Ideal of a Sportsman

IN times of despair for a country, the sports person plays a very important role. When people are nearly convinced of the futility of centuries old ideals and principles for which men instinctively feel admiration, the sports person rises with nothing but his pure dedication, hard work and iron will to rise 'inspite of' a system meant to subdue all like him.

In the developed world, when a sports person accomplishes great things, he makes his country proud. However, in the developing world, where facilities are nearly non-existent, career paths for individuals not known, there is almost zero financial assistance, coaching or guidance - in such circumstances when an individual rises, he provides his people the hope and belief that great human values can surmount the challenges thrown by a rotten system. He becomes a symbol of dedication, hard work and honesty. Deepika Kumari, the daughter of an Auto Rickshaw driver might have been unsuccessful at getting an Olympic medal to India, but, what she has done has shown that it is possible for the people to overcome powerful challenges.

It must be noted with caution on what follows when someone like the above begins showing signs of success - for it must be remembered that the success of such an individual is not their personal success; Rather, it is actually the triumph of eternal values of humanity which drive greatest achievements. The rich and the powerful, who are beneficiaries of their respective systems do not want this to happen as this phenomenon threatens the very basis of their exploitation of the masses. So the giant machinery comes into motion as soon as there is scent of such a possibility.

The first role is played by the media when they go and associate themselves with the sports persons while they are still fresh and only show signs of future brilliance - having still not attained anything of significance. Thereby they spoil their focus and allure them into the world of glamour and success before they are actually earned. Most, who are not sufficiently careful, get wasted with this very small trick.

Those who manage to still achieve their initial successes are then targeted by the next level of more poisonous challenges. These challenges typically take the form of monetary rewards and the admittance of specific individuals into the world of glamour. This is a very vicious attempt and it is very difficult for the preys to gauge this allurement. When individuals have toiled for long years and have achieved some feat, they face these great temptations when they are exhausted. But, they do not understand the implication of succumbing to these. When the governments announce crores of rupees for these individuals and the media creates a frenzy over them, they are actually attaining the following:
(a) Unethically hijacking the actual achievement of the sports person, indirectly stating the achievement was made possible because of them.
(b) Including the particular individual in the privileged sections of the society, thereby distancing the individual from the millions who could have related with him and felt inspired by his dedication for the greater human values.
(c) And most of all they ensure that with all the newly found money and glamour, the individual is corrupted because the individual knows there are thousands deprived like him striving for the same as him; Those who are being prevented by the system. But, by distancing himself from them and instead joining the same system that subdued him this long, he is actually committing a betrayal against them.
(d) Spoiling the focus of the individual from his core competence into peripheral non sense like acting, dancing, attending talk shows, writing columns etc. Most wickedly, thus, the system ensures that the specific feat is never repeated.

With these four, they thus successfully demolish one more budding symbol of honesty and dedication that could raise the belief and morale of the country. People who have individually fallen prey to these ugly tactics can be found in plenty - Bindra, Rathore and Vijender being the best examples.

While the media - political alliance plays very cunningly and systematically, the individual athletes, and their coaches are simpletons and strangers to such viciousness. Unknown, they walk straight into these traps and destroy themselves.

The ideal sports person is not someone whose stops with his personal success. That is far from ideal. More than that he is an embodiment of certain eternal ideals and values. Thus, his primary responsibility is in ensuring that he preserves and promotes these values through his specific natural gifts. He must never compromise on this by falling prey to the tricks of anyone.

The response of the ideal sports person to the above challenges should be along the following lines:
(a) At all points in time, one must avoid the media. This is the first step. In this regard, the coach, managerial staff and all well wishers should help them. This is a must till the time one has attained the highest summits in their respective fields.
(b) One should always maintain safe distance from those sections of society that pull him away from people of his own lot. This includes either by rejecting any monetary awards conferred on them (unless they are needy financially) or they should forward any such money received back to the institutions that helped make them.
(c) Take one's personal careers to successful culminations but primarily with a view of setting examples before the people and thereby ensure that the ideals one represents are strengthened by his or her contributions.
(d) Once completed one's career, it becomes his duty to contribute to the deprived but talented lot of which he was once a part. In this, one must remember that though he had struggled and sacrificed a lot but on that sacrificial soil he should see the rise of the next generation. Apart from the raw talent which nature endows, most people in the developing world lack the system that guides and mentors them through the unknown maze of shaping a career of their talent. It becomes then the sports persons supreme duty to ensure that he builds this system for the next generation which he unfortunately could not enjoy.

Most of the work described above are what any normal government would be expected to do. However, given the reality of our world individuals must take up such work of their own. Gopichand is an excellent example of this and his contribution becomes more and more apparent today as his students now begin shining across the globe. This transition from the individual sports person to the mentor and guide requires a vision which our sportsmen have unfortunately not possessed.

This years Olympics has given new hope in the form of several names rising above the ordinary inspite of the pathetic setup. How they will individually fare in the next games and how we will fare over a longer term, even outside of the sphere of sports in our national life, will greatly depend on how this next generation sports persons take up these responsibilities. They must understand that with their certain superior physical and mental capacities, they have also inherited a larger responsibility of ensuring the preservation and propagation of the values that drove them to success. They must realise that these same values are what drive man to achieve success in all spheres of existence.

Information, Internet and India

The power of information is immense. One who controls the machinery of information propagation is therefore, very powerful. History is filled with shrewd strategies where information has been hoarded, twisted, and crookedly garbed in order to pursue vested interests.

In India, today we witness unfortunate incidents in hundreds which imply an evil and nauseating alliance between those with political ambitions, sellable intellectuals looking to fill their pockets with coins and those that control the media. The most recent incident being the virtual blackout of the Assam riots. The shrewdness with which this was accomplished is mind boggling. Initially, the media coverage of these riots was so dismal that people in general did not even know about it until much later. When however, its scale went beyond an acceptable threshold, most 'intellectuals' aggressively went about attempting to downplay the threat of illegal Bangladeshi immigration in all national televisions. When however, people increasingly got drawn to the growing national threat of inflitration and the proliferation of elements of affinity to Pakistan and other anti-India groups, most sections of the media found it their new religion to push this into the background and bring a Modi interview into the spotlight.

While thousands were being displaced in the North Eastern front of the nation, this alliance found it their duty to go about drumming about an insignificant interview and bringing to the forefront the Gujarat riots a decade in the past while they allowed thousands of Indians to be persecuted, killed and removed from their houses to refugee camps by foreign infiltrators. Anti-India forces enjoyed yet another triumph in this land of fools. In this entire episode, the most interesting fact lay in how the entire country was led away from Assam into judging Modi and other trifles.

This unholy tri-party alliance of the controllers of political, informational and intellectual powers went about unchecked commiting assault after assault on this country and her people for years, until recently when technology democratized information itself. It happened with the rise of the Internet and finally with the growth of social networking resources like Twitter and Facebook. People in thousands, who had always suspected evil at work but, were unable to build a proper framework of affairs of the country, finally found thousands of others, all of whom could put together pieces of the jigsaw. Finally, people are able to detect foul play and thousands have brought in the open innumerable unspoken concerns - for the first time backed with concrete facts and systematic analysis.

The biggest role the Internet played was to free the flow of information. And this has been a threat to the members of the above coalition. For they now realize that as people are being increasingly drawn to the Internet, the possibility of their hoarding and manipulating information is undergoing a great involution which lessens their value as partners. Pictures circulating in Facebook awakening people to the possibility of a Bangladesh Occupied Assam is soemthing that this alliance would not have liked to occur in the conscience of India - but, fortunately for us, this has happened.

Today, we are at a juncture when no one is quite clear on how the Internet may be leveraged. No one even understands the technical potential it has. For his reason, we see that in mainstream online media like Twitter thousands differ and smother the people from traditional media. Both sides, the traditional media, as the new generation nationalists have yet to figure how the Internet is to be leveraged in an effective manner. When the owners of traditional media were at a loss of logical counters, they went ahead and branded all their detractors as fascists or fundamentalists.

Strategically, one of the foremost concerns of the nationalists of this country will have to address now, is to innovate a new-generation information network that broadcasts the ground reality. This is a huge task in itself but, it is one of the most effective ways to penetrate and crush this alliance. When India becomes a witness to her own reality, millions will be drawn to what is right.

Great Indian Bankruptcy

In recent times, there have been challenges thrown by several individuals and civil society groups towards the democratic institutions or peoples representatives in the country. A parallel line of argument upholding the supremacy of the citizen over democratic institutions have not gone well with everyone.

Most would agree that many things are seriously amiss in our sixty year old state. But the recurring political argument invoking the sacredness of democracy and any insinuation on it amounting to blasphemy fails to garner honest support. Sections of the Indian populace may still be found to concur with it - but, they are invariably always a small minority and people who have made the most of a defective and rotting system. The absurdity of this argument, though, is becoming increasingly apparent to one and all.

Respect is never deserved by an individual or an entity. The respect any individual evokes is due the fact that the object of respect by virtue of his actions, thoughts or works, becomes a symbol of certain underlying Ideals that people respect and consider to be the pinnacle of human achievements. People are driven for constant development and evolution only when ideals shed light on their path. It is not actually the constitution or the parliament that people respect - it is the set of underlying ideals that people have regard for. Ideals such as equality, civilisation, democracy. Institutions, books, individuals etc are like the moon that derive their respectability from the solar brightness of these ideals. So, it may be said that the ideals are the Primary objects of respect while all others are Secondary objects that are dependent on the primaries for any significance.

The misfortune of India has been in the progressive annihilation of all such ideals that fuelled Indias survival over the past several millenia. Following the Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism, a global trend has been in operation, ever gaining momentum, that seeks to substitute these fundamental ideals with the ideal of a new generation - the ideals of power, money and self-preservation.

Ideals are not permanent. With the evolution and involution of human civilisation, the ideals similarly catalyze or immobilize and even retract the progress of civilisation. In India, however, the problem underlying all others is that the above phenomenon of substitution has gained great momentum and is very difficult to stop today.

The fact that this substitution is in full force is not hard to observe in our surroundings today. The symptoms are in plenty - but, most are shrewdly garbed or misrepresented. The horridness of the railway incident in which a 19 year old girl was thrown out of a running train by a group of four animal molestors or the murderous instincts of doctors in Jalandhar are only symptoms of this underlying disease. The base symptom is a rapid proliferation of the instincts of self-preservation. It is this same self-preservation instinct that makes hundreds of people witness such horrors in shameless silence while one of their own suffer.

What is paramount today is to initiate a systematic process to re-establish ideals that drive human evolution. There are plenty of forces within the country that dont want to see this happen - these include people who consciously downplay this and dont allow this to assume the foremost priority in the minds of their countrymen; and those others who do the same without being conscious of the harm they are doing in the process. The former are mostly elements who control the information network within the country, while the latter are countrymen who are the better off section of India, people who have exploited a defective system from its birth.

The large masses of the country are unfortunate as they dont have the means to correct or even understand this systematic corruption. While the rest of the country are engaged in promoting the system of exploitation. What is forgotten in the process is the limits are not asymptotically elastic. Our state has failed in being able to provide for the most basic necessities of the masses over the last six decades, while it has been able to preserve and even promote the exploitation of the deprived.

Today, India lies stretched to the limit. The future of this country of a glorious past can be insured only by the sacrifice of a generation. This sacrifice has been long overdue. It will be interesting to see now how good are we at being blind.

Whom India Martyred

Rewind to 1905 India. Curzon has partitioned Bengal. There are strong reactions. A glowering anger has consumed Bengal and affected other parts of the country.

Two years hence, significant events are unfolding. Punjab is reeling under a disastrous spell of draught and plague. Administrative incompetence has added to the woes and thousands are dying. An insensitive government has introduced the Colonization Bill in the Punjab provincial legislative council.

Today Punjab is simmering. Lala Lajpat Rai and Sardar Ajit Singh, who have been stirring the Punjabi consciousness, have been arrested and deported to Mandalay. Later in the year, an ugly confrontation has developed between the moderates and the extremists. Gradually, the moderates have cleverly cleansed the Congress of any extremist expression.

Deprived of a legitimate space in the Congress, more and more political workers are being pushed into revolutionary outfits. There is widespread unrest and the threats of violent protests are tangible in the air.

IT WAS IN SUCH A FORGE, on the 28^th of September 1907, one of the foremost Indian revolutionaries is born in the very house of Sardar Ajit Singh, his uncle. He was Sardar Bhagat Singh. More than a century later, today, his name continues to capture the Indian imagination.

It is quizzical to consider why in a country where so many revolutionaries embraced that coveted noose, at ages younger than his, Bhagat Singh stands apart?

Disturbing events during his adolescence were important factors moulding Bhagat Singh’s character. At 12, Dyer’s inhuman handling of the Jallianwala Bagh protests shocked the country. The wretched degradation of the Sikh society triggered reforms within. It was when Bhagat Singh was 14 that the Nankana massacre occurred. The hanging of 6 brave babbar akalis on the auspicious day of Holi in 1926 while the country celebrated left a deep impact on his personality. Bhagat Singh, then working for Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi in Kanpur, wrote in the Hindi weekly Pratap:

The city was still celebrating. Colour was still being thrown on the passers-by. What a terrible indifference. If they were misguided, if they were frenzied, let them be so. They were fearless patriots, in any case. Whatever they did, they did it for this wretched country. They could not bear injustice. They could not countenance the fallen nation. The oppression on the poor people became insufferable for them. They could not tolerate exploitation of the masses; they challenged and jumped into action. They were full of life. Oh! The terrible toll of their dedicated deeds! You are blessed!

But, his response to such provocative stimuli was not that of a mundane activist. He did not jump into frenzied actions. At the time when Bhagat Singh’s generation was growing up, they had more resourceful foundations to draw from. Lala Lajpat Rai had formed the National College and the Dwarka Das Library was a rich source of books. These resources fed the patriot’s thirst. By the time Bhagat Singh grew into a young man he had a formidable intellectual reservoir.

From a revolutionary, he grew into an ideologue and leader. Issues such as ‘should the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) have Socialism as a stated goal’, were important for him. The text of the pamphlet dropped into the central assembly by Bhagat Singh and B K Dutt indicates that they were not ordinary youth driven to violent reactions by individual acts of cruelty. Instead, it shows their understanding of the broader picture.

"Without repeating the humiliating history of the past ten years of the working of the reforms (Montague-Chelmsford Reforms) and without mentioning the insults hurled at the Indian nation through this House-the so-called Indian Parliament-we want to point out that, while the people expecting some more crumbs of reforms from the Simon Commission, and are ever quarrelling over the distribution of the expected bones, the Government is thrusting upon us new repressive measures like the Public Safety and the Trade Disputes Bill, while reserving the Press Sedition Bill for the next session. The indiscriminate arrests of labour leaders working in the open field clearly indicate whither the wind blows." 

A second aspect of his personality was his abilities as an organizer. As is to be expected, the revolutionary faces a serious handicap in working in the public sphere. Bhagat Singh, who for most of his active life was a suspected and later a wanted revolutionary, could not have spent much of his time working visibly.

Apart from his participation in the HRA, he founded the Naujawan Bharat Sabha. The sabha with communist inclinations developed into one of the foremost organizations for the Punjabi youth.

Post the withdrawal Non-Cooperation movement, which had stirred the Indian imagination to unprecedented levels, many Indians – including a great many in the Congress – were dismayed. Most failed to see a rationale. Bhagat Singh was one of them. During a depressing lull that followed, the Congress groped for a course and revolutionary activities gradually regained momentum throughout India.

In 1926, the HRA plotted and executed the daring Kakori Train robbery to fund revolutionary activities. Though the members of HRA fled after the robbery, eventually the police were able to hunt down most of the leadership.  In the trials that followed, almost the entire HRA leadership was executed. Chandrasekhar Azad was the only leader yet on the loose. HRA was virtually destroyed and the revolutionaries scattered.

Under such conditions, by 1928, Bhagat Singh joined Azad to resurrect the HRA. It was largely due to Bhagat Singh that the HRA added Socialism as a stated goal and renamed to Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. His contribution to re-banding the HRA was immeasurable. His comrade, Jitendra Nath Sanyal, writes:

It was during his stay at Cawnpore at this time in the beginning of the year 1926 that Bhagat Singh showed signs of his genius as an organizer.  As a result of the Kakori Conspiracy Case, the Hindustan Republican Association had been disorganized. All the leaders were in Jail and the few inexperienced hands remaining outside could not do anything. Bhagat Singh, in conjunction with Bejoy Kumar Sinha of Cawnpore and Sukhdev of Lahore, began to organize the remnant of the party in U. P. and the Punjab.

Death of Lala Lajpat Rai and the killing of Saunders: The audacity of a petty British Police official to strike a respected and elderly leader like Lala Lajpat Rai during protests against the Simon Commission showed India her place in the imperial eyes. Lalaji passed away about 3 weeks later. While the country burned with rage but, this entire mass of humanity miserably failed to protect its venerated leader.

Bhagat Singh, together with Rajguru, Sukhdev and Azad plotted a reply to this humiliation. The reply was not so much a revenge as an assertion of the self-honour of a nation. The action resulted in killing of John Saunders. The daring escape of the three revolutionaries goes on to make a story in itself.

The Lahore Conspiracy: Bhagat Singh was not a believer in crumbs of reforms falling from the high table of imperialism. After the betrayal of the Mont-Ford reforms of 1919, many considered the Simon Commission an additional humiliation of India. Additionally, the Government was mulling further repressive measures like the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill. Considering the plight of the mute millions of the country, the HSRA believed it their duty to make these concerns heard within and out of India.

As a part of a well thought out strategy, on the 8^th of April, 1929, in Delhi, Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt visited the Central Legislative Assembly and hurled a low intensity bomb on empty benches. The intention was not to harm anyone but, to create an impact that could amplify and broadcast the views of HSRA throughout India and the world. In an amazing display of courage, both the young revolutionaries did not flee the scene and offered themselves to the Police.

Following the initial arrests, the government accidentally discovered the bomb making factory of HSRA in Lahore. This led to further arrests. Almost all, perhaps with the only exception of Azad, were put behind bars.

The trials that followed were only more tragic. His comrade Ajoy Ghosh writes:

In July 1929 we were produced in court - 13 of us - and there we met Bhagat Singh and Dutt again. No longer was he the Bhagat Singh of the magnificent physique whose strength had been a byword in our party. A shadow of his former self, weak and emaciated, he was carried into the court on a stretcher.

For months he and Dutt had been tortured by the police and now they were on hunger strike demanding human treatment for all political prisoners. Our eyes filled with tears as we greeted them.

Though sentenced already to transportation for life Bhagat Singh and Dutt were our co-accused in the new case that now began - the Lahore conspiracy case of 1929. For three days we paid no attention to the proceedings but held prolonged discussion which Bhagat Singh, though so weak that he had to recline in an easy chair all the time, took the leading part.

The hunger strike that Bhagat Singh and Dutt started was taken up by all accused of the Lahore Conspiracy case. Throughout this entire ordeal the ways in which Bhagat Singh made use of every occasion to bring the exploitation of India to the forefront and inspire the country to awake and arise.

The 23^rd of March was the day when Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev ascended the gallows. It is said that the execution of these three heroes was moved ahead of time fearing public outcry. After a swift execution, their bodies were cremated near the Sutlej and the ashes dispersed in the river. When people arrived later, they tried to gather any remains they could find. According to one version, their bodies were cut into pieces, partially cremated using kerosene and disposed off in Sutlej.

His life goes on to show his love for India. He saw the apathy of his countrymen in his life. Today, 81 years after he was executed, he is a victim of the same apathy. A consolation for his admirers would be to imagine he would have seen this coming his way and it would have little mattered to him.

But, through his actions he has left behind a legacy of immeasurable magnitude. He rose beyond birth or death. It did not matter to him that to be caught hurling the bomb in the assembly meant his execution (after all he knew killing Saunders would earn him the death sentence). But even in his death, as in his life, he presented the highest virtues of human existence.

From Pericles to the Internet: Journey of Democracy

April 1, 2025, Bhramit Pradesh: Harish had great expectations when he voted for Indian Bhramits Party (IBP) four years back. He does not really see many changes around him. Sieving emails from the distribution list all-citizens-bhramit-pradesh@bhramit.pradesh.gov.in he searches for Bhagola Prasad Marg. The pathetic roads had been much of a nuisance. The elected representative had promised to do something about it. Harish dug up a thread and found loads of discontent amongst his neighbours. He shoots an email to the list seeking updates.

He spawns a new tab, browses to the Election Commission Web Site and clicks on the ‘Government Report Card’ link. He sees the promise of launching metro rail services in his city – the current status shows a Bhramit Pradesh Metro Corporation (BPMC) coming into existence. That was four years back. He sees all deadlines of the project missed.

He wonders if it is a good idea to repeat his ballot in favour of IBP in the elections next month.

Over the past two decades, India has made good use of its growing command on IT. In fact, IT has single-handedly triggered the growth of global centers like Bangalore and Hyderabad. IT has also had some impact on governments, local civic bodies and their interactions with citizens. However, there is still much to be desired in this space.

The application of IT in any field necessarily enforces objectivity. Terms like ‘large amounts’ or ‘highly skilled’ stop making sense. Further, Open Source models like Apache have demonstrated how volunteers can collaborate on shared objectives with high levels of transparency. Today, under circumstances when increasingly higher levels of governance transparency are in demand, IT offers innovative possibilities of enforcing government accountability by tracking government performance through ‘e-Report Cards’ and measuring adherence to its promises.

This kind of tracking can be on an E2E (‘Election-to-Election’) basis, wherein the tracking begins right from election campaigns including information on election code violations, candidates with criminal records, net-worth and profile declarations of individual candidates etc.

During this phase, a huge leap would be the creation of ‘e-Manifestos’. E-Manifestos, unlike ‘Human-Manifestos’, would be purely objective with measurable parameters to determine the success of the government tenure. Manifestos may be surveyed and a global ontology developed that can accommodate all government work areas. Such non-normative classifications exist in manifestos even today.

An ‘e-Manifesto’ brings about the feasibility of tracking government performance on an ongoing basis. This implies – government performance could be measured by something similar to Report Cards. Integration of this system with existing Government Systems under the NeGP initiative could enable it to pull relevant information from diverse systems automatically.

This same platform could also be a means of citizen collaboration. Numbers bring power and there is no better way for information to flow through than the Internet. ‘Citizen-Collaboration Mailing Lists’ for such communication could enable citizens to participate constructively – share information and ideas between themselves or with government bodies. This could serve as a perpetual feedback for elected representatives.

Leveraging an awakened citizen base, a social collaboration between the government and philanthropic private sector could bring about path breaking e-Democracies. Governance will no longer be the same.

June 12, 2025, Bhramit Pradesh: The all-citizens-Bhramit-Pradesh list looks quite disillusioned with the government. Harish did his bit in reminding the citizens of promises unmet. Having cast his vote on the Internet, he joins his friends to conduct a Web-Conference based training session to educate his neighbourhood of ‘e-Ballot’. From Pericles in 5^th century BC to the 21^st century AD – democracy has journeyed a great deal. Exciting times indeed!

Illusive Equality

The forty-second amendment of the Indian Constitution saw India embracing a couple of new objectives for her nationhood. On 2nd of November, 1976, India became a Socialist and Secular Republic. For this article, we shall not bother ourselves with much of what a 'Socialist republic' means (I wonder how many know what that Socialist actually means in the constitution). However, the 'Socialist' adjective does signify a socialist inclination of the state, thereby indicating a commitment to economic equality. The constitution's firm faith in equality is further enhanced a few lines later in the preamble, it unequivocally states Equality as an objective.

The concept of equality is curious indeed. The modern society, at least the western tradition, owes a lot to Pericles and Athenian equality. Intellectuals love to advocate it. The idealist communist thinkers would go to any lengths to establish what it calls, class equality.

In this regard, it may be interesting to note the workings of nature. Does equality find space in nature? Does the weed spare the herb? Do the floods not rampage the crops? Does the lion make friends with the antelope? Nowhere in the designs of nature does equality exist. Not even within a single pride of lions, nor a hive of bees. It may be harsh, but, equality, like communism, is an utopian concept - that which can tell inspiring stories but, never be a reality.

To the above examples, it may be argued that the participants are either not evolved enough or not living at all. To the former, my response is evolution only develops an entity to survive odds. It has nothing to do with emotions or ideals. If humans are to outlive lions, it is not because humans have emotions but rather because humans are a million times more cunning and clever than lions are. To the latter, I would say, you are right. But the example of the non-living gives a more definite answer to why equality is impractical. If a stone were to be thrown in a tumbler full of water, it will invariably expel an equal volume of water. This has nothing to do with emotions or ideals. This is pure physics. It is not as if the stone has a distaste for water; Rather it is simply that the water happens to occupy something that the stone wants to. The stone needs the space; it will expel the water if it has to.

What we see in the human society is exactly what is described above; Only forms are changed. But, conflicts for space are eternal. The conflicts are multifarious in nature, but, underlying them all, it is actually the quest for the same space that the stone was seeking. These conflicts are not optional. People do not necessarily opt for these conflicts. And, rarely are these conflicts of physical origin. For most cases in the human world, except the for un-evolved, the major conflicts have origins in the mind - it is the fight for sustenance and proliferation of a thought system. In its manifestation it may seem to be a hunger for physical ambitions. But, what the physical acts conceal only the thoughts of one or a small group of strong thinkers.

When Aurangzeb or Hitler set out to annex more territories than ever, inflicting more and more atrocities on people, it was the same hunger of the lion. Only now, since there were little physical necessities, the hunger turned into subtle mental tendencies. Like the lion, they pursued actions that would have quelled their desire for propagation of what they believed in. Strictly speaking, there is not anything wrong with it. This is only a natural human tendency to sustain and grow. This nature of growth may be repugnant - but, it is actually the same story of the stone and the water.

Coming to the modern times, we have strong democratic systems advocating equality like never before. There are elaborate systems to make the democracies work. There is a head of the state, there are Ministers and several other Legislative offices. There are senior Executive offices and revered Judiciary offices - and then subdued in an elaborate hierarchical system, somewhere there lies the common man. A judge, by virtue of his office, may pronounce a sentence on a person a hundred times more learned, wise, honest and clean: Is this equality? A 600 strong group of people creating laws that many don't like. Is this equality? This, however, is the brilliant irony of democracy. Even democracy, in-spite of its commitment, needs to uphold this unequal system to create, what it believes, an egalitarian society. 'Inequality preserving equality'. Funny.

It must be conceded here again that equality is a beautiful concept. A person rejecting it can only be a heartless brute. However, looking at anything objectively can bring shortcomings to light. For example, Equality is stagnant. If the river were not to cut its way through the mountains mercilessly, it would only be a stagnant body. If the inspiring artist does not occupy the stage in preference to the random rogue, there would be no art. If the articulate orator does not snatch the platform of speech, then there would be no inspirational speeches.

In conclusion, Equality is a beautiful, romantic concept. And, if the world were ideal it would be most welcome. However, this world is too far from being good, let alone being ideal. The form of equality that humanity has been striving to pursue for so long is only an illusion; It shall never be achieved - for it does not exist. However, there is one form of equality that does exist. And, it has existed for as long as the living world has. It does not need to be achieved for it is already with us, as it was thousands of years ago. It is the equality in making a choice. The lion has the right to choose to prey on the antelope and the antelope has an equal right to choose to flee .. or perhaps, fight back.

Paretos' Indian Split

Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto was an Italian Engineer and later Economist and Philosopher. He is more famous for the '80-20' principle and the Pareto's Index - though with very significant contributions to Economics, Sociology, and with definite views on Political Philosophy. He grew up in middle-class though relatively comfortable surroundings, with good education. Like his father, he started his career as a Civil Engineer in a State Owned Italian Railways company. However, with time, there were shifts in his interest, more than once.

Of his several contributions, one of his more memorable ones had emerged out of his studies of distribution of wealth. A fairly similar pattern of income distribution in several geographies - and it so emerged, that a marginal section of the society owned a major chunk of the wealth while the majority of the population were poor. As a specific example, (per wikipedia) in the 1906, his studies suggested that 80% of the lands in Italy were owned by 20% of the people, and what was left of the land was owned by the huge 80% population.

Then on emerged the 80-20 principle - 80% of all have 20% importance, while the rest 20% have 80% importance. It actually looks (and _is_) quite convincing. It is a fantastic rule of thumb and comes to great rescue, generally. A guide during my study years used the closest example - the hand! you got a thumb, and four fingers. In whatever we do, the thumb plays a critical role. You lose a thumb - imagine the handicap. Little wonder it was the thumb Guru Drona asked of Eklavya! And with a bit of maths - a thumb of the five fingers; 80-20?

Pareto was dismissive of democracy, rejecting it as an illusion. There are several other of his thoughts, and theories -- however, a significant observation may be drawn in our situation of India, today. It is tempting to try to apply the classic 'thumb-rule' to our democracy.

There have been too many disturbing events of corruption over the past sometime. While the trend is disturbing, and while there is always is an accusing finger pointing back at the electorate (of a franchise poorly exercised), there is a helplessness that India inherits with its democracy. While there is a possibility of choice, the options to choose from are diminutive. And recent trends do make horrifying suggestions a five year term is too long for a government to commit mistakes that cannot be undone.

While there is definitely a question of corrections needed in our democracy but, there are also associated concerns on quality of the population that makes up this country. It has an uncanny resemblence to the 80-20 principle. A country with majority (much more than 80% of the populace) that actually not in a position to make a positive impact on this nation's journey into the future (of which they are a co-travellers); And with a minority (much much less that 20%) that are capable of making an 80% impact: But, unfortunately have chosen to give heed to their needs more than those of the country. Funnily enough, the 80% dont care much. Somewhere in the picture also fit a few people who can and do try to make a positive impact - but, institutionalized degradation is difficult to prevent.

The situation is grim but, action is paramount. It is now also incumbent on the 80 percent to do their bit with the utmost sense of urgency. Of these there are of course those who are cursed with such social and economic situations that the nation is not the first, the second or the last concern of theirs. But of the rest, those who do have the means - it is on them that progress can be made. It is for them to be aware, to build awareness, to help their fellow citizens, and to come out and get participative in such precarious circumstances.