How are we to behold each other!

Two Barbets in our guava tree ! It is one of the morning flight stations for some of the Barbets. I counted five of them one morning.  

As I noticed them in a silent presence and conversation with each other, I felt that silence is also a communication mode. 

The Quaker tradition is to meet in silence when they come together. At the end of the appointed time of silence, they are free to express what they experienced during silence. This form of practice had significant contributions in human history. 

During the second word war and the earlier years of persecution of the Jews, it was the Quaker movement who initiated a resistance campaign against the invasive culture of Adolf Hitler. Many Quaker families in Europe shielded Jewish people from annihilation. In fact the stories of such families who offered hospitality to people of Jewish lineage are outstanding examples of how a resistance movement can be of considerable value in human history. 

I have a suspicion that the history in India is moving towards a state controlled media, internet communication, social media, judiciary, enforcement authority, internal security, etc. It is obvious that the agencies function with a partisan attitude. There is an increasing jubilation when a national party wins elections after election and another national party disintegrates due to its contradictions within itself. 

How I long to see the Indian society return to the Gandhian value of non-violence and personal integrity!

Have we stopped seeing each other as fellow humans! How much more we have to suffer because we see each other through the optic of religion, caste, political affiliation, etc! 

Humans are fellow beings!  

How unthinkable it is that the President of the United States would dismiss officials of high integrity from their jobs just because they consented to declare the just concluded national election as having been fair and above reproach!

There is a disintegration of values in the highest place of political power!

It is time to endorse another resistance movement to restore values in public life. 

All honest resistance movement would have a sound character of silence and withdrawal from public life as  the starting point of contemplative action!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)