Fritjof Capra writes in his book Uncommon Wisdom that nature that surrounds us is an intricate network of interconnections. Things may look apart but they are invisibly connected. Is the snow on the mountains something different from the sea? Seemingly it is but actually not. Water in the sea evaporates. Vapours high up in the sky turn cold and form clouds. Clouds pushed up by the winds pour themselves on the mountains. Rain water freezes and turns into snow. Snow melts and waters runs towards the sea. Now sea, vapours, clouds, rain, and snow may appear separate but they are not as they are made of the same substance.

Human society isn’t much different as it is made of similar kind of web of interconnections in a different form and at different level. Part of it is concerned with instincts (nature) which we share with animals, with all other living creatures in fact. That is how we ensure our survival as a species against all odds by perpetuating our existence.

The other part which is above instincts is what we proudly call human and it is which makes us distinctly what we are. Our humanness enables us to go beyond what is driven by instinct. Animals, for example, take care of their offspring but humans are capable of going beyond this; they can take care of the children who are not their kin. Such a capability can be described as human care. It’s a quality born of a long evolution premised on cumulative human consciousness. It creates not only better conditions for our survival by strengthening bond among humans but also creates conditions conducive to the development of others by minimising the chances of being in conflict. Conflict arrests human advance and causes disharmony. Disconnect with what’s human causes the loss of human quality to care. And such a loss becomes a source of ills which would plague human society.

Disconnect and what ensues from it is illustrated by a story about Sultan Bahu, a classical poet and mystic of 17th century Punjab. A mother brought her son to him who she said had become withdrawn and asocial and needed saint’s blessings as a miracle cure for his condition. Sultan Bahu out of compassion started talking to the young man. He asked him: “have you ever loved birds and animals? No, replies the young man. Have you ever loved winds and changing seasons? No, says the young man. Have you ever loved flowers and gardens? No, says the man. Have you ever loved a woman? Never.” Sultan Bahu looked at the mother and pointing to her son said; “your pot is a bottomless. It cannot hold whatever is put in it.” What the saint tried to explore was whether the patient had some connect with anything, natural and human? In case he had, he could be brought back into the society.

The relations between a state and citizens can be seen in the similar way. When a state suffers from a disconnect people stop caring for it. Devoid of connectedness state loses its moorings and plunges into choppy waters of uncertainty. A state that is uncared for becomes unable to hold the society together. To repeat a cliché, what holds the state together is its contract with the people, especially the execution of what the contract promises. And what’s this much talked about contract? In simple words, it’s fixing of obligations and responsibilities for the both sides in order to regulate the functioning of society. But state has paradoxical nature. It is an organism that has tendency to simultaneously expand itself and to eat itself.

History shows us that expansion of state driven by dynamics of acquiring more and more power is the start of its decline or disintegration. Such an expansion involves usurpation of civil space, encroachment on citizens’ rights and enactment of arbitrary and discriminatory laws. Thus state becomes unaccountable to the general public that it professes to protect and serve. An assertion of unfettered power on the part of an overbearing state is what makes people rise against it. To crush the uprising state employs extra force leading to the further repression of the people. But extra force instead of quelling the unrest gives it a boost by making the people realise that the very contract designed to safeguard their interests is being exploited and used as a tool of illegitimate coercion. Hence repression becomes grist to the mill of resistance. In our case the state has burdened itself with the unnecessary load of ideological objectives which are in direct contradiction to the peoples’ historical aspirations. One example will suffice. Diverse peoples living in their clearly marked historical homes voted to create a new state in 1947 for their perceived interests. But after its emergence the state started a regressive process aimed at explicitly denying their historically evolved linguistic, cultural and ethnic identities in the name of national unity and social cohesion. Strangely, this skewed concept of linguistic and socio-cultural unity was derived from the moribund culture of reactionary Muslim aristocracy of Uttar Pradesh which was itself jetsam and flotsam of alien Muslim invaders’ practices especially those of Mughals.

Vestiges of the feudal past coupled with the insatiable lust of our rapacious elite has turned the state into a devouring mammoth. To make matters worse, overweight and avaricious state organs have monopolised the material resources of the diverse peoples creating a situation of utter despair. The fatal fallacy of the state is to take its existence as its raison detre. Its existence in fact depends on the people who bring it into being through a contract or bond. Weakening of such a contract/ bond brings about disconnect between the people and the state. Sadly, in our case an increasing disconnect between the people and the state is surely a harbinger of a political storm that is brewing. If the storm is allowed to linger on well into future, the state would not have a leg to stand on.

The saint’s story quoted above has a warning; in order to keep itself intact the state must build its capacity to love the people it claims to represent. — soofi01@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2024