Are We Lacking Intellectuals in Our Country?
Let us begin by defining the term intellectual. This term means that a person who totally relies upon his brain and knowledge irrespective of his surroundings. He is a person of high IQ and has good memorising power. He always uses his logical approach to find out the solution to any problem. He has high imaginative power and has the capability to do something great. That is only why they are given special status in the society and people respect them. They hold enormous power to bring the transformation to any firm for which they are working. This is the only reason they are in demand in the market. Till now you would have made an overview of an intelligent person. Now ask a simple question to yourself that “Are we lacking intellectuals in our country? NO. Most of the people would have the same answer. The reason is that our nation is the youngest nation in the whole world where more than 70% of the population lives in the age group of 15-35. Socrates, a great philosopher preached a principle that Knowledge is “Virtue and Virtue is Knowledge” which means that knowledge never have an end. Intellectuals throw up the new idea to the society, discovers new principles. They are the best mind of the society and they have the capability to bring the transformation in the society. One thing stands very commonly in all the intellectuals that they believe in simple living and high thinking. In India, there had been many intellectuals in the past. Some of them include Mahatma Gandhi, Gautam Buddha, Swami Vivekananda and many more. Their ideologies made them unique from the others. Mahatma Gandhiji preached Non-violence, love and truth. His ideology was to protest but not with the weapons. He initiated various non-violent movements which got huge support not only by the Indians but also by foreigners. Albert Einstein, an eminent scientist was one of them. He even stated that Gandhiji was the first and only last man to take birth on this earth. Their revolutionary ideas made them unique and so special that the whole world followed them. They changed the thinking of the people and their teachings are relevant even today when the world is on the brink of a nuclear war. Yes, India needs intellectuals more than the past. The intellectuals who are present in this country are exuding to foreign countries as they are getting more exposure there. We are not able to provide facilities to them and the perks that they deserve. One of the main reasons is the prevailing reservation system in India. It acts as the barrier in the development of the country. Around 50% of the post in the government departments are reserved for different caste people. It may be possible that an intellectual who belong to a general category may not get a job and as a result, to attain his livelihood he would exile to foreign. Intellectuals are the great revolutionaries of their time and they have a tendency to change the mindset of the people. They also inspire and motivate people to fight against all the odds of society. Raja Rammohan Roy was one of those great intellectuals we ever had in this motherland. He worked for the backward castes and worked for the upliftment of poor by making a society named as Brahmo Samaj. Swami Dayanand is such other examples who worked for the widow women by building Arya Samaj. In India whatever reforms had been made to date were because of these intellectuals and their ideologies. Caste, Religion has divided the people into linguistic lines. If we want to achieve the status of a developed country than we need to respect our intellectuals and provide them with every facility that they deserve. In the present era, CEO’s of various big MNC’s are Indians. From Sundar Pichai to Indra Nooyi everywhere it’s Indian who is leading the top designated post. Social evils are at its peak and they need to be eradicated from society in order to achieve the tag of a developed country. With time our requirements have continuously changed and we strive hard to fulfil them. Today’s youth can also play an important role in taking the countries success to the new heights. As a student, our responsibility is to grab the complete knowledge and apply it practically. As we know, we have lots of graduates which are unemployed and the major reason behind this is their inadequacy to meet the market requirement. We are not lacking in the number of intellectuals but in providing them with the best facilities indeed. We also have got that capability to rise and excel in our profession. The only pre-requisite is that we need to introspect yourself and find out the strength. One can dream to achieve excellence in his career along with that an aim to do something great for the country.