In the heat of passion rational is burned! Things change and change is an eternal fire…
A lot has been said and told about change, but for some change is a mere shadow of surrendering to the whims and fancies of others, while for others changes are mere means of ensuring enforcement of their will. Change only bring opportunities for those who seek to accomplish something.
Ever imagined why change after change after change has not resulted, in India becoming a superpower? Or some other nation has sought to return to peaceful coexistence with there peers or nature? Or horrors of war have subsided? Because although there is a certainty about change, somethings never change.
Mathematics of change
There are, just like science and mathematics relationships in social life as well. These relationships affect individual, families, clans, societies, communities and nations. We have given them many names, mores, values, customs, traditions, norms, culture, stereotypes and so on. But there is something underlying these relationships as well, something that sets them up. This “invisible force” relates an individual with its environment and society. It forces affected parties to make rules of conduct. But this invincible force is neither supernatural nor whim of a individual, Rather it is a constant struggle of understanding our surroundings in order to improve our survival. In other words this is the sole constant in the equation of society.
But it is not that simple, what about a soldier who knowingly mans the post of an inevitable life threatening assault? or what about last stands? or what about a mother who beckonest of a certain heart wrenching pain and possibility of death anyways gives birth? it would be simple to go through with these events “exceptions” because there are no exceptions in nature.
A simple explanation is constant discussed above prepares us to trade individual lives for collective survivability, what we do as a individual at the end has only one purpose to improve the chances of survival of US AS A SOCIETY.
So, what if we deny due respect to this force constant and subject it to change? What happens if we completely change our approach towards survival? The same thing which happened in first and seventh century CE. We start controlling a constant. In any mathematical equation which involves a constant, variables always have a relationship with each other, because of this constant. But if we can change the constant results became unexpected, positive or negative.
A few examples
Christianity has changed a constant that is “Supremacy of Rational” it has replaced it with “Supremacy of Faith”. To quote Sadhu shri Jaggi Vasudev Ji, “in the world full of uncertainty, a belief of Knowing something makes you unstoppable”. And thus, Christianity survived floods, famines, flames and Fortitude of its Victims.
A similar case can be made up for Islam, they changed there constant too, which was “Supremacy of the truth” the replaced it with “Supremacy of the word”. Apparently, the search for truth has turned into an ever ending fight for religious dominance.
Change has taken sides with those who surrendered to it completely, but often change does not completely reforms the society, often there are pockets where effect of change and resistance coexist. Here special efforts had to be made either revert to original state or wipe out the resistance entirely, for example Yazidies or Jews or Indians.
But, there are cases where Society has changed its relationships but not the constant, this has allowed invaders to study the society with ease and execute a debilitating blow to its core. Often this blow was absorbed by layer upon layer of Social defenses, however, for how long they can sustain such assault depended upon variables like available resources, persuasiveness of the cause and Population. So, we have seen Indians of Nuristan, Sindh, Khaibar Pakhtunwa, Turkmenistan, Bangladesh, Thailand etc. Vanished, Indians living post 1947 India Survive, only to be plagued by changing scenario. However Keeping the constant has its own benefits, for example it creates a strong desire to keep land and people safe, secondly it connects us with our past experiences, thirdly, it allows us to connect with our past more easily and efficiently than a mere faith or spoken word and lastly it has a value in boosting our morale.
Here we have controlled the change to affect relationships, but not the constant which induces those relationships.
An obligatory explanation/ disclaimer
But are Christians and Muslims living in India not Indians? Ask any Christian or Muslim “Indian” what are the core values of India and then compare what was happening in India during mid of seventh century. Again the prevalence of the Phrases “South Asian” partition of India during 1945, subversive activities in India prove that they are not. However, they enjoy political and social rights as an Indian often there emotional and cultural attachment remains fixated to places outside India. To quote Mr. Rajiv Malhotra “Often Religious institutions act as foreign offices and only answerable to their overlords beyond Indian boarders”. Thus here Indians enjoy benefit of Consistency with the constant and foreigners of changing of constant…just like when Tide meets the Shore!
However this digression from our original discussion brings forth a rather common question, is following a particular way of life only means being Indian? As I said before those who are moved by the constant, can only claim a relationship with the Indian society. Thus, even those parts of the Indian Society which fail to come to terms with the constant are not Indians.
Meeting the change
Change is not a uniform phenomena which affects to every object uniformly, but keeping a record of change ensures an optimal mobilization to meet the tribulations, change of things even if abrupt creates its marks, and interpretation of those marks lies with those who either acquire the public forum or train such people who may in future acquire such platforms. a same thing can be debilitating and motivating depending upon how one interprets it, Darius of Persia said to have appointed to remind him of his defeat in Greece, however in case of India, forums were encroached by such slaves that made the defeat of Sindh Final! Remarkably, the records survived and a few people kept motivating the Indians. This kept the fight on.
If we look at the single most unique and powerful achievement of Indians, it is nothing but calling this Constant, the invincible force the all pervasive the binder of Deva and Asuras alike “Dharma”. The Idea of dharma neither asks us to surrender to change nor resist it, it is controlled way of coming to the terms of changing reality of the times in a constructive manner, ensuring as high survivability of society as possible. No one can Master Dharma because it is the one true ruler of Humans, whether they know it or not.
This invention of Indians is so powerful that despite thousand years of slavery it has allowed us to think rationally, ask question and resist surrounding subservience. It is so fascinating that generation after generation of Indians have reforged alliances that their forefather have cherished, they returned to same deities which were lost to invaders and pillagers. It is so great that it has kept alive the will to fight Physically and fundamentally with invader. It is a realization of the truth that though we can’t resist change, but fortunately same rule applies to aggressor as well.
Things that change
Essentially, a natural change affects results of Constants, that is the relationship among the factors. This starts a circle as changing factors change values which puts a strain on Constant which either changes to accommodate changing values and becomes entirely worthless or asks factors to accommodate by increasing there productivity. In latter case change improves the worth of overall society, in the former case social equations collapse and gets replaced by a new one.
A simple example lies in Indian History, the time when Indians were capable in production their laws, mores and values were comparatively safe.
However as soon as they became a factor of production and only one part of economy they lost their uniqueness and their laws, mores and other sorts of relationships were frequently changed and the fancy of State. This phenomenon is also present in Chinese society, once Chinese lost their independence to Manchurian Qing dynasty there mores took a hit as they further lost control on production, but post ’90s China became world manufacturing hub and dictates its will, similarly, Japanese could maintain their worth despite losing to Allies simply due to them being risen to the moment on time and time again.
However production does not means only economic goods, it includes academic excellence, Ideas, Innovations, People.
Population is another aspect of production, as it is one of the factors that directly impact security perception of society, an insecure society is often economically and intellectually challenged. Until the rate of growth of population of a society is unity or more than it, Population remains stable. However as soon as the growth rate becomes less than unity the population dwindles until it becomes non existent. Change often create a void in population which is filled by dominant party. If invaders are dominant they start a process of conversion of population, which only ends with dominance of invader or collapse of social equation of the past. If defenders are dominant after a primary setback they start the process of absorption where invader loses its identity and becomes part of defending society. For the invaders only way to avoid this is to create confusion of similarity with defending society which if established gives a shell to it inside which it can keep up with its growth until it finally breaks its shell and catch the now weak, or relatively weak Defending society.
Conclusion
Change is the enemy of certainty, however we want to be certain we don’t know what the next moment holds for us. Change can’t be resisted, but can be managed. Unless that which needs to be changed is changed there remains a threat of revolution. Thus, the solution is neither to resist nor to surrender but to see which factor of the social equation requires change, in this way we can follow Dharma and yet remain relevant.
