Nearly all men can stand adversity, but to test the character, give him power

Disney's Aladdin (2019) showed that while facing adversity brings out one’s resilience, it is the power that ultimately uncovers one’s true nature. With great adversity, when both Jafar and Aladdin got the magic lamp, the former fueled by revenge, sought all-more power, while the latter, filled in love, wished to free a friend in Genie. Similarly, in life too, the power has the ability to expose one's character and bring out the depth in its features. And the depth in its features, in turn, determines the degree to which one can withstand the perks of power.

Power – Indicator of Character

“World is a stage, we are all its puppets who are stringed and controlled by puppets above us in the hierarchy.” –Anonymous

In such a puppet show, the power is perceived to be capable of liberating one by cutting such strings. This cassette of freedom plays the tunes of empowerment for some, eternity for a few, and becomes addictive for others. One becomes like an over-compressed spring. Upon cutting of strings, the spring explodes out of control unless and otherwise contained.

Mohammed bin Tughlaq was one such notable exploded spring. When he became the all-powerful sultan of India in 1325, the fragrance of his unquestionable freedom evoked his deepest desires of experimenting different ways to send a person, presumably those who opposed him, not to paradise but to death. His creative brutality might have even terrify the goddess of death herself, recalls many historians.

However, in a history shaped by many complex characters, not all of them had such dreadful desires. Sher Shah Suri was a great visionary who raised from the ranks of simple revenue officer to become an all-powerful sultan in 1540. And his desire, forged by sufferings of his people, made him administer justice impartially.

The fragrance of freedom, besides evoking desire, tests one’s value system. It simply makes one express what one values the most. In the modern age, the popularity has become a simple yet powerful weapon. In that line, actors became the uncrowned powerhouses who can either influence their fans positively, or seduce them into a misery. Those actors who valued morality campaign for initiatives that can bring a responsible behavior change in the followers, as seen in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign. Whereas, those who valued money through any means seduced their fans by endorsing in online real money games advertisements, brutalizing their followers’ lives.

How-much-ever noble the values are, without tolerance, it would not sustain its nobility. Freedom, thus, tests one's tolerance to critics because inherently, any ideology per se will be challenged by some people, that being the spirit of diversity. Emperor Ashoka was one of the powerful examples of tolerance. Despite being an all-powerful Buddhist king, he was very accommodative towards all religions. He organized and encouraged intellectual debates, pacifying the sound of opposition with his voice of justice – dharmagosha, rooted in tolerance.

Unfortunately, this is not the case everywhere. Rospierre was one of the heroes of French Revolution who was popularly called as ‘the incorruptible.’ But this popular title couldn’t stand the test of power, which exposed his insecurities with the help of critics. Thus, once a liberator, drove France into ‘the reign of terror’ (1793-94), replacing tolerance with guillotine justice.

Finally, the elixir of power invokes one’s ego, blinding even great scholars. In Ramayana, Ravana was a well-versed philosopher. Yet his unworldly power never let him repent for his evil deeds. He let it suppress his divine knowledge by evoking his ego and thus, pushing him into the path of self-destruction.

However, signs of hope too shines in the sky when we see some powerful people exhibit humility. For instance, PM Justin Trudeau was humble enough to apologize to India in 2016, on behalf of the Canadian government for the Komagata Maru incident (1914), when his country unwelcomed Indian immigrants.

While such incidents are momentarily pleasing, giving in a sense of confidence and hope, peace and justice will not endure in this world unless everyone realizes the true nature of power and attempts control its influence.

De-Veiling Power

As contradictory as it may sound, the true nature of power is not independence, but responsibility. As the saying goes, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Power necessarily creates in oneself, an obligation towards others. This obligation, in turn, constrains one’s freedom through moral boundaries. Therefore, the widely prevailing theory of ‘power giving freedom,’ is nothing but a myth.

Furthermore, the trusteeship doctrine says that powerful people are endowed power in the form of wealth, skills and resources in order to aid those who are devoid of it. Therefore, all the power centers in this society – politicians, rulers, celebrity and, even fictional superheroes, exist to fulfil such noble responsibility of service to people.

And to prevent such noble responsibility from turning into violent autocracy, an ethical and just foundation must be laid. For such a foundation, while humility, altruism and compassion form its roots, weeds such as greed, pride and envy must be chopped out. Such kind of moral rooting was shown by Emperor Marcus Aurelius who lived like a saint, devoted to his people, unshaken in the storm of luxuries of his powerful kingdom.

Besides such moral base, a safety valve must be installed to preventing wild turns at times. This means external checks and balance must be ensured, especially in a sovereign state, to prevent misuse of power by the powerful. This is usually done by dividing and de-concentrating power, and establishing various accountability mechanisms. Even in ancient times, Kautilya advocated to hold the king accountable by protesting against him, if he became unjust. And modern world has diversified the means of protesting via elections, media, judiciary, social audits and so on.

Although power poses itself as an ultimate liberator from shackles of control, it actually entrusts one with a noble duty of service towards others, enchaining one with responsibility. The one who realizes this truth becomes the true altruistic hero, while those who fall for its fantasy become the new evil genie who must eventually be contained in such an itty-bitty tiny space in lamp. Therefore, in the test of power, one withstands its whims and fights its fancies, with what we call “Nishkama Karma” – Selfless duty!

Do you agree on my take that power is the true measure of character? Share your thoughts below.

A society that has more justice is the society that needs less charity

 

“The world has enough for everyone's need, not for everyone's greed”

– Mahatma Gandhi

While this quote signifies the importance of minimalism and warns about the limited availability of resources in the world, it is unfortunate that greed, which is one of the seven sins according to Catholic Christianity and also called as one of the residing places of the demon Kali post-Mahabharata, has already taken over the minds of many. This has not only led to over-exploitation, but has also brought in disparity of resources, both material and intellectual, where some possess unlimited access while others left in shadows!

Here, to obtain parity and to satisfy each other’s needs, there should be mutual sharing of resources, which is justice. Besides Government actions, from historical times, this has been achieved through charity, also called as ‘Dhaanam’ in Sangam literature. Even Vedas that were composed earlier than that proposes – “Daanam Nyayam Sthapitham” (Charity establishes Justice).

While many have considered the need for charity to bring justice, the below quote flips the coin: “The society that has more justice is the society that needs less charity”. This implies that once justice is established with the help of charity, it no longer needs charity to sustain. But is that possible? If charity is gone, can justice still survive? If so, how? If not, then should charity reform itself to stay? Let’s explore!

But before any of that, we need to understand what justice truly is, since it is claimed to self-sustain without charity, right?!

Justice as multi-faceted

Justice is a narrowly viewed, if its definition is confined only to the economic angle of money and material wealth redistribution.

Justice should be seen also in terms of social angle where it tries to bring in equal opportunities in education and employment. Government through various schemes like RTE, Skill India, etc, provides such opportunities. But if they were effective and equal access was present to all, there might be no need for free YouTube video lectures, crowdfunding for various educational institutions, educational scholarships, all these various kinds of charity.

Also, we can take the environment sector where if there was environmental justice in terms of responsible use of environment adhering to Governmental standards without over-exploitation, the green donations collected by the NGOs, another form of charity would be needless.

The justice also transcends to global issues like climate change in terms of climate justice. If the rich and the industrialized nations would have reduced their exploitation of global commons like air, sea, etc., this would have not only reduced pollution, but also could have reduced the persisting dependency of the poor and developing nations on rich and developed nations for funds and technology transfer, another form of charity to better cope up with climate change.

These cases clearly illustrates that the charity is not needed if justice was established earlier, and actions of various nations and Government are effective in sustaining them. But unfortunately, this multi-faceted justice is a dream to be aspired for, rather than a living reality due to the actions of human greed taking over as discussed before. However, this does not mean that charity is required for justice to sustain, i.e. it is again a tunnel view if we believe that besides making government welfare actions effective, charity is the best way to attain that kind of multifaceted justice and sustain it in this globalized society.

Redefining Charity

First-of-all, let us try to understand why multifaceted justice is not what we are born with i.e. why are we all not born as equals?

If we ponder into the philosophy altogether with logical reasoning for the answers, we can see that if all are born as equals, with equal resources and abilities, then, there will be barely any relationship. This is simply because no one needs the other, thus no respect for others. This leads to arrogance, which in turn breed conflicts and clashes, eventually ending humanity!

Since we are born with interdependency, we must aspire to establish justice through mutual helping of each other. This will not only breed communitarianism (sense of togetherness), but also strengthen our social bond leading to growth of all.

But to attain it, charity is not the best way. It is not because of its nature of giving, but due to the common understanding of its definition. The commonly accepted definition of charity is to voluntarily donate the excess of something that one may have to one who lacks that, expecting no reciprocity. The problem with this commonly accepted definition is that, the donor develops a sense of pride over their noble actions of donation over time. This pride, another sin in the Catholic Christianity’s seven sins, manifest into arrogance, followed by the birth of psychological hierarchy and further leading to expectations of loyalty from receiver in reciprocity (while actually charity doesn't expect reciprocity at all!).

That is why we need to redefine the word ‘charity’ as per what Gandhi has said. Also, Quran has this same concept – ‘trusteeship’. It redefines charity, from being perceived as a help or service to others, to social duty. That is, the wealthy are just a guardian of resources and they must distribute the excesses of that to the needy as a matter of their duty, not of generosity.

This definition not only eliminates the ego of the donor, but also makes them feel the gratitude for the opportunity to perform their duty of donating, rather than being prideful for it. This is well articulated by Bhagavat Gita – “Karmanyae vadikarasthe, ma faleshu kadhachana” (You have the right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of the action). Thus again, only duty, no reciprocity!

Also, while charity can become a burden in the long run, considering it as duty won't make it feel so, as the duty is the primary job of a person (like a habit). But charity is an extra-voluntary effort which fades the interest away eventually.  Just like how a business that pays regular tax and follows corporate governance practices with CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) won’t feel burdened, when done as a part of duty. One example of this is the Mitti Cafe, run by Alina Alam, who employs physically challenged in her restaurants, and has brought social justice through her social duty.

Beyond economic and social justice, true political justice can be attained in if there is better political representation of different sections of society, or else, the Government initiatives will be a mere empty & irrelevant set of actions. Through political representation, the needy will help themselves by drafting inclusive policies. Thus, bringing this political representation becomes the social duty of politicians and advocating for the same is the duty of citizens. Examples of the same includes Women reservation act, Gender budgeting, JANMAN yojana, NCSC establishment, etc.

Similarly, in context climate change, the rich and developed countries must abide by UNFCCC's CBDR (Common but Differentiated Responsibility). Through this, the fund and technological transfer becomes their moral duty which helps not only to establish, but also sustain the environment & climate justice.

Thus, when charity in generosity is transformed into social duty as a moral imperative, the justice self-sustains in the society, leading to happiness of all – Loka Samastha, Sukino Bhavanthu!

Let us bring justice to democracy and start an discussion. Share your thoughts below.