Dr Bijayananda Kar, PhD, Dlitt, had joined the Philosophy Postgraduate Department in the Utkal University way back in 1961. He climbed the hierarchical academic ladder being promoted as Reader in 1978 and as Professor in 1991 and continued till his superannuation in 2000. He is a member of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR) and a fellow of the British Council. He was also a fellow of the University of lancaster, Edinburgh, Oxford and london 1978. He was a visiting fellow to the University of Athens and Thessaloniki (Greece) in 1987 and Paris (France) in 2000. Being invited, he visited Bangkok in 1991, Amsterdam, Ho Chi Min City (Vietnam) and Singapore in 1996, Trinidad and Tobago (West Indies) and Bangladesh in 1999. He also visited the US in 1995, 1996 and 1999 being invited by philosophical societies and universities. His books and writings are reviewed and referred to both in India and abroad. He was a Professor Emeritus from 2002 to 2004 at the Ravenshaw College, Sr. Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla and Member, ICPR, Sr. Fellow 2008-09. He is now president, Freethought Party of India. He was Vice-Chairman of Indian Philosophical Congress and its General President. Earlier, he was President of All Orissa Philosophy Association in 2002. His publications include Dharma, Darshana O Manavatavada, Sankhya Darshana, Darshanika Nilakantha, Bauddhica Sankata; The Sankhya Philosophy: An Analytical Study and The Theories of Error in Indian Philosophy. His monumental contributions include The Humanist Vision, Indian Philosophy: An Analytical Study, Sri Aurobindo and Spiritualistic Humanism, Major Trends in Orissan Philosophy, Value Perspective in Indian Philosophy; Analysis in Sankara Vedanta, Ethics, language and Tradition, Secularism and National Integration; Reflection in Buddhism, Ethics in Indian Materialist Philosophy.
An irreverent iconoclast, he is opposed to religious obscurantism and fanaticism. A questioning intellectual, he never believes in powder, mixture, herb and hybrid and puts anything and everything under the scanner of the logic and ratiocination; throwing the applecart of the dogmatic social order upside down through his piercing reasoning. In an interview to The Pioneer, Prof Kar spoke to Sugyan Choudhury at his Bhubaneswar residence.
When did you develop logical thinkingIJ
I was mostly brought up in Cuttack during my childhood days at Khatbin Sahi-Diwan Bazar among people belonging to different communities like Hindus (Odia, Bengali and Telugu), Muslims and Christians. Though I was born in an orthodox Brahmin family, my mutual friendship with such different groups of multi religions and their customs and convention had several positive impacts on me. I was first educated in a Catholic-administered Convent School (probably the only English medium school in Odisha during 1940s).
I developed a desire to know the fundamentals of religions as those occupy the minds of people at large since centuries. Specially after my early professional career at the Utkal University, I read original texts of some prominent religions and came to notice that in some such cases, the present renderings are not accurate. In recent past, I went through such internationally well-acclaimed books like Marriage and Morals, God the Delusion, God Is Not Great, etc. Those are quite revealing and impressive. I could well see that religions, by and large, can never thrive consistently if those do not opt for development and progress of humanity in accordance with reason-based scientific attainments.
What’s your personal commitment to equality and human dignityIJ
While in service, I had the occasion of having several awards for visiting different countries. One definite thing that I marked is: while going to such places, people in general have remarkable public awareness. The sense of socio-individual discipline amongst them is noteworthy. Their personal likes and attitudes are never imposed on others. There is no religious aggrandisement which in many parts of India is rampant.
The citizens there are mostly free and open-minded to others. They do not interfere in other people’s personal affairs which do not hamper the socio-political cohesion and individual responsibility. If there is human negligence and torture found anywhere conspicuously, it is immediately tackled in full measure so that human welfare and dignity are kept intact. But, on the contrary, in India today we face disastrous effects of socio-individual sense of unawareness and apathy in different fronts.
Since many years, I have been greatly inspired by the sense of humanism and secularism. I am a committed humanist, keeping me away from any religious particularity which causes adverse effects on fellow feeling. The religious sense of spiritual awakening is not to be taken as boosting the sense of morality. These two concepts are not necessarily tied up. Rather, morality, to me, is a socio-individual affair in human sphere and legitimately meaningful only in that place without lurking into any will-o’ the wisp, i.e., other-worldly transcendence.
As per India’s current form of democratic secularism, the surreptitious socio-political so-called meaning of secularism as “Equal treatment to all religions” is to me unfair and preposterous. Because secular spirit is basically nonreligious and the idea of non-theocratic state is inbuilt in it. India today is politically designed as non-theocratic. In that way, it is to keep itself away from any sort of inclusion of religious spirit in the backdoor method. Such promotion is definitely offensive to our democratic socio-political framework. Religious preferences ought to be confined to personal preference and need not be entertained at public places. This is my firm belief and commitment. So, I have discarded all such religious settings and adopted reason-based conclusion that boosts scientific temper. I very much hold that a man of no-religion along with any other man believing a religion is a bonafide citizen.
Of all the best thinkers of the world, whom do you rate highIJ
The early Greek thinkers like Plato and Aristotle, who established national inquiry as the touchstone of philosophising (400-200 BC). JS Mill was an outstanding freethinker who was famous in advocating the spirit of secularism and was against the anti-human move of the theologians. I was also highly impressed by the writing of leo Tolstoy (War and Peace) in which he was vocal against human oppression and subjugation of the poor and unprivileged (19th century). I regard the great thinker of last century B Russell who fought for freethinking and openness in matters of political governance. In India, there are good numbers of thinkers from ancient to the modern times. Chanakya definitely hinted Indian philosophy (Darsana) an reasoned inquiry (Anuikshiki) which strikes against the age-old misnomer that Darsana and dharma are necessarily close. This is, as a matter of fact, not the case. There are number of great writers who are freethinkers. To name a few here; the ancient lokayata Brihaspati, modern reformists like MN Roy, Raja Ram Mohon Roy, BR Ambedkar, A Kavoor, Periyar EV Ramsamy and J Nehru.
Of all the Indian rulers/administrators, whom do you prefer as worthyIJ
I find Bentinck (who banned burning of alive widows), l Macaulay (who introduced English study in Indian), TE Ravenshaw (as Commissioner of Odiaha who controlled flood by construction of big canals and barrages), J Nehru for introducing secular spirit in Indian democratic governance and promoting scientific temper.
What’s your vision of Odisha and IndiaIJ
Traditionally and even today, to a considerable extent, Odisha/India suffers from having very conservative mindset and, thereby, perpetuates blind beliefs, dogmas that fully arrest human progress in proper scientific procedure. Today, despite some corrective measures by the Government, the problem of population explosion persists.
If in Japan Buddhism approves the necessity of adopting abortion for the cause of socio-human necessity then why not have our different religious trends move in some such socially-required reformative changes which are not sanctioned in conservative age-old traditionIJ Whatever is needed in the context of healthy and peaceful socio-human living setup needs to be adopted and the religious/moral/legal practices need to be amended from time to time. Nothing should be prefixed as absolute and unalterable. That myth should be removed from Odisha too.