Friday, October 14, 2011

Truth Is Our Only Defense. But What Is It?

I was part of a demonstration this evening held at Plaza in Sector 17, Chandigarh. Organized by some "Left-Democratic" organizations, it was held to uphold freedom of expression and condemn extremism. There was a lot of passionate sloganeering followed by even more passionate speeches by various protesters. I addressed the small gathering briefly and said that such attacks do not happen all of a sudden; there is a long incubation period in which some "scholars" rewrite true events and weave myths out of history in which youngsters like the ones who assaulted the eminent Supreme Court lawyer get willingly entangled. Bhagat Singh has been made a Hindutva ideologue. I urged everyone, especially the young students to study history closely and not lose sight of the truth. Truth is our only defense. ... But since then I am sitting wondering if this word "Truth" means much in our times ... I seem to be asking like Pontius Pilate: "What is Truth?" ...




4 comments:

Pooja Priyamvada said...

what is truth?yes that is the most important question?it is easy to take sides it is difficult to separate and identify truth.

लाल्टू said...

The issue is not the Truth itself. That there may be multiple Truths and that a people have a right to live with their own Truth and others have a right to speak on their behalf - this is the issue. In a society with conflicting interests, no Truth is universal. There will always be some who suffer, but this suffering cannot be terminated by eliminating the voices of a majority. We hope that a majority, for instance, people in Kashmir valley, will respect the views of minority also - but for this allowing freedom to the majority is an obvious pre-condition. If someone feels that they (the valley majority) are driven by an UnTruth, they are free to speak out their version of the Truth. People will choose the path that is right for them, if they are left to themselves. No one can claim their Truth to be such a 'truer' Truth that everyone else has to abide by it.

Ashish said...

When one uses brute force to impose one's "truth", then it must be suspected that it is not truth but a lie. But in a society with conflicting interests, do we not need a wider, more encompassing, if not a universal, truth? It can take various forms: consensus, conciliation or reconciliation, etc. The problem perhaps arises from an outright rejection of even the possibility of objective truth. Thanks for your comments friends.

Satyapal said...

Lage raho Alexnder Bhai....!