Query from North-East: Does imposing a common culture unify us? || Acharya Prashant, IRMA (2023)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Good evening, sir. Good evening. Pleasure to be part of this. So actually, sir, my question

00:11is actually not so much a philosophical question as such, but it's more based on the present

00:18circumstances and realities that especially like migrants, like I myself, I'm a migrant,

00:23I can say, so I'm studying in Gujarat right now. So, but this is not only for us from

00:28the northeast, but this also occurs when people, say, from the north of India, from

00:34the south of India, when they also migrate to the northeast, they also face a similar

00:38situation of racism and regionalism. So, sir, my question to you is, there's a certain policy

00:48that I would say like certain governments have tried to impose of a uniform identity

00:57for the nation and for its citizens. So, sir, would this be counterproductive or would this

01:02be productive in eliminating this racism and regionalism? What kind of common identity

01:09are you talking of? Say, for example, one, some aspects of identity are there like language. So,

01:17maybe people from the southern part of our country will not be so comfortable with this

01:21language imposition which they may face. So, like certain, or like something like,

01:27up till now, I think no government has imposed so much, not imposed any like stipulations

01:34regarding culture as such, but there are certain worries that people face, like even aspects of

01:40their culture, like what we can eat and what we cannot eat, like certain things like that also.

01:44Zubin, right? Rubin. Rubin, as long as you will want to standardize or enforce something that's

02:10something that varies from man to man, you will only create division, violence and you will breed

02:26discontentment, resistance and suffering ultimately, right? Now, language is not something

02:47very, very fundamental to human existence. Please understand what I'm trying to say. Otherwise,

02:56it's very easy to counter it by saying, but all humans speak. So, language is fundamental. I'm

03:01talking of a specific language. All humans do speak, but they do not speak the same language.

03:09Same thing applies to color or physical features. Obviously, sex, economic condition, food habits,

03:32all these things, they vary from man to man and place to place and time to time. Now, when you

03:44want to normalize these things, standardize these things by venerating them, idolizing them,

03:57raising them to the level of an ideal. Not only is it impractical, it is actually, first of all,

04:12quite childish. You have to emphasize on that which we all have in common. You cannot emphasize

04:34on that which is bound to be diverse between man and man. Even in one single household, please tell

04:46me, are food habits the same? Are choices the same? Sometimes the brother has one particular accent

05:01and the sister has another one. It happens. Depends on their schooling, their education and

05:12their taste. The husband wants to dress one way, the wife might have totally different tastes. She

05:29says, I want to dress in a very indigenous way or a very Western way. Then how can you have a national

05:42policy or a state policy that is based on such flimsy things as language or attire or whatever?

05:55When the Brits had that, we fought them tooth and nail, didn't we? They simply had something about

06:08skin color and that was so unacceptable to us, correct? They said their color is superior,

06:16whatever their color was and ours is not and we said, no, no, no, this won't do. You cannot say

06:23one color is better than the other. Colors are colors. And that's something that applies to so

06:30many other things in life, does it not? You are Ruben, I am Prashant. How can one type of name

06:40be superior to another type of name? You are wearing specs, I am not. My hairstyle I can see

06:48is different. Now, all these are differences that lend a certain color, taste, flavor to life. Who

07:05wants to have a very uniform kind of life? Won't that be very bland and boring? Rather, not just

07:15distasteful, but disgusting. If all people look the same, eat the same, behave the same. So,

07:22if you look at nature, all kinds of trees and no tree is superior to the other. What about trees?

07:32There is the tree and there is the humble grass. Who is one to claim that the tree is superior to

07:39the grass? And if grass vanishes, can the tree survive? Even if the little bacteria on the roots

07:49vanish, will the tree survive? We know of their role in nitrogen fixation. We know of how not

07:59just the bees, but even the mosquitoes are important when it comes to maintaining ecology.

08:06How is one thing superior to the other? Having said that, now we come to the other aspect. Having

08:15said that, there must be an underlying unifying principle. Otherwise, all we have is just

08:26countless differences. There must be something that unifies us so strongly that the differences,

08:38even if countless, start appearing worthless. Now, what is it that is really common between

08:46man and man irrespective of where I am coming from, where you are coming from? I am a Russian,

08:51you are an African. I am a man, you are a woman. I am old, you are young. I am rich,

08:56you are poor. I am well-read, you are not. I am fat, you are fit. All those differences are

09:05always there, right? Irrespective of those differences, what is it that unifies us?

09:12How do you know that this fellow in front of me is fit to be called a human being?

09:18Taking a narrow perspective at this moment, what is it that distinguishes a human being

09:33from, let's say, an animal? When we talk of something that unifies man and man,

09:41which is all human beings, we have to look at what is it that distinguishes a human being

09:46from an animal. What is it? So, in my opinion, maybe it's the ability to make choices.

09:55But even the animal makes choices, no? Does it not? You keep grass and stone in front of a

10:05buffalo and the buffalo will know what to chew. So, how is a human being distinct from an animal?

10:14So, maybe animal's choices are driven by its animal instinct and not higher values.

10:26Lovely, lovely. And where do our higher values come from?

10:37I think they've been passed on and been refined from different generation to generation.

10:41But then that will only lead to differences and discord because my ancestors were not the same

10:48as yours. So, then my values will never conquer, never agree with yours and then we will fight.

10:57So, I think that is the case that occurs also. So, whoever dominates the other is able to pass on their values.

11:03No, but then we are not talking of one stream of human beings versus another stream of human beings.

11:11We are talking of what unites human beings as a whole against, let's say, an animal.

11:18Okay, a buffalo comes and the buffalo looks at the two of us. And if the buffalo were wise,

11:26we are appending the whole thing. Now, the buffalo is wise and human beings are not.

11:30Were the buffalo wise, what would the buffalo find in common between the two of us?

11:35We are both bipeds.

11:37Leave the physicality aside.

11:47That's a difficult question.

11:50I'm not really sure, sir.

11:54So, there is the instinct to know.

12:01I am not really sure, sir.

12:12So there is the instinct to know.

12:20Buffalos since millions of years of their existence have never wanted to really understand

12:28what is it to be a buffalo, what the grass is like, where does a thunderstorm come from?

12:33Why is the grass green at all?

12:38Buffalos don't reflect or meditate.

12:41Buffalos are never keen to reflect, realize, understand.

12:46No buffalo ever asked herself the question, who am I?

12:50Now this one comes with a disclaimer, I'm not a buffalo, so I can't be entirely sure.

12:54But just looking at buffalos from where I do, I do not think that they are introspecting

12:59or meditating.

13:02They continue in the way they are, right?

13:04You're born a buffalo, you live as a buffalo, you die as a buffalo.

13:07There is no urge to rise, to know and to be liberated from inner ignorance.

13:17So that's what unites me and you.

13:21And then that alone has to be the basis of our community, our society.

13:33All our rules, laws, policies, conventions, customs have to be founded on the underlying

13:40unity, the unifying principle.

13:42The unifying principle is liberation.

13:46Liberation beyond liberty.

13:48Liberty is good, but liberty is a small thing.

13:51Liberation is beyond liberty, liberation, understanding, realization.

14:00So if as the head of the government, I have to impose a policy, the policy will say, you

14:06know, in this area, you cannot remain uneducated.

14:14Because being a human being, obviously, you have to know, you want to know, you must know.

14:21So kindly have the basic education.

14:23If you have arrived here uneducated, we will ensure, we will subsidize and we will have

14:29you educated.

14:30And that's what is common between all the people, the residents, the citizens here.

14:35We all are educated.

14:39Now that's the foundation of our unity, our education.

14:45You are educated, so am I.

14:46So the two of us have something in common.

14:49You have an urge to understand, so have I.

14:52And that's what we have in common.

14:56So what does that mean?

14:57That means systems will be transparent.

14:59Because I want to know and the system doesn't want to reveal, now there is a conflict.

15:05So systems have to be transparent.

15:09Courses in universities have to be accessible.

15:15Examinations have to be continuous and practical and grounded in reality.

15:28Are you getting it?

15:33And that's when we can say, you know, yes, yes, yes, we belong to this place.

15:38And this is what we have in common.

15:42Instead if you say we belong to this place and what we have in common is the language,

15:47then that's not a very sustainable basis of unity.

15:52Because you see that's an exclusive basis, it excludes, right?

15:56It says someone speaking some other language comes here and we will treat him as an alien.

16:04Someone comes here whose facial features are different and we'll call them by some name.

16:12Some not so pleasing name, right?

16:19The buffalo does better than us when it comes to these things.

16:24There is very little, there is very little evidence of color based discrimination in

16:30the in the buffalo universe or in the cow or goat or camel universe.

16:37We have not seen that.

16:42We have we have rabbits and just one among them is brown.

16:48And we are not seeing the white ones really discriminate against him.

16:56So first of all, he is in a minority of one.

17:00And secondly, his color is supposedly an inferior one, right?

17:06A very Indian color, brown.

17:09But the white European rabbits are not seen to discriminate.

17:15Only human beings have that kind of ignorance and nonsense.

17:22If somebody is a minority, pulverize him.

17:27And when you are in a minority, then form groups and raise slogans and complain and

17:34play the victim.

17:38How will that work?

17:39All that is just so, so juvenile.

17:59So is it fair?

18:00I know it's like a bit unfair actually to reduce your answer, especially since you've

18:07introduced so many other aspects and angles regarding your answer.

18:11But would it be fair for me to say that, according to you, maybe like something like a constitution

18:16or the laws of the land will form the basis of what unifies people.

18:22Wouldn't that be a fair understanding?

18:25Please repeat that.

18:29At the risk of reductionism, will it be somewhat fair to say that, according to you, maybe

18:49the just basis for a shared identity would be laws and the constitution on the basis

19:01of what shared living rules for a society.

19:04Obviously, if you look at the preamble, the values that you find there are quite sublime.

19:13You investigate them closely and you will say these are fairly universal values.

19:19They are not discriminatory in nature.

19:22Obviously, you can always make things better and you can always refine a word, fine tune

19:27it, come up with an even higher something.

19:30That's all right.

19:32But if you look at liberty, equality, fraternity, if you look at even the stuff that came to

19:40the preamble in the 70s, socialist, secular, these are not really things that can divide.

19:52So the Indian constitution is a fairly respectable one in that regard.

19:59And in fact, even globally, countries look up to the Indian constitution.

20:06It's quite a detailed one.

20:09It's difficult to find stuff there that is partisan.

20:14It's difficult to find seeds of oppression or narrowness, anything there.

20:24So if polity is being conducted honestly according to the constitution, I think that would take

20:34care of a lot of problems.

20:36See, obviously the constitution does not address the inner life of the human being.

20:45For example, constitution would talk of liberty, but it does not talk of individual emancipation.

20:51It does not talk of inner liberation from the bondages of ignorance like physical identification.

21:00People are so identified with their body and the constitution is silent in that regard.

21:05But then that is also not the function of the constitution.

21:10That is to be taken care of by other agencies operating at the social level.

21:18So all in all, I think if we can just live up to what the constitution says, that itself

21:27would be a fairly stable situation and more can be done.

21:34Obviously there are vistas beyond that.

21:38But that is not to say that the constitution lacks in something.

21:43Thank you so much sir, wonderful answers.

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