Poverty of a nation or a people cannot be attributed to denials from Providence or hardships of circumstances. It is rather linked with the lack of ideas in a people. The history of mankind shows that nations with new ideas were the pioneers of modern technologies and became rich by effectively putting into use their inventions. A free, trained and disciplined mind provides a fertile ground for the growth of ideas. Fear is an emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain and harm and even suffering. Education and freedoms cultivate human mind and enable it to conceive ideas. Fear is not a mere mental state; it can take a physical form and can even cause paralysis of physical and mental faculties. Fears have different kinds and causes. Conscious and unconscious. Internal and external. Local and foreign. Fear is used as an effective tool for the manipulation of mind and people. The world has become unsafe due to increasing fears.
Fear is to do a great deal with culture, habits, belief and religion. There is also a new instrument of fear-an authoritarian state. Originally, the institution of state was founded on the bedrock of liberal thought to get rid of theocratic state(s) and monarchs ruling in the name of deity. But then the state itself became an instrument of tyranny when it fell into the hands of dictators and authoritarian rulers who used the coercive apparatus of the state to oppress opposition to their rule. The state authority then became the greatest source of fear and terror.
Over the years, there has been a seismic change in people’s behavior mainly caused by the growing fears. They no more allow their children to make experiments and go through their own experiences in life. Gone are the days when in villages, towns and cities children could wander freely and carelessly till late evenings. Nowadays, daily reporting of heinous crimes has aggravated fears of parents. Kidnappings for ransom, lawlessness, street crimes, sectarian/ethnic killings and unending terrorism and drug addiction have crippled our society.
There is also another fear-fear of the unknown. It is a part of our culture largely built upon ignorance and prejudices. Ignorance breeds incredulity. Incredulity hinders an understanding of consequences of one’s actions. In villages children were frightened with the unknown devils when they would not go to sleep. Cruel warriors, djinns, and churails and many other strange and imaginary characters created by the ignorant parents were mentioned to inculcate fear in children’s minds not realizing that this carelessness and seemingly innocuous behaviour would eventually affect creativity amongst their children and incapacitate their imagination.
The earlier era of Islamic civilization saw a rise and encouragement of free thought due to an insistence upon research and observation in the Quran also due to interaction with other cultures. Muslim political and religious thought and advancement of natural sciences had their zenith during the early period of Islamic civilization. Many great scholars contributed to its growth. Hassan ibne Al-Haitam, Muhammad bin Zakria Al-Razi, Avicenna, Ibne Rushd and many other notable figures, all belonged to the golden age of Islam. Then came the age of stagnation in thought, mainly created by the unknown fear of corruption of mind and interpolation in religious sciences. Where the Muslims left the process of free thought and sciences other nations picked that up from that point and built upon it. The real secret of success and domination of the West lies in free thought. The Renaissance in Europe began when centuries of fear of the Church ended after the flow of free thought.
Under the British colonial yoke all types of inventions and discoveries were prohibited. Many artists, great workmen and minds lost their ingenuity due to the fear created by penal laws and British policies. People of the subcontinent were mainly enslaved with the tools of fear resulting from an unprecedented and indiscriminate savagery and large massacres with sophisticated and newly invented guns and canons that could hardly be matched by the rusted swords in the hands of lazy princes and rustic peasantry. Moreover, under a deliberate policy, inventions were not permitted by the British to discourage local products to tilt the balance of trade in favour of England. Tools of husbandry, implements of labour, wooden plough, spinning wheel, all were outdated which could not match mass production of goods and merchandise produced in Europe. People were forced to sell raw material cheaply.
This fear has continued in some form after independence from the British. A fear of uncertainty pervades. The objectives of the state have never converged with the welfare of the people. Fundamental rights framed on the tradition of liberalism were incorporated in the Constitution to create checks on state power to assure that blessings of liberty were enjoyed by the people. This has not happened. The only way to survive in the fast changing world is to bring a fundamental change in our attitudes towards fears. The state shall ultimately become viable if people are allowed to live without fears. Prosperity shall follow.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020