JK News Today
Jammu, September 30:
“We rightly celebrate our Independence day but I always say do not forget the price that was paid for Independence. We were not so violent against the British as we were against each other during The Partition. There were unbelievable brutalities. If only we face it we can come to terms with it. You cannot ignore it. You have to let the people know the price paid for Independence of India,” said Karan Singh, the nonagenarian philosopher, politician, diplomat, author, thinker and scholar.
Karan Singh participated in a virtual session of Ek Mulakat Visesh organized by Prabha Khaitan Foundation and presented by Shree Cement and engaged in a lively conversation with Lady Mohini Kent Noon, author and founder-chairperson of LILY Against Human Trafficking, which covered a wide range of topics from religion, education, Vedic wisdom, quantum mechanics, Sufism to The Partition. The event was conducted by Swati Agarwal, Ehsaas Women of Mumbai.
Responding to a question on the role of religion in society, Karan Singh said, “I have been involved in the interfaith movement for the past four decades. The problem is that people spend crores of rupees building mosques, temples and gurudwaras but interfaith meetings are nobody’s baby. We are still continuing our efforts to bring people together and spread understanding (among different faiths). The prototypes of religion we have in our minds are very rigid and the only way you can get over those prototypes is by meeting with each other and talking to each other. Interfaith prayers are very important.”
“I wish we could stress Sufism in India so that the other face of Islam which is becoming something of a prototype which makes you think of Taliban and the fanatical side of Islam. This is very unfortunate. The softer and loving part of Islam is forgotten. Sufi shrines are the essence of Islam,” Singh said.
Referring to the Vedic wisdom and Upanishads and their relevance in the modern world, Karan Singh said, “It seems to me that Noble laureates and post-Einsteinian and post-Heisenbergian quantum mechanics researchers have begun to reflect some of the insights of Upanishads which have the same sort of descriptions which now define what these people are looking into atoms.”
Commenting on the broader education system and the need for Vedic wisdom in our curriculum, Karan Singh said, “Macaulay is much maligned in India but a lot of people who have gone through the English education have made their mark in the world and produced Nobel laureates. So we should not scrap the whole system. Our Constitution forbids us from teaching religion but that does not mean you cannot tell the wonderful morally-uplifting stories of the Upanishads and other religious texts. We need to have an injection of wisdom into the education system. A combination of our ancient wisdom and modern pedagogical methods.”
The Ek Mulakat and Ek Mulakat Visesh series of webinars and events are organized by Kolkata-based Prabha Khaitan Foundation, kindling stimulating discussions by connecting artistes, achievers, cultural aficionados, thinkers and authors with the common people across India and other continents.
