limit of freedom3

EKKENTROS FORUM

The Matter: Report of the proceedings of the discussion held on 18-12-07(Tuesday)
Venue: Residence of Dr.Md.Abdulla, Marayakulath, Nittur P.O., Tellicherry
Coram: Eight members present. Prof. Mohanan Nair was out of station.
Subject: Limits of Freedom (Cont’d)
The report of the last discussion was accepted unanimously. After the Forum’s invocation the discussion on Limits of Freedom was cont’d by Dr. K.P.Thomas and Dr. Md Abdulla. After an excellent and sumptuous dinner hosted by Mrs Khadija Abdulla, the meeting dispersed at 11 PM.

Dr.K.P.Thomas: As the subject has been already discussed in some detail I would like first to touch upon certain ‘microscopic’ aspects of the limits of freedom like the misuse of freedom on health and environment. From birth our freedom is limited to a culture of expectations. We may call it a parental culture. Only a genius can cut himself away from it and be a free thinker and a free activist. But again, such free thinkers will have to suffer the constraints of poor health, lack of finance, lack of family and social supports. Changes are taking place very fast at present. Limits of nations and boundaries of countries are almost disappearing in a changing world. Slavery has disappeared. Of course, in India there was no slavery as such.
Prof Sankarankutty: Whatever slavery was there was due to the mis-interpretation of Manu Smrithi.
Dr. Thomas: Actually freedom is now available to everybody. But it may be restricted privately or personally. Private restrictions and controls cannot be avoided. As said earlier, health and environment can take away one’s freedom. Hence I am inclined to say that absolute freedom is a mirage. We are relatively free if left with funds, good health, love, and an atmosphere of our liking, which however, does not impinge on other people and hurt them. This can be found in the teachings of all great masters, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Sankaracharya, and Sree Narayana Guru. But their followers misinterpreted and vitiated the teachings.
We cannot separate our present from our past or the impending future. I feel that in these current times we are relatively free in relation to choosing or practicing our profession, business, religion, political activism, and any other activity. With increasing literacy, I find that many people are liberated from ignorance and are reasonably knowledgeable in regard to their and other people’s freedom.
Freedom from disease is one aspect I am interested in, and it is an aspect dependant upon availability of nutrition and awareness of healthy living. Presently we are having global pollution, global warming and loss of our heritage of the nature’s wonders, conducive to the control of weather. And the result is loss of freedom to have clean air to breathe, good water to drink, and uncontaminated food to eat. All these are now curtailed by our own misdeeds.
The Superpowers were indulging in biological warfare in Vietnam and Cuba. In order to subjugate the second and third world countries, the super powers were, and still are, indulging in a manner of freedom that hurt and damage weaker countries in a large scale. As a result we are in constant fear of a denuded environment in which freedom may lose its meaning by the destruction of our very moorings and habitats as I had already mentioned.
We are all slaves of time and space, and therefore our freedom is very relative to these parameters. We are bound to the universal consciousness from which we have evolved through many a generation. We are bound by its inherent rhythm of alternating fear and hope, towards a better future and ultimate salvation.
Another situation is where the freedom is being restricted by economical and political maneuverings. To engage in transactions with dependable people with no hidden trappings elaborated, has always been a pleasure. But what is happening today is similar to the old ways of Zamindars who trapped the tenants by financial ‘help’ of advancing to enslave them. The present day financial banking institutions entrap their clients in debt by invoking hidden charges, and involved peculiar calculations not understood by the clients.
Eternal vigilance is necessary to keep ourselves free economically, politically, religiously, professionally and entrepreneurially. This is because one man’s loss is another man’s gain, and the principle of the survival of the fittest comes into play.
Individually, we are bound to the family and society by love and its demands. An element of enslavement does occur, but may be more pleasurable than otherwise. Detachment of the type practiced by the Rishis of the orient produced several streams of thoughts, philosophy and off shoots of religion.
When scientific revolution took place in the west, everything was put to test. Science started unfolding nature, and in its advancement, even the secrets of the human body got revealed. Different hormones controlled our bodies. Freedom is restricted to different organs and cell groups that are stimulated whenever there is need for better function. One interesting thing revealed by science is that there is a love hormone called Oxytocin that is responsible for the deep bonding of the mother and her child. Endorphines and Pheramones play important roles in our body functioning.
The theory of natural selection seems to have ultimately produced a superior race about 4000 years ago in the formation of Abraham-> Issac-> Jacob, and the twelve children of Jacob are the Jews or Israelites. They got enslaved in Egypt, and then in Babylonia, and then they were ruled over by the Roman Emperor. Later on they got spread in all countries, but got persecuted. Now they dominate Israel, which happens to be the leading financial lobby of N.America. The all time tragic holocaust story is kept alive by this Zionist lobby who dominate almost all profession in the world. One can say that they factually rule the world now. The other Aryan and Slav races come behind, and their cousin brothers, the Moslems are seen to be out and out prone to terrorize various governments. Thus it would appear that more than the nations it is the races that try for more freedom. The superior genetic frame will score over the lesser talented ones. Shall I at this level therefore define freedom as the chances to succeed in acquiring possessions? Non-Jews may have to play second fiddle. This seems to be how the world is destined according to the available holy texts.

Dr. Md. Abdulla: We have already discussed the ‘limits of freedom at length. We have covered the social, political, religious, mental, sexual etc.,etc. What I could make out from these discussions, in a nutshell, is that the ‘limits of freedom’ varies from person to person, at different occasions and situations, in different religions and beliefs, in different social and economic groups, and in different political systems and parties. We are therefore unable to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion of what exactly are the limits of freedom. In contrast, the Right of Freedom assured by the constitution of the country is more relevant, and if observed and followed by every individual in its true spirit, that would be more practicable. .
My discussion shall therefore be basing on ‘the rights of freedom’ based on the Indian constitution, the largest and most detailed of all the written constitutions of the world.
Personal liberty (freedom) is the most important of all fundamental rights. The six freedoms under the constitution guaranteed to the citizens are,
1. Freedom of speech and expression,
2. Freedom of assembly,
3. Freedom of association,
4. Freedom of movement,
5. Freedom to reside and settle,
6. Freedom of profession, occupation, trade or business.
These six freedoms are, however, not absolute. Absolute individual rights (Freedom) cannot be guaranteed by any modern state. An organized society is the pre-condition of civil liberties. There cannot be any right which is injurious to the community as a whole. If people were given complete and absolute liberty without any social control, the result would be complete chaos and ruin. Liberty (freedom) has to be limited in order to be effectively possessed. For liberty (freedom) of one should not offend the liberty (freedom) of another.
Man as a rational being desires to do many things. But in a civil society, his desires have to be controlled, regulated, and reconciled with the exercise of similar desires of other individuals. Each of the above rights as guaranteed is therefore, restricted by the constitution itself, by conferring upon the state the power to impose, by law, reasonable restrictions as may be necessary on the larger interest of the community.
Reasonable restriction means that any restriction imposed on a person in the enjoyment of his rights should not be arbitrary or of excessive nature beyond what is required in the interest of the public. Reasonable here would imply intelligent care and deliberation that reason dictates which strikes a proper balance.
We are all aware of the fact that as per the constitution the system to safeguard the ‘Right of Freedom’ is the judiciary and its apex body is the Supreme Court of India. Of late we have been experiencing instances of what is called ‘Judicial Activism’.
Alladi Krishnasway Iyyangar, one of the founding fathers of our constitution rightly observed that, the doctrine of judicial independence is not raised to a dogma so as to enable the judiciary to function as a kind of super legislature or super executive. The judiciary, as much as the legislature and the executive, is dependant for its proper functioning upon the co-operation of the other two.
The forthright observation of the Supreme Court bench comprising of Justice A.K.Mathur and Justice Markhanday Khatju on the theme of judicial activism, that “judges must know their limits and must not run the government” reflects the welcome realization on the dangers of runaway judicial activism.
The emergency declared in 1975 and its aftermath brought about a sea change in the attitude of the government towards the judiciary, and the Supreme Court in particular. It is only due to the lessons learned from the emergency that a restrained and subdued Government that came back to power in Feb 1980 decided that it was no more prudent and wise to continue any confrontation with the judiciary.
Judges are not too eager to run the government. They have reluctantly done so when elected legislature failed to discharge their duties, or the executive did not act responsibly. The Supreme Court took Suo Motu action on the tragedy in Ervadi, Tamil Nadu, where 28 mentally ill chained inmates died in a fire. Can we call it judicial overreach? Again, what about the cases in which the legislature issued privilege notices against media persons for expressing their views? Are actions in these cases judicial overreach? Of course there has been certain amount of overreach in some judicial matters. But by and large, it is true that but for the timely intervention by the courts, democracy, secularism and freedom of expression would have been endangered.
Judges, in their over enthusiasm, are sometimes playing to the gallery in allowing petitions on subjects that have no relevance to the constitutional schemes. Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Somnath Chatterji and former Chief Justice of India, J.S.Verma have expressed concern over the tendency of courts to stray outside their proper constitutional domain. Invariably the judges find some legal basis for their orders through an expansive reading of some rights, usually through right to life (Article21 of the constitution), and the right of equality (Art.14), or through detailed orders on the presumed duty of the executive. Such dangers of ‘unbounded judicial creativity’ are well recognized.
The people are forced to approach the judiciary when other remedies are not available. Public interest litigation pleas have proved to be a strong and potent weapon in the hands of the courts to unearth many a scam and corruption case in public life.
In spite of the exalted position the judiciary enjoys, like all other institutions it is made up of people, and people cannot be infallible. While there is a check on the legislature through the elections every five years, the mechanism to rein in an errant judge is rather dismal in our country.
Art.21 of the Constitution declares while laying down the fundamental rights, that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty (freedom) except according to the procedure established by Law. The Supreme Court breathed life into these words by expanding the meaning of the words ‘right to life and freedom’ as not mere animal existence, but as life with human dignity with all faculties intact and the basic right to freedom.