Youths of India

There are a number of important issues in respect of which there is among the youths of India, a discernible quest. A number of young people have expressed their wish to have an opportunity to discuss these issues with those leaders of thought in our country, whose views are likely to provide guidance to them

Youths of India

There are a number of important issues in respect of which there is among the youths of India, a discernible quest. A number of young people have expressed their wish to have an opportunity to discuss these issues with those leaders of thought in our country, whose views are likely to provide guidance to them.

These issues can be formulated as follows:

a) India has a long and uninterrupted history, and the present problems of India cannot be understood properly without having a synoptic view of this long history. Could this history be studied synoptically and in such a way that the problems of contemporary India can be understood in their proper perspective? What guidance can we get in this regard? What books or studies could be recommended?

b) What are the crucial issues of India today? Can there be a list of priority in respect of these issues?

c) It is often said that India’s basic problem is that of poverty. Right from 1947, this problem has been highlighted. What is the reason for not having been able to solve this problem, even though India has been free to devise its own ways for tackling this problem?

d) It has also been argued that a central problem of India is related to the integrity of India. What exactly is meant? Is it the presence of linguistic differences or religious differences or cultural differences or ethnic differences, which are responsible for the continuous threat of disintegration? How can this problem be resolved?

e) It has been argued that partition of India, which was not desired by the Indian leaders but which ultimately came to be imposed upon India, has been the main factor for the continuing weakness of India. Is it a correct assessment? What are the ways and means by which these weaknesses which are supposed to have arisen due to the partition of the country can be remedied?

f) It has also been argued that India could have solved its problems, if India were able to control its population. Since independence, India’s population has become three times bigger than what it was in 1947. We are now more than a billion people. What are the reasons for not controlling the growth of population in our country? And given the fact that we have now a huge population, how are we to secure desirable progress in the country? Or are we doomed to be constantly dragged backward on account of the pressure of population?

g) We talk today of the increasing productivity in the country. What is the real substance and truth about this productivity? Is this productivity adequate to meet even the basic needs of the country? If not, how are we to reach the level of productivity that is needed even at the minimum level, ‒ at the level at which nobody in India lives or is required to live below the poverty line?

h) Productivity depends upon several factors, including trained labour force, capital formation, management capabilities and infra-structural efficiency. What do you think should be done in our country to ensure that all these factors are combined optimally?

i) It has been contended that one of the greatest failures of the post- independent India is the inability of the country to produce adequate supply of electricity. Do you think that this is a correct assessment? Is it not a fact that there is a constant breakdown all over the country in the supply of electricity? Is it not a fact that load shedding has become a daily familiar phenomenon? No country can move forward with this kind of scenario. What do you think is the answer to this deplorable situation? Are there any studies on the issue and what are the prospects for the country to meet the energy needs and, that too, in the foreseeable future?

j) There are, we are told, deeper issues that we need to understand and resolve. For example, there is a serious problem in our country regarding the objectives of education, methods of education and contents of education. Despite several Reports on these issues, why is it that the country has not been able to provide education, and quality education, at all levels of the society? And how is it that the scheme of education designed and implemented by the British has not been changed, even though promises were made during the freedom struggle that free India will evolve a truly national system of education appropriate to the historical background of the country and appropriate to the national spirit as also to the increasing internationalism all over the world? Do you have vision regarding this problem? Do you have practicable suggestions? And do you think there is any literature on this subject which the youths can study for their guidance?

k) A serious problem in our country is related to work ethos. We see everywhere neglect of maximum effort and neglect of dedication that is required to produce tangible results. How to infuse the right work ethos in our country?

1. There are also deeper questions regarding the understanding of Indian culture. Various views and conflicting views are being presented and advocated. Youths of today are confused and hardly any comprehensive view is made available to the youths. How are we to understand our culture? How shall we be able to understand our identity as a nation and how are we to foster it in the context of powerful forces of globalisation?

m) There is also a serious problem in regard to India’s relationship with the neighbouring countries as also with other countries of the world, and particularly with the leading countries of the world. How are we to understand properly and adequately the issues of India as a member of the world? And how are we to stand effectively in the march of civilisation so that, on the one hand, we can foster our own identity and prosperity, and, on the other hand, we can make significant contribution to the advancement of humanity and human unity?

n) Patriotism was the great force in our country during the freedom struggle. We have seen how this spirit of patriotism has weakened over the decades. Why have we allowed the decline of this great spirit? And how shall we infuse the country with patriotism and with the spirit of commitment and dedication to the country as also to the largest interests of humanity?

o) There are, it has been said, specific problems in regard to the conflict of religions in the country. Are these conflicts real? Or are they being created? How are we to study these problems? And how are we to contribute to the resolution of these problems?

p) It has also been said that there is a great deal of confusion in our country in regard to the ideologies which are being advocated by different political parties. The conflicts of these ideologies seem to be more complex in India than anywhere else in the world. Can these ideologies be explained to the youths in an impartial manner so that the youths can assess them properly in the widest possible context and can arrive at their own conclusions after due thought and consideration?

q) It has been argued that our Constitution needs drastic changes. It has also been argued that there are thinkers in our country who have practicable suggestions for constitutional changes, but political parties do not allow these changes to be effected. Can the young people of today be explained how a new Constitution can be given to our country which will counteract effectively the criminalisation of politics, practices of corruption and use of money power and muscle power for gaining political power in the country? How shall we make new India worthy of the spirit of India and worthy of the great role that India has to play in the world at large?

r) It has been argued that there are specific problems that we must study in respect of India’s relationship with China, European Union and USA. What are these problems and how profitably can these problems be studied by the youths of India?

s) It has been contended that India has made great progress in scientific and industrial research. Can we get an authentic account of this advancement? And can we get a road map so that the youths of today can develop an appropriate vision? How can they contribute to the further advancement in scientific and industrial research?

t) We are speaking today of vision of 2020. Can we have more precision about this vision? In what way can we promote this vision? And how can the youths of today be empowered to develop bolder and bolder visions which would be appropriate to the greatness of India which has shown in the past long history of spiritual wisdom, intellectual robustness, and amazing vitality? It has been said that past is our foundation but the future has to be greater than the past. Will the youths of India get a vision whereby they can feel inspired to create a new India that should be greater than India of the past?

The great ideal of the brahmacharin has been the cornerstone of Indian culture and this ideal celebrates both youth and youthfulness. The central pillar of this ideal is the capacity to abide by a firm resolution to concentrate on the goal of highest realisation and not to deviate from study and practice of truth and dharma.

While this ideal may seem severe, we have also a playful ideal of youth and youthfulness which is illustrated in the life of Lord Krishna as a child, as a boy, as an adolescent and as a growing youth. Lord Krishna comes before us with all his charm and attractiveness, with his expanding capacity and heroism, with his bursting joy and love for his friends, for his companions and even for animals. The ideal of youth and youthfulness as illustrated in Lord Krishna has provided to Indian culture a constant inspiration to remain ever-fresh by a constant renewal.

Examples can be multiplied, but it is enough to point out that one of the secrets of India’s unbroken continuity can be traced to the theme of youthfulness which has always received the highest place in social life.

Today when we are at a critical stage of development and where things are disintegrating, we are in need of those elements of culture which would teach us the secret of integration. And youthfulness is the other name of integration.

I am happy that a number of themes have been chosen for this Conference and we are eager to learn from eminent scholars who will be speaking to us. We are sure that we shall be enriched in our knowledge, and I have no doubt that at the end of the experience of this Conference, we shall find ourselves to be younger than what we are now. For indeed knowledge is another name of youthfulness. And it is for this reason that knowledge was given the supreme importance in Indian culture. As Manusmriti declares:

न हायनैर्न पलितैर्न वित्तेन न बन्धुभिः । ऋषयश्चक्रिरे धर्मं योऽनूचानः स नो महान् ॥ १५४ ॥

Manusmriti 2.154

It is not by age or wealth or number of kins but by possession of knowledge that one gets eminence. So was ordained by the Rishis.

Youth and Youthfulness

I must congratulate Dr. Julius Lipner for organising this summer conference of 1996 under the auspices of Dharam Hinduja Institute of Indic Research. This Conference is the third in the series. The first one was on the Ethics of Bhagvad Gita and the second was on the theme of Yoga as a Body of Knowledge. Both these conferences were successful and they have stimulated a new current of thought, among the academics and also among the members of general public. This third Conference is dedicated to the theme of Youth and Youthfulness as we find it in the long tradition in India beginning with the Vedas right up to the present day, I believe that the theme of this Conference is well chosen, and Dr. Lipner and his colleagues have succeeded in bringing together experts and scholars who have made deep study of the multi-faceted literature of India on the subject of Youth and Youthfulness. I am sure that like the other two previous conferences, this Conference too will be highly successful.

It is significant that the highest ideal that was cherished in the Vedas was that of immortality. And if you study the concept of immortality, you will find that it is a sacred celebration of youthfulness. For immortality is transcendence of death and this can come only when there is a perennial realisation of ever Pure Being of the Supreme, which is indestructible, indivisible, and devoid of any limitations. In one of the verses of the Rigveda, Vibhus, the great Rishis who were able to attain to godhood, were celebrated because they could transform their old parents into a state of youthfulness. The Yajurveda, in one of its prayers, prays to the Brahman for the birth of children who may be illustrious for divine knowledge and who would be heroic warriors, capable of maintaining prosperity and greenery of youthfulness all over the country (see Yajurveda 22.22). The tradition of the Veda was very well continued in Ramayana and Mahabharata. The youthfulness of Rama has been very well described by Valamiki in glowing terms. His youthfulness is compared to an ocean in depth and to Himalayas in irresistibility; it is compared to Vishnu in prowess and the charm of the moon; it is also compared to the deluge fire in wrath and to the ever-young personified form of dharma which remains steady for ever in truthfulness.

In Mahabharata we have incomparable example of Abhimanyu who at the age of sixteen, could be equal to some of the greatest warriors of his time and who could meet all of them in one single battle and remain blazing right up to the end while fighting with all of them simultaneously single-handed, unhelped and even unarmed. In the story of Vidula again, in Mahabharata, we have a powerful address to a young prince by his mother, where he is asked to blaze up like a brand of fresh wood, and he is told that it is better to blaze up for a moment rather than to continue in a state of smoke forever and ever.

Youth Festival

18th YOUTH FESTIVAL OF THE PUNJAB UNIVERSITY

AT FEROZEFUR ON 9TH JANUARY, 1977

Inaugural Speech Youth by Kireet Joshi Educational Adviser, Ministry of Education & Social Welfare

At the outset, on this occasion of the inauguration of in Youth Festival, let me hail and salute the spirit and soul of the youth of India. Our call is to young India. For it is the young that is the central propelling force of the New Future. Whether we acknowledge it or not, the new future is in the making, and the modern youth is alive to it − consciously or unconsciously. His needs and aspirations have a meaning and significance. They are a call to a new dream and a new realisation. My appeal to everyone is to respond to the youth with a deep understanding.

The occasion of the youth festival which brings us together here is one of those which should be utilised more and more meaningfully for the widening and heightening of the cultural life of the country. Festival is an expression of joy, but joy expressed in the language of creative symbol and rhythm is aesthesis, art and culture. All expression, in fact, issues from Delight − Ananda, to use the Upanishadic term, − but all expression is not necessarily an adequate manifestation of Delight. And that is why all expression not necessarily aesthetic or artistic. To achieve Art, 1t is not enough to express. Much more is needed. Expression must embody manifestly the Delight. According to Indian Aesthetics, all expression has, behind it, a secret Rasa, but when that expression brings forth in its form, texture and vibration an inevitable rhythm and harmony, it achieves the consumption of the manifest Rasa − and that is the meaning and heart of Art in all its varied forms.

The degree and extent to which the consummation is achieved in the field of art in any nation gives us the index and measure of the Cultural efflorescence of that national life. It is true that Art is not the only component of culture, for culture has also the intellectual, ethical and spiritual components. But it can be safely said that even these components find their full value in physical life through their appropriate creative and artistic expressions. This is true even of spirituality, the main tendency of which is towards the Formless, the Timeless and the Spaceless. For if spirituality is to succeed in the physical life, this can be done potently and widely through its embodiment in perfectly cultivated artistic expressions. Conversely also, the artistic expression finds its zenith when it embodies the highest spiritual summits and widest vistas of vision

Such is the utility and glory of art taken in its widest sense. And therefore events of national life that relate to aesthetic Delight and delightful art are of great significance and deserve to be welcomed and cherished.

But youth festivals are yet of a greater significance even of crucial significance. For here we touch upon at deeper dimension, the dimension of education. This is Important particularly because our present system of education is geared merely to a process of some kind of training and it does not allow culture and cultural activities to play their right role in the development of personality. Culture in our system is merely incidental to the process of training. In the right system of education, however, culture must be the inspiring force of training, and the art of continuous progress must be the goal both of culture and training. In our present system we are obliged to consider cultural activities as extra-curricular activities. And this has an adverse effect on the value that is attached to activities of Drama, Music, Poetry, Dance and other forms, of Fine Arts. Very often, therefore, these activities are neglected or ignored and they come into play only in the context of cultural festivals or cultural programmes. The new system of education that we have to envisage must do away with the artificial distinction of curricular and extra-curricular, and cultural activities should be integrated as a part of a comprehensive programme of studies. In fact, culture must be a method of learning and provision must be made by which culture can permeate in the contents of studies. Thus, cultural activities will be more common and more widely spread among the students.

But in spite of the fact that culture does not receive the high place which it should in our educational system, it is heartening to note that the youth activity in the field of culture in our country has been remarkably constructive and creative, often bold in conception and quite brilliant in execution, especially in the Performing Arts. In fact, our youths have received a powerful influence of the post-Independence Renaissance, which is in several ways different from the pre-Independence Renaissance. During the pre-Independence Renaissance, there was freshness, profundity and aristocracy. The post-Independence Renaissance, however, is characterized by dissent and protest of youthful, artists, writers and performers. They have received the traditional forms and values, but changed them into powerful imaginative adaptations. For example, youthful play-writers and actors delved deep into the traditional heritage of the Indian theatre and their discoveries were highlighted in the work of the Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association which they had set up. The latest power of the traditional folk forms was utilised for some brilliant creations and it was due to such efforts that music found its rightful place in drama and brought into vogue such unsophisticated instruments as the nagara and manjira. The creative revival of the old folk theatre attracts big audiences in large cities. The free and uninhibited expression and the flexibility in the presentation or dramatic events characterizing folk theatre has given rise to new forms in the writing of these plays. Young writers and performers display remarkable freedom and frankness in their expression of themes which often takes the form of strong and biting criticism of the Establishment. The search of the youth for new folk forms leads not only to new art forms, but also a deep understanding of the rural masses of the traditional culture and their ways of life. These youthful critics of the Establishment often highlight topical events to ridicule the high and mighty in the poetical, social and religious spheres.

The post-Independence musical scene of India is more complicated, and it is being more and more influenced by the mass media, specially the radio and the films. Some of the youthful musicians have also been influenced by the Pop and Jazz elements of Western music and the western type of harmonised music is being blended by them with the traditional melodic pattern. It is true that the older artists follow the classical traditions in music, but they have begun to find themselves at a disadvantage now, and the more dynamic among them are experimenting with new modes and methods under the influence of the new winds of the social and cultural change that is taking place all over the world. Apart from theatre and music, new initiatives have been taken by the youth in other artistic fields, visual arts and literature. Young writers have written significant novels, stories and poems, And in all fields of cultural activities, the young have broken away from old forms and traditional, and the recent efflorescence owes much to their resourceful efforts and enthusiasm. I have no doubt that in the Youth Festival which begins here today; we shall have several examples of such innovative efforts of the youths of the Punjab University.

But there are some deeper questions of the functions of art to which we must address ourselves. The post-Independence India has still not discovered the real source and spirit of the ever-living Indian culture. There is still too much of imitation and even superficiality. There is too much of adaptation, and art is being reduced to the level of mere entertainment and amusement. Often, there is an evident tendency to descend into vulgarity and obscenity. This is the danger against which we need to give a strong caution. Not that art should not be a means of entertainment, but our effort must be to transform all entertainment into a refined aesthetic experience. It is true that aesthetics is not ethics, that art is not morality, that art does not prescribe. But, at the same time, we must underline that aesthetics is a great door of revelation of wonder and mystery. And in that sense, although art may not give us prescriptions, it does give us perceptions. And, it may be added that more often than not, these perceptions are the purificaters of our ordinary life. Art need not become morality in order to become an instrument of purification and transformation. Art must move on its own lines, and we find that the highest forms of art are the most powerful instruments of uplifting man out of his present mixed nature by giving him the contact; and perception of the ineffable Beauty and Truth.

We need not be the western way, American or European. We need not make art an instrument of commercialism and vulgarity. We must make art an instrument of joy and progress that reveals to us the deeper and higher vistas of our being and existence. We need not be poor in our themes. We need not be cheap in our subjects. The world is wonderful and daily there are fresh revelations of the wonderful secrets of this world. There is an explosion of knowledge, and we are at the head of a new age of synthesis. The future presents to us a most difficult challenge, and we are obliged to bring the East and the West together and to cast all the influences which come to us into the large and international Indian culture. We need a deeper Renaissance of art, music, dance, drama, literature, and we are in need of utilising our talents and gifts in the creation of newer forms surcharged with nobler themes and undying inspiration. It is therefore necessary that occasions such as these Youth Festivals are dedicated to the cause of a greater Renaissance of Indian culture. This is my central plea to the youths of our country.

I have no doubt that the modern youth has immense potentialities to fulfil the task of meeting the challenges of the greater Renaissance of which we have spoken. For the gaze of the modern youth extends today to the distant horizons of the universe. He has witnessed the launching of the spaceships and the meeting of the astronauts and cosmonauts in the open heavens of endless expansion. To him, the earth is a planet seen from far and from above. In his ideal vision of himself, he is a voyager of Space and Time, and a neighbour of the Moon and Jupiter. The modern youth is an internationalist and a lover of science. To his inborn sense of idealism, the divisions of the world, political blocks of humanity, discriminations of religion, race and colour are unreal. The aspirations of the modern youth transcend the limitations of ordinary manhood and the ordinary culture of the ordinary man. The modern youth is a seeker of a greater culture, of a greater manhood or of supermanhood. In these aspirations, we have the promise of a better tomorrow. And in this promise, we rejoice and move forward in the hope that what we are seeking we shall achieve.

Against the forces that resist the birth of the New World, there is, let us affirm, a great gust and a deep yearning to discover or to find the key to transfer the divided world into a happy family of man. This is the universal thrust towards the Future and it is in this drive that India has to take up her right role, the leading role. The children and the youth of India are to be prepared for this great work, so that they are able to contribute mightily and creatively to the new creation. To participate in this work, all the youths of India need to be invited, and this Festival can be a fitting occasion for extending this invitation.

With these words I inaugurate this Festival.

Jai Hind