Humanity to ‘animality’
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]n incident where an 80-year-old woman was raped at Jotsoma village in Kohima district on October 25 by two youth has disturbed the mind of the people to a great extent. The incident has also thrown up many questions. There have been equally shocking news reports witnessed in recent time. It is perhaps the effect of the fast degrading human values in the society. But what has been the cause to ruin these human values?
India’s distinguished educationist Professor PN Mathur has said that these social ills usually originate from its ‘over-emphasis on wealth and power’. He also said that ‘these ills make modern society much less helpful than the pre-modern society for the formulation of desired values.’ In short, materialism is devouring our human values and today we are about to cross the point where things become incorrigible. In such eventuality the problems are bound to be compounded because “without ethical culture there is no solution to humanity”.Now, to weed out all these social ills policy makers in the Human Resource Development (HRD) should rethink about their strategies being implemented at the moment. Commentators have been expressing for quite sometimes now that our education system gives too much emphasis on the progress report cards of the students and missed the fundamental aim of education. According to great physicist Albert Einstein, “A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectively on sympathy, education and social ties and needs.” We can also quote Dr. Paramahasan Tewari, an eminent nuclear scientist who said, ”The process of education dealing with people (ideas, intellect, mind, thought), being subtle and fundamental, requires very careful handling, as it can turn humanity into either divinity or animality.”
So, the trend of social ethos should be the reflection of the effectiveness of education policy.
Meanwhile, in a state like Nagaland where majority of the people are Christians, the Church should feel that they will be failing in its duty in a situation where moral value hits rock bottom. This column would not like to give its conclusion on the activities of the Church here. The end result speaks volumes. Having said this, we don’t throw our judgement on anyone either. The Church can do much to revert back the worsening atmosphere of our society.
