Sunday, 4 April 2021

A metaphor for today - Sunny Narang

 

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Wish we could find today's symbolisim, today's act, to link together people across class and caste and region, in a spirit of sacrifice. Today's charkha.

17 Comments

    • Sunny Narang
      "Charkha" was not spirit of sacrifice , it was spirit of meditative productivity 
      Aparna
      . Charkha is about creating sutra from the chaos of cotton or wool . The sutra from which the weaver , made the fabric that is samaaj . The symbolic act was that unless each one of us spin or meditate , no weaver like Gandhi and many like him could make a community . Without personal creativity there can be no community or sustainability . Gandhi also had an external enemy , the White Man . Now we do not believe in human "production" , that is outsourced to the machine , and we have no common enemy . Now the metaphor for society does'nt exist for we are consumers and service-providers and live in a market . Both words you are using "spirit" and "sacrifice" are against the material basis of modern markets and personal success . These principles held in another time .
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    • Sunny Narang
      Btw , Tagore had no respect for Gandhi's campaign for the Charkha , his essay "Cult of the Charkha" is worth reading : "There are many who assert and some who believe that swaraj can be attained by the charkha, but I have yet to meet a person who has a clear idea of the process. That is why there is no discussion, but only quarreling over the question. If I state that it is not possible to repel foreign invaders armed with guns and cannons by the indigenous bow and arrow, there will I suppose be still some to contradict me asking, ‘Why not?’ It has already been said by some, "Would not the foreigners be drowned even if every one of our three hundred and thirty millions were only to spit at them?" While not denying the fearsomeness of such a flood, or the efficacy of such a suggestion, for throwing odium on foreign military science, the difficulty which my mind feels to be insuperable is that you can never get all these millions even to spit in unison. It is too simple for human beings. The same difficulty applies to the charkha solution." http://www.swaraj.org/tagorecult.htm
      Cult of the Charkha
      SWARAJ.ORG
      Cult of the Charkha
      Cult of the Charkha
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    • Sunny Narang
      In the Modern Free World, the deepest aspiration is Individuality perpetually in rebellion of the Group , just the desire you have of getting people together is of no real interest to most moderns anyways . For the villagers , their traditional communities keep them away now vitiated by modern politics of vote-banks . The competitive nature of elective democracy was the anti-thesis of Gandhi's vision of leaders selected by consensus , not blind vote . What blind vote does is actually create the biggest social lie, you can never know who supports you really , as his support is never verifiable when it matters .
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    • Aparna Krishnan
      But we need to craft a metaphor. Towards a collective process. Otherwise its all over.
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    • Sunny Narang
      There are only Geo-politics powers now. Tell me of one successful mass movement or people's movement since decades . Modern Bureaucracy , State Power , Technology , dependence on Welfare State and shift of real production in a huge global mesh has made politics actually irrelevant . Everything now is astro-turfed that is led by media and funds .
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    • Komakkambedu Himakiran
      Can't India show the way? Can't we show India the way?
      Isn't economic or political power about forex reserves? Self sustained economic practices can lead to decrease in imports and increase in exports. India can produce organic food for the world, the advantages we have in that space mainly 3-4 seasons of farming and huge livestock wealth are unmatched elsewhere. We can produce organic food, process the same and export to the world.
      Throughout history, if anyone came to India it was for the produce of this land.
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    • Aparna Krishnan
      That one concept that can fire the imagination of people, and pull them together in a common 'mission' ? Khadi, handloom, seeds, cows ... ?
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      • 5y
    • Komakkambedu Himakiran
      It has to be multiple things at the same time. For me native cattle and seeds do it, for some it would be Khadi...
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      • 5y
    • Sunny Narang
      The only pathway is via a sustainability ideology , that is based on a habitat system that reduces energy usage in the whole system , and via organic , hybrid everything . Even organic farming needs tools . So it has to be relevant technology . The only thread that can bring together people is a combination of a spiritual-cultural rooting back in human relationships and communities along with techno-economic solutions . The best techno-economic solutions do not work without a poet , without an imagination . Tagore , Bharati , and hundreds of others were there in every region .
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      • 5y
    • Komakkambedu Himakiran
      Spot on, Bharathi is enough for us to take on the world; His one line, "if a single man doesn't get food, we will burn the world" is what we need to get us going. There is another song of his that just channels the rage within. Will find a decent translation and post it.
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    • Aparna Krishnan
      Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula
       but someone said that in currenrt times, if he said this, he will be jailed as a maoist. we live in degenerate times.
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    • Aparna Krishnan
      Sunny Narang
       yes, we need poetry, songs, bhakti songs as rooted in the indian mindset. maybe those songs will be the common thread. yes, tagore and bharati and everyone else.
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    • Sunny Narang
      There also needs to be songs of joy and celebration beyond consumption , that smell of the dung and soft soil , of rivers and nature . Without love there can be no transformation . Anger only goes so far .
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    • Aparna Krishnan
      both. every human and godly emotion !!
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    • Komakkambedu Himakiran
      Bharathi's best to rouse us up!
      தேடிச் சோறுநிதம் தின்று
      பல சின்னஞ்சிறு கதைகள் பேசி
      மனம் வாடித் துன்பமிக உழன்று
      பிறர் வாட பலசெயல்கள் செய்து
      நரை கூடி கிழப்பருவ மெய்தி
      கொடும் கூற்றுக் கிரையெனப்பின் மாயும்
      பல வேடிக்கை மனிதரை போலே
      நான் வீழ்வேனென்று நினைத் தாயோ?
      Thedi choru nidham thindru
      pala chinnanjiru kadhaigal pesi
      manam vaadi thunbamiga uzhandru
      pirar vaada pala seyalgal seidhu
      narai koodi kizha paruvam eidhi
      kodum kootruk kiraiyenappin maayum
      pala vedikkai manidharai pole
      naan veezhven endre ninaithayo?
      People whose only goal is to search (scavenging) for their next meal,
      those who are engaged in constant small talk about worthless things ( like their past/finding faults in others),
      as a result their minds have wilted and in constant mental despair and agony,
      those who committed deeds with the motive of hurting many,
      those who are growing old , evident with the greying hair (without achieving anything else),
      and then would succumb to the cruel fate of death in the end,
      Like these risible people,
      Did you think that I will fall prey to these follies?
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