BENGALURU: My work with denotified and nomadic communities and adivasis in Central India was based on the ideas of justice and equality. For over a thousand years, particularly during the medieval times, Sufis, saints, Sikhs and thinkers in India had brought in a great degree of humanism in religious thought.
During the colonial era, our freedom struggle emphasised non-violence and truth. After Independence, India was hoping to see the emergence of a scientific temper in society. I, born around the time India gained Independence, grew up valuing humanism, non-violence, truth and scientific temper as positive values.
At the turn of the millennium, we were told that the Third Millennium will be the knowledge epoch. Having struggled for long years to educate myself and having been a university teacher, I welcomed the idea. I firmly believe the ancient dictum, ‘Sa vidya yah vimuktaye (The one who gains knowledge becomes liberated).’
During the recent Lok Sabha elections, I, however, felt more alienated from the political class than ever before. The idea of dialogue was entirely absent in the discourse. It had only aggression, verbal assault, public humiliation and even intimidation. Women candidates were addressed in unacceptable language. The Code of Conduct was breached repeatedly, and the Election Commission behaved in a clearly biased manner. Truth was made a daily casualty by the hired battalions of social media mercenaries. Values such as truth and non-violence were dragged to the lowest depth, when the assassin of the Mahatma was hailed as a nationalist.
Government formation is going to be a long haul this time. I hope against hope that the new government will provide copies of dictionaries to ministers as well as the motormouths, in which words like democracy, diversity, dialogue, decency in public life, non-violence, truth, freedom, equality, justice, knowledge, humility and dignity of citizens are written in bold letters. I hope these dictionaries will explain the meaning of these terms in all Indian languages, south or north, east or west.