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| A Philosophical Outlook | | | Sanjeev Sikri | 2/5/2022 11:58:20 PM |
| While driving from the Malwa plains of Punjab to Delhi a few days earlier, the only radio available on the National Highway 44 for a pretty long stretch was the All India Radio. It happened to be so that the broadcaster was narrating the news of the Amar Jawan Jyoti which was to be merged with the flame at the recently constructed National War Memorial. At first glance this affair seemed pretty ironic, for how could that which was claimed to be Amar (i.e. eternal) be extinguished and relocated. However, the etiology of the flame itself poses a dilemma that caught my attention for the remaining drive.
I am sure the schism concerning this merger and acquisition deal pertains to the veterans and the general public at large. For some the original flame has already been extinguished, for some it still burns at the National War Memorial. The philosophical implication is what made the Amar Jawan Jyoti, the Amar Jawan Jyoti. What was it about the flame in itself that summoned dignitaries of the highest echelon in the political arena to visit it across the years. Was it the fact that the flame was lit continuously for half a century or was it because it happened to be located at the heart of the New Delhi. Well of course it was enkindled in remembrance of the martyrs of the 1971 war against Pakistan. The article of virtu however is if the flame that burned on the Republic day in 1972 same as the flame that burned in the January of 2022, if it is so, what makes it the same flame?
The identity of the Amar Jawan Jyoti is not rooted in the fuel used to light the flame since the fuel changed from LPG to CNG in 2006, nor is it a particular blaze of the flame for it alters by the moment. Nor can one claim that the burner in the urn in which it was placed be representative of the eternal flame for common sense tells me that the burner might have been replaced if not repaired several times in the course of fifty years. With the flame, the air, the burner, the fuel or the guard that guards it not being the same over fifty years, where do we exactly place the identity of the eternal flame. These happen to be the accidental qualities of the Amar Jawan Jyoti. Accidental qualities, as formulated by Aristotle are those properties that determine how a thing is, but not what it is. For example Mahatma Gandhi with hair in old age would still be Mahatma Gandhi.
What we seek is the essential quality of the Amar Jawan Jyoti that has pertained the test of time for the past fifty years. An essential quality according to Aristotle is that without which a thing would not be what it is, i simpler words it would lose its identity. A substantial percent of the population associates if not defines, the Amar Jawan Jyoti as the fire lit in remembrance of the martyrs of the 1971 war under the India Gate. The other elements comprising the plinth, the cenotaph and the inverted rifle and bayonet along with a war helmet. One could associate the flame with the being under India Gate for that has been concomitant to the Amar Jawan Jyoti. For many the movement of the eternal flame from under the India Gate to four hundred meters away from the India Gate is what transfigures the identity of the Amar Jawan Jyoti.
For those who believe that the eternal flame in its actuality has now been extinguished attach the essential quality of the eternal flame to being that flame which burned under the India Gate. For even when the burners and the fuels were changed the flame was still lit under the India Gate. For those who hold the eternal flame to now be lit at the National War Memorial attach the essential quality of the eternal flame to the very flame itself. The only problem however with the latter group is that by associating the eternal flame to the flame alone, anyone can take home the eternal flame with a candle, creating multitudes of eternal flames. This would in a way reduce the sanctity of the eternal flame, since scarcity entails value. With the former however, there can exist only but one Amar Jawan Jyoti, for the flame ought to be under the India Gate and nowhere else.
In order to bring a true merger in the Hegelian sense between the two opposing groups who define the eternal flame either as under the India Gate or in the flame itself, it would be apt to define the Amar Jawan Jyoti as the flame on the estate of the India Gate rather than under the India Gate, which is now precisely located at the National War Memorial.
The essence of the eternal flame however, on which there would be unqualified consensus is that the flame in its core had nothing to do with the environment in which it was placed. Rather the Amar Jawan Jyoti in its true essence is a tribute to the brave soldiers who have put the safety of the country ahead of their own lives, and that essence is fulfilled either under the India Gate or around the India Gate or on a candle stick in front of every Indian’s Gate. |
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