Many or almost an extremely large percentage of people in India dont believe in moderate ideologies . But in these moderate and humble social commentators like Ramchandra Guha and Shekhar Gupta , do we see the faint soul of real India alight and shimmering in face of corruption, ignorance and most dangerous of all - extremism . As far as the history of India goes , the real foundation of India as a nation of culture and economics was in its moderate ideologies . Be it the Indus valley wherein the archaeological records provide no immediate answers for a center of power or for depictions of people in power in Harappan society; implications are that everybody enjoyed an equal status . Be it the reign of Akbar in the Mughal era , whence he immediately understood the need of social respect towards the people and established the Din-e-ilahi path . Or be it the struggle for freedom and subsequent foundation of modern India by leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru . There were no extremist ideologies which prevailed , but a continuous voice of protest for independence . This middle path of moderation is also preached in Theravada Buddhism . The expression Middle Way is used by the Buddha in his first discourse (the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta) to describe the Noble Eightfold Path as the noble path to achieve Nirvana, instead of taking extremes of austerities and sensual indulgence. Extremists are not only the obvious tyrants , communals or bigots , but also the people who oppose them with same fervour as the perpetrators . Blinded or biased protests against a system is yet again a kind of extremism . (As we see in the writings of the very brilliant but angry writer/activist Arundhati Roy) . The antonym of extremism cannot be extremism ! A person who speaks against an establishment with rage , tyranny and extremely biased opinions has already become the one he/she is protesting against . The parallel Taliban government is a great example . The need of our nation is more towards the acceptance of that middle way , be it the political leaders , be it the authors/writers or be it the media proponents . Whistles of development and secularism come next .
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 17:28:21 +0000
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