The Indian Youth
Some people say that India’s future is in the hands of our youth, and they alone can take the country forward towards prosperity. I regret I cannot agree :
It is true that generally youth are expected to have more idealism than older people, and therefore they can do much for the country. However there are three caveats to this :
(1) All Indian youth do not have the same thinking. While a few have scientific, analytical, modern minds, the vast majority are superficial, and reactionary, full of casteism and communalism. The proof of this are the caste and communal conflicts, physical fights, and caste discrimination which are often witnessed on the campuses of our educational institutions.
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-caste-still-deeply-entrenched-in-indian-society/
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/india-struggling-with-casteism-in-higher-education/2483623
(2) While a few of our youth are patriotic, most are utterly selfish, think only for themselves, and seek a comfortable job in the civil services, the corporate sector, or abroad, and care little or nothing for India.
So what can be expected of the latter ?
(3) An old person can be young mentally, and conversely, a physically young person can be old mentally. So it is not just one’s physical condition which makes a person young, it has more to do with his mind.
Our national aim must be to transform India from a backward country to a modern industrial giant, like USA or China, for only then can we abolish the great curses of massive poverty, unemployment, hunger, lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, etc., which have plagued our country for centuries.
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-the-task-before-indian-patriots/
In my opinion, we cannot achieve this goal unless we transform the feudal mindsets of the vast majority of our people, particularly our youth, which are presently full of casteism, communalism, and superstitions, and make them rational and scientific.
But how can that be done? Most people, including the youth, are conservative by nature, and do not like to change their views, and will strongly oppose attempts to change them.
It is easy to change the physical environment, like constructing a building, a road, or a bridge. It is 10 or 20 times more difficult to change the mindsets of people. That will require tremendous patience and perseverance on the part of our small, patriotic intelligentsia, who will often have to face abuses and brickbats by the bigoted people.
We may recall the decades-long struggle in France and other European countries in the 18th century against feudalism and religious bigotry by the thinkers of the Enlightenment like Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, and the French Encyclopedists, many of whom had to run from country to country to escape persecution.
Most people are religious, though the truth is that all religions are superstitions, and the truth lies in science, which is never final but ever developing.
http://justicekatju.blogspot.com/2016/07/religion-and-science-are-diametrically.html
So how will the feudal mindsets of most Indians, including our youth, be transformed and made modern and rational?
I submit it will be by a chain reaction, as in an atomic bomb. But unlike an atomic bomb which explodes almost instantly, the transformation of feudal mindsets into rational ones will be a long drawn, protracted affair, lasting over a decade or two. Let me explain.
When the small enlightened section of our people put forward a rational idea e.g. against the caste system, it is likely to receive tremendous hostility ( even by most of our youth ) by most upper castes, and even OBCs, whose ancestors have lived with feudal mindsets for centuries. Most Indian youth, being casteist and communal, will oppose such modern ideas tooth and nail, sometimes even taking recourse to violence.
However, the tiny number of enlightened youth must not lose heart on facing such hostility, but must patiently persevere in spreading rational and scientific ideas, and combating feudal ones.
Gradually, more and more people will realise the correctness of their ideas, and these in turn will spread them further, and so on. In other words, it will be a chain reaction, as stated above.
It is science which is the solution to the country’s real problems–massive poverty, massive unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition ( every second child in India is malnourished, according to Global Hunger Index ), skyrocketing price rise of food, fuel, and other essential commodities, rampant corruption, almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, etc.
Unless we spread science to every nook and corner of our country and get rid of backward feudal ideas and practices like casteism, communalism and superstitions (like astrology and faith in ‘Babas’), we can never solve our massive problems.
https://indicanews.com/astrology-and-palmistry/
https://indicanews.com/the-baba-bound-society/
By science I do not mean physics, chemistry, and biology alone. I mean the entire scientific outlook. By being modern I do not mean wearing a nice shirt or tie or suit, or a pretty sari or jeans or skirt. By being modern I mean developing a modern mind, which means a rational mind, a scientific mind, an analytical mind, a questioning mind.
Our ancestors were great because they questioned everything, like the ancient Greeks (see the works of Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, Bhaskar, Charak, Sushrut, Panini, Patanjali, etc).
https://indicanews.com/indians-were-once-leaders-in-science/
https://indicanews.com/indians-and-science/
Today our country is facing massive problems, as mentioned above. Our youth can play a great historical role in solving these problems and making India prosperous, but for that they must change their mindsets, and develop logical, scientific and questioning minds.
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-a-call-to-indian-patriots/
Above all, they must realise that a radical transformation of India from a backward to a highly developed country can only be achieved after a mighty historical people’s struggle and people’s revolution led by patriotic, modern minded leaders determined to create a political and social order under which the country rapidly industrialises, and our people start enjoying a high standard of living, and leading decent lives.
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-the-grand-indian-theorem/
https://justicekatju.com/the-masses-learn-only-by-bitter-experience-a66a863f1fbc
