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Going green dramatically benefits businesses – it should be central to their coronavirus recovery strategy

Yoyo Dy/Unsplash, FAL

Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada, University of Southampton and Mili Shrivastava, Bournemouth University

The onset of the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown have imperilled businesses worldwide. It will be tempting for firms to put any commitment to the environment in the back seat as they attempt to recover, especially as some governments reduce requirements and undermine environmental protection.

This is short-sighted: businesses do not have to sacrifice their environmental goals for protecting their growth. Greening initiatives like offering green products or services, introducing green processes internally, hiring employees to promote sustainable practices, or going beyond compliance requirements, can actually help firms.

Using data on 9,236 small and medium businesses in 35 countries across Europe and the US, our research suggests that on average, businesses benefit from going green, although the type of greening that gives the most significant benefit may differ between firms.

Here are four main ways that greening can benefit businesses.

1. Innovative market niches

By offering new green products or services, a business is more likely to cater to an emerging trend or niche market, which can make it more competitive. Frugalpac, a UK-based company that makes paper-based packaging for liquids that cut carbon footprints, received a £2 million investment during the pandemic – a time when most other companies were struggling for finance.

Already seeing widespread success for their recycled paper coffee cup, Frugalpac’s innovative paper wine bottle, also made from 94% recycled paper, has led to new opportunities and partnerships.

Companies focused on sustainability can rapidly expand by catering to new niche markets internationally. Consider D’light, a company that offers innovative lighting solutions for people who do not have access to electricity. The company has transformed the lives of more than 100 million people across 70 countries through its green product offerings while raising US$197 million (£150 million) in investment.

Earlier this year, the Danish energy supplier Ørsted, formerly known as Danish Oil and Natural Gas, was named the most sustainable company in the world. This success followed from its transformation to a green energy supplier – which went hand in hand with accelerated profits.

By catering to new niche markets using green products and services, these businesses have emerged as future leaders in their sectors. Of course, not all companies are suited to finding such niches. But sustainability can be promoted in other ways like green working practices and processes, for example.

2. Employee motivation

Job seekers are increasingly attracted to companies that care for the environment. The employees of firms that promote sustainability are more likely to believe that their employer will care for them, and are more satisfied with their jobs.

Such companies create a higher sense of personal and organisational purpose that makes work meaningful. A recent poll shows that millennials and Gen Z’s are more concerned about the environment than any previous generation. This means they prioritise employers who put sustainability at the forefront.

Millenials and Gen Z’s are more worried about the environment than any previous generations. LinkedIn Sales Navigator/Unsplash, FAL

By some estimates, companies that follow green practices have a 16% boost in employee productivity. Although establishing a direct causal link can be difficult, some of the greenest companies, such as Cisco, Tarmac or Stantec, are also considered the greatest companies by employees.

3. More engagement

Greening initiatives signal to external stakeholders, such as investors and customers, that a business is committed to doing good. This can lead to increased investment, customers and stakeholder loyalty. This is pertinent in the aftermath of COVID-19 as there is heightened awareness about the need to protect the environment.

For example, highly sustainable companies benefit from superior stock market performance in the long run, according to research looking at American companies in the period 1993-2009. Investors are increasingly questioning firms on their commitment to sustainability, and expecting meaningful steps from them for integrating consideration of such issues into their investing criteria. This is reflected by the tenfold increase in global sustainability investment to US$30.7 trillion by April 2019 since 2004.

More recently, Polysolar, a company that makes glazed windows that generate electricity, has secured more than double the investment it sought on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. And large companies such as Unilever have benefited from increased stakeholder engagement and loyalty by adopting greening practices and products, addressing a dark history of environmental exploitation.

4. Increased efficiency

Greening processes can result in efficiency gains by reducing energy costs, allowing businesses to secure green tax credits, improving operational efficiency, and embedding circular economy principles internally.

Such gains directly translate into commercial benefits. As many as 75% of UK businesses that invested in green technologies subsequently enjoyed commercial benefits, even if financial concerns pose barriers to making these green investments in the first place. For large companies such as Proctor & Gamble, these gains can run into billions of pounds.

Conversely, in cases where businesses harm the environment, they have to be prepared to incur significant costs. A prominent example is the famous case of Volkswagen, which has even adversely impacted the performance of other German car manufacturers like BMW and Mercedes Benz.

For all these reasons, time is ripe for business to go green.

Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada, Associate Professor in Strategy and Innovation, University of Southampton and Mili Shrivastava, Senior Lecturer in Strategy, Bournemouth University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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An Endless Stream

Whence have I come Where to I go Moving in stillness In search of my soul An endless stream Beckoned by the ocean A bond unbroken In trust from before So far yet so near Called me the source To come closer That, in love I bask Confluence was turbulent The expanse so vast No more a stream now In me is the ocean From her I came To her I go Moving in stillness In search of my soul

#poem #theendlessstream

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A New Dawn For Humanity?

One human race. Frail and fragile?  

In the war that is raging across the planet, the enemy, for a change, is not an insider. The invincible human being has been humbled.

As a virus sweeps across continents striking at the heart of our beliefs about life here, humanity finds itself startled at its own frailty.

While countries close their borders and ask people to stay at their homes, uncertainty has emptied markets in the midst of unprecedented lockdowns. In the face of an invisible enemy, the human race, caught off-guard, has unified like never before to defend its humanness.

At this imperilled moment, is the planet at the cusp of a new dawn? A dawn that can usher a new era of peace and love.

Over the last several years, the world stage has witnessed relentless conflicts. Conflicts that raged across continents, that flourished both within and across borders, ironically, in the name of peace, security and God.

As these conflicts wiped out millions of lives, the human mind busied itself with us versus them. It saw more and more enemies that needed to be set straight. It sought revenge to make it all even.

Instead, if societies invested resources spent on conflicts for advancing science and tightening the social fabric, our world could have better dealt with the pandemic gripping it today. Human race has far greater enemies in hunger, inequity, and climate change than in fellow human beings.

In the spirit of vasudhaiva kutumbakam, time is ripe to move from “I” to “we”, from the pursuit of self-interest to advancing the interest of all. Keeping aside differences, our generation has to accomplish the vision of harmonious peaceful co-existence for posterity.

Whether we are Muslims, Hindus, Americans or Indians, the human spirit within binds us together to make us strong. Infighting is no longer tenable.

From the depths of this conviction, a new dawn, that abounds in the light of love, can rise for humanity.

An earlier post titled “Courage, Fear, and the World To Come” is here. 

#anewdawn #vasudaivakutumbakam #corona #harmony #peace #peaceandlove #conflict #war #onefamily

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Try the TRY Model for Transformational Leadership

If your wish to make your organisation, team or relationships flourish, try the TRY Leadership Model. As a leader,

Trust your team members. Trusting someone makes them develop a sense of accountability. This intrinsically motivates them to do justice to the trust you have reposed in them.

Respect your team members. Whether someone is on the initial steps of the organisational hierarchy or at its highest level, treat them all with respect. This will make the entire team respect you. Once this respect is won, they become open to accepting your vision as their own.

Ask each of your team members, “what can the organisation (or I) do for You?” It is usual to ask team members about the contributions they make to the organisation, their productivity, efficiency and so on. Instead, for a change, ask them what the organisation can do for them. 

Unresolved bottlenecks inhibit individuals from making their best contributions in an organisation.  By shifting the focus to what the organisation can do for them, a leader can unleash their intrinsic motivation to excel by addressing these bottlenecks head on.

The TRY Model has the seeds of transformational impact in a multitude of settings. By enabling relationships to flourish, it can intrinsically motivate team members to be on your side and offer the best of their capabilities while creating an environment where everyone can flourish.

For organic organisational transformation, try the TRY Model now.

#Organisations #Leadership #Trust #Respect #TRY #You #transformation

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To make a difference, be the ICC Champion you are!

To make a difference in the world, there is a simple secret: 

Be the ICC Champion you are!

Initiate: Proactively initiate something. Start-up! Initiate something and let others be inspired to join your initiative. This can be as humble as starting a conversation on health and well-being at workplace or something as grand as initiating a process that can lead to the next Google! Whatever that be: ‘Initiate’

There will be temptations to disappear after taking the initiative. Don’t give in. Transition to the next stage--Create! 

Create:  Let that initiative lead to the creation of something new, something that is original, something created by you! This can be the creation of a new club, a virtual site, a physical space or anything that takes your initiative forward. Whatever it be: ‘Create’. 

Let the processes of ‘initiate’ and ‘create’ not serve your interests alone. Through them--'Contribute'

Contribute: Ensure that your initiatives and creations contribute positively to the world around. This positive impact will make you a legend. The moment your focus shifts to the contributions you can make, you will begin making a difference!

From Edison to Gandhi, Picasso to Gates, and Yunus to Rowling, ICC pulsates through their life stories. The world has marvelled at these ICC Champions. But it is not just them who can be so. 

By initiating, creating, and contributing, you too can be amongst the select who make a difference in this world: The ICC Champions!

#initiate #create #contribute #excel #makeadifference #humanexcellence

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Buddha’s Genius as a Scientist of Mind

In July 2019 I had an opportunity to spend ten days with the discovery of Buddha that led to his enlightenment. It is the meditation technique called Vipasana. The experience changed forever my impression of what Buddha stood for. I held him in high regard for giving the world the middle path following his enlightenment previously but here I learnt that his quest for truth shaped his genius as a scientist of mind.

The ten days I spent at the Vipassana retreat gave me a flavour of his inner pursuits. The meditation path that Buddha propounded, Dhamma, involves four steps (simple, yet they require incredible discipline). The wondrous discovery of Buddha consisting of these four steps led him to nirvana.

Step 1: Develop good character. Good character means you don’t steal, tell lies, indulge in sexual misconduct, kill living beings, or get intoxicated. In the Buddhist tradition, these are the five precepts (called pancha sila).

Step 2: Develop a focused mind. This can be achieved by first focusing on one’s breath, and subsequently by focusing on the sensations that one experiences in and around the nostrils. Throughout the process, it is important to not force a particular breathing pattern but simply observe the natural flow of breath (yatha butah—observing things as they truly are). This will lead to right concentration (called samma samadhi).

Step 3: Be equanimous. Once the mind becomes sensitive to the sensations arising around the nostrils, examine every part of the body for any sensations that are arising moment to moment and be equanimous while remembering that neither pain nor pleasure are permanent as both forms of sensations are transient. This is the Vippasana meditation technique. It leads to the ultimate truth through experienced wisdom (called bhavanamayi panna).

Step 4: For the preceptor who gives this technique, offer gratitude. This gratitude is to be expressed in the form of wishing for the well-being of everyone and everything in the entire universe. It involves a soulful prayer for the welfare of all beings.

Buddha’s genius lies in the discovery that thoughts arising in mind and sensations on body are like two sides of a coin. Observing the mind is the secret to conquering it. However, it is not easy to observe it because mind is an abstract entity. As one example, we can conquer anger by observing anger but it is not easy to observe it. When we try to observe anger we land up observing the object of anger and not anger itself. This leads to more anger within the mind. Buddha’s unique discovery offered a practical approach of observing the mind without actually observing it.

By connecting mind with the sensations arising on the body, and focusing on the sensations on the body with equanimity, Buddha found that one can purify the mind of anger, hared, attachment, craving and others that afflict it. Vippasana in essence is this continuous examination of the sensations arising on the body with equanimity. Practically, this translates to remaining still without reacting if there is a sensation of pain or pleasure or an itch or any other sensation on the physical frame while observing these sensations consciously. Buddha transcended mind using this technique. That transcendence led him to enlightenment. It made him see the atomic structure of the universe and the dissolution of his identification with his physical structure.

While liberation is the grand goal and aspiration, the technique offers an alternative approach to mental health and well-being.

It does not carry the baggage of any sect or narrow religious belief with it but offers something unique and powerful that has an empirical validation in the experience of Buddha himself and the large number of people who have experienced its benefits. For those who practise it regularly, it holds the promise of bringing them closer to being Buddha!

#buddhism #buddha #vipassana #meditation #mind #mindovermatter #dhamma #gratitude #peaceandharmony #wellbeing #retreat

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Indian election: Modi win delivered thanks to faith in economic growth pledges

India’s electoral colossus has re-elected Narendra Modi’s BJP party, following the largest democratic exercise in the world. India has united to put Modi back in office. This is the second time since 1971 that a majority incumbent government has returned to power with majority in India.

Over the past five years, Modi’s government projected an image of working non-stop to advance the cause of those on the fringes of India’s economy. The BJP’s policy initiatives included a controversial demonetisation move to stop corruption, which created bank accounts for 356 million poor people. He also provided cooking gas connections to nearly 60 million households and brought electricity to nearly 16,000 villages, covering more than 40 million households that didn’t have it before, making all of India electrified.

Health coverage was extended to the country’s poorest citizens and more than 90 million toilets were built. Modi introduced the MUDRA scheme to give collateral-free micro loans for self-employed entrepreneurs and a unified goods and service tax for the entire country, which accelerated tax collections.

Diverse electorate

Since Modi was first nominated as a prime ministerial candidate in 2014, a debate over his government fuelling intolerance against certain groups in Indian society has deflected attention from the good work on the ground. Recently, Time magazine called Modi the “divider in chief”. But Modi successfully united the most diverse electorate in the world to come together to vote in his favour and advance his vision of developing the Indian economy.

This is no small achievement. India’s diversity, the presence of numerous regional parties that command local influence as well as religious and social groups that have preferred candidates and parties and a private media that has an anti-Modi bias make this victory an incredible achievement.

Two weeks before the elections began, the main opposition party – the Indian National Congress – released its manifesto with a promise to give a universal basic income to the poorest 20% of the Indian households. This became the core campaign message of Congress, which it believed to be a game changer.

But the promise to remove poverty from India – one that Congress has kept making since India gained independence, without managing to deliver on it when in power – did not inspire trust in the electorate. The Indian voter watched with disbelief when Modi was accused of corruption by parties (including Congress) which have histories that are riddled with scandal and corruption issues.

Development for one and all

Modi pitched the contest as one between a dynast and an incorruptible deliverer – and the Indian voter believed the track record of Modi over the previous five years, along with his message of “sabka sath and sabka vikas” (development for one and all). And the 2019 campaign was centred around the phrase “mein bhi chowdikar” (I too am a watchman) emphasising his anti-corruption credentials and presenting him as an upholder of justice.

India’s opposition parties have to rethink the strategy they have adopted over the last five years. Arguing that Modi is a divisive leader has not cut ice with the Indian voter. In Modi, the country has found a development messiah.

Over the next five years, his government will have to deliver on the long list of campaign promises. These include ensuring that every Indian family has a home of its own by the 75th year of Indian independence in 2022, doubling farmers’ incomes, developing world-class infrastructure and accelerating support to entrepreneurs and start-ups – all the while retaining the focus on inclusive development to accomplish the 75 milestones for India at 75 that the party has put forth in its election manifesto.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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India Awakens to a New Modi Era

India has re-elected Modi. Going by the track record of the previous five years of Modi’s governance, this inflexion point in the journey of post-independent India can accelerate India’s economic development. In recent times, Russia, UAE, Palestine, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia have conferred their highest civilian awards on Modi. His initiatives like the Global Solar Alliance and International Yoga Day created new opportunities for India although the world media has failed to pick this strong undercurrent of love and respect Modi has gained on the world stage, not just within India.

Modi has time and  again reaffirmed that he is wedded to the Hindu scriptures that implore one to respect all religions as offering different paths to the same God (“ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanti”). This re-election presents an unmissable opportunity to India led by Modi to demonstrate leadership in establishing world peace, following the core tenets of Hinduism that are rooted in truth, righteousness, peace, love, and non-violence.

#indianelections #electionresults #hinduism #newera #bjp #congress 

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The FLAG bearers of Life

Some choose to be FLAG bearers of life. Life conspires with them to advance the well-being of all. Holding them in its lap, life allows them to discover the greatest sources of fulfilment by making them one with itself. To them, it reveals its greatest secrets. 

Who are these FLAG bearers? What is the FLAG they bear? These are individuals who tenaciously hold on to four values:

Faith: In themselves, their guru, God, their innate goodness, or anything that they believe will always stand by them. 

Love: For all, friends and foes alike considering both expressions of life.

Awareness: That the entire cosmos has an underlying unity, that life binds all that is there, and act with a spirit of service to that unity.

Gratitude: For everything that life gives, for the experience of being alive, and for the opportunity to expand and become One with all life.

These FLAG bearers are blessed indeed for life itself seeks their embrace. The fullness of life overflows from their being. 

Surprisingly, isn't this where all religions and scriptures of the world converge -- in their aim to make their followers the FLAG bearers of life?

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Courage, Fear and the World to Come

In most circumstances, the human mind chooses a course of action based on courage or fear. When it is courage-struck, it mainly tries to explore, create and expand. When it is fear-struck, it mostly works to attack, destroy and contract. In both cases, the course of action chosen is instinctive, and part of what nature has built into the system for preservation. However, while actions rooted in courage lead humanity forward, actions rooted in fear achieve the opposite. 

Why is conquering fear important for the world to come? If society is overwhelmed with fear, human minds will instinctively choose actions that have inferior outcomes for themselves and the world around them. Evidently, much of what is happening around us is a consequence of this fear-mongering that has gained ground. Hoarding wealth through corruption, unethical practices in business, lobbying to distort policy, tightening borders, terrorism, war, and an endless list of world’s problems are all naturally occurring consequences of the fear-struck mind. 

In contrast to above, if society gets rooted in courage, human minds will instinctively choose actions that have superior outcomes for themselves and the world around them. In this case, courage-struck minds will create something positive leading up to a less insecure world filled with empathy, appreciation of diversity, ethical behaviour, and love. For these reasons, global media and the leaders who colour it, by their power to instil courage or fear in the human mind, will be responsible for the world that future generations will see. 

However, a more fundamental question is this: what is the source of these two siblings of courage and fear? For the human mind, fear springs from its inability to control the uncertainties of life, in not being able to understand the unknown, and from its experience of the external world. Courage emerges from its conviction that uncertainty is a play of nature, who is but a mother of higher order, and that the soul within is an imperishable spark of the divine. The light of this spark leads to the conquest of fear. Listen ye children of immortality (‘Shrinwantu Vishwe Amritasya Putra’), entreats the Shvetashvatara Upanishad.

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The True Glory of Bharat

A relentless pursuit of truth has led Bharateeyas to the quintessence of all wisdom, and it consists of a great secret--the secret to immortality. No country on the planet, howsoever great it's scientific or secular achievements are, can match this accomplishment of Bharateeyas. In this, lies the true glory of Bharat.

Western civilization has made great strides in understanding prakriti (nature). Its technological advancements have given access to physical and material comforts. While novel scientific discoveries and innovations kept the western mind constantly occupied, its mass production models led to an accumulation of wealth and newly minted consumption societies. Here, the pursuit of truth translated to getting a perfect grip on nature and natural processes. 

However, while the truth is changeless, prakriti (nature) is ever-changing and constantly evolving. In it, creation, sustenance and destruction appear cyclical with everything subject to appearance and disappearance in the flow of time.

This made Bharateeyas look for the truth elsewhere--in realms that are beyond the grasp of physical senses. In these realms, hidden deep within the human mind, they made great strides in experiencing the truth, and it set them free. Their psycho-analytical excursions brought them face to face with something stunning -- the changeless truth -- within themselves as the indweller (the I). They found that the absolute truth is this indweller who exists same in everyone and everything as illumination and bliss. 

This made them emphatically declare-- “deho devalaya proktoh jeevo devah sanatana” --that every physical body is a temple and the indweller (the I) in it is the ancient one, the creator Himself. In the venerable Naryana Suktam, the ancient rishis exactly locate the physical area near the human heart where this indweller (the I) resides. They found that merging all identities of oneself with this indweller is the secret to immortality, for that indweller changelessly exists forever as illumination and bliss. 

Bharateeyas who have made this phenomenal advancement in experiencing the truth, and the Hindu religion that has this sublime wisdom as its roots, have made an unparalleled contribution to humanity. It is time we acknowledge, appreciate, assimilate, and experience this timeless wisdom. The glory of Bharat is eternally intact as seekers of the truth will be endless on the planet.

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Hinduism mistaken?

Several social institutions are attributed to Hinduism–the practice of caste-system being one that has led to a hierarchical society where everyone is equal in theory but none is so in practice. The historical practice of Sati is another example. However, these social institutions have nothing to do with the sacred Hindu religion itself. 

In the venerable Purusha Suktam, there are a couple of lines that translate to this: Brahmins (pundits) are like the face, the Kshatriyas (kings) are like the arms, the Vyshyas (businesspeople) are like the trunk, and the Shudras (workers) are like the legs of God. While some have wrongly interpreted this to suggest that one is above the other, there is no basis for this. Is the face superior to trunk? Can we say the arms are more important than the legs? These lines of Purusha Suktam are often used to link Hinduism with the emergence of the caste system. However, the caste system is a division of labour system that existed amongst the people inhabiting Bharat. The Purusha Suktam enlightens by suggesting that all caste groups are like different limbs of One God–they all are essential for the body of God to function, so none is more or less important than the other. The Hindu religion ordains that all are treated equally. 

While divinity is worshipped as mother across India, the abominable practice of Sati was also prevalent in the Indian society at one point in time. It was accepted as a social evil and banned in the nineteenth century– mainly by the efforts of Raja Ramamohan Roy, the founder of Brahma Samaj. While this social practice prevailed in India, it would be incorrect to link it to the Hindu religion. The fallacy of such attribution is evident when one looks at logic like this: some individuals get into adultery, and they follow Religion R, so Religion R encourages infidelity. It is utterly fallacious to draw such conclusions. The Hindu religion accords the highest respect to a woman. Matru Devo Bhava (mother is God), Pitru Devo Bhava (father is God) it proclaims and puts mother first amongst people who should be revered. The givers of knowledge, wealth and courage are all forms of the divine mother in the Hindu religion. 

While the eternal knowledge in Upanishads proclaimed the oneness of life, people who failed to grasp this fundamental basis of Hindu religion were responsible for misconstruing social institutions as vehicles for discrimination. If the Upanishadic knowledge emphatically proclaiming the truth that every individual is an expression of God is taken to every doorstep, the social institutions will evolve and get refreshed to be what they are meant to be. The magnificence of Hindu thought can only liberate not bind.

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Why unite Hindus?

As a diverse group of people with sects, castes and cults that outnumber those of any other religion on the planet, the Hindus face a compelling challenge of finding unity. 

Hinduism is rooted in total tolerance for diversity as Hindus are taught early on in their life that they should have regard for every individual’s unique path to the same ultimate destination that all are headed towards–that may be called Rama, Krishna, Allah, Isa, Holy Spirit or by any name that human mind can give for God.  

If someone is a fanatic Hindu–and has assimilated this tolerance towards all paths–no one should feel threatened by such a fanatic just like how there is no need to be insecure in the presence of someone fanatic about doing good to others. Hinduism embraces all. It is interested in harnessing one’s connect with God–it doesn’t mind whether that connection is achieved by following a specific path for it considers no path superior to others.  

India offers a glimmer of hope to a world torn asunder by the violence of terrorism, exploitation, inequality, and racism. This is because Hindu tolerance, gushing through its arteries and veins, is ever reinforced by the belief in the oneness of God-centered in its heart. 

For this unique message of tolerance of Hinduism to reverberate around the world, having within itself precious seeds of universal brotherhood and peace, Hindus should stand united, particularly in the face of principle-less politics that seeks to divide them. 

United India can revive and send a strong message to the world that human race can find the foundations of universal peace, harmony and brotherhood in the tenets of Hinduism. However, the path of light requires love to accomplish such a mission. It demands that victory is won by goodness, by having truth and righteousness as the most potent weapons. 

[jptamvada]

Intolerance of what in India?

An argument that India has become intolerant in recent times has gained traction in both Indian and international media. A number of Indian intellectuals and artists have returned national honors and awards conferred on them to protest growing intolerance, celebrities have expressed wishes to leave India, and Indian parliament has devoted time to debate this issue. Can India really become intolerant?

For most of history, India has only tolerated. It celebrated its diversity and allowed people to co-exist by viewing them as humans rather than individuals with diverse religious affiliations. To a large extent, this tolerance is attributable to the core teachings of Hinduism, that God resides in the heart of everyone (ekatma sarva bhutantaratma) and, whichever form or name of God one worships, the destination for all is the same (ekam sat viprah bahudha vadanti). With these convictions intact, India has welcomed with open arms individuals with eclectic modes of worship belonging to diverse religions and cultures from around the world. This has contributed greatly to Indians being regarded as peace loving people who blend in a variety of cultural contexts.

India’s tolerance rendered it vulnerable on many fronts. Post-independence, a section of India’s politicians and civil servants exploited it to multiply their own fortunes. All these resulted in vast swathes of illiteracy, under-developed infrastructure, poor health care facilities, and unending corruption in India. After Modi’s arrival on the national scene on promises of fast-tracked economic growth and zero tolerance for corruption, many became hopeful of India’s resurgence as a global economic powerhouse. This has potentially unsettled interest groups who profited from opaque governance systems that nonchalantly allowed pursuit of personal interests at the cost of nation building. There is a great likelihood that these interest groups are behind the smoke screen of a "rising intolerance" discourse where even accidental incidents are lent communal hues.

Whether it is Sachin Tendulkar or Sharukh Khan, India has always loved people for what they are without looking at them through the lens of religion. Otherwise, India would have never had a Muslim president, a Sikh Prime Minister or a Christian as the president of its largest political party. A country with a long history of religious tolerance and freedom of expression is being projected otherwise. India can never become intolerant till such time the Hindu belief that everybody is a spark of divine (mamaivānśho jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ, the Bhagawad Gita, chapter 15) is strongly rooted in the Indian consciousness.

For the Hindu religion that inculcated tolerance by its teachings of universal love by emphasizing the principle of vasudaiva kutumbakam, there are no sympathizers of its cause. Any remote suggestion to show respect to Hindu beliefs risks getting projected as intolerance by people proclaiming to be secularists. Ironically, the self-proclaimed secularists have little tolerance for Hindu sentiments while provoking uproar about rising intolerance. India will tolerate them too with unflinching forbearance.

However, India has become intolerant of corruption, poverty, poor sanitation, under-developed infrastructure, and bad governance. It is impatient and wants to see results quickly. It is ready to experiment with dramatic political changes, hoping that the country will free from the shackles of poverty and underdevelopment. In this backdrop, the focus needs to shift to this underdevelopment intolerance raging across the country and to critically evaluate Modi’s work towards delivering on his promises of fast-tracked inclusive development than regressing into imaginary fears of a religiously intolerant India.

[jptamvada]

My first tumblr post

Silence is golden