Ripples : A Reflection On Dattopant Thengadi's Third Way

 

The book `Third way` written by shri Dattopant Thengadi ji was published in 1998 but I think this is the right time to revisit the book again. We as a society are struggling to comprehend the complex Indian sociological, political, economical and to some extent cultural phenomenon. It would help us evolve a relevant model in the Indian context.

 

Intellectuals always attempted to understand the social reality from the prism of western theories and concepts. We are fed with such interpretations in every field. This has been creating a state of confusion in our minds for many decades.

It is a known fact that communism and capitalism have some limitations as theories and they cannot explain Indian social phenomenon fully. ( the reasons these two theories fall short of high expectation is a topic of an independent essay. It is not the focus of this writing)

We as a nation and as a society need to think in terms of indigenous concepts and theories to design a suitable development model for us.

Dattopant ji states that such model cannot treat individuals and society from the material view point alone. When people of a society accept a thought or some plan wholeheartedly it ensures acceptance and implementation. Just good and beneficial laws don't guarantee its acceptance.

And at the same time some a section of the society needs to understand and get convinced that in spite of some inconvenience caused to them, they need to look at the decision from a larger perspective. This is no easy task.

 

Some non-materialistic values need to be inculcated along with the development model. Fortunately our cultural base too supports it. He made readers aware that the 'problems confronted by are society ourmore social than economic in character'. We need to appeal to 'the sublime national consciousness of Hindu society at large'. This he states should be the starting point of our national reconstruction. In this challenging task Dattopant believes, Hindu culture that holds our psyche which is sanatan Dharma, is to be relied upon.

I share my reflections here and shall discuss the book in more details in the upcoming parts.