YASHVI JALAN

PGP 2 | Section A | Roll No 60

THINKING OUT
LOUD
Individual Assignment | Communication for Social
Impact I
“Society is like the air, necessary to breathe but insufficient to live on.”
~ George Santayana

We live in a society. The Oxford dictionary has multiple meanings for the word. One of them
is this - the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community. Another
is - the community of people living in a particular country or region and having shared
customs, laws, and organizations. A particular society could be described as an organization
or club formed for a particular purpose or activity. Or, society could simply be considered as
the situation of being in the company of other people. There are a few words that pop out at
us from these definitions - community, shared values, togetherness, and purpose. I consider
these to be the pillars of what can be termed ‘modern society’.

“Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a

partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be
obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are
living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.”
~ Edmund Burke

Modern society can only exist when people can co-exist in harmony with each other, living
together, sharing space, air, water, and other resources. Modern society can only function
when people have purpose in their lives, when they do things everyday, and in a manner that
harms no other in the process. There needs to be understanding amongst the people. This is
only possible when there is a shared sense of values among them. A group cannot have one
voice if their thoughts are not aligned. Thoughts can only be aligned when they have a deeper
understanding of each other’s value systems, organizations, and cultures.

Culture – a simple enough word that hides a world of meaning behind it. A man’s (or
woman’s, or neither’s) culture is a driving force in his or her life. It determines their reactions
to their environment, their responses to a situation and their understanding of other people. It
is a deeply ingrained truth of that person, one that could take a lifetime to unlearn. In my
mind, culture is simply the way of doing things. Nothing more, nothing less. It is something I
imbibed growing up, learning from my family, my environment, the media I was exposed to,
and the people I met along the way.

Culture forms a big part of a person’s identity. It is what binds people together in bonds of
social customs and traditions, rituals, affiliations, and turns certain mannerisms into habits.
Culture creates communities.

“Society is a republic. When an individual tries to lift themselves above others, they are
dragged down by the mass, either by ridicule or slander.”
~ Victor Hugo

Under the bright, shiny veneer of a value-based, communal happy co-existence hides a dark,
dingy, harsh truth; that, in reality, a society is good for some, but not for all. In order to
maintain “the way to do things”, people with differing ideas are oppressed. Paulo Freire has
described the difference between the oppressor and oppressed.

The oppressor is generally the one at the top of the so-called food chain. He, or she, is the
aspirational goal, the one with it all – the lifestyle, the personality, the socio-economic
freedom to do what they want, and how they want. The oppressor can voice their opinions
and thoughts out loud, without fear of retribution, discrimination, or hate, and has been
actively doing so for the longest time. He or she is that voice of the community, of society.
He or she makes the rules. He or she makes the laws. He or she decides the punishments for
breaking these rules and laws.

The oppressed, on the other hand, are the ones following these rules and laws, without regard
to their own thoughts, opinions, or even options. They are the ones who cannot even deign to
being a dialogue involving change in their society. In fact, more often than not, they don’t
even realize that they are the ones who are oppressed.

Even if they do arrive at this realization, alas, the end is not even on the horizon. The
oppressed then fall into a hellish cycle of oppression. Because there isn’t just one oppressor
you have to fight. There are a fiendish multiple. Like any video game worth its salt, the
oppressor, or “Boss”, gets bigger and ‘badder’ at every level. It’s like trying to climb an
infinite ladder, but you’re weighed down by a heavier rock at each and every step you take.

“Helping, fixing and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you
see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole.
Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.”
~ Rachel Naomi Remen

Now, if someone wants to come along and “change the world”, they’ve got a few options
available. They could try to fix things. They could try to help out, to the best of their abilities.
Or, they could do something else altogether. They could serve. They could serve the people,
they could serve the community, they could serve society. This is where my story begins.

I grew up in a Marwaari family, with traditional Hindu values taught to me early on. What
was different with my education, and I am grateful for that everyday, is that my mother and
father believed in letting their children have and voice opinions. I was given the liberty and
burden of taking my own decisions very early on in life. It was a freedom, but as is the case
with any freedom given or occupied, it comes with its fair share of responsibilities. Choices
need to be made, and the options aren’t always black and white. You have to choose between
what you perceive to be right and wrong. You have to choose between something society
wants and something you want. You have to make hard choices, and soft choices. But every
choice, every decision made, determines the course you will navigate further down the road
in life.

I have prayed furiously to my God. I have turned away and denied His existence, proclaiming
the same to the world loudly. I have turned around and then consciously chosen to believe
again. Each step of this journey has been eye-opening. Each new turn has led to a revelation.
And sometimes, I have been glad that I did things the way I did. There is a certain joy in
knowing that you love your God without fear being the primary driving force.

But loving God doesn’t equal to loving your religion. Religion, in my opinion, is one of the
biggest oppressors in the world today. Anything that uses fear as a crutch to mould people’s
actions and behaviour should not be put on a pedestal and admired.

Growing up, I have seen, heard and read of many instances of where so-called pious men
have swindled, duped, or simply been cruel degenerates to innocent victims. God does not
discriminate between His or Her subjects. Then, why does a caste system, based on hierarchy
even exist?

“It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.”
~ Ernest Hemingway

We do what we can to make things better. My mother was always one who believed in
service and the power of serving others. She encouraged me to serve people, any way I could.
When I was very young, our school would organize money collection drives in association
with Helpage India, a popular charity devoted to the welfare of old people, specially those
who were in need.

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into
the lives of others.”
~ Pericles