SOCIAL harmony is what a society or a country aspires for. Social relations among different groups are really important aspect for any society to develop as a whole. As an INDIAN, its our responsibility to develop such harmony in our society. AND as Romain Rolland (nobel prize winner in literature) wrote about India that it is this very land of yogis, agriculturist etc that will show the path of love and compassion to the world . Hence it is our right and responsibility to educate the world on that path. But before teaching others we need to look inwards, we need to see the problems within our nation at first. We need to address them in black and white. We should and must criticise the fringes in our society that are trying to disturb the delicate equilibrium of social harmony in our country, but beyond criticising them we must also uphold the value of acceptance which swami Vivekananda taught us. We must have this clear at the back of our mind that what we actually aspire for is a loving and compassionate society which cant be built by excluding the fringes or simply criticising them. Infact what we need is truly and solely the idea developed and practiced on this very land, the idea of spirituality. Romain was actually mesmerized by this idea of oneness, that is seeing every one as brahma, which spirituality taught us ages before the coining of term SOCIAL HARMONY. This was the philosophy which when projected to the world left everyone bow before the saint SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. Ancient India’s impeccable texts and saints are in itself a whole book on social harmony.
But as time passed there developed different theories of oneness like marxism, maoism etc. This idea talked and stressed on rights of the individuals and also improvement of economic conditions of backward class of the world. The idea looked fascinating when the world was going through incidents such as curbing the rights of weaker sections etc. To an extent we must agree with this idea. After all without equal rights , equality will fail . But the problem comes when such idea takes violent shape, and the idea of rights supersedes the idea of responsibilty. Beautifully described by Guru Ji Golwalkar that the Indian way of looking at things is not just rights but also responsibility , its actually the combination of both that propels the ship of harmony within the society. This again shows the intellect level of our saints ages before these problems even arrived.
Leaving the ancient India and marxism behind, we must also address the problems in our society today. After all its our responsibility to think and act on the situation that is there at present. we cant be repulsive towards present scenario and think that india is still what it was . we must start from core if we want to unroot this problem. Any country or a society is made up of human beings present in that society. So therefore its not about society , its about human beings. We need to create great human beings if we want to create good society or a great country. I feel even the best chef wont be able to cook good food with rotten materials. Now for developing great humans what we need is moral and ethical thoughts that needs to be penetrated in the minds of each child of that society. Because as hammers shape the iron , thoughts shape the mind of an individual. Now to do that i will use the famous phrase of swami Dayananda Saraswati – GO BACK TO VEDAS . Veda doesn’t simply means learning the texts, the larger meaning according to me is to inculcate in yourself the essence of rights and responsibility. Because social harmony in the society can only be realized truly if our brain harmonically oscillates between the rights and the responsibility.
Now coming to rights , we see people getting violent if their slightest of feelings gets hurt. Karni sena to some islamist organization every one has their set of beliefs which arouses their hatred towards a film director or anyone. Fundamental question is what to do with them? Now here comes the rights which can perhaps(assumption) eradicate such clashes. For example if a person writes down a book or makes documentary or makes drawing which hurts the sentiments of a particular class of people. Of course they will react, and i dont feel this wise enough to make a joke of their sentiments . after all its their sentiments why should i joke about that and neither is that a solution. But what could be a solution is giving the same platform like writing, drawing, making documentary etc to the these people so that they could present their version as well. of course that would be an ideal condition. But that needs socio economic progress of each section of the society so that they are able to so. At present what we see is few sections being hijacked by elite intellectuals who does not represent the mass. We see movies being banned due to nudity but on other hand Jain saints(digamar maharaj) are accepted even with their nudity. we see poets being banned but see poets like Dinkar ji being respected alot. Actually the movies and the literature(to some extent) has been hijacked by people who does not come from the grass roots of our country. hence the conflicts begin. 80-90% people does not connect with them. But whatever be the case we must not ban anyone otherwise it would be like the british raj which banned Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s book in india or Rabindra Nath Tagores poems in kolkata . India should not copy british and i repeat must go back to vedas. therefore only option is to give rights to the individuals which would also depend on socio economic progress. Because a right is not a right if the mental and social condition of an individual is pathetic.Hence Modern India should learn from the ancient india as described above. we should believe in our system. LET THE MANTRA of sarvjan hitaya, sarvjan sukhaye be described not merely in our texts but also in our action. Let us fulfill the dreams of Bhagat singh to Romain to Vivekananda, let us guide the world towards peace and harmony. Let this be our right and responsibility