While most of the great economies are preparing themselves to enter the fourth industrial revolution led by artificial intelligence, India still has not been able to resolve its differences without violence. Over 50 peoplelost their lives in the deadly Delhi communal riots. Its high time now for Indians to track down reasons why these riots happened at the very heart of the nation.

The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 by the Indian parliament and the following violent resistance to the legislation has been painful. It is disappointing to witness that the conflict resolution mechanism in India has still remained to be colonial, which is resorting to violence. In the recent case, the government, as well as the citizens both, have miserably failed to preserve the constitutional values that India needs to uphold.

The only reason for this failure is that we are more emotional rather than being more rational. Emotions, since colonial times, have been channelised by the state to run the daily affairs of the system. The sowing of the seed of communal hatred, rigidifying of the fluid caste system amongst the Hindus and the notion of martial race that still exists in our society are a few examples of it.

Although it is interesting to note that the founding fathers of modern India have utilised emotions of Indians based on rationality in throwing the British out of India, and later on leveraged it to lay the foundations of modern-day India. However, they also failed to use rationale to prevent partition based on flawed principles and the bloodshed that followed. Back then, letting emotions get swayed away through political propagandas was not exceptional, but what is the reason that we are letting them influence our emotions and behaviour even today?

Madness is rare in individualsbut in groups, parties, peoples, ages, it is the rule Friedrich Nietzsche

Keeping in mind what German scholar Friedrich Nietzche once said, it becomes our responsibility to identify the madness that is not uncommon particularly in groups and parties in the context of the politics in contemporary India. We need to keep emotions and behaviour aloof from this madness. Most importantly, what is expected to be the fourth pillar of the democracy media, has turned out to be the propaganda machine of these political groups and parties. Hence, while reading or watching news reporting you must be careful while shaping an opinion.

Throughout history, propaganda has been used as persuasion to mould the emotions, beliefs and behaviour of the individuals. When these individuals collectively act on the notions of protecting their community or religion as against those attacking it, often, it has been observed that it will end up inculcating violence and eventually will burn our own houses, similar to what happened in Delhi.

It is crucial to note that our founding fathers have already constituted one of the most beautiful and comprehensive contracts between the state and the citizens called the Constitution of India. It is not you but the constitution through its limbs of the state that is conferred with the responsibilities of protecting your community. If any one limb of the state fails to obey the mandate issued by the constitution, then the other one will check it so that nobody can harm you as well as your community.

In the end, if the citizens breach the faith in the giant contract, India will turn to chaos filled with immense hatred and absolute destruction. To prevent catastrophe, we all just need to be rational, keeping aside our emotions and not letting our behaviour oscillate because of the madness that several political groups and parties possess today.

Originally posted here:
Why Indians Need To Be More Rational Than Emotional When It Comes To Politics - Youth Ki Awaaz