Editor,
I heartily welcome the landmark amendment to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution which was approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday. I also welcome the devolution of financial resources from the Finance Commission to the Councils and the amendments on streamlining of the administration of the Councils. But the Councils of Meghalaya will not be as powerful as those of in Assam, Tripura and Mizoram because certain parts of the amendments are exempted from being applied here. The reasons for the exemption seems to stem from not having elected village councils and municipal councils in Meghalaya and because there is no grass roots democracy in the state so Meghalaya is exempted from enjoying the enabling provisions. This is very unfortunate. We here resist to have elected village councils and municipal councils because we fear that this goes against tradition. So we have to pay a heavy price. We are also deprived of better devolution of funds from the Finance Commission and from the Ministry of Panchayati Raj because we are afraid of grassroots democratisation of the traditional institutions and we are bereft of allocation of major subjects for the Councils of Meghalaya unlike that of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao. I hope a way out can be found by our political masters though we have very little faith in them to surmount this problem.
Yours etc.,
Philip Marwein,
Via email
Scientists should remain cool
Editor,
Apropos the letter – “Whither scientific enquiry” by Sujit De, (ST Jan 16, 2019) I would say with all seriousness that we have to “alert ourselves” of false knowledge. Needless to say, it is more dangerous than ignorance. As in previous years, this year as well “Science Congress” (India) was in the eye of the storm. Who are the critics? What is their level of comprehension about ancient Indian science? I think it should rather be another matter of scientific enquiry. Scientists should not lose their cool or else they are not scientists! Yes, contrary to the rigid conviction of Sujit De, as one can conclude from his outright aversion to certain knowledge of the ancient sages, I would like to say again with utmost earnestness that it is Indian “sages” who were the “first” to propose that even the stream of scientific enquiry “could go astray” by the wrong line of thoughts et al. Well, what was held as “true” by a Newtonian group of scientists was disapproved when physicists like Niels Bohr, Schrodinger, and Heisenberg come up with Quantum Physics. Niels Bohr had a tough time convincing Albert Einstein about the ‘Uncertainty Principle’ of Werner Heisenberg.
Please do not call me a chauvinist, but the sages of India had always tried to delve deeper than the standard scientific inquiry— the fact has been well acknowledged by front-ranking group of western scientists. Indian sages intensely “doubted” the limited “sensory tools” and weak mind of a human being. So, they had come up with a profound discipline called YOGA. It is the “greatest” discovery of all time if we can fully understand its higher meaning and its purpose. I’m not saying here about the stretching and twisting of arms and legs but controlling the mind to climb to the higher dimensions of consciousness. This discipline can help connect one even to the super-soul and thereafter the “doer and the knowledge become one”. This mystic science emphasizes that it is not just about knowing and empirically explaining the material subjects/objects, but being in communion with the knowledge and a lot more.
Let me leave aside the technology of test-tube babies during Mahabharata and the like as we have not yet invented historiscope to look into history. Can we just undermine now the Shakespeare of the 16th century though the works attributed to him have been suspected of having been authored by Christopher Marlowe?
The Vedanta, including Mahabharata, Yoga Vasistha, Bhagavad Gita…, are based on this conception of communion with the Supreme Whole. This very profound idea had held great minds like Schrodinger who credited his insight into the discovery of the ideas related to Quantum Mechanics to this ancient knowledge, spellbound. Here is how the Nobel laureate eulogizes ancient Indian wisdom – “In all the world, there is no kind of framework within which we can find “consciousness in the plural”; this is simply something we construct because of the temporal plurality of individuals, but it is a false construction. The only solution to this conflict insofar as any is available to us at all lies in the ancient wisdom of the Upanishads.” If we deeply ponder over this small quote by Schrodinger, it should totally put our ripples of misgiving, and tenacious prejudices against India to rest. Is it not idiotic to call one limpy and cowardly who has already climbed Mount Everest 50 times? Don’t trust a fool who has not come out of the darkness of night but repeatedly says there are no stars in the sky! Yes, we can’t help those who have blinded themselves with the thick cover of ideologies and prejudices and set out to find fault-lines against some with certain purposes.
Finally, among many others, I will quote another great opinion by the father of Atomic Bomb, Robert J. Oppenheimer –“What we shall find in MODERN PHYSICS is an exemplification, an encouragement and refinement of Old Indian wisdom” (source –‘The Tao of Physics’ by Fritjof Capra). Had this nuclear scientist gone a little insane while expressing this thought? I totally agree that we should not take everything at face value. But at the same time, we should not look down on those profound riches that have come out of the womb of our own Mother. Now the West has given us enough appliances to scientifically verify many of them. Let the truth be given a chance to emerge out of the darkness of illusion. The sunshine of science should not at all be tempered with the cloud of prejudices and envy.
Yours etc.,
Salil Gewali,
Shillong-2