In the former half of
2000s I suggested a topic for an inter-school declamation competition. I was
teaching at Sawan Public School, Delhi at that time and the competition was an
annual event. More than 30 schools from different states of North India
participated. My suggestion was: “Success without character is hollow.” It was
an adaptation of a quote from Albert Einstein: “Try not to become a man of
success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
My suggestion
elicited a few dissenting murmurs. “Is success possible without some
compromises?” A senior faculty member asked me. The others desisted from
articulating their dissent. For some reason the Principal nodded his assent and
as was the practice the topic was displayed on the stage of the auditorium
where the competition was to be held. You can see it in the picture below.
It was an interesting
competition with more than 30 brilliant young speakers from some elite schools
of the region trying to enlighten a few hundred listeners about the importance
of character. Narendra Modi had presided over the genocide in Gujarat a year
before that and eventually went on to secure a massive victory for his party in
the assembly elections that ensued. Nobody mentioned that victory in the
declamation speeches, but what prompted me to suggest the topic was what had
happened in Gujarat.
As years passed, I
watched with consternation how Modi went on to conquer the country like a
medieval marauder. As soon as he conquered the most coveted seat of power in
Delhi, the country began witnessing a bewildering assortment of crimes: attacks
on certain religious institutions and people, lynching, sporadic assaults and
murders even of writers and dissenters, inane claims made in the name of the
country’s ancient culture and so on.
We have now reached a
stage when everything from mindless violence to mind-blowing corruption is
justified so long as it is done for the sake or benefit of the ruling party or
persons somehow associated with it.
Success with
character is impossible, it seems, today. The entire foundation of the
country’s morality and even spirituality has undergone a radical change, a
change for the worse, and the downslide has gathered a formidable momentum.
In the last few
weeks, Kerala has been witnessing an unusual strike. A few nuns took their
grievances to the streets, something unprecedented in the history of
Christianity in India. Their protests ended only with the arrest of a bishop.
The arrest seems to be unwrapping too many scandals within the Church.
I wouldn’t go to the
extent of suggesting that there is any link between the political corruption
and the religious one. The truth is that moral corruption is like a cancer: it
spreads rapidly to all parts of the organism sooner than later. Even if there
is no such connection in this case, the case itself reminds me that success
without character is hollow. The bishop had conquered great heights but without
character. It is possible that he will come out of the charges unscathed except
for a temporary prison term and minor inconveniences. Already action has been
taken against one of the nuns for disobeying the laws and restrictions imposed
by the Church by hitting the streets in protest. Finally the villain will
become the saint and vice-versa. I had suggested this long before the nuns had taken to public protests.
Every system has a
self-correcting mechanism, however. The decay won’t go on forever. There will
be an eruption before the reformation begins. There is no lasting success
without character, in short.
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