On Our Heritage

O U R    H E R I T A G E

A statement that the Humankind is blessed with unlimited potential to realise the dream of every human child born on Earth to have  a  comfortable, decent life   without  having  to  be anxious of  any  possible dark future ahead of  him,  without having to  become  nervous of the stiff,  ruthless  and  cruel competition and struggle for  survival, is bound to  be  looked upon with lot of scepticism and as mere wishful thinking. This is because of the reality that every human being faces today is  far from anything  that can even make him think  of  bare  existence without having to get enmeshed in an oppressive  struggle - oppressive both mentally and physically. Opinions on this subject cannot but be divergent, because of the simple fact, that never before was an opportunity before the humankind to perceive  such vast and dazzling innovations to make his life  comfortable  and enjoyable as it is today, not just for any particular individual group or  community but   for  the  whole humankind and  at  the same time  never  before had he the  realisation  that,  every potential opportunity lurks behind the dark clouds pregnant  with the danger of widespread devastation and destruction, mainly due to reasons  for which he himself is responsible. Father of the atomic age,  Prof. Albert Einstein had this to  say,  "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift to  unparalleled  catastrophe True, modern man, as his knowledge increased, has become more excited of his wild dreams of unlimited power and authority  not only over nature but also over his fellow beings.  When informed of the cause for the dazzling sky, on the night of July 9, 1962 when U.S.A. detonated its hydrogen bomb on Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean, natives of the American Samoa had only one comment to  make, " Crazy white man." True indeed, man has become crazy - not the white man alone , but all men. However, we can also perceive the contemporary situation from a totally different angle. Can we not conceive of a world ahead  us when we can have: 

1. Nuclear fusion reactors to meet our energy demand
2. Power generation based on solar energy using photo voltaic cells, to meet a substantial percentage  of  our power requirement,         
3. Self guiding and atomic or solar powered automobiles and other locomotion   devices to meet our transport requirements,        
4. Solar   energy   farms to produce food   through  photosynthesis,        
5. Marine farms in the shallow seas to augment our food production,        
6. Weather dams to change or modify the climate,  
7. Robot mining vehicles to go deep under the seas and  even deep under the earth's crust,  
8. Simple desalination techniques to meet our drinking water requirement,      
9. Genetic engineering techniques to correct congenital defects,
10. An effective, morally and socially acceptable   and unobtrusive population control technique,  
11. Bio-medical engineering and bio-chemical techniques to treat all ailments and eradicate epidemics and so on.

Yes!  Man has within his power today to conceive and create a world  in  which  people  the world over  can  lead  a  free  and comfortable life, perhaps to create a world far superior to that of Pericles’  Golden Age.
 However, a major problem of our age is the widening gap between the rich and the poor; between the rich nations and the poor ones. A commission on World Hunger appointed by President Carter of the United States in 1979  concluded that, " The  most  potentially explosive  force in the world today is the frustrated desire of the poor people to attain a decent standard of living. The anger, the despair and often the hatred that result represent real and persistent threats to international order." According to the Commission, "only an  authentic sharing of  economic  and political power  among and within all nations" will  solve  the problem. Famine, disease and ignorance are the major natural scourges that the  human  race was fighting from the  very  beginning; and continues to fight. Today we have ample knowledge and power to eliminate these scourges. But man has added many more to these in the form of environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources,  population  explosion,  threat  of  nuclear  war, frightening prospect of gene manipulation and cloning of  living beings including man. His racial prejudices and intolerance, fuelled by economic compulsions, religious beliefs and blind faith in social  practices and rituals, uncompromising  adherence  to political ideologies  have turned many  human  habitations  into smouldering volcanoes . And yet, in spite of all these problems, there is also a promise, as told by Arnold Toynbee, "Our  age will be remembered chiefly neither for its horrifying crimes  nor for its  astonishing inventions, but for its  having  been  the first age  since  the dawn of civilization,  some  five  or  six thousand  years  back,  in  which  people  dared  to  think  it practicable to make the benefits of civilization  available  for the whole human race.”          

The challenge that the human race faces today is this - are we capable of throwing away all our prejudices and intolerance  and consider humanity as one, irrespective of differences  based on race , religion, political affiliation and such other  forces that divide  us  and work towards the  aim  of  establishing  an international order based on justice and equitable  distribution of wealth and political power  among and within nations  of  the world. This alone will enable us to convert the potentiality, to which Toynbee referred, into a reality. To enable us to do so, we need to understand the dynamics of human social order through the last 6000 years. In other words we have to go through the story of mankind , analyse and  find  out what really  can make man adopt a posture of  love  rather  than hate,  of  compassion  and  moderation  as  against  cruelty  and intolerance,  of peace and amity as against war and crime.  "As long as  war  is  regarded as wicked, it  will  always  have  its fascination.  When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular."  These are the words of Oscar Wilde.  How True? Armies march on the hope of a victors' recompense - riches, honours,  new territory, a better life for himself and his  dear and near in a future peaceful country. Take away this hope and it may prove to be difficult to make the armies march.  The League of Nations, an organisation conceived and created in 1919, to bring peace among nations and peoples, was soon repudiated  by  the  very  persons  who  initiated  it,  lived  a precarious existence  and  grew up to be a  weak  and  emaciated creature. Too feeble to make its existence felt, it had only a very short  life  and  it became part  of  an  almost  forgotten history.  The United Nations, which came into existence in 1945 after the  second world war , has the objectives  of  preserving peace and security among nations and of amicable settlement  and fruitful handling of international economic, social and  cultural problems faced by humanity. The U.N. having a difficult existence in the  midst of nations not yet reconciled to living  in  total peace and amity,  has a far better record than its  predecessor. The U.N., in spite of all the obstacles and pitfalls in its functioning, may prove to be an institution worthy of being nurtured as part of man's desire to build a world  without  war. The very existence of U.N. is a reminder of the fact that man is progressing towards  a composite culture of love and compassion. In fact, in the long history of evolution from the single cell organism to  the complex man, evolution of man, his  brain,  his civilization and culture is taking very rapid strides towards the cherished goal  - a peaceful,  comfortable,  egalitarian  social order.  Yet, we have to be cautious that we keep ahead in the race against  natural as well as man-made catastrophes.  Are we capable of  winning this race - this is the challenge before us.

We know that from a biological point of view humans are basically one. All human populations can and do interbreed with one another and produce fertile offspring. An adopted infant, irrespective of the race of his biological parents, will acquire the language and culture of the foster parents. In fact the similarities of human biology  are  vastly more  massive  than  the  differences between different races. On the other hand, there exist wide variations in the cultural patterns among and within nations  and peoples. While Philosophers have worked hard to evolve many value systems, our Prophets and religious leaders taught us ethical values  and gave us  moral  codes. Perhaps as a result, in spite of great divergence, there are certain discernable common traits in  our cultural heritage. All cultures have marriage regulations, tools, music,  art,  shelter,  ornaments,  and  the  like.  No   culture tolerates indiscriminate lying, stealing or violence within  the group. A further synthesis of these value systems and moral codes within well  defined standards acceptable to  all  humanity  and incorporation   of   these   into  our   political   and   social organisations on the world level seem necessary and  inevitable. Whereas major evolutionary advance in the biological sector appears to have reached its limit, the psycho-social  sector  in the evolutionary  process  is in an extremely  early  phase  and offers enormous possibilities. Will this psycho-social phase of evolution lead us to a single unitary pool of knowledge and ideas Will this phase of evolution lead us to an ideological convergence without  having to loose our cultural  richness  and diversity?  Will this phase of evolution lead us to a social order wherein we can realise the cherished goal enshrined in  the every day  prayer  of the Hindu, " Sarve  sukhino  bhavanthu  - meaning, let every one be happy".  Today, as we step into the twenty first century, when astronauts and cosmonauts are able to encircle the entire planet in  a  few hours,  and when news about all types of events pour  into  our drawing rooms almost as it happens from all over the globe,  a closer look into the circumstances that led us along and  brought us to  the  present state of our  civilization  seems  of  great interest. A fuller understanding of the intrinsic value of our heritage will  help us to more efficiently plan our  present  as well as our future. Fortunately for us, even though authentic history of our past recorded by our forefathers relates only to a comparatively recent past, scientists in various disciplines - geology;  archaeology; anthropology; palaeontology and  biology  - through their  co-ordinated  effort have helped  to  extend  our knowledge to  the beginning of civilization.  The first major event on this Earth, as far as we are concerned, occurred  when life originated  on Earth out of inorganic  matter  about  three billion years ago. However, if we refer to civilization as the point when  man started to look beyond the purely animal level, we can  trace the beginning of civilization in  its  rudimentary form to  almost  600,000 years back. A more serious and wider departure  from  the  animal  began  when  the  emphasis  of  the evolutionary process seems to have shifted to the  brain  rather than the  physical form. This happened about 35000 years ago, when, in the modern sense, " the thinking human being" came into existence. However anything that could be termed as a composite culture,  consisting of tools, clothing, ornaments,  social organisations and  institutions, language,  art,  religious beliefs and practices, concept of rights and wrongs started only much later, around 7000 years back. A concise, but near graphic description of the evolutionary process starting from the beginning of life to the present  stage is given in the ‘Our Earth’ by this author.  A repetition of the same is considered unnecessary. Nevertheless, to understand and appreciate the cultural plane on which we  now stand and to evaluate the heritage that is passed on to us by our forefathers we  should  have a  holistic concept  of  the  value systems and the intrinsic  character of the divergent cultures of men placed in different places and situations. This volume is an attempt in this direction.     

We are stepping into the twenty first century, with entirely new experiences and understanding about the world and the environment in which we are placed. When, Copernicus told us that the Earth on which we live is a globe, unsupported in space, in continuous motion,  we could not believe it. Nevertheless, we, on the basis of logic  and  experimentation accepted the  fact.  Yet, this understanding, though factual was not immediately perceivable  by our sense elements. However, when the first astronauts stepped out onto the sandy surface of the Moon, a new understanding  and realisation emerged. The men, who voyaged from Earth, could see the  globe  just  as  Copernicus  predicted;  could   take photographs of  the globe, and could watch it turn  around.  The virtual fact immediately became equally a virtual reality  which it was not till then. Our understanding and perspective of the  globe as one underwent a qualitative change. The concept of the global culture which hitherto was just a hypothesis and a  dream became part  of an imminent reality - globalisation  emerged  the ultimate goal to work for. Equally, we have become more conscious of the fact that we by our behaviour is constantly changing  the face of the Earth. Our quest in search of more comfort and the process of  subjugating  nature  and  making   it  work  for  us have been  recognised as accompanied by dangerous  side  effects potential enough  to threaten the very existence  of  the  human race. Will these processes make the globe uninhabitable; too many people; too much carbon dioxide; too many chemicals in the  soil, air and  water; holes in the protective ozone  layer?  Manmade modern weapons, nuclear, biological and chemical add to the list. The risk of extinction of the human race is no more a hypothesis- it could  become a reality in the not so distant a  future.  But then,  can  we  allow  this drift? Should we not to effectively  intervene   and  see that the catastrophe is avoided? It is in this  context  that  a  closer  understanding  of  the  clash  of civilizations,   as  characterised  by  the  American   political scientist Samuel  Huntington  becomes  of  importance.  Are   we destined to  move  along  the lines  of  globalisation  and  the impending clashes  between  sovereign states; or along cleavages between major  religions  of  the  world;  or  along   political divisions based  on ideologies such  as democracy, communism and authoritarianism; or along economic factors and the fight of a few against others  to  safeguard  their  privileged  existence  of prosperity?  These questions can be answered only by the efflux of time.  However, we can almost be sure that the pace of globalisation will soon break down the barriers erected by nation states. Man's struggle, wherever it is, and in whatever form it takes place, will have global ramifications. The future course of civilization will be global in character and the evolution of a global culture is in the kettle. The global culture ahead of us will neither  be based on pure capitalism as visualised  by  the American   Society  nor will it be totally controlled by authoritarian centres as being visualised by  certain  political and fundamentalist groups. The road to prosperity, comfort and happiness is always hard. However, the heritage that the twenty first century is blessed with,  offers much to build on. The world of opportunities that the   emerging   global  society  and  culture   offer   can   be capitalised, provided future generations learn from the past.