The File On MB

An unknown teacher of English from a provincial town in Assam has been shot into 'eminence' for all the wrong reasons.

Marshaling all the hate-words under his command , he has constructed a vituperative edifice of his observations on the Assamese community. Prima facie it reads like a 'drain inspector's report'.

Maybe he is under the delusion that falsehood mongering is edifying.

Now the big question:howshall we react?Shall we burn him at the stake?

The answer is simple: No/Never.

Conceding the' epistemological fragility' of knowledge, we feel that knowledge largely comes through a dialectical process. Instead of 'blowing hot and cold',we must erect our counter arguments and thereby hammer home the fact that we are not as black as we are painted.

And for that, our architects and the skilled workers will be his fraternity-the teachers.
Russell in his essay 'The Functions of a teacher'rightly points out:' The defense of the state in all civilized countries is quite as much in the hands of teachers as in those of the armed forces.'
We can go one step farther and add 'community' to the state.While mounting a counter attack( I am aware I am using the metaphors of war. Newspaper reporters have given the verdict that it is an attack against our community), we must keep in mind that we are a civilized community and civilization is more importantly 'a thing of the mind'.And if he opens the flood gates of vitriol again, we will request him as Mr. Gladstone(sometime British Prime Minister) requested from his political opponent :"...to extend to[us] that large measure of courtesy which, were [we] in his place and he in [our],we should most unhesitatingly extend to him".

Also we will ensure that nobody does nay harm to him because we are civilized and we endorse 'the kind of tolerance that springs from an endevour to understand those who are different from ourselves'.