|
|
Perspective
Global Problems
India and the World
by
Rajesh Talwar
 Many
years ago, Rabindranath Tagore wrote that the problems of India today
are the problems of the world tomorrow. His prescience is astonishing
because half a century later it appears clear that the problems of India
will be the problems of the world in not so much time if they are not so
already. Despite its recent economic growth, whether it is the
degradation of land, its burgeoning population, problems with democracy,
the urban –rural divide – all these questions have a resonance with
issues and problems in other parts of the globe. In a sense therefore
when a writer writes about the problems of India he is simultaneously
writing about the problems of the world.
Can anyone write about the problems of the world today with a
combination of simplicity and wisdom or is the modern world simply too
complicated for this? Where would someone start were he to attempt such
a monumental undertaking? He would certainly look at broad facts and
information concerning important issues, but would this provide
sufficient material for proper analysis.
Each major global problem has hundreds of ramifications and thousands of
articles and essays have been written about them but if one were to
incorporate references to all those studies, simplicity would go out of
the window.
If simplicity is affected the next casualty is dissemination, for very
few people will understand an argument that is not simply presented.
This lack of communication is fatal in the social sciences even though
it may not pose a problem on scientific issues. Very few people in the
world understood Einstein’s theory of relativity but it did not stop the
Americans from making (and indeed dropping) the atom bomb.
We are in an age of super specialization and this is not only in the
physical sciences but also in the social sciences. Researchers don’t
take out time to write books anymore for fear that their writings will
be outdated. Academics concentrate on having their articles published in
scholarly journals for in academic life they have to either publish or
perish. While inter-disciplinary approaches are welcomed in academia,
few are willing to take the risk of combining three or four different
social sciences. In doing so, they forget that knowledge is a unity and
its division into the physical and social sciences is to help people
make concentrated efforts. In the academic world we are all like moles
burrowing into the ground, but we need to take the utmost care that our
focus does not become too narrow and we must not lose sight of the
bigger picture.
The modern way of producing a book on global problems and their
solutions is not to write it, but first to establish an
interdisciplinary committee to decide what are the global problems and
once these had been determined to ask globally acknowledged experts to
write a chapter each on the global problems of the world.
This may seem the best way to proceed, but it is this writer’s modest
assertion that it is not. Such an approach is flawed on two accounts.
Firstly, there is a hidden assumption here that one can study each
global problem in isolation and therefore we should hire an expert in
demography to write on population issues, an expert in post conflict
resolution to write on conflicts around the globe and so on and forth.
The second problem with such an approach is since there are many writers
working on separate problems the nature of discourse in each individual
chapter can be very different. Each writer is coming with a different
background and while this can in some cases be a strength it is more
likely to be a failing in the presentation of a composite work of this
nature.
There is quite often a third problem in such an approach and that is
that is has been funded by an organization which is not bipartisan. In
other words there is possibly a grant of several million dollars to have
such a study conducted for these experts do not come cheap and
consultants will need to be hired in the organization of this venture.
Committee members who determine what are the global problems will have
to be flown in from different parts of the world to a specific central
located, housed in five star accommodation and provided secretarial
help. A secretariat will need to be set up to organize the event and
there will be additionally consultants on loan or on appointments of
limited duration who will be paid to organize everything.
Nothing wrong with this, it could be argued.
I would not agree. There is a purity to work that is done (even academic
work) without any thought of benefit or reward. Also, those who fund
such an undertaking quite often have a not so apparent, hidden agenda
and the recommendations may therefore not follow the studies but precede
them!
The problems of India today are the problems of the world tomorrow,
wrote Rabindranath Tagore many decades ago and his prediction has come
true. Growing up in India provides a writer with a unique qualification
to think not only about the problems of India but the problems of the
world for the two are no longer separate.
November
5, 2006
Image under
license with Gettyimages.com
Top
|
Perspective
The Week of November 5, 2006
The Knives are out? - Natware-Sonia Spat May Just
be the Start by Rajinder Puri
Policies, Poverty, Parasites and pandemics by
Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel: India's Iron Man
by Dr. Subhash Kapila
Reliving Legacy of the Cholas by Col. Rahul K.
Bhonsle
Nation Building, IITians and Happiness by
Dr. Anil K. Rajvanshi
Moustache of Mahatma by J. Ajithkumar
Gandhi, Gandhigiri and Gyan-Doo by Julia
Dutta
The Day Mohandas Could Not Talk by CR
Gopalakrishna
'No' to the days of Catherine De' Medici and
Borgia by V. Sundaram
An Exploration of the Ultimate Reality by
TA Ramesh
The Quiet Transformers by Attreyee Roy
Chowdhury
Global Problems: India and the World by
Rajesh Talwar
Out of Control and Pseudo-mature Teens by
Gary Direnfeld
Integration of the Blind in the era of
Globalization by Arun Arjun Kurkute
Land of Sixty Lakes Obscured by Landslides!
by VK Joshi
In the Line of Fire by Kalpana Pradhan
Cocktail Hunting by Naiya Sivaraj
A Stroll through the Old City by Yamini
Ayyagari
Keep Distance...I'm prepairing for IAS by Ravi
Pipal
Gatherings by Michael Levy
Sorry Sir! by Ashwini Ahuja
Attempt to Murder by Wangdi Gyalpo
Flatulence of English by G. Swaminathan
Ten Decorating Hurdles by Rekha I Nambiar
Beauty as the Beast by Gagandeep Kaur
Reinterpreting Ramayana by Deepti Priya
Mehrotra
The Veil Goes High Fashion by Shuriah Niazi
New Bricks in the Wall by Rong Jiaojiao
What Makes Children Happy? by Barbara Lewis
Surveying the Family by Kajal Basu
Is MGM Dizzee World really a fun place to be?
by Deepa Ravi
Village Planning: Making a Difference for
Communities in Madhya Pradesh by Anil Gulati
|
|
