Humanity has recovered from the dark ages and has re-emerged on its long journey towards widening human freedom. Faith in times of crisis is needed
TS Eliott's famous line about history having many cunning passages and contrived corridors has been quoted often. It stirs the imagination. What precisely can be termed a cunning corridor in historyIJ A stretch in time that defies explanation about its origin, character or consequencesIJ Or a stretch that has been brought about by clever manipulations by some key actor on national or international stageIJ
It is difficult to find instances because even the least expected is capable of post-facto explanation, mostly turning on the premise that the causes were there but remained unnoticed.
As regards the manipulation theory, the question arises whether an individual or a group, through their machinations or strenuous efforts — depending on whether one approves or disapproves what the results have been —can move the wheels of history.
Time to exclaim déjà vu! We are back on the old turf of determinism — materialistic a la Marx or idealistic pace Hegel (if one can label his theory thus) — versus free will.
The most logical position in what has been one of the most contentious debate in the history of ideas has been that of MN Roy who claimed in his Twenty-Two Thesis that historical determinism did not exclude the freedom will and the human will was the most powerful determining factor. He added, “Otherwise, there would be no room for revolutions in a rationally determined process of history”.
According to Roy, history was a determined process but there were more than one causative factors; the human will was one of them and it could not always be referred to any economic incentive.
At the root of the whole debate is the question: How do ideas arise and what course do they follow in shaping history. Do they arise on their own or from material circumstances, with the human mind reacting in a determined mannerIJ Do they evolve on their own or in response to circumstances on the groundIJ If the latter, then to what extentIJ
Roy strikes a careful middle path stating, “Ideation is a physiological process resulting from the awareness of environment. But once they are formed, ideas exist by themselves, governed by their own laws. The dynamics of ideas run parallel to the process of social evolution, the two influencing each other mutually.
But in no particular point in the process of the integral human evolution, can a direct causal relationship be established between historical events and the movement of ideas (‘ideas' is here used in the common philosophical sense of ideology or system of ideas).
Cultural patterns and ethical values are not mere ideological superstructures of established economic relations. They are historically determined — by the logic of the history of ideas”.
The relevance of this rather complex formulation becomes clear if one breaks down and analyses its components. For example, that ideas are governed by their own laws becomes clear on recalling that all knowledge is the result of inductive and deductive reasoning — the first drawing conclusions from observation and the second deducing conclusions from knowledge based on observation.
Even intuitive perceptions require logical formulation and development following processes relating to the course of deduction and induction. Recall the processes of syllogism, for example.
Again, if cultural or ethical formulations were historically determined, then there would not have been strong common threads running though both through the entire process of history irrespective of the social, economic and political orders prevailing at different stages. Nor would there have been such commonality in the basic human values underlying all cultures.
There have doubtless been aberrations such as Germany in the time of Nazis when genocide of Jews was lauded state policy. But these have been rare and severely condemned by posterity and resisted contemporaneously.
More important, history has invariably recovered from dark passages and cruel corridors and re-emerged on its journey toward progressively widening human freedom.
Hitlers and Mussolinis belong to the dustbin of history while a Mahatma Gandhi remains a beacon for humanity. One needs to remember this when freedom is assailed from so many quarters. One must strive and keep the faith.
(The writer is Consultant Editor, The Pioneer, and an author)