Tomichan Matheikal's blog

No great leader emerges unless there is a crisis.  Mohandas Gandhi would have remained a mediocre lawyer had not the freedom struggle discovered the leadership qualities in him.  Abraham Lincoln would not have secured his present place in history without the crisis that challenged his potential in the form of the Civil War. Mr Narendra Modi has his historical opportunity now to prove his station in history.  India is faced with a crisis called nationalism. Nationalism, by definition, is excessive devotion to the interests of a particular nation-state.  It is valid when there is a threat to the autonomy of the nation-state.  India is not facing any such threat now.  Yet nationalism has become a craze among a sizeable section of the population.   When there is no threat to the nation, the only other reason for nationalist sentiments to breed and spread is a desire to dominate.  It is an urge to impose a certain culture or religion or...

The first time Delhi gave its mandate, though a cautious one, to Mr Arvind Kejriwal, he let down the people by abandoning his responsibility.  Delhi not only forgave him but also extended the mandate with a shocking majority.  Once again, his party seems to be letting down the people. The bickering going on within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is not at all entertaining for the people of Delhi.  Delhiites had huge expectations from the Party as proved by the votes given to it.  Even before the honeymoon is over the partners have started bloating their egos.  What has happened already is a terrible let-down for Delhiites as well as for many other people who had hoped for a better alternative in the party.  The situation in Indian politics vis-a-vis leadership is rather pathetic.  Mr Narendra Modi has good leadership skills but is too parochial in thinking to be the leader of a country like India which has more diversity than his imagination can ...

The institution was going to collapse.  Everybody blamed everybody else for the situation.  The leader is not good, said some.  The staff were playing politics all the time, said some others.  The infrastructure is outdated, said yet others.  Everyone has a reason for blaming others, to paraphrase the advertisement slogan of an agarbati . Let us do something radical about it, said someone.  The action may make some drastic demands. “Let me ask my husband/wife,” said some. “I’d love to join you, but you know…” said some others. “I’m in the South Pole now, but I’ll definitely join you as soon as I reach our place,” said yet others. You deserve the leader who was foisted on you by your destiny. 

Courtesy The Hindu Many civilisations have legends or mythical stories about rulers whose immorality caused disasters such as drought in the kingdom.  What such stories sought to underscore was the importance of a good ruler.  A ruler (leader) who lacks the qualities that should go with his/her position is sure to bring some calamity or the other on the people. The calamity need not assume the form of a natural disaster.  In fact, it seldom does.  Hitler’s concentration camps were no more natural disasters than were the mass disappearances of dissenters during Stalin’s reign.  The communal riots that rocked Gujarat in 2002 were not natural reactions to the Godhra incident, much as Narendra Modi would like us to believe.  That’s why Modi’s election to BJP’s parliamentary board is a matter of serious concern.  The election of one of Modi’s major accomplices, Amit Shah, as a general secretary throws much light on the direction in which th...

“The Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids when Germans were living in caves.  Arabs ruled the world in the Middle Ages – the Muslims were doing algebra when Germans princes could not write their own names…. Civilizations rise and fall…”  One of Ken Follett’s characters says that in The Winter of the World . We may like to think we are more civilised than our forefathers.  One of the many illusions under which quite many people labour is that human civilisation improves with each passing day.  The person speaking through his mobile phone with another who is sitting thousands of miles away is more civilised than the one who communicated sitting in a jungle with the help of the signals beaten on a drum.  Is he really? Historians and scholars like Prof Felipe Fernandez-Armesto will not agree.  The professor says that “Societies do not evolve: they just change” [ Civilizations ].  The change need not be for the better. Consider the follow...

The English translation of Umberto Eco’s novel, The Name of the Rose , was originally published 30 years ago.  It’s the only novel of Eco that sold millions of copies.  I started re-reading it during this brief winter break in order to re-live the thrills I had gone through reading it about a quarter of a century back. While I’m about half way through the brilliant novel set in a Benedictine monastery in medieval Italy, I would like to share a thought from it on why certain new teachings, especially religious ones, gain popularity among the masses. In the medieval Europe, any new religious teaching [what other teaching was there in those days?] would be viewed as heresy, a challenge to the authority of the Pope.  Eco’s protagonist argues that the majority of those who flock after the new teachers are the “ simple” people (who lack “subtlety of doctrine”) who are also marginalised by the dominant classes.  The marginalised people are powerless in an...

The dog is indeed a faithful animal.  This dog was leading the way.  Is the dog a leader too? No, if you look at the human leaders.  The human leaders bark a lot.  They also lead from the front.  But not the way this dog was doing.  It was clearing the way for the cart.  Clearing the way for the follower - that's what leadership is about.  A leader should be a dog.  Faithful.