Hold your thoughts, dear intellectuals! The heading of the  write up is the translated version  borrowed from the title of a book written by a French author Julien Benda and reads in original as “ La trahison des clercs.” It  struck me on going through the proceedings  of seminars held recently in Srinagar  and reported widely by the local press. Jury has came out full throttle  for the intellectuals.
  For quite a time now,  a debate has been going on  in  the Kashmir  Valley   amongst the  separatist circles – both soft and hard – to find out reasons  for their failure to achieve their  ‘goal.’ In a good measure, share of the blame was apportioned  on the intelligentsia. The first salvo against the intellectuals was fired by Muhammad Yasin Malik  of JKLF. Speaking  in a seminar on 1 1 2011, organized by his party to commemorate  the death anniversary of  Prof  Abdul Ahad Wani,  Malik  said, “ 99 % intellectuals  work on  the government aid.” This statement finds support in a piece by  a columnist. She writes  “it is somewhat true that Kashmir lacks intellectual honesty and our intelligentsia have also let themselves be bought by power.”  These are, indeed, very significant  statements  which  tend to mean  that impartiality  of the intelligentsia  is subservient  to their   financial  interests. Participating in the same seminar –where role of the intellectuals in the ‘freedom struggle ‘was discussed, Mirwaiz  Umer Farooq  lamented  “ Columnists writing in news papers thrust on history. Those who write on current issues only point out mistakes in leaders …. Nobody says what the leaders should do ….”  Some of the speakers were of the view, “Although  the intellectuals were not the betrayers of the ‘freedom struggle’ yet they didn’t help”
 No doubt, the intellectuals have always lived in bad times, and earned a bad name for themselves. It is said that when things are bad this category—the intelligentsia - is the most despicable in all countries. “It has intelligence that has both the capacity and inclination to rationalize tyranny”. Fali.S.Nariman narrates, in his book, a discussion he had  with the then Australian High Commissioner  to India, Bruce Grant –post 1975 declaration  of Emergency. “ The High Commissioner told him that he had met Indira Gandhi couple of weeks after 26  June, and she had expressed shock and surprise at the total lack of resistance  amongst the people to the Emergency. She particularly mentioned to him that she was more amazed at the lack of reaction amongst the intelligentsia.” (Before Memory Fades; Hay House p,188). No wonder, Hitler consigned them to the gas chambers and V.I.Lenin, on the eve of Bolshevik revolution,  put them in a single line of fire and pulled the trigger. So did Mao in China.
In the Valley we have witnessed phenomena which at times looked unreal and meaningless. Yet the intelligentsia made an attempt to bestow meaning to them. And what was real and meaningful came to be debunked. In the process, negativity crept in and confusion got confounded. Most of the times they chose to look other way, as did their Indian counterparts in the wake of Emergency and at other times. Nevertheless, there is other part to the story. We need icons to emulate for the success in our endeavor. We also need demons to account for the failures. Success comes our way very rarely. We taste failures more frequently. So, the need to look out for  demons is frantic and immense. There is no better person than a poor intellectual to be shown a fall guy and made responsible for our failures.  At least, this is the lesson we learn from the separatist leaders. One must understand that time has come when the leader as well as the intellectual must do self –introspection. Some may say, for more than anyone else, the need is for the leader to do it earnestly. A leader must be aware of the qualities he should possess. He will be better advised to listen to  the Japanese Guru, Ryuho Okawa  to know  the qualities he should  have : “Firstly, you must always be able to see into the future. You need to be able to see one or two steps  further than others. People regard someone who is more able to predict the outcome of events as outstanding or possessing exceptional qualities. In the same way that a very tall person is able to see  much further than anyone else, people believe that someone  who is outstanding is capable of seeing things  more clearly because of greatness of character,or because of spiritual abilities.”   (Invincible Thinking )  What is the future our leaders want us to look into? To an ordinary Kashmiri their future is woven in haze, where nothing can be seen with clarity. For some it is ‘ azadi ’: some see it in Kashmiri’s merger with Pakistan and  others look to the retention of status-quo, albeit with minor changes here and there. How do they intend to achieve the ‘goal’? What kind of means the leaders want to employ?  Some of them have not given up their love for the gun: some want stoneI pelters  to do the job; while as  others prefer to adhere to the peaceful ways.
A true leader  has  to be a mix of  qualities of leadership and  intellectual capabilities. He can’t outsource either of them. Even as an ordinary human being a leader is supposed to be endowed with enough intelligence  to be able to see the value or inadequacies of his program.  He can’t   be permitted to delude   the masses into the blindness  and then blindly lead the blind. For, there is a great  risk of both falling into a ditch. Our leaders seem  to have  reached a stage  where their thought process has come to a grinding halt. Some say, primary reason for  it is that  they have given up the intellectual catholicism  and acquired an ideological  dogmatism. They lack the  capability to carry all sections of the populace along with. It is true of leaders of every hue. Tony Blair’s dictum that leadership is essentially  about  saying ‘ no’  and not the ‘yes’, has not gone down  to  our leaders. Jury must  issue a look out notice to them, as well. It may, however, give a benefit of doubt  to both the categories; because  in Kashmir the elements have  created such a situation that whatever can be said  about it in positive,  its opposite also rings true.. 

(B L Saraf is Former Pr District & Sessions Judge. Feedback at bushanlalsaraf@gmail.com)

Lastupdate on : Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 16 Jan 2011 00:00:00 IST