Globalisation
Question:-
Where ever one looks on all
continents, be it China, Japan, Indonesia, India in India, Iran and Egypt in
the Middle East, or in Australia, Europe, Africa and the Americas there are
changes going on and all these changes are in the same direction that can be
called Westernisation or Globalisation. And they are not only economic but also
social, cultural and ideological changes. And it matters not whether the people
are Buddhist, Hindu, Christian or Muslim. The world is becoming uniform and
homogeneous. Is this inevitable? Is it a good thing? Will Islam be destroyed by
this process or must it change to survive?
Answer:-
Let us look at this in a larger,
Islamic or Tawhidian context.
Evolution on this earth takes
place because of the entry and absorption of forces coming from above, the
heavens such as those of the sun. Man, a spiritual creature, is banished into
earth for a term in order to learn and develop where he multiplies and forms
communities. He can therefore, be described as having three aspects:- a
psychological, a social and a physical. He has physical needs for food and
shelter and needs to make a living in interaction with his environment. He also
marries, has children and creates families and societies. He also has experiences
which he processes and forms ideas and a culture of philosophy, science and art
and religion. Human affairs can, therefore, be regarded as being affected by
three factors:- Economic, Social and Ideological in the broadest sense of the
words.
Life, which is an interaction
between man and his environment mediated by these three factors, consists of
experiences which also involve three factors, namely perception, motivation and
action and this leads to the processing to experiences by analysis, association
and synthesis. Community life allows the exchange of experiences through
communication and this in its turn allows the accumulation of the results of
processing. This is transmitted down the ages through social and cultural and
deliberately, through educational systems. This ensures gradual development and
continuous transformation of the ideological, social and economic systems. Each
of these three systems, though inter-dependent, has its own history of
development but interact with the others. It is unlikely that economic
development could have taken place without the ideological factor that produced
the sciences which led to the various technologies. But it is also these and
the economic needs and desires that drove the development of science. And both
these have affected the social system which also facilitated their development.
Owing to the fact that human
beings have three aspects, their behaviour is governed by three kinds of
priorities, those concerned with physical facts, with meanings and with values.
The individual needs to acquire the means to life first before they can
reproduce and form social relationships and ensure the survival of the race.
The race must continue before it can develop. Therefore, the self-preservative
drive that informs the economic factor is the most urgent, followed by the
social factor based on the reproductive drive, and the ideological factor based
on the self-extensive drive is the least urgent. But when we consider values
then the order of priorities is reversed. The individual dies and has no
meaning except in relation to the community or human race and that has no
meaning except for its function in the total scheme of existence. It is,
however, the social system that forms the mind of the individual and guides the
development of humanity, and this gives it the third kind of priority.
People differ as the relative
strength of these drives. The motivational force, the Psychic energy that could
be called the Life Force can be directed inherently or by external circumstances
or by personal efforts in different proportions through these channels. In some
people the self-preservative drive and the Economic factor dominate. In others
it is the Social factor. There have always been a group of people whose
behaviour was governed more by the Ideological factor to which they sacrificed
the other two, both family and worldly goods. The economic conditions would
probably not have changed much from primitive times were it not for these
people. But we find to day that despite economic prosperity which should have
satisfied the physical needs and released man to pursue the higher priorities,
there has been, instead, arrested development, a fixation at the more primitive
physical level. In fact, humanity should have advanced to the Social Stage
before reaching the Ideological Stage.
As the human race expanded it also
dispersed driven by economic needs and sections lost touch with each other.
They had to adjust to diverse environments. This affected their social systems
and ideologies. But the development of systems of transport, communication and
trade brought people into greater interaction with each other, made them
increasingly more inter-dependent and shrunk the world. The result was the
increased speed of the diffusion of influences and increasing tension and
conflict owing to the slower human ability to adjust. There are, therefore, not
only horizontal conflicts between different cultures and ideologies but also
vertical ones between values and ideals on the one hand and degenerative
tendencies. Between these we have a conflict between those who want innovation
and those who want to preserve the familiar and traditional. These three are
not often distinguished.
There are three ways of organising
the economic conditions. The means of making a living can be controlled either
by a group of owners of the means of production and distribution, or by States,
or by the workers themselves individually or in cooperation. There can be
various combinations of these and Nations differ accordingly. In the Modern
Westernised world the emphasis is on the first two alternatives.
As science, technology, and
organisation progresses it becomes necessary that the work force should undergo
more intensive training and education. The same factors also make it possible
for women to join the work force in the industries, especially as the increased
population pressure and material desires makes birth control necessary, thereby
releasing women from their mainly social function. In fact, as work is increasingly
mechanised and automated and greater conformity, docility and increasingly more
social skills are required, women tend to be more suited to modern offices and
industries than men. It is, of course, an advantage for the society that women,
half the population, should also be educated and find a function, especially
when industrialisation has deprived them of the domestic skills and functions
they used to have. It is also a Religious right and duty that they like men
should actualise their potentialities and fulfil themselves and their function.
But this has seldom happened. The opposite is often the case. A shift of
emphasis has taken place from the psychological to the social and from the
social to the economic factor instead of the reverse as Islam and most
religions require.
The economic changes have taken
place mechanically without conscious control and have had some profound
consequences. The longer duration of education before a paying career can be
had causes the postponement of marriages long after sexual maturity while
allowing indiscriminate mixing of the sexes with the inevitable result of
loosening sexual morality and family loyalties. This indiscriminate mixing
continues in the work place. The spouses spend more time with strangers than
each other and are required to obey their bosses. There is increasing break
down of families and problems of social tension, neurosis, maladjusted and
delinquent children, alcoholism, drug addiction, decline of standards,
perversion, frustration and general violence, and as compensation, greater
self-centredness, greed and materialism that puts pressure on resources. In
fact, it is the psychological and social problems so caused that also give
employment to women, but does not solve the problem. It is not difficult to see
that these conditions also cause religion to decline and that makes the
conditions worse. There is a degenerative rather than the spiritually
regenerative process that Islam requires.
It is not, however, inevitable. It
is less likely to happen when the jobs, the means of making a living, are not
controlled by States or the group of Owners but by individuals in co-operation
and the distinction between owners, managers and workers ceases to exist, and
all affairs, economic, political and cultural, are run through mutual
consultation between those involved. Then instead of the main concern being profit
or political advantage, it will be possible to combine social concerns and
educational needs with economic considerations. A greater co-ordination and harmony between
the ideological, social and economic factors will then be achieved and that
will facilitate greater psychological integration. The problem with is that people
are in the main not self-regulating and able to bear responsibility but depend
on others to control or coerce them even for what is in their own best
interest; and that it is easier to instruct and force others to do things
rather than to do them. These conditions, however, reinforce and maintain each
other. Changes can only be made gradually through self-discipline or through a
period of chaos and suffering.
There is a danger also from
globalisation itself when it means uniformity and homogeneity. This reduces the
area of versatility, possibilities and adaptability. It does increase the power
of doing certain things at the expense of their range. Evolution requires that
there should be variety so that when conditions change and the unadapted and
inflexible are rendered ineffective or are destroyed, there will always be a
set of organisms that will be able to adjust to it and multiply. Civilisations
rise and fall to be replaced by others. But if there are no others then we have
a dead end. Maladjusted systems crumble from inner tensions and conflicts. The
Political and economic unification of the world is probably inevitable. It is
also desirable in order to remove destructive conflicts, and to encourage
co-operation and the distribution of what is useful and good. But a way must be
found to incorporate variety.
In this connection three features
of Islam should be noted:- (1) Islam came when the globalisation process was
beginning and catered for this by unifying and universalising religion. It did
so by recognising the validity of all genuine religions as being sent by Allah
through Prophets. But note that this Unity recognises diversity and does not
require uniformity. Islam also recognises the unity as well as the diversity of
mankind. (2) Change and the transformation of mankind is part of the Islamic
teaching. There are stages of development and each civilisation as well as
dispensation of religion has a term. There is to be a new heaven and new earth
which can be interpreted as meaning a new consciousness or ideological system
and new conditions of life and environment. (3) Muhammad is the last of the
Prophets. The implication is that Mankind must be regarded as having reached
maturity so that it no longer requires the direct guidance as of a parent, but
is henceforth to be responsible for itself, guided by what it has learnt and
its own mistakes.
The notion of Globalisation,
however, cannot be confined only to human affairs. As the Quran states, man has
been made as a Vicegerent on earth (2:30). This implies that he has duties
towards the earth and the creatures and things in it, the environment with
which he interacts and on which he depends, as well as towards his own soul and
the community of which he is part. Globalisation, therefore, must also concern
itself with the welfare of the land, sea, atmosphere, rivers, mountains,
valleys, forests, plants and animals as well as the cities, farms and
factories.
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