Chapter Fourteen

Peace in a Plural Society emotionalism in this regard and adopt a pragmatic and realistic approach. They should remember that there have always been historical wrongs, yet no one has ever been able to remedy any of them. The theory about righting historical wrongs is undoubtedly unwise. It is tantamount to ruining one’s present in the name of correcting the past. This view is against the principles of nature. People who think in this way will, in the name of salvaging their past, only lose their present, and their future, too. Unfortunately, this is precisely what has happened in India. Countries that, forgetting the bitterness of their past, have sought to build their present have achieved brilliant successes. One example of this is Japan. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Japan did not seek to correct the wrongs committed against it by America. The result of this was that Japan is today an economic superpower. In contrast, in India people have tried to rectify historical wrongs, but this has only further exacerbated the country’s backwardness. A necessary condition for national progress is that such progress should be treated as the main issue, and all other issues should be given a secondary status. The principal concern of citizens of any given country should be the unhampered continuance of national progress. Emotionally-driven issues and controversies should never be allowed to come in its way. This is the only way for true national progress to become a reality. Without this, it is impossible to have peace. There is a well-known story about a judge who, one day, had to hear the very strange case of two women fighting over a newlyborn child, each claiming it as hers. Neither of them had any sort of legal proof of being the child’s mother. This was a difficult test for the judge. Finally, he ruled that the child should be sliced into two, and that each woman should get a part of the child’s body. When the judge gave his verdict, it made no impact on the woman who falsely claimed to be the child’s mother. But the real