Certainly not……….
The desert, it is believed by majority that it is full of sands but, there is an oasis. It is a known fact that the ocean is full of salty waters only, but, there are sparkling pearls underneath. The dark clouds are known as rain bearing clouds to majority but, they hide a bright and beautiful moon.
Majority always views, perceives and believes any aspect from a single angle as a photographer shoots the face of a human being as it is, whereas an artist finds ways of beautifying the image. There are so many angles for any object or issue or challenges while the majority felt that the world was flat, only two could disprove it during the Renaissance – Nicholas Copernicus and Ferdinand Magellan. They justified, with evidence that the earth was round, which ultimately led to the discovery of many rich lands. While many others believed that comets were an ill omen, depicting disaster, Halley debunked it by forecasting the appearance to this comet every seven years. While the majority felt that fungi were disease producing organism, one Louis Pasteur proved that it was a disease curing organism. While the majority felt that monarchy was the only form of Government, Pericles was the only one who advocated democracy as the best form of Government in the 6
th Century B.C. Greek civilization. While majority of the Europeans in the
pre-renaissance period had blind faith in the Pope, a monk, Martin Luther, of the order of St.Augustine, revolted, when he realized that the church practiced the Sale of Indulgences. He succeeded by the dictum, "Leading Minority and
unleading Majority" he started a new creed
Anabaptism, which included the minority peasant community.
Today, with growing literacy rate, it is a disgrace not being a graduate,
isn’t it? Yes, of course, as majority of us do complete graduation in any discipline. But, there were few school drop outs who made history. Great personalities like Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, the great scientists were school dropouts. The irony is that, today, we students study about their great discoveries like the theory of gravity and electricity. This was a matter of the by gone era. But do such cases exist today? Why not ….Let us consider Bill Gates. He was thrown out of high school as he was unable to perform well academically and was difficult to deal with. He disliked the usual study pattern, whereas, most of his peers did. Hence, he was forced to leave school. Today Bill Gates is at the top of the ‘computer-world’. He has achieved what his other classmates could not even dream of achieving. He has given the world a software because of which the extensive world has become a comfortable place to live in. We all are so well connected with each other as well as the web. My salutes to this great master of the Web – Bill Gates.
Inventions, innovations, discoveries, revolution, experiments and creativity are the off-shoots of the leading minorities who have firm belief that the
unleading majority are mere followers. They fit to be stereotype commoners. The whole world is progressing only due to leading minorities who think of the future of mankind and not of the present. The
unleading majority will think themselves. They have no vision, targets, meaning of life, orientation and risk taking ability. Such a majority is always influenced by others. Majority always performs things in the same sequence with boundaries and preconceived limitations.
Few business tycoons deviated from the majority and achieved wonders. Mr.
Dhirubhai Ambani could not digest the policy of the majority, which invested their own wealth into business. He made the public invest and created an affluent investment community, which gave rise to the great Reliance Industries. While major steel companies established huge steel plants in India, Mr.L.N.Mittal acquired sick steel mills globally at a lower cost and now he is the third richest man in the world.
Branson of Virgin Airlines did not follow the majority to lure the affluent class by providing tickets through agents. He introduced demand based huge discounts just before flying. Now, Virgin Airlines is one of the world famous. Mr.
Narayan Moorthy of
Infosys won the loyalty and goodwill of employees by giving them company stocks and made them affluent quite unlike other IT industrialists.
While discussing majority versus minority let us not forget the "Left
Handers". Majority of the people in this world are right
handers, barring a few i.e. less than 10% are left
handers. In right handed people the left hemisphere of the bran is dominantly functional. Whereas, in left handed people it is the right hemisphere which has an upper hand over the left. The right hemisphere of the brain is concerned with intuition and creativity. Gen too, in some parts of the country, people still consider left handedness as a curse. Left
handers can do common things ‘differently’ because of their creative aptitude. There has been a history as far as U.S.
presidentship is concerned. Three presidents, one after the other, viz.Ronald Regan (1911) the 40
th, George H.W.Bush (1924) the 41st and Bill Clinton (1946) the 42
nd were all left
handers. Julius Caesar, the most admirable Roman general was a left
hander too! Helen Keller, the compassionate symbol for the blind, who introduced the Braille was also left handed. My admiration to Lord Baden Powell’s founder of Boy Scouts intuitiveness to evolve his adventurous movement for the youth. If one is a vivacious reader, one can compare between the writings of Mark Twain, H.G.Wells and the others. The reason being their left handedness. The living legendary musician who was in news lately, one of the Beatles – Paul McCartney is a left
hander too. Artists are said to be moody, and intuitive, not to mention, creative too. There also many great ones at art like
Michealangelo and
Leonarado –
da Vinci who were left
handers too. Not to forget our very own Indian actor of international fame whose statue is in the wax museum of London, the great
Amitabh Bachchan – an innovator as far as acting is concerned, is predominately as left
hander too.
Saurav Ganguly, the best Indian batsman has excelled only because of his left handedness. Though left
handers are in minority, they are rich and famous personalities as they think and do things differently. This is their ‘recipe’ for success.
Majority, many a times is vulnerable to fear, survival, insecurity and over power of others. Hence, they do not react, but they sulk. They tolerate autocracy, arrogance and exploitation of others and themselves too. They start believing in fatalistic philosophy through it is not right. Such instances occurred in history when one
Chanakya challenged the
Nanda Dynasty, nurtured Chandragupta
Maurya – a shepherd kid and transformed him into a ruler later on. When the entire North America followed social dominance of Americans by making black their slaves, one Abraham Lincoln could emerge as a hero and revolutionise the society. Of course, the wrath of the majority drank his blood wherein sacrifice of an individual or minority is inevitable, if the mission has to be achieved.
In normal social life, we observe few memorable occurrences. First, when majority of the villagers do farming and restrict themselves to a rural environment. Very few come out to urban centers, work hard, optimize all opportunities and emerge as wealth creators for the nation, Like Captain
Gopinath of Air Deccan. Second, when majority of the population lives in their own country, very few, like L.N.Mittal,
Azim Premji and
Swaraj Paul go to other countries, breaking all barriers and become the world’s richest. These are the true contributors of globalization. Third, while every freedom fighter upholds blood-shed as a mean to attain independence one, Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi attained the same through non-violence. Fourth, while all scientists are engrossed with their profession, one A.P.J.Abdul
Kalam diverted from the majority and shined as an inspiring start for the younger generation. One Ravi
Varma, One Tagore, One
Netaji and One
Shushruta never had been in the majority. They were the changing agents in the majority.
To be a changing agent, one has to be endowed with a few unique personality traits. They have to be outstanding thinkers, innovators, visionaries, practical dreamers and devoted human beings. They stand for conviction, never negate from their goal and win the hearts of millions by their virtues. Such people belong to the minority clans, who have
enkindled sparks of hope in the majority. Many occasions and history too have proved that majority was invariable wrong. The whole of U.S.S.R collapsed in 1992, through majority of them believed in communism. In China, once, the communism was the majority, today she has emerged as a major wealth creator in Asia. Eighteenth Century France believed in Louis XVI as their benevolent ruler. In reality, his rule was a nightmare.
To conclude, majority is like a herd in the jungle. It acts on impulse, emotion and situation which aims at a short term solution. In the process, it is bound to go wrong. This majority needs an enlightening torch, which is provided in the form of a minority – their Leaders. Today, the minority makes miracles.
