BLIND FAITH: A MAJOR LIABILITY FOR INDIA!

 

BLIND FAITH: A MAJOR LIABILITY FOR INDIA!

Dr M. D. Thomas

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Faith per se, without doubt, is a good thing and human lives spin around its different aspects, for the most part. From a holistic angle, some sort of faith is inevitable for life, too. All the same, when it is naïve and uncritical, it is liable to become blind. Blind faith, may it be in God or in human beings, makes one visually impaired and unsighted in life. One becomes intellectually, emotionally and spiritually impaired, as well. Thinking comes to a standstill and all sorts of quotient, i, e, s and others, prove dysfunctional then. Manifestly, blind faith is truly horrific and is a major and multifaceted liability in life. Like bad cholesterol, it is bound to turn out to be a pathological case in life, next to incapable of being treated.     

This large country called India has an abundance of faith in it, rightly or wrongly. Lots of myths, rituals, superstitions, conventions and habits consume the lions-share of the time, energy and resources of most of its citizens, shockingly so. The degree and gravity vary according to the level of growth in the respective individual or the general framework of the religious tradition he or she is affiliated to. But, followers of all of religions are invariably victims of this phenomenon. The way Indians engage themselves, very interestedly and generously so, in the world of religious beliefs and practices, even to very silly proportions, I don’t think, people of other countries, especially of developed nations, will be able to imagine the logic of it. No wonder, India is truly an incredible country of faith, good and bad!    

That is why Justice Markanday Katju, who was Chairman of the Press Council of India, contended, ‘ninety per cent of Indians are ‘idiots’. They don’t have brains in their heads. It is so easy to take them for a ride. They can easily be misled by mischievous elements in the name of religion’. This is a ground-breaking and a very revealing reading of the Indian society made by Justice Katju. This scanning applies to politics, as well. To take the argument further, one could lower the percentage up to eighty per cent, in a gesture of being generous. Even if a great soul wants to be bighearted like anything, he or she wouldn’t go below seventy per cent. But, even seventy per cent, which could make a distinction on the positive side, when reversed in terms of idiocy is an out-and-out disaster for a country. The distinctive idiocy of the Indians is notably blind faith, may it be in the custodians of divine power or in the icons of human power. If blind faith becomes the attribute of a civilization or a country, I suppose, it is a matter of grave concern.          

There is a lot of discussion, perhaps too much, about development in India. But, ninety five if not ninety nine per cent of the devices of development are imported and are products of non-Indian brain. Naming the items is manifestly superfluous. Even Indian classical music, which is a brilliant thing, is organized, systematized and developed after the non-Indian brain. Indians are by and large incredible for copying, duplicating or aping, so much so that local editions of overseas brands are available profusely at cheaper rates. Even in copying, intelligent and honest copying is yet perhaps a major deficit. Be that as it may, Indians are street-smart at attacking the Europeans, as indicated by the dictum ‘you taught me English, now I know how to abuse you’. Most of the constructions of post British period have either collapsed or is under caution, while several of the British constructions are still strong. Despite everything, Indians are not behind anyone in taking credit, even when it is totally unmerited and unauthorized. These are the natural outcomes and different faces of the tragic blind faith that blocks any sort of innovation. 

The two major sectors that largely blind, enslave and munch through most of the ‘faith-full’ Indians are religion and politics. Both areas play with power, the former with the internal forum more and the latter with the external forum more. Either aspect affects the other and is ever ready to support the other, despite the Constitutional mandate of secularism. The custodians of the religious power tend to play God for the believers and in the name of God exert a thorough grip over their mind, not only as regards their temporary sojourn in this world, but also as to that beyond. The caretakers of the political power easily get obsessed with the muscle of the world, though was democratically built up, present themselves as demi-God, impose fear on the citizenry arbitrarily and thoroughly rule over them. When both religion and politics combine, to whatever degree, the most unholy things of the world can happen to any populace. On top, when the general public is characterized by blind faith, it doesn’t need a mention that guardians in both religious and political segments effortlessly domesticate the believers, to their optimum advantage.               

India is legendary as a religious country, par excellence, world over as well as in India. But, if it is really so, how could India be so notorious for the scarcity of ethics and law-abiding? Rarely there is a sense of time, even in universities and high offices. The number of lies being spoken in daily lives, even in public places, to the extent of breaking the world records, would shock anyone. The huge hand-outs of gold, silver and cash at temples and other places of worship often expose the disturbed conscience due to corrupt earnings as well as the human greed to grab more from God. The risky pilgrimages, the worrisome fasts and the expensive rituals do not seem to trigger off any change of heart in the so called believers. What’s more, the high per cent of discrimination on the basis of gender, caste, region, religion, language, ideology, food habits, dress patterns and social conventions, along with the alarming gap between the rich and the poor as well as the mainstream and the margins smacks of a Himalayan bankruptcy of the real result of faith. If this is mostly the picture of the religious country, no doubt, it has to be concluded that the above expressions of blind faith is hardly of any avail for the bright future of this country.  

India is acclaimed to be the greatest democracy in the world. It is true that the government is ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’ at the helm of affairs and that the ruling representatives, in principle, are elected by the citizens. But, to a great extent, the masses are carried away, in most matters, by the ‘magic’, the ‘drama’, the ‘gimmick’, the ‘fancy dress’, the ‘lies’, and the like, very cleverly and captivatingly presented to them by the power-mongering guys. The simple people, better simpletons, who are typically incapable of assessing what is what and of getting at the truth of the matter, are easily deceived and taken for a ride.  On the other hand, the masses are ushered into a ‘maayaalaal’, where they see lots of ‘colourful balloons’ in the air and get entertained to the point of getting an opium-effect out of it. They do not realize that they are left alone fooled, looted, bankrupt and much more impoverished than before. If ever they become conscious of the foul intentions of the actors and their own ensuing sad plight, it will be too late for them and perhaps hardly anything could be done then. This is in fact the vacuum where the blind faith the masses place in political magicians ushers into.

Does God want human beings to be ‘idiots’ and have ‘blind faith’ in him? Not at all! But, if this is what religion is mostly all about, its utility is to be revisited. Can human beings zero others down to their feet in the name of political service? Never! More importantly, can human beings afford to entertain a blind faith whether in God or in human beings? The custodians of both religion and politics, human and worldly wise as they are to a great extent, would always attempt to domesticate and enslave the people under their custody and exploit them to the maximum. Blind believers, as they are blind-folded in their understanding and assessment, are destined to sink into deeper waters in life. No real development or progress can come around blind faith. Blind faith, both religious and political, definitely, is a major liability for India today. ‘Scientific temper’, as per the Directive Principles of the Constitution and the strong opinion of Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, requires being built up. Awakening the masses and liberating them from the dominion of blindness by educating them is the only way out for a brighter India.             

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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.

He could be viewed, listened to and contacted at the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’ (p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p) and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’ (o); social media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’ (o), ‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’ (p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’ (p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).

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Published in ‘Indian Currents’(Weekly), New Delhi, Vol. XXX, Issue No. 30, p. 36-38 -- on 30 July-05 August 2018