MAN IS BORN FREE BUT EVERYWHERE HE IS IN CHAINS

 

                     MAN IS BORN FREE BUT EVERYWHERE HE IS IN CHAINS

Freedom is the birth right of man. Life is reduced to a meaningless drift towards an end

if man does not enjoy freedom. Freedom of speech helps in the development of the

personality of man, his ideologies are trimmed into a shape, his ideas have a better

flowering. Till a person speaks out his mind his thinking remains choked; appreciation of

his point of view encourages him to think whereas opposition sharpens intellect and

consolidates correct thinking. Community life demands an exchange of views or sharing

of grief-where people sit and hear each others groan –and joys .If society Is to adopt a

democratic setup, everyone should be allowed to express his point of view. Similarly

freedom to act, move and associate give not only psychological satisfaction by

satisfying his personal ego but also a sense of individuality. Man consciously or

unconsciously merges his personal self with the social self but even that is goaded by

the desire to be secure. It is quite clear that freedom does not mean license, it cannot

encroach and should not encroach upon the freedom of others. Sacrifices will have to

be made for the society as a whole. Man, while living in society, does not ignore his

selfish interests though in the larger interests he has to subordinate those interests.

Infect rights imply duties and freedom for social being is limited by the interests of

others. Absense of freedom makes one to consider oneself nothing more than dumb

driven cattle and loses the power to think and act.

Despite this,man is in chains.One of the political thinkers points out that the very

existence of state is the negation of liberty.Laws bind man and some of them confer no

positive right.’Keep to the left’ is a traffic rule which is observed because it is a matter of

convenience;hindu marriage act is the recognition of an established custom of

society.These and many other laws , place curbs on activities,which do not encroach

upon the freedom of others.the governments.make use of emergency laws to stifle

freedom.They can declare emergency whenever there is war or threat of war whereas

the later always persists in this age of tensions.In a state of emergency in India even

fundamental rights can be suspended.How can we say that governments can guard the

freedom of the individuals? The minds of the people are stuffed with the views of the

party in power.Marx correctly said that the prevailing ideas are the ideas of the ruling

class.When a particular philosophy is hammered into the brains,it becomes convenient

for the people to adopt it and suspend there original thinking.Distorted news,suppressed

facts and prejudiced opinions leave no scope,for the people at large,to utilize there own

power to think.Is it possible to enjoy freedom of speech when we do not have conditions

which may permit its proper exercise? Otherwise also,we cannot come to a final point of

view till all the facts,in there stark nakedness,are not avalible to us.But no government

or authority,howsoever democratic it may be,can afford to present facts in there proper

perspective.They miss lead the people in order to keep themselves in power.Freedom

under such circumstances becomes almost meaningless,and hollow though it may have

a sweet ring around/about it.

Even the freedom to move and associate has no real significance in democratic

countries.Every ruling party has its own ideology and,unfortunately,that is conceded to

be the only recepe for the prevalent ills in that society.It is know exaggeration if we say

that the whole super structure of political and social life centres round those ideologies

and party which propagates them sticks to them fanaticaly.This is a subtal way of

making people intluctual slales.Opposition to these ideologigs is branded treason and

antinational activity.Uunder such sercumstences no person is allowed to have any

alions with the other camp.A acapitalist in a communist country cannot be talrated and a

theocrat in a secular state is an outcast.Evedently political afiliasons have to be

selective and are determined by the idiologies of the ruling party.Freedom to associate

and move cannot be sans bounds.It is always limited and people are chaned down to

the political manyfastoes even if they are just catchy and nothing more.

If we give a bit more comprehensive interpretation of Rousseau”s quotation we can say

that the trammels of social desense and social laws including customs and conventions

never allow man to feel free.By nature man is conservative,he cannot adapt himself to

sweeping social changes.Consequently it becomes obligatory on the part of the people

to remain within the boundaries of customs.This does not mean that society remains

static and the social values and habbits never undergo any change.There are changes

but they are so slow and imperceptible that they weave themselves into a pattern of life

and thinking.A revolutionary social change leaves a trail of anti-revolutionary forces;after

the French revolution anti democratic forces became too strong to be subdued.So it ia a

natural tendency of man to adopt the beaten path and respect the time honoured

ways.These are the chains whose bite we do not feel but they do pin us down whenever

we try to break them.

In the world of materialism material wealth is not only the determinant of social status

but also the means to survive.Everyone is out to adjust his scarce means with unlimited

demands.Otherwise also it may be a struggle for survival it essentially remains

struggle.So man has to give priority to economic gains and in this process sacrifices

many social obligations.His actions become abnormal,his thinking corrupt and his

interests selfish when a person is after economic gains.The saying “for a hungary man

food is god” implies that he can sacrifice everything-decency,generosity,honesty,fellow

feelings etc. just for the sake of food.Galsworthy’s “Skin Game” illustrates the

degeneration to which man sinks while pursuing material gains.It does not mean that

economic chains tie us down to this level but they so monopolise their consciousness

that we do not think of anything else.If we view it from another point of view we can say

surplus wealth gives the means to develop and demonstrate better qualities of human

beings.A labourer who earns his bread by laboring throughout the day cannot afford to

attend an ailing friend unless he is prepared to go without meals.A poor man cannot be

charitable to a beggar because he himself is reduced to greater poverty.There are

exceptions but exceptions prove the rule..We take a job by paying least attention to any

other things except economic gains;we ignore our natural bent of mind,we forget about

our suitability fot it.We are so fettered by economic considerations that we can enjoy no

freedom.

Fatalists consider man a puppet in the hands of fate..It plays with human beings as a

cat plays with a mouse before killing it.Despite man’s best efforts to escape,the hounds

of fate hunt him down.Hardy the 19^th century novelist of England,held that man’s hopes

are perpetually frustrated and his ambitions are continually cheated;man discovers no

purpose in life because some imperssonel forces are doggedly working against the

interests of the common man.It assumes a tangible shape of fate when it interferes with

the working of man’s life.Hardy gives greater credit to one of the agencies of fate that is

chance in destroying the happiness of human beings.When the wheels of fortune work,

according to their own laws and own scheme,how can man remain free?Whatever man

proposes,God/Nature in his turn disposes.So the activities and achievements of man

are limited by inexorable fate.

Similarly laws of Nature bind human beings to a great extent.Since science has

tremendously advanced but the slow process of change which evolution is bringing

about,the natural calamities like earthquakes scourges and dangerous diseases are still

ravaging mankind.Transplantation of heart,plastic surgery,test tube babies and many

other advances in medical science  stop short of the Nature’s decisive influence on

man.Nature binds man to its laws and never allows him to have his own way.

We have given a wider interpretation to Rousseau’s words “man is born free but

everywhere he is in chains” by taking an overall view of man’s relations with man,God

and/or Nature,though he wanted to apply it  to social and political life only.Rouseau,the

moving spirit behind the French Revolution and the man who gave the clarion call of

“Return to Nature” made this observation when he found Louis crushing the liberty of

man.His cocept of “noble savage” places greater emphasis on the essential nobility of

human nature.For him chains would destroy the goodness of man because his

personality would not develop.There was a time when the state was looked upon as a

neccessary evil and its interference in non-political affairs was regarded as

illegitimate.But with the spread of Hegelian and Marxian concepts,even democratic

states began to have incursions into the domains of private individual liberty.Today all

the states shape or influence economic,social and educational policies.Individual rights

and the scope of individual’s creative activity are increasingly narrowed down.At one or

the other stage man will regain his freedom in order to restore the lost dignity but that is

possible only if man works on the constructive lines.But none can deny that freedom is

necessarily a degree of personal choice within an accepted social framework with

varying orders of constraints.

-DR.NAVRAJ SINGH SANDHU , P.A.H.S.1 , www.navraj@gmail.com