea and the feeling behind it are familiar, and it is no coincidence. The Bank happily admits that it generously dipped into the bag full of Prof Amartya Sen’s prescriptions and has strung them together to give its report a pronounced pro-Third World tilt. What is its projection for India? Most of the statistics are known and have been regularly debated. For instance, the debate over the National Sample Survey (NSS) findings are mentioned but without comment. But the report shows a preference for agreeing with the NSS that poverty has increased in the decade of liberalisation. One way out is to shift to labour-intensive projects to create more jobs and to increase the purchasing power of the poor. There is a resonance of the French Revolution declaration in the report’s call on the Third World to work for opportunity, empowerment and (economic) security of the poor. There is an unanswered but awkward question here: these are the fruits of a povertyless society and are not signposts to povertylessness. 

Advantage or a challenge? 

FOR many years the BJP has been treating the Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttar Pradesh as its pocket borough during elections both for the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha. The party enjoyed this advantage because of two major factors: the decline of the Congress and the hill areas having a predominantly upper caste population. Today three of the four MPs from the region as also 17 of the 22 MLAs of the Interim Assembly of Uttaranchal, going to become a reality on November 1, belong to the saffron party. It is because of this advantage that the newly created hill state will have a BJP government. But the advantage may not last long as it has brought with it a serious challenge. If the new government does reasonably well, laying the foundation for faster economic growth of Uttaranchal, obviously, it will continue to retain its monopoly over power there. But keeping in view the high expectations the people of Uttaranchal have from their rulers under the changed circumstances, it is doubtful if the government will be able to satisfy them. Addressing the basic problem of Uttaranchal — generating sufficient employment opportunities — is going to be an uphill task for the would-be Ministry. Effective handling of the unemployment problem will take a considerable time, but for a job-seeker this explanation carries no meaning. In the event of the number of the unemployed not showing an immediate decline, people's frustration is bound to grow. There are certain other serious problems the Uttaranchalis have been facing — lack of infrastructural facilities like link roads — and they will expect these to be solved early. Thus the government will have to concentrate all its energy on tackling the people's problems so that the BJP continues to maintain its hold over power in the state. This rarely happens and appears to be impossible in the present situation.

In the search for the new Chief Minister, the names making the rounds are those of M.M. Joshi loyalists or L.K. Advani camp followers, besides certain others. This is a prelude to the emergence of intense group politics. Any group that loses the race will understandably try to ensure that the victor does not have a smooth sailing. Thus the person who ultimately becomes the Chief Minster will have his concentration divided on fighting two battles at the same time. One will be to safeguard his position from his detractors and the other governing the state with several disadvantages because of its being a new constitutional entity. All this is unlikely to enhance the rating of the BJP among the masses. The UP Reorganisation Act, 2000, has it that the Interim Assembly must give way to a new Assembly after one year. A disgruntled electorate may desert the party it has patronised so far. The failure to come up to the people's expectations makes a party in power pay a price for it. But for the BJP it may be too heavy a price owing to the circumstantial factors.

One good thing, however, that has happened to the saffron party is that its leadership appears to have made up its mind that the Uttaranchal Chief Ministership should go to one of its MLAs or MLCs, and not to any MP. This narrows down the choice to the two hot contenders — Mr Nityanand Swami, Chairman of the UP Legislative Council and the seniormost regional leader belonging to the BJP, and Mr Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nisankh", UP's Religious Affairs Minister. However, both are from the Garhwal region. The Kumaonis may get upset if either of the two leaders, having strongly identified themselves with their region, gets the top executive post, in view of the hostility between the people of this area and those of Garhwal. Again not a healthy development for the ruling party. The BJP high command will have to do a lot of thinking to untie the Uttaranchal knot. 

Exit Kapil Dev

IN quitting his post as coach of the Indian cricket team, Kapil Dev has done a dignified thing. Allowing the dilly-dallying Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to give him the boot would have been a disgrace and going out after the CBI had submitted its report — possibly critical — would have been misconstrued as some kind of an admission of guilt. Under the circumstances, resigning was the honourable way out for the cricketing legend. There was too much of controversy surrounding him and it would have been impossible for him to do his duty as a coach. Fighting it out would not have been a sign of bravery but only of being an unwelcome guest. He is too proud a man to stomach that. The jury is still out whether he is guilty or not. Either way, his abrupt exit makes one sad. For argument’s sake, let us suppose that he is innocent. How shattered and sad would he be today! This is not what the sunset time of the living legend ought to be like. And if at all he did indulge in match-fixing and threw matches, it is a matter of shame for the entire country because it will be almost impossible for cricket to find its way back to the prestige it once enjoyed. The sense of disgust in the hearts of millions of fans is too sharp to be fully expressed. Those who do believe that money changed hands cannot stop posing the “how could he” question. Some of the accusations can be dismissed as trial by the media and some as the figment of the imagination of jealous former colleagues. But surely there is some fire behind all this smoke. The sackings that have taken place are the least that the cricketers who are suspected to have played for money deserve. Politicians can get away with manipulating rules and laws to continue robbing the country while saying that there is not enough evidence against them but not the cricketers. There is a bond of faith between the sportsmen and the lovers of the game. Once that is snapped, the pedestal that the latter provide so lovingly can be snatched without much ado.

Kapil Dev is not only a sad man but also a very angry man today. His ire is directed at the BCCI president and other office-bearers for their ambivalent stand. He feels that they did not support him fully following the accusations of match-fixing. While he is entitled to his pique, it is not clear what line he wanted the BCCI to take. If the board had refused to take any action against any of the tainted players by saying that there was no proof of guilt as yet, it would have exposed itself to the allegation that it was shielding the guilty through technicalities. Let us face it. Not too long ago, Hansie Cronje was reacting to similar allegations with the same indignation that the Indian cricketers are displaying right now. While the BCCI is not supposed to hang the innocent, it is also not expected to stand by the players who are in the wrong or are suspected to be. The miasma of allegations has put Indian cricket in a bad odour. A thorough cleaning up is not only desirable but also mandatory. No player can be bigger than the game. The task ahead is not to clear the name of player A or player B but of Indian cricket as a sport.

A REVOLUTION AT THE CROSSROADS
Iran: towards cooperation with India
by G. Parthasarathy

POLITICS, it is said, makes strange bedfellows. Economic liberalisation and globalisation are strongly opposed by outfits like the Swadeshi Jagran Manch on the one hand and by the left parties on the other in India. Likewise, religious clerics on the one hand and leftist reformists supportive of President Khatami on the other are the most vociferous critics of liberalisation and globalisation in Iran. The conservative religious elements fear that globalisation and close relations with the USA will undermine the sense of national pride and self-respect that Iran gained after the Islamic Revolution. It would also erode the economic influence they wield through the control of huge public enterprises and of imports of foodgrains and other essential commodities at very favourable rates of exchange. The leftist reformers, recently elected to the Majlis who support President Khatami’s reform agenda, oppose Iran’s integration to a process of economic globalisation because they fear the adverse political repercussions of the rise in the prices of food and other essentials that would take place if Iran joins the global economic mainstream and adopts a uniform exchange rate.

Despite the opposition within the country, Iran has chosen to apply for the membership of the WTO. Influential and reform-minded economists whom I met during a recent visit to Iran made it clear that they saw no way out of the present stagnation in agricultural and industrial production and growing levels of unemployment in the country, other than a serious attempt at economic liberalisation that would open the doors to foreign investment and competition, enhance productivity and restructure the entire system of subsidies. The conservatives fear that globalisation would bring in Western cultural influences and undermine the norms and values that the Iranian Revolution had ushered in. The reformists say that Persian culture and Islamic traditions and beliefs are too strong and deep-rooted to be eroded by Coca Cola, McDonalds and Western films. Despite these differences, there is little doubt that whatever direction Iran takes in defining its national priorities and policies, the late Imam Khomeini will continue to be respected and revered by its people, in much the same manner that Mao is revered in China even though that country has moved very far from the policies that he espoused. One hopes that in much the same manner as it withdrew its opposition to China’s entry to the WTO, the USA will adopt a positive approach to Iran’s quest for the membership of the WTO. India should play a positive role in seeing that as Iran seeks to redefine its international priorities, it is not denied its due place in the WTO. We had after all actively supported early Iranian entry into the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation.

There is much that has been written in the Western media about the alleged denial of equality for women in Iran after the Revolution. It is true that the rigid enforcement of regulations regarding how women should be attired in public has been the focus of international media attention. But, unlike in some of Iran’s neighbours, women do have their own role and make their contribution in different facets of Iranian national life. Chador-clad women are often seen driving their own cars or even riding pillion on motorcycles in Teheran. More importantly, women do have a significant contribution to make to the government, to academic discussions and even to Parliament, where a lady member recently attended the proceedings dressed in a scarf and manteau and not in the customary chador. While President Khatami is immensely popular and his supporters won around 200 of the 290 seats in elections earlier this year, effective power, including the control of the armed forces, the police and the Revolutionary Guards remains in the hands of the religious leadership headed by former President Syed Ali Khamnei, known as “The Leader”. Two decades after the Islamic Revolution there is a vigorous debate embracing all sections of society, particularly the students and youth, about what directions Iranian policies should take, for the country to exploit its full potential in the contemporary world. The issues include future directions in the economic and foreign policies of the country, Press and academic freedoms and even the role of the religious leadership in national affairs. But these are issues that Iranians should debate, discuss and arrive at national solutions. The outside world would be well advised to avoid passing judgement or offering gratuitous comments.

The Iranians realise that with the Indian economy set to grow at a rate of over 7 per cent in the coming years, India will be a natural and logical market for its immense resources of natural gas and oil. Iran has the second largest resources of natural gas in the world. While there is some concern and interest at the directions our growing relations with the USA and Israel may take, Iranian leaders recognise that given our independent foreign policy and economic and military potential, Iran and India are natural “strategic partners”. We have made it clear that given the chronic instability and medieval intolerance of the Taliban, we see Iran as a natural and long -term partner as a transit point for our economic, trade and energy ties with Central Asia. There is also a growing realisation in India that the competitiveness of our exports to Russia will improve vastly when there are reliable transit routes to that country through Iran. We are exploring the development of a sea route to the Russian port of Astrakhan through Bandar Abbas.

Iran feels that the construction of a gas pipeline through Pakistan is the cheapest way to transport natural gas to India. The Iranians, however, do acknowledge that given Pakistan’s chronic political instability and its failing economy, India naturally has its concerns about such a project. Militant groups have after all pledged to wage a jehad against India not just in Kashmir but also throughout the country. General Musharraf is an ardent supporter of jehad. Can India have any faith in the assurances about the security of transit routes for crucial energy supplies through Pakistan when that country’s rulers justify jehad by groups they control, even though they deny (without any credibility) any hand in the terrorist activities of these groups?

Pakistan’s Petroleum Minister has asserted that his country expects to be paid $700 million annually as transit charges for natural gas from Iran to India. It is certain that these revenues in foreign exchange will be used to finance a build up in Pakistan’s military, nuclear and missile programmes. Would it be wise for India to finance such a Pakistani military build-up, especially at a time when that country is receiving little foreign investment because of its political instability, growing law and order problems and deepening economic crisis? We are planning to import large quantities of LNG from Qatar. We could do likewise in the case of Iran, at least till Pakistan shows signs of behaving responsibly and positively in the conduct of its political and economic relations with us. Pakistan cannot expect to get huge revenues from the pipelines to India even while it wages jehad against us, in much the same manner as it has been made clear that jehad and dialogue do not go hand in hand.

While the considerations of Islamic solidarity and its role in the OIC inhibit Iran from being more forthright in voicing its views about Pakistan’s support for the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Iranians are concerned at the growing nexus between sectarian extremist groups in Pakistan that regularly target Shias and their places of worship and the Taliban. They recognise that this nexus has led to violence and instability in their Central Asian neighbourhood and even in China.

Iran makes no secret of the fact that it looks forward to working closely with India, Russia and others to prevent the spread of “Wahabi extremism” from Pakistan and the Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan, and to promote peace and reconciliation in that unfortunate country. We need to understand and engage Iran more actively in a shared quest for peace, stability, prosperity and respect for ancient civilisational values, in the years ahead. 

No guilt feelings over aborigine issue
by V. Gangadhar

GUILT feelings. Repentance. Apology. These feelings obviously differ from nation to nation, community to community. It took several decades for Germany to realise the monstrosity of the crimes committed by the Nazi hordes on the Jews. More than six million Jews were killed in the holocaust, yet sections of German people were slow, almost unwilling to realise the magnitude of their crime. Successive West German governments, particularly of more recent times, were troubled by guilt feelings on what their armed forces had done during the war. Today’s average German acknowledges the deep wrongs perpetrated on the Jewish community. Survivors of the holocaust and their families are being financially compensated and the Nazi thugs hiding in other continents are being flushed out and tried. Bare-headed German leaders had stood in silence in front of the graves of the buried war victims and paid homage.

Yet, there are vicious right wing elements in Germany who have no guilt feelings over the holocaust. They are still militantly anti-semitic and go to the extent of desecrating the graves of the Jews. For this lunatic fringe, Adolf Hitler remains a hero. They are committed to preserving the “purity” of the Aryan, Anglo-Saxon race. Unfortunately, such extreme groups do derive support from political groups.

This was not a unique case. Japan, whose war time cruelties could not be forgotten, easily found it very difficult to develop guilt feelings and apologise to nations like China and Korea which it had brutalised during the 1930s. It was only recently that the Japanese leaders, including the Emperor, apologised to these crimes. In the USA, down in the southern states like Mississippi and Alabama, there were no guilt feelings over the activities of racist groups like Ku Klux Klan which was only too ready to beat up and lynch Negroes. Even today, racial extremists take the law in their own hands and commit atrocities on poor Negroes.

Such attitudes are shocking, particularly in view of the vocal human rights record of these civilised, affluent nations. Without setting their own houses in order, these nations make a hue and cry over the violation of human rights in developing nations as well as China. And the most recent example of such an attitude is Australia, which is often described as a land of opportunities and has attracted migrants from the world over.

Recent revelations clearly prove Australia’s shabby human rights record with respect to its natives, the aborigines, who form 2 per cent of the country’s population. It has now come to light that thousands of aborigine children were taken away from their homes between 1971 and 1990 under government policies to provide them with “Western” education and reform them to become members of a civilised, Western society. The children became members of what was called the Stolen Generation.

It was clearly a racist policy. Uprooted from their homes and natural environment, the aborigine children were often ill-treated, sexually abused and made to suffer terrible mental anguish. The abduction policy applied only to those native children who had some “white” blood in them. The truly black aborigine children were not touched, with the government believing that the dwindling numbers of black aborigines would slowly die and fade away from the scene.

The plight of the Stolen Generation has stirred the hearts of a large number of Australians who are embarrassed that the revelations would tarnish the spirit of the Sydney Olympic Games, only a week away. The Australians, fun-loving, beer-drinking and calling one another “Mateys”, have been exposed to the world as the worst type of racists, that too picking on children. Last May, more than two lakh Australians marched in Sydney demanding an apology and adequate compensation to members of the Stolen Generation. The UN Human Rights Commission was highly critical of the Australian government’s inadequate steps to atone for its past actions. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser called for a public apology.

Yet, the guilt feelings were not shared by everyone. Nearly 50 per cent of the Australians still maintain that the past be best burried and there is no need for an apology or to open old wounds. This view is shared by right-wing Prime Minister, Mr Johan Howard, who has refused to apologise. Mr Howard has argued that “Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policy.” Obviously, he fears that the issue of apology may lead to huge compensation claims. Other right-wing Australians are also against paying compensation to the aborigines whom they view as parasites on the state and do not take advantage of the opportunities provided by the country. According to them, state welfare measures aimed at helping natives only create fresh problems and do not benefit them in any way.

This is an extremely short-sighted attitude. How can the aborigines “take advantage” of the opportunities in view of the continuing oppression. For them survival is the first priority. The white settlers have adopted every means to decimate the aboriginals.

The shifting of blame to an earlier generation is a ploy often practised by other governments. German officials had often argued that the present generation in their country has nothing to do with the Nazi atrocities on the Jews and cannot be held responsible for the genocide. In a way, that is true. But that does not remove the stains of guilt. Even the present generation has a duty to study and analyse why and where their predecessors went wrong and make up for their wrongs. This included payment of adequate compensation to the families of the victims.

It would be in the spirit of the Olympic Games if the Australian government publicly apologised for its policies towards the aborigines and paid adequate compensation to the victims. Such a gesture would be worth more than any gold or silver medal claimed by its sportspersons.

Operation “Gentleman”
by Anurag

WHEN a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: Whose? One who thinks that money does everything, will do everything for money, a la el-dorado.com.

Anyway, leave this to the income tax sleuths who are almost through what they black humouredly nicknamed “Operation Gentleman”. An operation it was, long overdue indeed, but gentleman — yes, perhaps one who, lived in George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman.

Mendoza: I am a brigand: I live by robbing the rich.

Tanner: I am a gentleman: I live by robbing the poor.

Yes, by all means, they robbed the gentleman’s game of its thrill and kill. A betrayal of trust. A sacrilege of sorts!

It was Robert Mugabe who wrote in 1984 that cricket civilised people had created good gentlemen, and wanted everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe to build a nation of gentlemen. Time to re-think. The world of willows has come a long way indeed. From sixers to fixers.

History was a lot easier when we were in school. Not only was there less of it, but it seemed to stay put more. The way things are unfolding, I’m afraid, we may have to re-write not only our history textbooks but teenagers’ textbooks too. My cricket-savvy son left me speechless when he thrust in my hands his Hindi text book opened at the chapter “Cricket Ka Jadoogar: Kapil Dev” which concluded.

Cricket ke khel jagat mein Kapil Dev ke yogdaan par khel premiyon ko hee naheen varan sampoorna Bharat ko garva hai. Unhone desh ka yash badhaya aur matha uncha kiya.

(Not only the cricket lovers but the entire country is proud of Kapil’s contribution to the world of cricket. He brought glory to the nation and held her head high). Ashamed, as I hurried to turn the pages over, picture frames of Jhansi-ki-Rani and Sir C.V. Raman stared me in the face, in quick succession. Shall the NCERT, the proud publisher of this class-VI book ‘Saras Bhaarti’, still keep Kapil in league with those legendries?

Distraught, I invoked Rudyard Kipling and set my son singing:

“We’re poor little lambs who’ve lost our way,

Baa!Baa!Baa

We’re little black sheep who have gone astray,

Baa-aa-aa!

Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree,

Damned from here to Eternity,

God ha’ mercy on such as we,

Baa! Yah! Bah!”

Amidst the squalor and stink that pervades the cricket firmament, let’s hope, against hope, that the much talked about administration of strong medicine, may be surgery, shall rescue the benign baby from the blackened bathwater. Have hope in the purgative power of the ongoing churning process. Never despair. Once again, over to Rudyard Kipling:

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

And make allowance for their doubting, too.

Any takers, Gentleman cricketers?

Triumph of spirit over reason
by Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia

MODERN Western civilisation, which mistakenly sought to de-code and locate the mystery of life in the mechanics of matter, is gradually giving way to the postmodern global civilisation of the third millennium. The outgoing civilisation was built on three enlightenment concepts: matter, reason and history. These three terms constituted the trinity of the scientific 'faith', of the godhead of scientism which promised emancipation of humanity and salvation of society here and now, as against redemption of the soul in the world hereafter, earlier covenanted by religious faith.

Self-confident reason claimed that it could fully and absolutely unravel the laws of nature (matter), thereby providing technology for transforming the natural resources into production equated with progress. Such progress was hailed as the key to universal amelioration of man and society.

Modern Western civilisation had postulated that reason not only provides the sole mode of knowing all that is knowable but also constituted the very nature of reality — material, social, human-which accordingly was taken as rational in composition and nature. Kant, for instance, derived the moral sense of man from his supposedly rational nature. Reason went to the extent of implanting itself in the womb of history as its telos, its driving force, toward a pre-set goal. History as such was believed to be following a deterministic course, independent of the actions and wills of human beings; it was taken as pre-programmed to deliver a rational social order realising the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. Liberty was interpreted as release from restraints and constraints. Equality meant treating all individuals as equal, rather than treating all individuals equally. Fraternity implied the universality of human nature — the common rational thread — as the basis for abiding fraternal bonds.

Hegel held that the real was rational and the rational real, meaning thereby that whatever happens, happens by logical, rational necessity; and whatever is logically and rationally necessary must happen sooner or later. Marx substituted the term 'historical' for the logical, the rational, and from this premise delivered the prophetic message that the laws of history — which he claimed to have discovered in the form of class-contradictions-would, with historical necessity and inevitability, result in socialism followed by communism. Such a teleological, deterministic view of history gave rise to the missionary zeal of leftist radical politics with its characteristic categories of 'capital', 'class', 'state', 'mode of production', 'revolution' etc. These categories are no more the "in" things in contemporary political discourse which now is cantered on concepts such as ethnicity; gender; sexuality; consciousness of the marginalised groups; identity politics, the de-centered 'other' who is sceptical of the system as much as of the emancipatory utopias.

It was not simply the Marxian 'God that failed', but more than that the betrayal by the enlightenment trinity of matter, reason, history of its lofty promise of this-worldly emancipation of humanity; of universal progress; of a just and equitious social order, and of autonomy of the individual vis-a-vis the state.

Thus betrayal became evident in the latter half of the 20th century that saw a crisis in the grand narrative of modern Western civilisation based on the trinity of matter, reason and history. The illusion of 'progress' turned out to be a self-delusion. The myth of the inevitability of rational (socialist) order of society stood exploded. The dream of emancipation of humanity through social engineering turned into a nightmarish experience, thanks to the bulldozing totalitarian regimes. The autonomy of the individual the matrix of human rights — was eroded by the overacting nation-state that refused to recognised allegiance of the individual to any other principle-community, religion, ethnicity, etc. Human essence was reduced into existence, and existence digitised into dots. The cleavage between the poor and the rich, between the elite and the marginalised, among the countries as well as within most of the countries, widened day after day. The dialectic of class contradictions gave way to that of ethnic, ethno-religious and ethno-political contradictions in the context of growing tensions between secular nationalism and religious nationalism. The ideal of inter-community accommodation in a composite society stood shattered under the overbearing weight of the state-backed processes of assimilation and homogenisations. Secular evangelism proved itself to be more subtle, more complex and hence more dangerous, than its ancestral 'religious' varieties. Western technology was based on the notion that lifeless, inanimate nature existed for man to be discovered (through laws of nature) and exploited (through ruthless use of natural resources) for his material progress. The end result appears to be not 'progress' percolating down to the lowest levels of society but alarming depletion of natural resources in the absence of sustainable models of growth, and disturbance of ecological balance of nature to a point where even the very existence of life on this plane has become problematic.

The scenario led to the postmodernist 'incredulity towards metanarratives' in the words of Jean Francois Lyotard and to a feeling of betrayal by the very 'universals' that had sustained mankind's hope for about three centuries.

The prophets of doom, then, proclaimed the end of history; the end of (emancipatory) ideologies, the end of the age of ideas and ideals. The pendulum of thought swung from one extreme of teleology of history, causality of matter, and infallibility of reason to the other extreme of contingency, uncertainty and provisionality. But what was forgotten by the vendors of disillusionment was that the collapse of the "universals" was in fact the collapse of a particular outlook which, since the Enlightenment, was absolutised and universalised with an air of finality: the deterministic view of history and the reducity methodology of reason.

The collapse of the grand narrative of modern Western civilisation was, in a sense, the collapse of the metanarrative of reason that occupied centre state of the trinity of scientism.

Paradoxically, the inadequacy of reason was revealed by reason itself, when it encountered elementary particles which refused to behave in a "rational" manner; they refused to disclose their simultaneous position and momentum at any given point of time. W. Heisenberg has sanctified this failure of reason, this "unknowability" of elementary reality, in the form of the principle of indeterminacy. Here was an impasse beyond which reason could not go in its understanding of reality.

In a sense, this impasse of reason was the impasse of the modern Western civilisation. This necessitated a new mode of thinking different from the earlier ones which took reality as a static being, rather than a dynamic becoming. This would not mean a negation of reason but going beyond it to the realm of spirit. it is not spirit dogmatised in religion. It is the spirit which is the very creativity of the Divine, the dynamics of the cosmos, the elan vital of history, the source of values for society, the very essence of human spirit and the matrix of human freedom.

Twinkling of a star; refreshing rays of the rising sun; the first cry of a new-born babe; fragrance of a flower; the amorous touch of virgin love; the frenzied glow on the face of a revolutionary going to the gallows; the wondrous Divine spectacle: these are instances — instantiations — of the spirit. The spirit is an outflowing current, an outpouring of energy, a gushing stream which does not traverse a pre-chartered course within pre-determined bounds. The spirit is a becoming in which novelty, originality, emerges at each moment, new qualities — not pregiven in the parts-evolve that characterise the new wholes. The spirit realises itself not in "things" but in processes and patterns, in relations and linkages, making up organism-like wholes-within-wholes, systems-within-systems, constituting, as such, a network of interconnections from the terrestrial to the transcendental. The old rigid boundaries of the traditional pairs of mind and matter, soul and body, subject and object, etc., melt into fluid wholes-within-wholes, systems-within-system. In contrast to the old reductive — analytic methodology of reason, which peeled off onion-like layers upon layers, "systems-thinking" is emerging as a new mode of knowing reality under categories of 'configuration', 'whole', 'context', 'organism', etc. In other words, system-thinking is the way of knowing reality qua spirit. For instance, today mind and body are treated, whether in psychology or biology, as an integral whole of relations which cannot be separated into the mental and bodily compartments.

The notion of spirit, it appears, would be the foundational principle of the global civilisation of the third millennium analogous to the way in which reason was the foundational postulate of the modern Western civilisation.

The writer is Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Whosoever comes to Me in whatsoever form, I reach him; they are all struggling through paths that in the end always lead to Me.

—The Bhagavad Gita, IV, 11

***

Every liberated person is like a physician. Out of compassion, he gives a prescription advising people how to free themselves of suffering. If people develop blind faith in that person, they turn the prescription into a scripture and start fighting with other sects, claiming that the teaching of the founder of their religion is superior. But no one cares to practice the teaching, to take the medicine prescribed in order to eliminate the remedy.

— William Hart, The Art of Living

***

No penance matches truth,

No contemplation matches love;

No means excel Satsang in securing blessedness.

Recount the truth in mind,

Let the truth be your wealth;

It is faith in truth which

removes delusion,n says Mangat.

— Mahatma Mangat Ram, Samata Prakash

***

When seeds are sown, it is not sure that all of them would sprout. Yet a farmer sows, knowing that some would. Similarly, saints and sages have been spreading the message of Truth in the hope that some would heed.

— Baba Hardev Singh, Gems of Truth

***

Truth and oil always come to the surface

— Spanish proverb

***

Whatever satisfies the soul is Truth.

— Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Preface

***

There are many kinds of eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes — therefore, there must be many kinds of "truths" and consequently, there can be no truth.

—Friedrich Neitzsche, The Will to Power

***

All necessary truth is its own evidence.

— Emerson, Journals

***

We know the Truth not only by the reason but also by the heart.

— Pascal, Pensees, 10.1