A ‘Transforming India Conclave, 2024’ took place recently in Coimbatore. Tamilnadu.
While I do not doubt the bonafides and sincerity of the motive and desire of the speakers to see a transformation of India into a modern country, I doubt they had any correct idea how this transformation from a relatively underdeveloped country to a highly developed, highly industrialised, and highly prosperous country, with its people enjoying a high standard of living, can be achieved.
Our national aim must be to transform India from a backward country to a modern industrial giant, like the USA or China. Only then can we abolish the great curses of massive poverty, massive unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition ( every second child in India is malnourished, and the situation is getting worse, accoding to Global Hunger Index ), skyrocketing prices of essential commodities like food, fuel and medicines, lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, etc which have plagued us for centuries.
In my opinion, we cannot achieve this goal unless we transform the feudal mindsets of the vast majority of our people, which are full of casteism, communalism, and superstitions, and make them rational and scientific.
But how can that be done? Most people are conservative by nature and do not wish to change their feudal casteist and communal views, and they 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 from 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 be transformed and made modern and rational ?
I submit that while the small enlightened section of Indian society must spread rational and scientific ideas among the masses, that alone will not suffice. Most Indians are casteist and communal, i.e. having feudal mindsets, and few will change their views despite any amount of rational arguments and persuasion.
It is only a mighty, historical, protracted, people’s struggle and people’s revolution which can achieve this, and result in a radical transformation of our country into a modern, highly industrialised nation, with its people having modern, scientific mindsets. This people’s struggle, and transformation of the mindsets of our masses, will proceed hand in hand. In other words, the two will impact and influence each other.
This struggle, in which tremendous sacrifices will have to be made, must be led by patriotic, selfless, modern minded, leaders, who are determined to crush feudal ideas and practices like casteism, communalism, and superstitions, and create a modern, just, political and social order under which there is rapid industrialisation and modernisation, raising the standard of living of the people, and giving them decent lives.
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-the-coming-great-revolution-in-india/
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-a-call-to-indian-patriots/
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-the-future-of-india/
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-arghya-senguptas-superficiality-and-inanity/
But this is not possible within the prevalent system in India, and requires a people’s revolution.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/india-heading-revolution-markandey-katju
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/satyam-bruyat/a-french-revolution-is-approaching/
This is what the speakers in the ‘Transforming India Conclave, 2024’ had no inkling or clue about.
