Probably what liberals in India (and possibly in US) are missing….

Cable networks in India run a dedicated channel to broadcast Narendra Modi’s interviews and his campaign run up to the Loksabha Elections, supreme court does not find his mention of Armed forces in political canvassing inappropriate, all his promises from past election like job creation, reduction in black money and growth have receded among the infernal din of his national security rhetoric, political jibes and another set of lofty promises. His party has declined to make the list of its source of funds public – despite strong push on transparency and accountability.

And yet he continues to enjoy soaring popularity among Indian voters - at least for now. This popularity of a hard-liner candidate is not a stand-alone case in democracies around the world today. Flag-bearer of democracy, United States too, has its own Narendra Modi in form of its current president Donald Trump! Israel recently re-elected a leader with similar traits and Brazil too elected a strongman in Jair Bolsonaro.

There are Indians who find Modi annoying, obnoxious and even fascist. They portray him as a threat to India’s democracy and constitution. They shout at the top of their voices against him, try to engage in debate, debunk the lies of the government, appeal to people’s reason and hope that they would be able to somehow change people’s mind about him. It is important to realize that people have chosen these leaders for a reason and first step in defeating or moderating the hardliner at the helm is to defeat the hardliner within us. We must remember that Modi or any hardliner leader is not a problem, he is a symptom of a problem that plagues majority of the people. Simply exposing the problems with his leadership is rather narrow a goal that reduces national issues and priorities and ultimately harms the nation.  

For example – we see widespread criticism of terrorism in Kashmir, but hardly see any effort on integrating Kashmiri youth with the rest of the India, we debate vigorously of widening wealth inequality but hardly focus on giving our children more equitable life experiences, we complaint of increasing intolerance but don’t branch far out and consciously make diverse connections. All these and many other participatory actions can be taken around the year – not just at the time of elections.

The process of globalization and economic growth has now become a fatal combination of rising expectations and reducing opportunities – therefore it is natural for anyone with or without resources to act conservatively about them. This situation leads to the popular political slogans of India (Any other country) first. The only way around this tightening noose of hardline leadership is to work towards increasing education, enriching diversity and expanding the understanding of economic growth.  Practicing and spreading simplicity can also go a long way, not just from economic but also from environmental perspective.  

This road is long – and it may take a long time before we may see any result – but it is worth walking on it.

Tolerance is not same as temperature

Tolerance is not same as temperature – there is no ready, reliable or consistent measurement for it. This immeasurability, and consequent subjectivity is central to the current debate surrounding the issue. One of the most eminent and successful Bollywood star made a public remark that sparked a wildfire among Indian Internet users and like many such debates on internet – this one too seems to be going down a rat hole.

In paragraphs that follow, there is an attempt to view this episode from a slightly different perspective.

Tolerance is very contextual, for example our tolerance to hot water while taking shower is different during different seasons. Similarly, in a society there are bound to be times when public opinion could be more tolerant than other times.  Not only with respect to time, public opinion also changes based on subjects, themes, circumstances and backdrops – it is possible that a society has more tolerance towards love marriages than same sex marriages.

Tolerance is also an evolving phenomenon – and many factors shape it continuously. A classic example of this is changing tolerance levels for issues like climate change and corruption – with increased awareness of energy crisis, our tolerance to problems effecting environment reduces, similarly as people become more aware of their own rights, their tolerance to corruption also reduces. Both these examples are, of course a welcome change. A point to note here is that by itself, reduction or increase in tolerance level cannot be an indicative of type, it has to be placed in context of subject – one at a time.  Direct verdict of either tolerant or intolerant is akin to saying someone scored 100/100 - but not knowing in which subject/field. J

Besides being contextual and evolving, tolerance is also impacted by resources available at hand. For example, if the domestic help becomes extremely costly from tomorrow – then certain outsourced chores may have to either done on one’s own or ignored – in both cases, cleanliness and orderliness of household chores may reduce – and tolerance for that will need to be increased or adjusted. J

If one were to look at an example of national level, it can be said that for a developing nation if literacy holds higher priority than space research – then tolerance towards illiteracy should be lower as compared to tolerance towards moderate or low advancement in space research. And as country’s demographics change, objectives evolve these priorities may undergo changes too.

Now that we know above points on tolerance, it makes sense to check the environment in light of these points with reference to India

1.        What are the areas where we, as a country have shown volatile approach with respect to tolerance? – besides our tolerance of Indian cricket team which changes in direct correlation with their wins/losses
2.        What are the areas where tolerance has evolved over last few years, may be generations. What are the things that our parents had to do with permission from their parents but we do it today at our free-will?
3.        What are the areas where tolerance level of society directly impacts our daily life, how much the corruption in road construction impact the price of milk we buy everyday? Are the priorities of our nation in right order – if something pressing is missing, we may want to enquire and re-align.

The fact that we are a vibrant and fully functioning democracy, is itself the biggest achievement of overall tolerance, ability to debate, reason and argue. We must treasure, protect and enhance it. Think on above three points and share your thoughts with friends,relatives and me. 

As for Aamir Khan, the expression of his spouse is not a very well-thought I believe, it is similar to an exhausted, tired and a little bit resigned feeling we all get on soupy Sunday afternoons where we think that perhaps going to some other place might be the answer to all questions we are grappling with. As almost everyone knows, going somewhere else is never an answer. In hindsight, perhaps it could be said/interpreted and circulated a bit more maturity.

And still, let’s, for a moment, suppose Aamir really wanted to leave – then let’s be sport and suggest some good countries, rather than vehement and childish demands of sending him to specific troubled countries. J

My suggestion would be Bhutan, What’s yours? 

The Teacher - An Excerpt from a Book

A remarkable school teacher

Some times of an evening you might chance to see a frail-looking man, short and short sighted, in a black coat and with a prodigious head, walking along the oval pathway. He is a nation builder,- he has helped to educate two generations. He must still be coming back into the memories of thousands who have forgotten all that they set out to learn at school.

Life has not given Nusserwanji P. Pavri his meed of reward, but that has not dulled the edge of his cheerful debonair spirit. He evidently believes that Dante was right in condemning to Stygian marsh those who had been sad under the blessed sunlight. With all his sure and enormous erudition, he is Modesty in person. He has not produced any book. The result of his labour is not so many hundred pages but himself. The issue of his sustained mental effort is not a volume but a man; it could not be embodied in print, it consists in the living word.

Nusserwanji is a quiet man, not to be easily ruffled or rattled. Patience is an instinct with him. He has the simplicity of the man in Dostoevsky’s Brother’s Karamazov who used to ask the birds to forgive him.

He brought the human touch in the lessons; - it was always a lesson never a lecture. When Nusserwanji taught history facts were brought to life, the dry bones of history stirred, the ages began to masquerade. He conjured up before you the fog at Lutzen and the snow at Towton, the shower of rain that led to the American revolution, and the severe winter of 1788 that produced the famine of 1789 and thereby the French upheaval. You saw Brutus, the norm of republican virtue, extorting 48% interest from a wretched Cypriote community; you saw the lights burning low in the skies and the stage darkens in the middle ages; you heard the din of toppling thrones and the crashing of empires during the first world conflagration.

And never did his vision dim, his grasp weaken or his memory fail.

His learning does not consist merely in the stock of facts – the merit of a dictionary – but the discerning spirit, the power of appreciation and that of comparative criticism. Knowledge is to Nusserwanji the bread of life. He reads as if he were to live forever, even as if he were to die the next day. He inoculated his students with his own thirst for knowledge. He was a precision and a martinet in discipline. To him knowledge could no more be aquired without high seriousness than a symphony could be rendered upon the flute.

Punctuality was with him a passion. You could set your watch, correct to half a minute, by the time he came into the class. His private library was at the disposal of all his pupils, and so were his time and learning. There never was a man more generous in encouragement or gentler in reproach. By personal contact with him you not only learnt something, you became something. Contact with him moulded your character and taught you, in the most impressionable years of your life, to beware of ideas half-hatched and convictions reared by accidents. Only thoroughly good man could be so great a teacher as Nusserwanji indubitably was.

He was unerring in his acumen to scent the latent ability in a student. In that great tempest of terror which swept over France in 1973, a certain man who was every hour expecting to be led off to the guillotine, uttered this memorable sentiment:

“Even at this incomprehensible moment, when morality, enlightenment, love of country, all of them only make death at the prison door or on the scaffold more certain, - yes, on the fatal tumbril itself, with nothing free but my voice, I could still cry Take care to a child that should come too near to the wheel; perhaps I may save his life, perhaps he may one day save his country.” Nusserwanji had this large and inspiring belief in the potentialities of a Kid. He was personally and vitally interested in the progress and career of all his pupils.

Many other things could be related about Nusserwanji from the wide leaved book of memories. The associations of travel fade the incidents of life press so closely one upon another that each in turn is trampled under foot, but one’s associations with a teacher like Nusserwanji remain forever unchanged. He has now retired but the energy of his educational service remains. This soothing thought must have opened a larger meaning and a higher purpose to his daily work. His personal influence has not fallen silent. His pupils will long feel the presence of his character about them, making them ashamed of what is indolent or selfish and encouraging them to all disinterested labour both in trying to do good and in trying to find out what the good is.