July 28, 2017
Sugata Bose speaks on the issue of mob lynchings
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Thank you Madam Speaker. This House should take note of and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Rabindranath Tagore’s famous book ‘Nationalism’. In it, Tagore recorded his conviction that “my countrymen will gain truly their India by fighting against that education which teaches them that a country is greater than the ideas of humanity”. Yeh insaaniyat ki baat aaj yaad rakhna hai.
He had something even more perceptive and farsighted to say in 1917 that is relevant in 2017. He wrote, “The social habit of mind which impels us to make the life of our fellow beings a burden to them, where they differ from us even in such a thing as their choice of food, is sure to persist in our political organisation and result in creating engines of coercion to crush every rational difference which is the sign of life.”
Today, you know Madam Speaker, the engines of coercion are snuffing out life in the form of mob lynchings. It is our duty today to save the expression of rational difference that can nurture and nourish a healthy national life.
Our HRD Minister in present here today. He has given an assurance that Tagore will not be removed from our textbooks. But he should go further and include more of Rabindranath Tagore in our textbooks so that our young students can learn the value of humanity.
