Is Ignorance Really Bliss?

Karan Thapar is confused now a day. He belongs to that Indian intelligentsia who has all the knowledge and authority to write, comment and analyze. He keeps writing left and right on whatever issues suits him irrespective of his expertise. Depending upon situation, he can write on any subject like Jaipal Reddy who could be the spokesman of any political party. Jaipal Reddy can speak good and bad points on any party and on any issue. Karan Thapar is also the similar intellectual who attends all the big parties of the capital and enjoys the closeness of all big shots of India. He can interview anyone. People feel privileged to be intervened or I call them as grilled not interviewed if they are not from his kind of thinking. Today, Karan Thapar has doubt. Is ignorance really bliss? But did you know that?

To survive in this knowledge era, there is no other bliss than ignorance. No individual can ever quench her thirst of gaining knowledge. There is no end of acquiring knowledge. As much you learn, as much you feel that you knew less. Karan Thapar knows this well. Even though, he asks few of the questions to satisfy few of the people and distress few of them. But did you know that?

He wrote a lengthy article on ‘is ignorance bliss’in the Sunday 16 Apr 06 Hindustan Times, Delhi Edition. In that he mentioned that how big is the problems of Naxalite Threat. Few pertinent data he gives. Naxalite threats spread across 40 % of country geographical area and 35% of its population. Naxalite violence rose by 30% between 2003 and 2005. 53% increase in the killing of policemen between 2004 and 2005. Each time Government spends on development in the affected areas, a sizeable portion leaks into Naxal hands. But the pertinent question is, did Karan knew these statistics earlier?

If he was aware about this statistics, then why did he not advise to Government through various forums? Why did he only enjoyed his closeness to the powerful and mighty without shouldering his responsibility as an intellectual to make the policy makers aware to take a better decisions? Why Government is still going ahead with popular schemes? Can this country become developed with those popular policies by 2020? Does Karan Thapar understand this?

Ignorance vanishes with learning. But is it required to destroy your ignorance? Who says learning is important? Gone are the days when learning was the only means to achieve certain amount of confidence and satisfaction in life. In the 20th century, when we have material worth twenty centuries to learn, it is almost ridiculous to presume that anybody would be able to learn all these things. Invariably it is as much as you learn, as it becomes clear to you that how less you know? When learning is not providing you confidence, then we are forced to think for the alternatives. More learning is making you more bare and exposed. More learning is making you under confident. More learning demands further learning. The learning needs keep growing. Learning is not at all the solution. Rather if we just try to analyze the situation emerging out of learning, we shall observe that it is unlearning, which we are supposed to do for comfortable situations. There is a requirement to decide about the domain of unlearning which is more important than learning.

A totally illiterate person has a terrific feeling that they know everything. The person from a village or town with less or negligible knowledge appears from the outside very confident. It is very difficult even to convince the person about the utilities and advantages of education. In that case, we find the difficulties of educating. Education is a very contagious element. That’s how a small child is sent to school. Children from very early age are trained to go to school in time. They are taught from beginning to read and write various subjects. They are trained to be disciplined from beginning. They are moulded from early age. If some one does not get educated at early age, it becomes very difficult to educate the human at later age. They remain either less, biased or marginally educated. They always remain in the illusions that they can live a better and successful life without the bookish knowledge. These confusions prevail almost all negligible, less or biased educated person.

Once you start learning things, you find that there is an endless list. Today, the subjects have gone so vast that it takes years together to finish the syllabus in one area of activity. A typical example is the study of medicine. You start seriously studying for approximately one and half year for admission in medical college during or after finishing 10+2 schooling, then you take five years of graduation, one-year internship, three years for post graduation, few years for senior fellowship, then further research on more specific subject of medicine and so on. It is a long list. As you keep acquiring these educations, you keep feeling that you know less. This is a typical paradox of learning of human being. The similar kinds of learning are required in other fields. Like, you take the example of Information Technology. Today, children are taught computers from the kindergarten itself. At any time, the education on information technology is not getting complete. A person can keep acquiring degrees and continue doing courses, it will never end. Every year, there are plenty of changes. There are new subjects, new hardware, new software; new areas of activities keep emerging. You have to keep learning or continue refreshing. The learning never ends. Rather, it keeps increasing.

Could you ever match your learning instincts? I feel a normal person with normal intellect will never be able to achieve even a part of her learning desire in the 21st century. It is very difficult to define and elaborate the learning needs. It is almost impossible to define the road map of learning for a child. There are few very typical examples in society, which forces us to think about the learning needs of human being. It is very interesting to learn a little bit about learning instincts of these famous personalities, most of us are aware of.

Sonia Gandhi, the third powerful woman of the world in 2005 as per Time magazine,
Rabri Devi, Former Chief Minister of Bihar, India,
Bismillah Khan, famous Shehnai Vadak, Bharat Ratna Awardee,
Gyani Zail Singh, Ex-President of India,
Mother Teresa, famous Nobel Peace Laureate,
Lata Mangeskar, famous Singer, Bharat Ratna Awardee,
Zakir Hussain, renowned Tabla Player

It is very difficult to define the learning needs of life. There is no end of learning. Is there a road map of learning? Or shall we prepare a road map for unlearning? Once a person understands the dilemmas, it is easily agreeable that there is no need to learn till the time there is clarity of learning requirements in life. However, before somebody thinks of learning, it must be clear to individual that there is absolutely no advantage of learning the things, unless the person has undergone a systematic unlearning process. What happened to Dr Vashitha Narayana Singh whose research paper is being used as a study material in Washington? He is compelled to live in a remote village of Ara, India, where electricity, water, road or even minor medical facilities are not available. His heart wrench clinch to nationality is not allowing him to unlearn the necessary things and this result as an absence of the basic necessities in his life. The mind boggling contradictions prevail. In due course of our life and tremendous changes of environment and situations, the unlearning needs have arisen significantly. These aspects have never been studied nor discussed in any book or article in detail. This would be new direction where the intellectual will have to concentrate to find and simplify the methods of learning and unlearning. Keeping those needs in mind, a very systematic approach to streamline the unlearning and learning needs of life based on different situations and aspirations have been worked out in the following paragraphs. The graph of unlearning and learning needs requires continuous updation to face different situations and occurrence in this Super Dynamic Era.

Karan Thapar needs to do few of the unlearning before he talks more on ignorance. Could he throw some light on who should be ignorant and who should have knowledge? Is he surviving on his ignorance? Is he preaching the world more of ignorance? He must be pleased. Did he know this?