THE MAN WITHOUT SORROWS:RETRACING INDIA’S FORGOTTEN PAST

             

                  Being the land where multiple religions –founders lived; does anyone of you believe that there exists a total utopian religious serenity in India, the presumed ‘lighthouse of the world’? Leave the present, do you believe such things existed in ancient India? You must surely have heard someone speaking of a grand ancient India where everything was perfect. Well then, here is the true tale of religious intolerance, vandalism and 'communalism' in ancient India, the land of god and god men (and god women too!).

                  Among her 121 billion humans, how many knows the fact that the most prosperous golden age of India was Buddhist and not Hindu-based?

The misconception that Hinduism glorified ancient India is dangerously and extensively used today for many purposes; from the election campaigns of right wing Hinduism-based parties to the spreading of a Hindu version of jihad by fanatics is quite, what you say…… ya, LOL!

                 Chandragupta Maurya, India’s first grand empire builder, though born as a Hindu, lived and died as a true Jain follower.Asoka, India’s first super emperor lived and died as a staunch Buddhist.Then how can someone today say that India is a Hindu nation, right from the ancient times of grand rulers and that all others are mere refugees?

                 Luckily, not all have forgotten Buddhism’s gift to ancient India .They repaid a bit of it, at least the forerunners of a free India who choose Buddha’s DHARMACHAKRA as the coat of arms in India’s national flag and the four faced lion capital of Asoka as the national insignia. Ah! At least the simple interest is paid back. 

               And when you talk about India’s past, a distant past where time is not yet a metaphor, you cannot skip the tales of Emperor Asoka, the greatest of them all. And that’s what this book is about, recounting the lost tales of Asoka.

           Can you simply believe that almost 2000 years before mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela Or Martin Luther King Jr., there once lived a great human, that too a powerful emperor, who preached the idea of universal brotherhood, total peace and religious equality, considering all the subjects of his empire equal irrespective of their caste, creed, religion or financial background? Just know that his Chinese, Arab, African and Greek contemporaries were behaving savagely, tearing each other to pieces.

           Charles Allen, employing various solid examples prove how Asoka (literally a man without sorrows) also known as ‘DEVANAMAPRIYAPRIYADASI’ in his edicts, qualifies to become history’s first emperor to build his empire solely upon the basis of religious unity and peace rather than continuous battles.

          To know his greatness, just think how many rulers of the world after him had achieved total religious unity within their empires or kingdoms? Even now, is it happening in any of your countries? Maybe, if you are from the Vatican or the Arabian Peninsula.

            Historical records show us that after the battle of kalinga, his empire almost doubled in size. After that battle, he converted into Buddhism and then he never fought or ordered any war in all his remaining life. Yet, never did the sovereignty of his empire weaken. He even had strong political and religious ties established with the kingdom of Tamrapani (modern day Sri Lanka).

           So if any one of you need to know the actual history of the Indian subcontinent, then go for this book, which recounts how jealous aristocratic Hindu pundits were and how they erased off India’s golden Buddhist history, to claim a Hindu based utopia (to such an extent that people of  the 17^th and 18^th century believed that the Ashokan pillars were the walking sticks of Bhīma, a central character in the epic Mahabharata!!!)

IDEAL EDUCATION SYSTEMS OF TODAY, WAIT, IS IT?

                   Accidentally and fortunately, I came across two different stories, about a same theme, on a single day, in two different books (one actually my graduation guide!), on a long train journey. They eventually made me a social thinker, and later a social activist.

            One among them is a chapter from Gandhiji’s autobiography-‘My Experiments With Truth’, titled ‘As School Master’, the other a small play by a Hungarian Fritz karinthy.

 

         Coincidence or not both of them have a lot of similarities, though they preach ideas that are at two different poles. Both were written by contemporary writers, Gandhiji who lived from 1869 to 1948 and karinthy who lived during 1887-1938.the former wrote initially in Gujarati and was translated into English later. Karinthy’s play was also initially in his mother tongue Hungarian and later translated to English. But the main part is, both are centered on the theme of educational systems, with Gandhiji demonstrating an ideal system and karinthy criticizing the modern concept of education.

        ‘As Schoolmaster’ depicts how the ancient and traditional gurukula system of education is still feasible (at least in countries with low populations, especially some third world countries). He preaches the idea that every child gets true form of education from his/her home. In his ideas, the teacher should take all his students under one roof and teach them many things (whatever he knows) for a specified period of time.

Unfortunately this form of education is not possible in many ‘ultramodern-junkie’ nations of today. But at least some countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America can benefit from such form of education, were children generally being illiterate soon takes to illegal affairs  like drug trafficking.

      As for karinthy’s play, the modern and conventional mode of education only instills knowledge into a child, most of them being useless and impractical in daily life. Almost all students turn into a selfish, cold and heartless adult, just to survive the unending competition with their peers. They are not taught to be practical. THEY JUST SURVIVE THEIR LIFE, NOT LIVE THEIR LIFE. 

          Here is a small extract from that play which perfectly depicts the true absurdity of our educational systems:

           The mathematics master:” …… if we represent the speed of light by X and the distance of the star Sirius from the sun by Y, what is the circumference of the 109 sided regular polyhedron whose surface coincides with that of the hip pocket of a state railway employee whose wife has been cheating him for 2 years and 11 months with a regimental major of Hussars?”

The wasserkopf (student):”of course, I know it, naturally, I know it. I’ll tell you. Two thousand six hundred and twenty-nine liters! Exact. And no fractions.”

The mathematics master:”No, the answer is wrong .the correct answer is 2688 liters, not 2669!”

WOW! A Perfect student and A perfect teacher!

              So, the question of the moment is, are schools and universities across our  planet sending out creatures every year that stands on two legs with a huge brain on top, but no heart? Are we creating a future filled with human machines to counter the computers? Is that what you really mean by ‘ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE’?.............................Food for thought!

WAR IN ART AND LITERATURE: LINKING ‘GUERNICA’ AND ‘ANTHEM FOR THE DOOMED YOUTH’

'GUERNICA:THE PAINTING'

                 Wars, especially the world wars, had been the central theme of many paintings, poems, short stories and novels of all languages and all nationalities throughout the 20^th century.Among them, what struck me the most is “GUERNICA’ by Pablo Picasso and ‘ANTHEM FOR THE DOOMED YOUTH’, a poem by Wilfred Owen.Both the works expresses extreme hatred for war, which reflects the disturbed mental state of their respective creators.

              While ‘Guernica’ conveys the message in a harsh tone, ‘Anthem For Doomed Youth’ dwells in a melancholy reflective mood, a helplessness.

   The opening lines of the poem:

          “What passing bells for those who die as cattle,

            Only the monstrous anger of the guns.”

 Shows the total uselessness of wars and its victims, who dies without any specified reasons.

           Similar is the staging of Guernica. The work was Picasso’s reaction to the aerial bombing and mass destruction of Guernica, a Spanish town by the Italian fascist in 1937. Picasso skillfully managed to blend Christian iconography with Spanish folk culture, showing the impact of war on all the spheres of the victimized society. The painting portrays a helpless women rushing from a building, her arms thrown wide. Agonized heads and arms emerge from the war wreckage .in the leftmost corner, a mother holding a dead infant looks upward, screaming with unbearable anguish. The invincible bull above her head (the pagan mythological creature Minotaur) symbolizes the heartless fascist, enjoying the unfolding scene of destruction from above.

The dying horse drawn from the bullfight depicts the torment of the Spanish race. The oil lamp held high shows their resistance against the forces of fascism, which in turn is metaphorically represented as a mechanized eye whose iris is actually an electric bulb.

WILFRED OWEN

         Thus, the actively expressed horrors of war in Guernica equate the actively represented agony of war in Owens’s poem, since agony, horror and hatred are all the natural reaction to a devastating war. 

          Wilfred Owen ones declared” My subject is war and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity.”A parallel conclusion can also be drawn out of Guernica: "Its inspiration is war and the horrors of war. The theme lies in the horrors of it!"

 

         Though Guernica directly portrays the horrors of the aerial bombing and its immediate effect on people and Owens’s poem exposes the meaninglessness of funerals prepared for a dead soldier, both works are alike, by revealing the true realities of meaningless wars, especially the world wars to the world. The painting portrays the agony of humanity torn between life and death whereas the poem ‘Anthem For The Doomed Youth’ represents the useless deaths of myriad soldiers through useless wars. 

     Though almost a century after their completion, both the works of human imagination continue to inspire and fascinate thousands around the world –especially Guernica, since a painting doesn’t need the tools of any language to communicate!