Sep 08., 2016   /   Mine

The Dead Past – Issac Asimov

Read the story here!

Short story ‘The Dead Past’ by Issac Asimov, introduces three main characters: Araman, who represents the government; Potterly, a professor who is interested to do research on history and gets adapted to rules and regulations of the authorities; and Foster, a physics researcher who is not ready to give up his quest for knowledge. The story goes around the thought “for a greater good”. The authorities restricted Foster from working on his area of interest saying, ‘it may do damage to the nation in future’. The story leaves back a thought in the mind of the readers that, blocking (or controlling) of the researchers, innovators, artists, scientists, writers and people of other similar professions in the banner of greater good a right thing to do?

We live in a free nation where ‘freedom’ and many other slogans of our past (pre independence period) are mere words and not something that we experience even after seven decades of independence. A developing nation like India has a lot many success stories both from the past and the current. The success stories that make each one of us feel proud. However, when it comes to the ground reality, millions are still deprived of the fundamental rights that constitution grants them. Though, we have witnessed various social reformers who struggled a lot to make this society a better one, in the recent days we still learn people walking back to their previous days and old school of thoughts. We are part of the largest democracy and yet, we believe that many of our voices are unheard and are forced to remain silent.   Questioning, challenging, expressing your views or dissent is considered to be ‘anti-national’ or a reason for sedition and treason. There were incidents when the government had to take actions against any activity that was not acceptable or matching with their views.

Researchers at times are stopped from expressing their views, artists from painting, writers from publishing, scientists from innovating and many more. When the constitution says ‘Freedom of expression’, it still remains to be something that is controlled by the man in power. The authorities or the ruling majority tries to impose their ideology on top of every single citizen, citing that it is the better for the country and is for a greater good. We believe that we are free from caste, creed, religious and gender discrimination. But, the fact is it still remains in the books and not in action.

We being a social animal and a citizen of such diverse country, holds a collective responsibility. As the world is moving so fast and shrinking with the advancements in technology, we cannot walk or live independent. Sometimes we may define this as someone else’s control over my personal freedom. Neither the extreme right nor the extreme left ideologies can lead the society towards a pragmatic solution to the related issues. By default, it is the choice of the ruling majority. For a man in power, it is easy to control and spy on others. He may quote it with the help of terms like ‘security’, ‘regulation’, and ‘peace’. But, the real question for them is how they decide boundaries between good and bad. Instead of educating people, on how to become wiser, if our authorities spend time on drawing boundaries and putting regulations, then it will do more of bad than of good. For the greater good when people adopted steps like emergency, homicide and wars, the time has proved, that they all went wrong.

Freedom to find solutions to a problem or to express his concerns in the society he/she lives must be granted.  Authorities should not force them to abide, but, must win their hearts by debates, discussions and reaching out to them. Our educational system and especially the universities should provide an atmosphere and must be used for holding up of these kinds of activities. For a greater good, we believe certain regulations must happen, but it must be open to criticism. Self-criticism can help any leaders to achieve better heights and for a government, this must be a continuous task so that it wins the heart of all its citizens and not just the interest of the majority.

It is a personal choice to be Potterly or Foster, but, what really matters is for people like Araman to realize, that if not the power has been granted, what must have happened to his choices.