Justice Markandey Katju's concept of Rashtriya Nirmaan Shaastra (the Science of the Construction of a Nation) reflects his deep and comprehensive understanding of India's socio-economic and political challenges. His approach, developed over decades of study and reflection, emphasizes a multifaceted view of nation-building that integrates various fields of knowledge.
Justice Katju's work serves as a comprehensive guide for understanding
and addressing India's myriad challenges, urging for a transformative
approach to achieve lasting prosperity and social justice.
By Justice Markandey Katju
I am a master and teacher of a
subject of my own creation, which may be called ' Rashtriya Nirmaan Shaastra ',
or the 'Science of the Construction of a Nation'. One will not find this
subject in the curricula of any University.
In this s ubject, I have super specialized about India, and my burning
passion is to see India, which presently suffers fom massive poverty, massive
unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition ( every second child in
India is malnourished, according to Global Hunger Index ), 57% Indian women are
anaemic, skyrocketing prices of essential commodities like food, fuel, and
medicines, almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for the
masses, etc emerge as a modern, prosperous, highly industrialized, nation, with
its people enjoying a high standard of living.
I am now 78 years old. It took me over half a century as a student
before I could graduate in this subject, half a century of intense study in
libraries and in my home, cool and fiery discussions with my contemporaries,
and humbly listening to people who were intellectually superior to myself, who
remained anonymous, and are now all dead.
This half a century was a period of intense pain and mental turbulence,
when conventional ideas and prejudices in my mind were all thrown into turmoil.
That I have emerged alive after going through this furnace is perhaps itself a
miracle.
To be a master and good teacher of a subject one has to first be a good
student, and to be a good student one has to have modesty and humility.
Nowadays I often see people who arrogantly behave like teachers, but who were
never willing to be students, people holding strong opinions, but opinions
which are often superficial, unscientific, half baked, and formed without going
through the intense, rigorous study which should precede formation of such
opinions.
In my half a century as a student I kept learning, learning,
learning. Since the subject ' Rashtriya
Nirmaan Shaastra ' is not to be found in any formal curriculum, I could pick up
knowledge about it only in bits and pieces, reading books at home and in
libraries, hearing people in the Allahabad University, the Allahabad High Court
Bar Association, the Coffee House, and in other places, mostly in Allahabad (
because most of my life was spent there ). My eyes and ears were always open to
acquire such knowledge, which usually came in driblets, and never in an
organized manner.
Also, this subject, by its very nature, required knowledge of several
other specialized subjects, like history, economics, political science,
philosophy, law, the natural sciences, literature, etc. Nobody can be a master
in all these subjects, because each of them is nowadays so specialized that
often one cannot in his lifetime even become a master in the whole subject, but
in only one particular branch of it.
But while I could not possibly be a master in all these subjects, I had
to have a rudimentary idea of most of them in order to graduate in Rashtriya
Nirmaan Shaastra. So I studied these subjects as thoroughly as I could.
My command over English, which was principally due to being educated in
an English medium school, gave me access to world knowledge, especially Western
knowledge, due to which I am quite comfortable discussing European and American
history, Western philosophy, literature, political and economic thought, etc.
At the same time, my Indian
'sanskars' made me study Indian history, philosophy, literature etc.
So I am equally comfortable in Indian and Western culture and history,
which again was a necessary prerequisite for graduation in my own specialized
subject.
It is only in recent years that I became a teacher, after being a
student for over half a century. I started teaching initially through some
judgments which I delivered in the Supreme Court and High Court ( e.g. Kailas
vs. State of Maharashtra, Naresh Chand vs DIOS, etc which can be seen online ),
and continued to do so after my retirement from the Supreme Court in 2011
through my articles and videos, most of which are on my Facebook page.
The crux of my ideas, which I constantly teach, are contained in these
articles :
Justice Markandey Katju a call to Indian patriots
The coming great revolution in India
India's moment of turbulent revolution has arrived
The future of India
Lies damned lies and statistics in India
The Truth behind India's explosive GDPgrowth
Akbar is the father of the indian nation
In all these articles and videos my single aim is to show to the Indian people, who seem to be all confused and like blind men groping in the dark, the path they must take if they want prosperity and decent lives for themselves and their descendants. Tremendous sacrifices will have to be made in this journey, but without making them we will never be able to create a political and social order under which our people, and their descendants, enjoy a high standard of living, and abolish forever the curse of poverty, unemployment, hunger, lack of proper healthcare and good education etc which have plagued us for centuries.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These
are his personal views.)
