Differences must be respected and celebrated to achieve true unity, historian Sugata Bose told an audience of mostly college students on Friday.
He was speaking at the launch of a debating campaign for students organised by the Federal Bank.
The venue was the auditorium of Bhairab Ganguly College in Belgharia, on the northern fringes of the city, where he was the chief guest at the launch of Federal Bank presents Speak for India — West Bengal Edition in association with Anandabazar Patrika and The Telegraph.
“I like the name of your bank, Federal Bank. Federalism has to be the bedrock of India’s future. If we want a truly strong Union of India, it has to be founded on the pillar of federalism. You cannot achieve unity by giving diktats from above that everyone is one and uniform. You have to know how to respect and celebrate differences in order to build true unity,” said Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of History at Harvard University and the grand-nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
On Friday, Bose harped on the essence of debate, which, he said, was to respect the contrary opinion.
“Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I was young like you and I used to participate in inter-collegiate debates of the kind that will be held today. What a thrill it was to bring back trophies from other colleges,” he said.
“It was very important to develop what I would call forensic skills. We would often speak for the motion even if we believed that we really ought to be speaking against the motion. This was important in order to recognise that there could be two sides, two legitimate views on any single issue. We needed to learn how to respect the other point of view even if we were arguing against it,” he said.
Bose, a former Trinamul Lok Sabha member, looked back at his days in Parliament.
“When I went to Parliament, I took part in a number of major debates. I still remember my maiden speech in Parliament. We were in the Opposition, which was feeling very pessimistic. I thought that I have to give an uplifting speech. I ended by warning the government of the day not to confuse uniformity with unity or democracy with majoritarianism. Unfortunately, that is a confusion that the ruling party is continuing to
make,” he said.
“‘Speak for India’ is a CSR initiative with the aid of Federal Bank Hormis Memorial Foundation to motivate young, dynamic, and enthusiastic minds throughout the country to increase their voice on pertinent issues and play the function of change-makers in society,” the organisers
said.
The entire format of the debate campaign is divided into four levels. The first level will have participants in 23 districts, culminating in the district finals. The shortlisted candidates will make it to one of the four zonal finals, or the second level. The third level, which marks the semi-final, and fourth level, the grand finale, are slated to be held in Calcutta.
“This campaign started in 2014 in Kerala (where the bank is headquartered). Now, it covers seven states, including Bengal. The main idea behind this is youth empowerment. India has the biggest youth population,” said Sabu R.S., who heads the Calcutta zone for the Federal Bank.
Mir Afsar Ali — who wears many hats, like that of a radio presenter, actor and TV show host — was another guest at the launch.
“We usually think FB is Facebook. But in this case, it is the Federal Bank. It is a good connection. About vital issues, pressing issues that concern everyone, let us not constrict that only to opinions on social media, which, I think, are very frivolous. More often than not, you have a cloak of anonymity. It is very easy to remain on the fringes and comment about changing something. I think we have had enough of social media. Before you speak for India, I think it is important that you speak up for others,” he said.
Subhranil Som, principal of college, told Metro: This kind of a programme ignites the young minds. They can think fearlessly, which is very important in today’s India.”