Freedom Of Speech & Common Sense Do Run Together !

A few centuries back, French philosopher Voltaire quoted “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Freedom of Speech or Expressions is such a right. The devoid of it is despotism. With this indispensable freedom for human race come two associated requisites: One is rationality and the other is accountability. We as a citizen of India are equally responsible of what we express and how we express. 
Everyone does have a right is understood in democracy. Although,when it is not understood or exercised in true perspective of freedom, it subsequently release fumes of hatred, violence, misinterpretations and hostility among the same people for whom it was meant.

There are numerous instances where this inevitable requirement backfired at our own institution. Way back in 1996, India’s most celebrated painter Maqbool Fida Hussain created fur ore in Hindu community by painting the deities of Goddesses Saraswati, Parvati, Durga, and Draupadi naked on canvas. His creative autonomy did allow him to do so, but the free will was not aimed for such negligent artworks in a country where people are relatively sensitive over religious issues. He certainly failed to recognize that. Besides, he has got no right to hurt the sentiments through his artwork every other day and then ask for apology. This entire episode was not a story of Islamic prejudice but a story of Hindu sensibility being insulted. Even the people and extremist Hindu organizations affiliated with them had no right to sabotage his artworks.
Knowingly or unknowingly, if Hussain misunderstood it, so did the extremist Hindu groups. Both lie on the same side of a coin who misapprehend the whole idea.

Recently, noted author and social activist, Arundhati Roy gave a provocative speech underlining her full support for Kashmir’s separatist movement. Nothing new by her as Pakistan has been airing such sentiments for decades. Furthermore, Roy says Maoists are “Gandhians with Guns”. Anyone with even an ounce of an idea about the diligent non-violent freedom struggle by Mahatma Gandhi can say that this particular declaration by her is not in sync with the Gandhian philosophy. Roy’s blatant comment without a doubt tells us how to differentiate between a scholar and a squalor. 

Any citizen can’t render his/her political or artistic statement depending on their personal mood swings. And if you think, all these comes under the right and I have it, to use it as I want and wherever I want to. Then even the government has got the power to curtail it wherever  mandatory.

Although a political statement is an art of how we choose words and craft accordingly. But having some common wisdom should always be the keyword to it. A political comment on any political situation must be judged politically rather than as a right. Freedom of expression is not an art but an essential political power of any citizen in India. Still, at the end of the day any seditious speeches or defamatory artworks are not liable to be curtailed until it becomes a real threat to the unity and integrity of India. The principle behind this idea is far more essential than any individual. Using this liberty for the rationale of publicity is a disregard of this right.

We all are free to say anything as long as our speech or expression does not invade the fundamental freedom of others or cause harm to anyone. The basic design of this belief is not at the expense of causing harm to others. However, in reality what counts as harmless is a complex and unresolved issue. The solution remains in reasoning it through our common sense. The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. And we must know what to overlook. At last finishing off with a famous statement which says “A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew.” So it's better to respect the sanctity of this freedom.

Are We Conditioned?

During the early 1800’s, Britishers' faced a peculiar problem in sub-continent regarding communication. As a ruling class they found it quite difficult to bond India due to linguistic diversities this country had. The entire education structure in India consisted of many languages and dialects. So their plans to educate Indians became quite a complex issue to resolve. The cultural differences were huge. The entire education set up was vastly different then what they had in their own country. The education survey and research was done about what can be done and what needs to be done to bond each and every Indian by some common spoken language. At that point of time Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic were the classical traditional languages spoken and but not widely understood by Indians. The Council of Education was formulated and was assigned the task to restructure the education system. But the members of the council themselves were divided on which language to be chosen as the medium of instruction. The council was presided by a British gentleman named T.B. Macaulay who was appointed by then Governor General, William Bentinck. On 2^nd February 1835, he gave a speech regarding that in British parliament. He said “It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.” What he meant was to bond and educate Indians by common superior language English as their medium of instruction.

Even a century and half later his "Minute To Education" continues ringing on our education system. The British Empire may have vanished into pages of history but the legacy doesn't seem to end. Knowingly or unknowingly, what Macaulay did to our education system is known as conditioning . 

From then on-wards, English got inserted into our education system. Teaching of native religious books or literature in the foreign language conditioned the entire pattern of thinking. Elite class got heavily influenced and started preaching as well as practising English. It got heavily imbibed into our education system. People started forgetting the importance of their own mother tongue. Don’t you think that it is a disregard to call a great poet like Kalidasa 'The Shakespeare of India'. Kalidasa was born centuries before even Shakespeare was born. It is not about comparing the work of two literary geniuses of different eras but more about demeaning the work of one because of the other. We consider foreign products far more superior than the indigenous ones. Officially almost all works in central government is done in English medium rather than our vastly spoken language of Hindi. Today, we are the largest speaking nation of English language. Isn't it such a contrast to see things happening in this way. If given a choice , education abroad, working abroad or even settling abroad is preferred more over our own country. The phenomenal growth of English medium schools are a perfect example of our preference of English over Hindi. The entire brain drain phenomenon dwells due to one single thing and that is the conditioning of our minds since we were born in our country. The education system conditions our mind in such a way that we start disrespecting our own culture. India is a nation where sex is a taboo subject to discuss and yet it is also a land where Kamasutra was born. So what a contrast, the things we taught the world regarding sex education is now looked down upon as something we are ashamed of. Foreigners flock Khajuraho more than we Indians do. Why Suit and Tie is a formal dress code for us,why not our own traditional dresses.That is the western way of formal dressing not the Indian way .Why we start picking up poem of Humpty Dumpty more quickly then ‘Yeh Kadambh Ka Ped Agar Maa Hota Yamuna Teere’? Why is Hi or Hello slowly replacing Namastey?

 It has been famously said that creativity and originality can hardly find expression in a language other than the mother tongue . Is English our mother tongue ? Absolutely not ,then how can we expect ourselves to be original or creative. This is what conditioning is all about and it is too deep rooted a problem to be resolved. And the solution lies in questioning ourselves on how, when and why this happened? And why we get succumbed to it quite often rather than making Lord Macaulay our favourite whipping boy.