INTELLECTUAL CRUSADES

knows that this is the age of professionalism and that he should gain professional qualification to secure a place in the job market. The whole structure of formal education is based on the concept of making oneself qualified for the professional market, rather than on making oneself a good member of society. To build a better society in India, we need a parallel intellectual campaign. It is this campaign that I have termed ‘intellectual crusades’. If you ask me about the model of intellectual crusades, I would say that I have dedicated myself single-mindedly to this very task. We use various means of communication for this purpose, such as the print and electronic media, conferences, seminars and other places of intellectual activity. I would like to share an incident here that illustrates my way of working. Once, when I was at Geneva airport, I met an Indian woman. She had been working on a cultural project for two months and was now returning to India. While sharing her experiences in Switzerland, she immediately took to complaining. I intervened and politely said that in spite of our best efforts situations do occur in life that lead to negative experiences. At such times instead of responding negatively we must follow the ‘cow culture’. You consider the cow a sacred animal in the ritual sense. But you have to follow the cow culture in your real life. The cow is a natural ‘industry’ which converts what is non-milk into milk. This is a demonstration by nature telling humans to adopt the cow culture by converting negativity into positivity. She instantly understood this concept and said that she would abandon the complaint culture and maintain positive thinking in every situation. So ‘intellectual crusades’ means giving an intellectual dose to people at every opportunity, which makes them better human beings, and consequently better members of society. o ‘Intellectual crusades’ means giving an intellectual dose to people at every opportunity, which makes them better human beings, and consequently better members of society.