Dr. Samani Shashi Pragya
Tīrthankar Mahavira, 2600 years back claimed that ekkā manussa Jāī i.e. ‘Human race is one’. He never discriminated any human on the basis of his birth, colour, profession, religion, country, etc. He established the novel notion of oneness of Humanity on the basis of one's action. The criteria for a human lies in the virtue of compassion, sympathy, affection, service, and in the acts of benevolence. He propounded in Uttaradhyanna Sūtra that man is brahmin, śudra, kaśtriya and vaiśya not by birth but by action[1] Noble thoughts and actions justifies the human nature. He abolished the practice of considering one person as high or low on the basis of one's birth, and re-established the merit of action in the world of disparity.
In Veda-s it is quoted, ''Amrutasya putraṁ vayaṁ'', i.e. we all are the sons of the same God.''Ātmavat Sarvabhuteṣu'', i.e. behold all living beings as of equal intrinsic values as of oneself. ''Vishaṁ eka needaṁ'', i.e. the whole universe is single, all supporting trees keep suggesting for peaceful co-existence without discriminating between one man and the other on the narrow principles of class, colour, languages, province, caste or creed. Today we see that there is a kind of absolute notion of sexual superiority, colour superiority, caste superiority, class, country and religious superiority which is creating reactive violence and inhuman behaviour in the name of untouchable considering the other as inferior due to the one-sided outlook.
The outstanding philosopher of the day Richard Rorty has discussed the cause of distinction between male and female. In male dominated society, only male are considered as human beings as they possess rationality. Women are emotional, so they are not human beings. This kind of approach is threatening for the human solidarity. It is conceived that nine out of ten men or women, are firmly convinced of the superior excellence of their own sex. There is abundant evidence on both sides. If you are a man, you can point out that most poets and scientists are male; if you are a women, you can retort criminals. This question is inherently insoluble, until the anekantic perspective is taken into the consideration.
Today disputes between man or states or countries is because their views vary. Views are bound to differ, because we are guided by different conditions, thoughts, modes and attitudes. Hence it is wrong to think oneself right and rest others wrong.["] We are all, which ever part of the world,we come from, persuaded that our own nation is superior to all others. Seeing that each nation has its characteristic merits and demerits, we adjust our standard of values so as to make out that the merits possessed by our nation are the really important ones, while its demerits are comparatively trivial. The only way I know of dealing with this general human conceit is to remind ourselves that man is a brief episode in the life of a small planet, in a little corner of the universe, and that for aught we know, other parts of the cosmos may contain beings superior to ourselves as we are to jelly fish. It is multi-dimensional perspective which envisages us to just turn our global perspective by recognizing the existence of the other human as human.
During Gandhian period(1869-1949), our history witnessed the śudras that were considered as untouchables and they were prohibited to enter into temples, their children's were not allowed to admit in certain schools, they were not allowed to touch the water pot and even touch the Brahmins. If any śudra violated this, he would be punished severely. The novel-'Untouchable' written by Mulkaraj Anand highlights the social behaviour with śudras. In this novel, he writes,''they clean our dirt, so they are untouchable.If it is so then every one of us are untouchable as we also clean our dirt''. Such open-mindedness in thought is the need of the hour.
The central philosophy of Richard Rorty is achievement of Human solidarity i.e. to consider the other person not like external, outsider or foreigner, but as one amongst us. Rorty has given five examples how it threatened the human relationship during IInd world war by Nazis led by Hitler claimed that only Germans have pure blue blood. All the rest are like animals, so let us kill and make the world of Germans. Due to this one-dimensional perspective lakhs of Jews were killed in concentration camp.
Even the inhuman behaviour with black people in the west by the white people was really cruel. The whites didn't consider blacks as one amongst them in present United States. They are deprived from certain privileges of the country, certain professions etc. The kids of black people were not admitted in the convent schools where white people's kids studied. Although civil rights movement occurred against their discrimination, still a kind of segregation in sitting arrangements of buses, washrooms, restaurants, schools, market places,etc., is prevailing. Moreover white people community stay in particular area and rich black people live in highly crowded area, they don't stay together. Even policemen too misbehave with black people. A man who says that he is a machine is ‘depersonalized’ in psychiatric jargon. A man who says, that Negroes are an inferior race may be widely respected. A man who says, his whiteness is a form of cancer is certifiable. In short, in the context of present pervasive thinking, all our frames of reference are ambiguous and equivocal.[3] All these are because of difference of skin colour and only change of perspective can do away this problem. So to be recognized as a human it require anything but only love, affection, compassion for all human brothers and feeling for sufferings of others.
