Scholar and philosopher-prince

THE EARTH HAS NO CORNERS - Felicitation Volume on the 70th Birthday of Dr. Karan Singh: K.L. Nandan -Editor; Shipra Publications, 115-A, Vikas Marg, Delhi -110093. Rs. 700.THE SUSPICION with which readers might start reading this collection of articles on Dr. Karan Singh on his 70th birthday that they may be panegyrics of praise by his admirers, will be quickly dispelled right in the first page with the Editor's note correctly presenting him as a philosopher-prince.

Dr. Karan Singh's writings and observations on the global society, the concept of time, Hinduism and its challenge, Swami Vivekananda and Science and Technology given at the end of the collection offers glimpses of a rich and restlessly exploring mind. The references he has made to the recapture of the ancient vision of the mystics in Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Stan Grof's Extended Cartography of the Psyche would thrill the readers and induce them to go in further pursuit of what he has said. His recollection of Arthur Koestler's suggestion about an "engineering defect in the human cortex" and its having made "man a creature programmed for self-destruction" and a poem by A.E. Housman about our having to "shoulder the sky" and "drink the ale" leaves a lasting ring about what we could know from an apt brevity on the one hand and a deceptive frivolousness on the other.

A very welcome and highly absorbing contribution from Dr. Jayant V. Narlikar would leave the readers asking for more after racing through his writing on Dark matter and Black holes in space and what it is made of. Even more arresting is his recollection of a verse from Isavasyopanishad about worlds without any suns, being surrounded by blinding darkness and an oft-told story about Brahma whose "moment" was the equivalent of a few thousand years on Earth.

Mr. Nandan straightaway draws the reader's attention to Dr. Karan Singh's perceptions of the duality of existence by quoting the lines from his own lyric:

"You can fill me with light and power.So that I shine like a meteor,

Against the darkness of the midnight sky

Or you can extinguish my spirit,

So that I can sink forever.''

A remarkable and highly cherishable addition to this collection is the one by Jagadguru Sri Sankaracharya of Kanchi written to Dr. Karan Singh's grandfather in reply to his letter of November 23, 1917. It is about the Acharya's tour of North India and his stay in Kashmir for sometime. His "Memorandum" mentions an astronomer who lived 1620 years ago in Kanchipuram and his son, a congenital deaf mute. A piece which does not quite fit in with the others in this collection but is very much relevant to what is happening in the sub-continent is from Syed Mir Qasim, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, and his recapitulation, hardly concealing his agony, over the turbulence in the State.

Writing for this felicitation volume has made it possible for the writers to grip the attention of the readers on how the various disciplines, which enrich scholarship, have their unique perceptions, which should explain the "recent almost explosive revival of scientific interest in human consciousness" which cannot be explained within the paradigms of our current science. An imaginary presence of Sri Aurobindo projected by Chaturvedi Badrinath in the company of Karan Singh in his "Forgiveness or Use of Force: Which is Superior?" is striking as it recalls the Pandavas and Draupadi after their being humiliated by Duryodhana and their having to fight deceit and injustice.

A highly significant observation by M. A. Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, made immediately after the partition of India revealing how he himself was realising the utter stupidity of his two- nation theory is recalled by P.N. Dhar in his essay. He quotes Jinnah as having told the Hindu and Muslim members of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly: "You are free to go to your temples or to any other place of worship in the State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed -- that has nothing to do with the business of the State. You will find in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense because that is the personal faith of each individual but in the political sense as citizens of the State." The nemesis of the two-nation theory could now be seen to be working itself out with the rebellious Mujahirs and their leader Altaf Hussain denouncing the theory at a rally in far off London on September 17, 2000. Mr. K. Natwar Singh's recollections on a "gentleman scholar" are about the bold steps taken by Dr. Karan Singh in dismissing and arresting Sheikh Abdullah in August 1953.

The devastation of India and the rest of Asia by the West was more destructive than the political imperialism they had to suffer for nearly two centuries from the fragmentation of their cultural traditions and the "homogenisation" of their society to a western milieu, says Daiseku Ikeda, President of Soka Gakkai International, one of "tallest leaders of Buddhism" and a friend of Dr. Karan Singh. He points out how irrelevant the advances in technology could become if the content and quality of communication is not enriched. This can only result in globalisation of the market economy turning out to be just a "stealing" from the less privileged developing economies.

Dr. T. N. Khoshoo, a former Secretary to the Union Government and currently Honorary Distinguished Fellow of the Tata Energy Research Institute, draws attention to the urgency of having to go for a second Green Revolution since the first one is already "browning out" and he lists a number of issues on which action will have to be taken starting with ensuring sustainable management and utilisation of resources, improving health and access to resources for weaker sections of women and making technologies eco-friendly. Charging the U.S. with the plunder of the resources of the Earth, he writes about how American greed could extend even beyond the Earth as its "techno-optimists have advocated that resources can be obtained even from neighbouring planets". There is a faint ray of hope about the ecological looting of Earth being stopped with hopes emerging about a "reverence towards and a reintegration or a coalition with nature".

Pointing out that ancient Hinduism was in fact very dynamic, Prof. Vida Nivas Mishra mentions that the Manu Smriti said that the laws enunciated by it "are subject to modification according to time and space". Presenting what the Earth would say if it could speak out in agony, Dr. Robert Mueller, Chancellor Emeritus of the U.N. University of Peace in Costa Rica, projects the chilling reality of 84,000 species heading towards extinction in the next 50 years and 685 hectares of productive dry land becoming desert every hour. The blueprint he draws up for the regeneration of the planet aims at making everything new starting from civilising its political system and going on to another new Renaissance.

Dr. M. S. Swaminathan's contribution is an agenda for Planet Earth for the 21st century covering education, nutrition security and gender code. "Experimental Studies of the Psychological Effects of Medicine" by Prof. Roger Walsh of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour, University of California, is quite a revealing presentation on the state of the human mind the first insights of which were about an "extraordinarily unaware, fantasy-filled and dreamlike and out of control". We are also told about the left and right cerebral hemispheres and their distinct, though overlapping functions.

Yet another contribution by Dr. Ponna Wignaraja, Chairman, South Asian Perspectives Network Association and Vice Chairman, Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation, gives the badly needed corrective to widely prevailing and wrong notions about Gandhiji who actually had crafted a "very forward looking kind of alternative modernity" to rescue the world from the acquisitive and the aggrandising power of its rulers. It also informs us about the very little known capabilities of the poor to save without having to depend upon the condescension of the rich and the powerful.

CVG

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