The Skill And Art of Administration

The Creed of Indian Nationalism

Polity is a perception of the dominant intellect of man; it is a desideratum of the constitutional structure of governance. A sound polity is often a sign of a sound governance, and polity, if it were a mere expression of a sound intelligence only, is nothing more than a rough and coarse cast out of a mould, a disfigured emblem of the Republic representing only the vested interests and political ambitions of a few. Indian Polity, though it has evolved out of consensus of right-minded intellectuals adept in the art of constitutional framework and its various laws, is in a dire state of being consumed by the urges of a few self-serving individuals at the alter of power, men who wield so much power even when they are out of office and call the shots of the day, as if the established power-centre of the Constitution is nothing more than a formality in existence, and it might as well be true of all other constitutional Institutions today in our country. A secret change may be in the offing which might trigger a vast change in the political arena, and further trigger, as a result of it, a change in the perception of Polity and how it is to be managed, and this perception will be spiritual and of the Spirit, not intellectual or of practical reason. The ideal of the State and its Polity, its constitutional framework and its laws must emanate out of a deep pragmatism of a spiritual outlook, a working synthesis of the Spirit in action. We are envisaging a perfection of the Indian Polity in the light and guidance of a then Nationalist, Sri Aurobindo, and we shall also attempt to evolve a practical synthesis out of His spiritual knowledge, a wider political outlook unconstrained by self-serving forces and free of external and devious interventions; we intend to arrive at the Polity of a spiritualised Nation, self-awakened to her greater destiny and self-aware of her supreme work in the comity of Nations.

Nationalism is a derivation of a godward impulse within, a movement of the Spirit in active life, a higher ideal of God expressing through a puissant temperament of the Kshatriya and is free from the taint of a self-confident ego-movement, and Polity of a Nation must express the spirit of Nationalism more than it should express cooperative federalism, for the spirit of Nationalism is the true binding force of the constituent States, not federalism, for it is only a legal binding formula, a brittle structure on which we have built a colossus of a race bound by a surface light of human unity, but already divided within its core by a wedge of irreconcilable differences, both cultural and religious. Any attempt to divest Nationalism from the precepts of Hindu Dharma or to amputate its spiritual sense out of its numerous forms is more likely to create a deep discord in the original fabric of national life of a multitude not yet free from its cultural and religious moorings, not free at all from its self-enslaving mentality and subservient outlook, than help the process of mutual reconciliation of its differences. A national life built out of a dubious assonance of unity may only lead the collective national temper to a void of self-disillusionment and to an erosion of its natural strength and unity, inherent somewhere in the collective depths of its Psyche; so far it has only created a monstrous web of a thousand and more conflicts and contradictions, differences and discords too difficult to resolve or too inharmonious to be brought into a harmonious synthesis of the Spirit. Such puerile notions of Nationalism must be thrown out of all collective thinking in order to embrace a wider and truer temper of the divine Spirit, and the collective will of the Nation must be organised towards a higher sense and purpose of nation-building; it is out of these efforts arise a higher principle of Nationalism and through that, the emergence of a sound Polity.

And, through Polity must emerge the principle foundation of the skill and art of administration. The inherent value of a civilisation, its progressive movement towards newer forms of a higher intelligence, lies in the organisation of its numerous systems in this present, ignorant mentality, and if this mentality is one of authoritarianism or anarchy or dangerously a combination of both as a result of its equally numerous inequalities, then it is more likely to be swayed by the side-currents of a self-asserting darkness intent on destroying the foundational elements of Polity and administrative effectiveness. But this inherent value is spiritual, not mental or moral, social or political and the form it assumes must also be predominantly spiritual both in its nature and in the purpose of its manifestation. A knowledge so inherently original to the psyche of a Nation or inherent by virtue of its presence as a secret element of immeasurable progress could have come only from a higher Truth and Consciousness beyond the little mud-houses of the mind, and this inherent light is the light of a Nation carved out of the great body of Brahman, the all-Infinite and the all-Beautiful, — and law, order and dispensation of justice must all come from this higher value and impulse of the Spirit and not borrow from the impoverished and unillumined intelligence of the external mind. A principle of ignorance seeking its claims over the Spirit and formulating its laws of governance according to its limited understanding cannot hope to harmonise the disparate elements of a struggling society or arrive at a synthesis of a progressive sense of unity in the innumerable collectivity of a Nation. In a word, governance is a principle of the Spirit, not of the intellectual or political mind in ignorance.

In the devising of administrative jurisprudence, the forms through which it is delivered or effected are more important than a set of confusing laws, each scrambling for its own space and dominance over the others; it is a classical example of a deep discord between the self-abiding laws of the Constitution and the administrative apparatuses, a wedge often too deep for an effective harmony of purpose and administrative effectiveness. The sign of an effective administrative apparatus derives itself from the foundation of an inner Law, from the synthesis of an inner alchemy which translates itself into a self-efficient movement of divine Justice, and because divine Justice, therefore divine Jurisprudence. The present mentality of governance and of administration is completely ignorant of a higher Wisdom, for, — thoroughly material as it is — it has no knowledge of what it can learn from the spiritual mentality, which it terms impractical and untenable in a democratic, secular framework. It impels the writer to think that this secular mindset is a bane of Indian Polity and of its various institutions, but I suppose prejudice being a virtue of the privileged who had framed our Constitution out of a secular principle and outlook, there is nothing more to say than to faithfully admit that we have trapped ourselves into the mentality of an unprogressive, dubious, inhuman, unapologetic and senile principle which looks at the spiritual and the divine with contempt and sense of rejection, but it is a gravestone or an insignia under which lies buried a still throbbing life-principle of the Spirit and is breathing through the pores of its own eternity and waiting for the exact moment when it will shake the earth’s foundation and break through all opposition and darkness. It is not the coming of the मनु* or the age of मनुस्मृति**, for our foundation does not lie there or in some past formulations, however brilliant and self-accommodating they may seem to the critical eye of reason, but rather lies in the discovery of an ancient principle of spiritual self-governance within the ambit of an infinite Intelligence, an intuitive Mind of light acting as a governing thought of humanity and drives everything to a harmony beyond the measure of critical reason. In short, administrative effectiveness can only come or become possible when both Law and Justice are cast out of the mould of a greater spiritual synthesis, and no longer manufactured out of apparent discord and distrust of human ignorance.

It may be argued, and quite rightly so, that a certain skill in the work of effective administration cannot be rooted in an abstract and unseen Spirit, of which the surface mind has no experience, but rather in the robust mind of reason and commonsense, and to trust to the wisdom of a higher Synthesis may well be construed, again quite rightly so, to be a weakness and sign of a self-subjugation of the critical reason to some unseen, untenable phenomenon of a still untrustworthy Spirit! It may well be argued ad infinitum without any substantial basis to prove otherwise as to why a spiritual synthesis of effective governance cannot be trusted by the surface mind of reason or with the critical mind as the sole judge and jury and arrive at something intentional to satiate some individual or collective ego, for to demand a proof of the higher to prove its existence would be make an illogical case out of our own inability and lack of will to enquire deeply within, a lack of sincerity to look within and arrive at the alter of a great principle of spiritual and pragmatic dynamism of light which far exceeds the limitations of reason steeped in its own prejudice and one-sidedness, but to arrive one must shed the cloak of analytical reason and remain always open to a higher Intuition and Knowledge, to the alchemy of an inner synthesis from which comes the unfailing skill and mastery of an effective apparatus of governance and administration.

मनु*, Manu, the high King of a higher moral conduct.

मनुस्मृति**, Manusmriti, the book of a higher moral conduct.

The Creed of Indian Nationalism — Introduction

The Creed of Indian Nationalism — The Constitution Of A Nation