What is modernity,
or modern civilization? It is not a thing or substance. It is a way
of believing, thinking, and acting which is now consuming the whole
modern world.
Modernity is based
upon western civilizational thought and behaviour. Its main
characteristics are:
1. An economic
system based on the thoughts and theories of Adam Smith who
said that a greedy pursuit of making money by
everybody is needed in society.
2. A social system
based on the thoughts and theories of Charles Darwin, who said 'only
the fittest shall survive', and therefore, life is a constant
struggle; each one has to fight others for superiority.
3. A science system
based on measurement and quantification; i.e. what can be measured by
man exists, what cannot be measured by man does not exist.
Such a way of
believing, thinking, and acting is modernity, or modern civilization.
We may not be aware of it, but if one looks at one's own environment,
we can see that this is evident in all our endeavours. Look at our
schools. We send our children to school so that they can be made
ready 'for the market', to get money, to fight for success. Values
and ethics are not measurable, and therefore ignored - this builds
their 'scientific temperament'. The same is true of our office jobs,
of our bureaucracy, of business and of the political system itself -
all these we have directly copied from English civilization. In each
of these, the system is designed to increase insecurity, not lessen
it. Greed for reward is used for survival and growth. One fights
others so as to get ahead. And the only measurement is of things
material - sales, profits and personal gain.
1. Fear and Greed
are undesirable.
2. Society be
harmonious such that it helps man know himself, so that he rises
above greed and fear.
3. The soul, which
cannot be measured, is far more important than the body. Peace and
happiness, which cannot be measured and quantified, are more
important than creature comforts and possessions.
Such a way of
believing, thinking, and acting would constitute the Indian way of
living.
We can see now that
based upon these two sets of foundational thinking, the form and
structure of society would develop along vastly different lines.
In modern
civilization, a greed-based economy implies big and powerful
businesses. Millions of people are naukars or employees.
Everyone is constantly hungry. There are no limits to growth. Any
activity making money is justified, even anti-health, anti-peace,
anti-environment activities.
In Indian
civilization, a need-based economy implies self-sufficiency.
Self-sufficiency propels self-employment and local entrepreunership.
The aim would be to produce most goods needed within the community
itself, for itself, and not for global domination. Producers and
consumers live together, so there would be no economic activity which
is socially or environmentally disruptive.
So we can see that
both models have economic systems of production and exchange, but
they will be different. This will also be reflected in their social
rules of behaviour. In modern civilization, it is each man for
himself; society is a collection of separate individuals, each of
whom has 'rights' to collect property and materials, according to
individual goals. Whereas in the community model, society or
community is a collection of producing families. Every person has
duties and responsibilities, for the goal of common good.
If one goes to the
very core, the difference in the two models is that systems of modern
civilization are based on the pleasure of the body, which is why it
has been called materialism; the needs of the body are only material.
Whereas Indian civilization is spiritualism; it is based upon needs
of the soul, which are peace and happiness. These are two different
world-views, ways of perceiving the world, and we have to be clear
about what we are. If we indeed are following the western,
materialistic model, are we aware of it, is there a national
consensus on it? Going this route means we are preparing for large
scale destruction of village communities and natural resources, and
creating an insecure, greedy and violent society. I think many of us
are making a great mistake in assuming that we can use the modern
civilizational model and still achieve the goals of Indian
civilization. That this is a blunder can be seen in our
experimentation of the last 65 years, and especially of the last 20
years. An unthinking copying of the English followed by a foolish
copying of the Americans has created great turmoil in the nation. We
have a political and business elite which is ugly in its greed and
grab role, and we have an academic and scientific elite which is
fearful and pitiable in its chamcha role. We are less happy,
less generous, and more insecure and more violent than we were in
1947.
The reason is that
modern civilizational society has the desire and spirit of
colonisation, which is exploitation of others for personal profit.
Modern democracy must be seen in this light; it is the political
vehicle to achieve the commercial ends of a ruling elite.
Parliaments, therefore, have become pawns of business corporations.
If we desire the qualities of the asura, it will be foolish to
hope for a society full of devas.
So what can we do
now? In India, we have seen traditional Indian society develop over
two thousand years. It is not difficult at all for us to strengthen
that if we wanted to. This is not to say that we have to live in the
image of the past. We can give full wings to our creativity,
enterprise and energy using the achievements of the contemporary age.
The important point is the decision about which model we want as the
basis for our socio-economic systems. We have listed the points at
the beginning, please see them again and decide which would you want
as the basis for a society for your children and grand children. Also
remember that even though we are now copying the modern model, more
than 80 per cent of India is still Bharat, with a traditional
structure conducive to our way of civilizational thinking. I know
that the ten per cent of English-speaking urban elite may find what I
have said here somewhat unusual, but that is because they have lost
touch with Bharat. This is not their fault, that's the way our
society has panned out. This is one reason this blog is in English,
and posted on the internet - it is addressed to this ten per cent who
are today's elite, or rather, trapped as today's elite in India. They
deserve to know the whole truth, the fundamentals of where we are
standing, and where we are headed.
If indeed we want a
society where the objective of the education and development of man
is to attain a state of peace and happiness in a harmonious society,
it is in our hands to build such a society. Its key words will be
sustainable communities.
What is this concept
of community? It will be worth exploring this next.