Theory of Inclusiveness contradicts Survival Instinct

In this blog, I wanted to put  my thought around the Theory of Inclusiveness. The topic caught my mind while following the turnout of events with the recent amendment to the Indian Citizenship Act 1955, which has picked up controversies resulting in unrest across many parts of India. So what did the amendment do?. It said minority groups defined by religions other than Islam from the neighboring countries, namely Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, would be allowed citizenship in India. Now, this is striking caste-based discrimination, and politicians are on a roll, and public unrest is unsettling. Let us take a step back to Indian history and the 1947 independence. 'Bharat' the unified India and Pakistan separated into two countries with this very premise of Islamic community having its own country. It did cause riot then, and it is the history repeating itself again and again and again when religious discrimination keep taking a center stage.

I am not going to discuss or give an opinion about the amendment; instead, I am just trying to understand why there is often such controversial decisions made. In my view, it is an outcome of thoughts linked to the human survival instinct with its fundamental shortcoming of fear. A group of individuals forms a government, and in every individual, the basic survival instinct is hard-wired since stone age. A sign of power is one of the ways human beings combat fear, as with fear comes protectionism.

What an irony that on one end there is a theory of inclusiveness preached starting from religious and countries co-existence and co-existence with nature, and on the other end there is protectionism taking many forms be it the current controversies in India, Brexit, Mexican wall, Arab springs or climate change agend.

Let us take the classic example of climate change. The agenda that all government vow to is to combat it, and the nature is telling us in its own way, and yet every individual or government has not entirely committed themselves to it. I would say the reason why the commitment is lacking is the fear of self-oriented survival which drives protectionism. Nature is taking its revenge, which is a reality of today starting from Amazon forest fires, melting of Arctic ice, and extinction of sea-life and wild-life challenging the very ecosystem. The countries are busy fighting many wars of protectionism, while the war against nature is the war of the world.

I believe that the theory of inclusiveness contradicts survival instincts; it is the law of nature. But, by kicking our survival instinct for the benefit of our self, and contributing our efforts to combat climate change and expanding our community across religion we lead the way for everyone to think alike and eventually the theory of inclusiveness will stand to win. We stand to win having a better world.