Ever since the Cognitive Revolution human beings have been
living in two realities. One is a concrete reality that can be grasped by our
senses. For instance the reality I am presently in with my laptop and the
coconut tree that stands tall beyond my window.
On the other hand there exists a powerful reality that lies
beyond our immediate senses. That is ‘Imagined reality’. Imagined reality
consists of legends, myths, Gods and religion-all those things that appeared
for the first time with the Cognitive revolution And needless to say that this reality
is more powerful than the concrete reality that we are used to. Noah Harari in
his Book ‘Sapiens- A brief History Of Humankind’ and particularly in the
chapter ‘The legend of Peugeot’ has
skilfully shown how an imagined reality like Peugeot- a corporate car
manufacturer was created. In much the same way an ‘imagined reality’ called India has also
been created with instrument such as the constitution to which we all owe
allegiance.
This ‘Imagined reality’ has enabled us not merely to imagine
things ,but to do so collectively. India is ,in fact , a collective
‘imagined reality’. Harari has shown how
collectively we can weave myths such as the biblical creation story.
Notwithstanding a distinct geographical boundary and a
concrete map, India
is an idea- a collective ‘imagined reality’ as stated earlier. Without doubt my idea of India may not
match with that of yours. Yet we weave collective myth about it and we share
them.
We must nurture this
‘imagined reality’ of our land. And must not allow anything that might distort
this ‘imagined reality’. Can we ?
