Warning: A Closed Mind is a Dead Mind - T.J.S. George

Disclaimer: The content below is a total reproduction in its entirety of a column by T.J.S. George that ran in the New Indian Express on Sunday, October 23, 2005. The only reason for this total reproduction is that I am not sure of access to this excellent op-ed piece without a login ID.

In case you would rather read it off of the horse's mouth, go --->here<---.

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It's a month since A.B. Vajpayee made the most visionary statement of post-Nehru India. He told his partymen in Delhi: "There can be no restrictions on thought, which is a constantly evolving process. There should be room for fresh thoughts and ideas."

Simple words, but they encapsulate the best of philosophy, political theory, social history and wisdom. Unfortunately the theme has not been taken up for any kind of debate. In the Indian-BJP context, the words immediately got mixed up with the Advani-RSS controversy. But the idea expressed by Vajpayee has a wider universal dimension and all our parties can profit from quietly digesting the meaning of his words.

Not running away from controversy, Vajpayee explained: "It is difficult to pinpoint the final principle of any ideology. It is therefore not right to adopt an attitude that what we have accepted as the final principle of our ideology is the ultimate truth. It is essential that our ideology stands the test of being beneficial for humankind as a whole. The thought process will not come to a halt at any time."

Vajpayee was merely putting in words what history has repeatedly taught us. The ideology of capitalism survived only because it yielded to evolving thought and ceased being a system of cruel Robber Baron exploitation. The ideology of Soviet Communism failed precisely because it refused to give up its rigidities. By contrast the ideology of Chinese communism has withstood the pressures of globalisation by bending with the wind.

In moderistic terms, the British Labour Party changed its ideology from "trade unionism right or wrong" to "trade unionism for growth." Countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, while adhering to their Islamic ideology, have not allowed it to stand in the way of progress. In such an entrenched political system as Japan, Prime Minister Koizumi recently won re-election with one of the largest parliamentary majorities in modern history with a plank of radical reform.

All these are the results of paying heed to the constantly evolving process of thought, of recognising that ideologies do not have full stops. Putting a full stop means closing the mind. Fundamentalist ideologies, whether religious or political, close the minds of their followers so that unapproved thoughts won't enter them. They destroy questioning minds lest questioning minds destroy them.

Political-philosophical schools that have found acceptance in history are based on the twin principles of individual liberty and the equality of people _ precisely the principles that are anathema to fundamentalists, be they fascists or Stalinists, Taliban or Bajrang Dal.

There was mass suppression of writers in Stalin's Soviet Union; according to KGB archives 1500 writers perished, many hundreds were exiled into Siberia. Fascist regimes in Europe regularly burned whole libraries of books. Taliban shot the Bamiyan Buddha into dust. Pol Pot's first order in Cambodia was to kill every citizen who had had an education. Why, during emergency time, Kerala's Youth Congress, aided by the police, burned several public libraries in North Malabar because they had been established by the Communists.

The slogan popularised by Mussolini's Italy said it all: "To believe. To obey. To Combat." Rather different from the theme of the French Revolution: "Liberty, equality, fraternity." Today Italian fascism is gone. Pol Pot, Stalinism and the Emergency are gone. The spirit of the French Revolution remains as a permanent ispiration to people. Vajpayee didn't say it in so many words. But the meaning of what he said was: "My friends, change with the times. Or you'll be gone too."
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