Blowing hot and cold in the debates on supposed interference in religious precepts and practices, as well as, creating disturbances at the drop of a hat, on imagined affront to religious sentiments is almost a 365 day affair. The interesting part is that neither the participants nor the anchors ever, unambiguously, define the issue being debated, Prof HC Pande
Some years ago, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, wrote ‘The Argumentative Indian’, six decades earlier, Max Lerner, an eminent American columnist, on his first visit to India, remarked that Indians are the talkin gest people in the World, and, Vishnu Sharma in the introductory quatrain, in the millennia old, Panchatantra, began with “Since the science of arguments has no final end”. Clearly, it is the continuing argument that is our article of faith and reaching any conclusion, good bad, or indifferent as it may be, is not the goal at all and is never arrived at.
In mathematical terms it is akin to an infinite series of numbers, where each successive term may become smaller and smaller but never reaches zero and the series is divergent i.e. not summable. No wonder, Indians, having invented the zero and consequently the number series,fall for,not one or two,but for the whole series of arguments which never end.
The technology of persistent arguments in no rocket science.All one has to do is to start arguing,without precisely defining the topic.There are any number of examples but one need look up just one or two to make the point.
Blowing hot and cold in the debates on supposed interference in religious precepts and practices, as well as, creating disturbances at the drop of a hat, on imagined affront to religious sentiments is almost a 365 day affair. The interesting part is that neither the participants nor the anchors ever, unambiguously, define the issue being debated.What is religion? Is it a just a book to be read daily or a set of rituals or a dress-code or the celebrations on certain days or forbidding certain food & drinks or chanting verses without understanding or a set of values and so on.Since the subject matter is unbounded,any conclusion is not possible as each proponent is holding on to his own perception of the topic.In simple terms it is the blind men and the elephant parable.Each person feeling just a part of the whole and there being no common ground for comparison.The debates therefore can never be conclusive and serve only to muddy the waters further.
Another fiery topic of discussion these days is democracy.Here again the basic concept is side stepped and red herrings are strewn all over.The immutability of the constitution,freedom of speech,and human rights,are recalled ad nauseam.
The fact that the constitution has not descended from the heavens but has been framed by the people and can be amended,that the domain of the freedom of speech excludes the vast expanse of lies,abuses and hate speeches,and,that human rights are not to be upheld to protect human wrongs is never considered.It goes without saying that unless axioms are defined any discourse is meaningless.
(Prof. H C Pande is Vice Chancellor Emeritus , BITS, Mesra)
