Jyotsna Jha
We should also remember that the same history tells us that any change with significant impact on human lives have happened because someone or a group of people dared to dream. To consider only easily 'achievable' as 'practical' and think that 'ordinary' people want only 'practical' reflects a myopic understanding of 'ordinary' people's lives and aspirations.
It is important to understand that what we today refer to as the 'rule of law' and 'social justice' did not come into being naturally - it has been a dynamic process where the very concept of 'law' has changed with changing notions of justice and the process is continuous - it has not stopped and will not stop. And even at the same point of time, different notions exist not only in different societies but also in the same society. Therefore, though it remains unclear and debatable whether more people live better lives today or not, what is certain is that the technological fix alone cannot solve human problems in the absence of a framework firmly rooted in the philosophy of equality and committed to what we understand today by 'justice'. The best example is green revolution itself. Despite high increase in the yield as well as total food production, thousands in India die of hunger, and millions suffer from malnutrition. And these figures are large not only in numbers but also in proportion. The latest data suggest that more than half of Indian children suffer from malnutrition, clearly indicating that it is neither an aberration nor a localised issue. One can go on citing many such examples to point out that technological fixes alone can never solve human issues. read more »



