EMOTIONALISM: Some Of The Reasons

The only way to see any betterment in the situation is to analyze the reasons behind this emotionalism. We ourselves need to do so as nobody else will do it on our behalf. We have heard some of the reasons from our respected member Major Javed Jafri Saheb (sjmjafri@googlemail.com) on 31 January 2010. I would take the liberty to reiterate the following:

The ‘Mughal hangover’ has partly contributed to this trait in the Indian Subcontinent. It is a psychological situation wherein the lack of reasoning makes us raise our voices instead of improving the argument. Why are we emotional around the world? I assume that we have slightly woken up and now find ourselves far behind the rest of the nations. It is again a sense of emptiness and a reaction at the deep psychological level. We want to fill that gap as soon as possible – without realizing what actually the filling of the gap will and does entail. The religious scholarship is so far from the realities that the tools which could help us fill that huge gap gradually are still somehow discounted from the pulpit.

The lack of Ijtihaad (individual independent creative thinking) for a long period of time has substantially contributed to this phenomenon. Ijithaad could have brought about rationality. Traditionalism has done just the opposite. Our education system which emphasizes more on memorizing and less on thinking and rationalizing is a part of this complex problem. Generations have grown up under the same education system.

The scientific and rational approach is a sure recipe for curbing emotionalism. The day we start analyzing the issues more and more the reactions will be different.