Perspectives of Nation Building
For last couple of weeks… I was caught up in much of a debate with my fellow mates at BHUMI and few others who knew about Freedom Under Construction.
The discussions was mainly around points raised by my dearest friend Rakesh Dubbudu, An ardent RTI Activist (you read about his work in newspapers once almost every couple of months) and one of founding members of BHUMI. He raised simple and most valid questions that every citizen need to think on...Plenty of discussions already on the facebook page). One question that struck me was…
Why are we doing things that Govt. is supposed to do?
Here is my attempt NOT to answer the question… but just wish to express my thoughts on them...
Are we supposed to do them? Govt. is supposed to do in first place; we need to remind the responsible authority and get things done. NGO’s just do all the work that Govt. is supposed to do… (NGO’s I mean all those emphatic people who take up activities feeling sorry about the situation)
The questions were very appropriate and sound logical to me… and so I dwelled on question, why do NGO’s and an altogether a parallel framework exist? Is there really a need for us (citizens) to take up activities that Govt. is supposed to do but not doing?
The viewpoints though looked contradictory; both converge at one thing - “Call for action!”.
They seemed to be just different schools of thought
Is it a debate to find out which action is right or wrong, which way will get you sustainable results/ which one will quick results… I feel it is inappropriate. Everybody is contributing whatever they feel is best and in the right spirit, and every effort is needed. Right or wrong is just a perspective relative to the reference of time & circumstances axis. People view it from different coordinates and so have different perspective images. :)
Looking through our past, our freedom struggle… is it Gandhi’s non-violence movement that brought us freedom or is it activism of Azad and Bose… it’s difficult to say, and it’s even difficult to measure. Definitely a combination of every effort put in various forms for about 100 years resulted in freedom from British.
If you find a robber in your home… What should you do? Call police/ fight yourself / Shout for help/ leave him to rob (else he will harm you) and take action later? I can’t say… but I am sure... you will do whatever you feel appropriate at that point of time. That's it all about.
I feel it’s not worth to discuss which way is right… It like asking which cell in your body is keeping you alive? Cells take birth, do the duty they are supposed to do and die, and new cells take birth… they evolve and that’s how they made you man from a monkey. That was a result of each cell’s feeling to evolve as something better. The question, “which is better, monkey or man?” can again attract different perspectives and debate… fact is that they co-exist. Every cell wants to evolve to better, so do every human, and that’s how a nation is formed.
The most appreciative thing in both kinds of people is they were the people who wanted to TAKE ACTION in whatever way seemed appropriate to them. And that’s what makes the difference!
The discussions was mainly around points raised by my dearest friend Rakesh Dubbudu, An ardent RTI Activist (you read about his work in newspapers once almost every couple of months) and one of founding members of BHUMI. He raised simple and most valid questions that every citizen need to think on...Plenty of discussions already on the facebook page). One question that struck me was…
Why are we doing things that Govt. is supposed to do?
Here is my attempt NOT to answer the question… but just wish to express my thoughts on them...
Are we supposed to do them? Govt. is supposed to do in first place; we need to remind the responsible authority and get things done. NGO’s just do all the work that Govt. is supposed to do… (NGO’s I mean all those emphatic people who take up activities feeling sorry about the situation)
The questions were very appropriate and sound logical to me… and so I dwelled on question, why do NGO’s and an altogether a parallel framework exist? Is there really a need for us (citizens) to take up activities that Govt. is supposed to do but not doing?
The viewpoints though looked contradictory; both converge at one thing - “Call for action!”.
They seemed to be just different schools of thought
- Some take up protest, show the authority elected what they need to do and get things done.
- Some work on them as much as they can without any direct protest… but taking as little help they can get from people who are supposed to do.
Is it a debate to find out which action is right or wrong, which way will get you sustainable results/ which one will quick results… I feel it is inappropriate. Everybody is contributing whatever they feel is best and in the right spirit, and every effort is needed. Right or wrong is just a perspective relative to the reference of time & circumstances axis. People view it from different coordinates and so have different perspective images. :)
Looking through our past, our freedom struggle… is it Gandhi’s non-violence movement that brought us freedom or is it activism of Azad and Bose… it’s difficult to say, and it’s even difficult to measure. Definitely a combination of every effort put in various forms for about 100 years resulted in freedom from British.
If you find a robber in your home… What should you do? Call police/ fight yourself / Shout for help/ leave him to rob (else he will harm you) and take action later? I can’t say… but I am sure... you will do whatever you feel appropriate at that point of time. That's it all about.
I feel it’s not worth to discuss which way is right… It like asking which cell in your body is keeping you alive? Cells take birth, do the duty they are supposed to do and die, and new cells take birth… they evolve and that’s how they made you man from a monkey. That was a result of each cell’s feeling to evolve as something better. The question, “which is better, monkey or man?” can again attract different perspectives and debate… fact is that they co-exist. Every cell wants to evolve to better, so do every human, and that’s how a nation is formed.
The most appreciative thing in both kinds of people is they were the people who wanted to TAKE ACTION in whatever way seemed appropriate to them. And that’s what makes the difference!
You are not considering all the necessary information to conclude which one is right or what path to take. I was thinking about the same system that you discussed about - the two different paths of social activism in order to make the difference and bring in the change in the society and our lives.
ReplyDeleteGovernment, as I see it, defines the framework and operates in it, while at the same time providing the basic necessary services. In that sense, it is almost similar to an operating system. Now there are few important features that one would expect from an OS, like it is secure, standardized and unbiased to user apps. In a similar fashion, we expect that the Govt takes care of poor people and also provides us with services like sewerage, water supply, etc.,
Social activists are the ones who fight against the govt and make sure that it delivers what it is promising. There are few services that we cannot replace what govt is providing, because they are already charging us hell lot of money in terms of taxes to provide the services and they OWN the infrastructure to provide such services. For ex., water supply or sewerage or right to license to private companies. I don't see any NGO providing such services. The only way to ensure availability and accessibility for such services to everyone is to make sure that we fight for it.
The other services like free health services to poor or free education are something that others can help govt with. It's not a parallel framework. It is similar to installing anti-virus software on your PC. You would expect that your PC will be secure at the OS level itself. But in case it does not, you can always install anti-virus apps, just like you can install any other app. Organizations in a society are similar to apps on your PC. Govt is like OS. One cannot expect everything from OS. It's apps that provide services and enrich our life.
Said that, in future, I see the range of services that Govt provides to be very very limited. As the society's overall awareness increases, and with the advent of technology, we don't really need political class anymore. If society as a whole is capable of taking decisions for themselves with the aid of technology, we don't really need representatives to take decisions on behalf of us. All the basic services can be outsourced and major decisions can be taken based on the referendum. True power to people.
In the end - I would like to make it a point as how people tend to overlook the importance of other services in our society. Not everything that we use or make our lives comfortable are provided by Govt. It's not just social activism that runs the country and society. There is an element of commercial and know-how services that are as important, if not more. The society runs on contract based approach. We contracted set of services to govt officials and expect that they deliver on it, and we, as a responsible citizens of the society, are working on to aid the society in whatever way [technical/engg/etc.,] we could. Now if the other side is not delivering on their contract, and we do what they are supposed to do, we will be breaking on our own contract that we promised to deliver. Successful society is one where each and every one who is part of it understands their purpose and try to deliver the best they could. And a successful framework is the one that ensures that people's aspirations match their deliverables. That's why capitalism is so successful...
Just to add to my support - none of the services provided by Govt are free. If someone is getting it free, someone else is paying for it. We Indians put too much emphasis on Govt. Most probably because Govt has built the framework to revolve around itself. An ideal society is like a monolithic kernel where Govt is indistinguishable from the other organizations in the society. Powerful govt is as threatening as any other powerful organization. So we should focus on building organizations that do what they do best. Mass media and mobile communications brought in more awareness in society than any single social activist or organization. I hope you get the point.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the insights Hari, they are really nice.
ReplyDeletefor something that you started with..
"You are not considering all the necessary information to conclude which one is right or what path to take."
Actually what i wanted to convey is it is not really worth to discuss which path is right... everyone is free to choose their path and we need to fight to say which is right or wrong.
Paresh, I am not denying what you said in your blog. You can look at my comments as addendum to your blog post. I am just trying to put up a different view of the social organizations and the change they promise to bring in.
ReplyDeleteWhen I said -
"You are not considering all the necessary information to conclude which one is right or what path to take."
I did not mean that you actually concluded in support of any of the ways. I am just trying to get deeper into the decision making process and the whole "Change this world" notion. In a sense, I am supporting what your blog post concluded.
yea i get that...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments :)