No man is an island summary

 

No man is an island

                                - minoo masani

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Minoo masani (1905-1998)

* He was a Parsi political leader from Rajkot.

* He is author af 'Our India', an all time bestsellers and a prescribed textbook in school even in pre-independence India.

* He edited the magzine called 'Freedom first'.

 

* He also founded the democratic research service to educate public opinion on the dangers to India's national independence posed by communists.

ABOUT THE LESSON:

No man is an island: 

* The lesson is an extract taken from 'Our growing human family'.

We can see the enormous sweep of masani's vision of the future through the world federation and it's power and it's effectiveness.

* He discusses various kinds of government and their shortcomings.

* He identifies two 'tests' that would help a citizen determine what kind of government is most effective.

* He stresses upon the importance of the role of education and free thought in the progress made by civilization.

SUMMARY IN ENGLISH:

                   The lesson begins with the idea of 

world federation. According to the author,if 

men are intelligent,they will merge all their 

states and their empires into a world union 

or world federation. Setting up of a world 

federation is not the end or goal of human 

advance. It is in fact only a beginning - a 

means to a higher end. That goal we may 

describe- a freer, a er and a richer life for 

each human being, permitting the 

expression and the growth of his or her 

personality according to the author, Buddha, Ashoka, Jesus, Christ and Gandhi believed 

that Nobel ends can be achieved by Nobel methods.

            If today we know more than what we did a few thousand years ago , if we are not so afraid ( but we are still afraid of one another), it is the result of centuries and centuries of mutual aid, of co-operation between larger and larger groups of men.

             

             Human beings have followed, not all the time nor every faithfully, the advice given in a verse to be found in one of the old sanskari books.

        

             For the family,  sacrifice the individual, for the community the family for the country the community and for the soul the whole world.

                 The world federation of tomorrow or the day after will be the culmination of the whole process, but it will not automatically guarantee further progress. One writer says , 'if the whole world were organised into a single state, yet mankind might be worse off....' 

                 Abraham Lincoln described democracy as "government of the people, by the people and for the people." In democracy, the individual citizen can think and say more or less what he likes. The government is responsible to the people. It can be replaced by another if majority of the people desire . In some countries, money power is strong and the gulf between a handful of rich people and the masses of the poor is wide.  The  results of following a democratic way of life are rather uneven and vary widely from country to country. The success of democracy is dependent on the wisdom or stupidity of the common people who govern themselves. It is said, each nation gets the kind of government it deserves.

               In dictatorship, the government has total control over the life of the people. Industries are owned and run by the state. Everything is planned by the officials in advance. At the top of the state ther is one man. He orders everything. He dictates. The dictator's every wish is to be obeyed. Any opposition to him is destroyed by force - by death. Like the kings of olden times, he can do no wrong. His officials obey him just as soldiers obey a general. A common man may not speak or write or even think for himself. Conditions of work aa md living show no improvement. There is more inequality and fear.

                           Alexander pope, English poet said " For forms of government, let fools contest; whether is best administered is best"......