THE POWER OF RESISTANCE

:P

For students like us with science drilled so deep within our heads, the first imprint on our minds for the word resistance is just the tiny two terminal device we so hate in the electronics lab. But take a break guys, in the mad rush of everyday we have forgotten the magnificent role this noun can play in our lives.

Each of our day is filled up with numerous whinings about one or the other omnipresent problems, say injustice, corruption, pollution or even terrorism. Even if we open our eyes to these problems and mutely support leaders like Anna Hazare, we seem to forget that each one of us can be a leader and solve these problems for ourselves through the sheer power of resistance. Resistance basically means offering an opposing or retarding force. Isn’t opposition to something wrong and conviction in one’s cause, all it takes to battle any evil gripping our society.

Corruption would not have taken such an incurable form in the country and become incombatible unless a separate constitutional body is established for it. Handing a 100 rupee note to the traffic cop and  breaking rules the very next day is a shortcut which shouldn’t be taken. The key is resistance to corruption. We must not forget that somebody who turns a blind eye to a pressing problem is as guilty as its propagator. The same argument is applicable to terrorism and the violent side of Naxalism as well. Resistance to these would have been in the form of the economically deprived or the other discriminated sections resisting their respective governments’ indifference and waging a peaceful war for their rights. The priviledged class should also not have ignored the governments’ apathy towards their counterparts and used their erstwhile position of advantage to resist this extreme wrong by the so-called people’s representatives. As economic and rights deprivation are the root causes for terrorism and Naxalism, these would have been successfully nipped in the bud itself and not become a pan-world or pan-India problem!

History gives us many illustrious examples of the breakthroughs in science or battles won against atrocities of cruel rulers through resistance in the form of an inhibited spirit for fight and not fearing the harsh, inhuman punishments of those times. In an age of church principles being blindly followed, we would never have got epistemology and logic, had it not been for socrates and his resistive will power. Nor would we have had the astrophysics of today if galileo would have remained a nobody fearing the church. The french society would not have been of the form today without the fearlessly resistive group of the Jacobins or the many philosophers Voltaire, Rouseaue.

In conclusion on tracing the timeline of all the long standing problems in the world or india, be it gender,class,caste or racial discrimination, poverty, population boom or even pollution for that matter, have a simple solution i.e. resistance to their root causes. So people, awaken the dormant power of resistance in you and shape the world and our country in the way you want rather than waiting for somebody to do so. Just resist and feel the difference you can make!!!

BEING ADEPT AT ADAPTATION!!

The thought train preceding this article came from an interesting personal experience which goes as follows. Due to an unexpected increase in the strength of girls in my batch and only two girls’ hostels in my college, it was decided to have double sharing in single rooms. Naturally the fact was omitted from the admissions brochure. Initially there was a hue and cry with promises to provide separate rooms by December. However, the year ended and now we all are shifting to the senior hostel. When a senior had exclaimed at the fact that how we were managing, I had said with a sudden literary flair, “Humans are very adept at adaptation!”

It was only then that I gave a deeper thought to this statement and found it to be an accurate observation. While biologists may disagree, apart from the chameleon’s camouflage prowess, I don’t think any species can match up to the adaptive power of the “homo sapiens”. Adaptation, since times immemorial, has been projected in a good light. “Survival of the fittest” indirectly implies “survival of the most adaptable”. It is almost a power. As a result, we have ignored that there can be a darker side to this ability of ours.

To understand this let us look at it from the current human angle. Our ancestors’ practices of making the best of things available around, in order to establish civilisations, were one of the best forms of adaptation. No doubts in that, but what about today’s world? How many times have we differentiated between “adapting” and “giving in”? Taking the example cited above, none of us actually made an effort to resist the decision, but willingly “adapted” to the small spaces provided to us. In a similar fashion we find that people instead of complaining to the municipalities about the mosquito, garbage or sewer over flow menaces, prefer to make their homes insect or stench-free. Far from protesting against the holding-up of work due to unreasonable union strikes, they draw pleasure out of the free time. Instead of resisting corrupt practices, they make their way out via supply of crisp notes at the appropriate places. Even gender discrimination is the result of mute adaptation of the fairer sex to the illogical rules of the patriarchal society. For example, girls wearing western outfits are usually disgustingly branded to provoke eve teasers!!! In rural areas, the lack of basic amenities and the persistence of social evils like caste discrimination, child marriage, female infanticide etc., has become a way of life. The notorious khap panchayats or kangaroo courts have yet to be eliminated despite the inhuman crimes (read justice meted out) by them. Lastly, living in a democracy, citizens have labelled politics as a dirty, dark corridor and responsible for all the problems imaginable, making no effort to change it. Participation is still a far cry. In short everyone (that includes me n you too!) has very “efficiently adapted” to the system, making no effort to change it. ( well pretty much like the creature below!!!)

This essentially outlines the fall of the ability of adaptation. It becomes a means of giving in and contending with whatever we have. No efforts are made to try out something new, exploring our unexplored powers of bringing about a change. We become so happy in the imaginary “adaptive comfort zone” created by us that we fear to venture out. We lose our will to challenge anything anymore. So therefore it follows that it is up to us to decide when we are adapting and when giving in. Adaptation is good until it does not hamper one’s progress, willingness to fight what is wrong and not give up until we have explored every possibility. After all the quest to achieve more and move up in life is the driving wheel for the train of development of not just our society, but the nation and thereby the world.