Abstract
The book Civics of Human Relations focuses on the improvement of human relations and human development. It delineates that human relations would have evolved harmoniously had the social institutions been built based on economic and cultural bonds as its smooth functioning demands mutual trust and cooperation. Through this book, the author seeks to take readers on a ‘conducted tour’ of human relations, dissecting a wide spectrum of facets of civics of human relations. These facets range from humane values for a new society, redefining democracy with Asian values, cultural revolution in public service, dialogue and decision-making, economic and social inequalities to aesthetic living. India is slipping on the World Happiness Index from the 118th position in 2016 to 140th in 2019. We are living in an evolving high-handed state and its bureaucracy. Humans are not born angels but are capable of becoming ones. There is already a higher state of being, within each human being. We generate alluring attributes like passions and affection and seek a response from others. The author argues that the ‘innate human resources’ of prenatal life of the foetus such as creativity and solidarity be articulated and shared for forging better human relations.
India has always been resilient in a subtler way in so far as her Asian culture is concerned. Those who touched the shores of the western coast got completely absorbed into mainstream society over a while. However, some religions in India could not be absorbed fully into the Indian cultural melting pot. We can still do so by involving them and integrating them with the process of economic growth. India won her freedom, without waging any war against any religion and without having her army—a fact which bears testimony to the inner strength of her culture. The freedom movement of India comprised a series of sustained negotiations, persuasions and dialogues rather than bloodshed between cultures and ‘interest blocks’. Ever since India attained Independence more than seven decades ago, the country has not made any significant effort to strive for the emotional integration of different parts of the country. The north Indian border regions have remained partially unintegrated into our cultural mainstream. In this scenario, we cannot take pride that we have attained cultural democracy in the country.
There is a tendency in the human species to be distinct and different while co-existing in a group, probably borne out of insecurity and fear of deprivation. At the same time, there is evidence of fair sharing among tribal communities, as per their order and hierarchy. Nonetheless, inequities and injustices have cropped up in the economic domain as also in political discourse. In a large number of countries, wide gaps exist between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ where a vast majority of poor lead sub-human lives in contrast to luxurious ones by a few resourceful persons. Correcting social inequalities, economic inequities, cultural discrimination and social injustices cannot be a one-time affair by a single agency. Based on empirical evidence and historical experiments of over centuries, total equality is neither possible to achieve nor desirable. To set right any intolerable inequalities, we need to develop social consensus to avoid conflicts and secure harmony in society.
There is an intrinsic pursuit in every human being to dream, to imagine, to be creative and be artistic. Art is an articulation of creativity in a person and an artist explores experiences and presents life as s/he feels and sees it. Art functions to bring five elements namely, soil, water, fire, air and space into a relationship with five senses namely the eyes, ears, skin, nose and tongue. When communication is established between the ‘elements’ and ‘senses’, it generates an aesthetics awakening that leads to the birth of creative emotions in human beings. At times, we recognise various cognitive processes in the human brain relate themselves to the extrasensory factors in the outside world, though we cannot conclusively affirm a clear demarcation between the mind and the outside world. One way of being happy is to achieve fulfilment by pursuing aesthetics in nature. Likewise, when we can establish communication of senses among various members of society, we can stimulate development of better relations among the members of the group. Cosmology does indicate that we are imbibed by the same chemical elements and physical electromagnetic reactions. When any communication is felt among such elements across their forms and substances, such a communication can be considered as universal consciousness. To bring human beings together to share a better quality of life, the power of aesthetics seems to be stronger than that of economic, military or political powers. In the past, social ethics commanded higher importance than social aesthetics, on the whole. In Indian philosophy, the supreme is represented by the values of Satyam (the truth), Shivam (the good), Sundram (the beauty), or S3 (S-cube). Instead of embellishing false narratives, manifesting violence or ugliness, manifest S-cube not just among the artists but across all human beings. This is a way that we can live a better life in a better society.
The book, a bouquet of twenty-four diversified yet inter-connected essays, makes interesting reading, covers a lot of width and a variety of easy-to-understand ideas under one ‘umbrella’. In an informal and simple style, the author has attempted to connect scattered topics through one thread. The strength of the volume lies in its ability to take the reader into the complex terrain of multi-dimensional civics-socio-human relations and provides exposure to factors that necessitate a redefinition of the ‘civics’. It opens up numerous spaces for further research to address the challenge of ‘aesthetics’ for self-fulfilment and happiness.