Growth is central to life a thing that lives grows, a thing that grows lives. It is a kind of mutuality of any kind of existence. But competition is a meaningful growth and in this great creation of our competition prevails in all spheres – the human, subhuman world, the flora and the fauna.
Thus competition is basic to real growth, but it may be counter-productive if it is allowed to flourish beyond a certain point. It may degenerate into monopoly or cartel (= a combination kill competition).
Live and let live echoes the Biblical spirit. It implies a humane understanding, a generous disposition. An out and out competitive culture is a kind of rat race (= a blind lust for speed) that throws out all other consideration except growth and advancement. It runs after its objective and develops a kind of moral propriety that believes only in its own kind of growth. Thus competitive economy would increase production at less and less cost, leading to capitalism; commercial competitiveness makes wealth paramount; an excess of the spirit among boys to vie with (= compete with) one another to climb to the top towards those who fail to climb. breeds a feeling of contempt
The above pitfalls are incident to (= the result of) a kind of competitive culture that ought to be discouraged. It ought to be borne in mind that those that shine in competitions do not always represent the best. Lack of opportunities, dearth of proper access to the best learning media, poverty and many such deficiencies compel many to fall back in the race of life. The immortal lines of Gray partially bring out this dismal picture :
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste their fragrance in the desert air.
Growth and competition are both necessary for any progress; but they should not be mutually exclusive. They ought to be mutually complementary. The surplus in our national dividend (= the wealth of the nation) that may be the outcrop of competitions ought to be reinvested to further the those who are in the backwater. There ought to be a feedback prospects of culture. We need an alertness of mind to see that we are not bogged down (= suppressed) by coterie-culture. It is true that a handful of talents establish a new or rich tradition. But it is equally true that often such things degenerate into a kind of provincialism, into a tendency to guard such a tradition against further modifications.
Competition must play second fiddle to growth and growth implies a kind of health that includes the social, cultural, economic, spiritual and intellectual well-being of a nation. I have kept politics out of hand as its role is merely that of the administrator, the supervisor. A competitive spirit flourishes as a healthy element if the opportunities for growth are more equitably distributed. It becomes the duty of the political leaders to see to it. All men may not have equal talents, their integers may vary. But, given the scope and resources, the growth of the nation would be healthier. The high level of culture in the Greek city-states is seen as a similar kind of growth. In ancient India the reign of Samudra Gupta or the reign of Akbar in Mughal India bear out the truth in such a conception.
A spirit of competition functions like a catalyst. It creates men an urge to go ahead. The backward societies and human races vegetated (= merely grew idly) as they were not fired by this spirit. It is the leading light that liberates the chained souls. The adibasis, hilly tribes or the light-deprived tribes in the deep jungles live divorced from the light of civilisation. They live and die like the cattle as their souls are unredeemed by education. This is not any growth as it does not further the prospects of humanity. Learning, education and exchange of ideas and feelings can sensitize them and elevate their sense of self-importance. These would create in them a sense of competition. Here ‘competition’ implies an environment which helps them to improve their lot.
During our struggle for independence, our venerable leaders had embarked on (= launched) schemes that had ‘competition’ as their watchword. To set off the evil effects of English education popularized by Rose Macaulay and Alexander Duff they had, in Bengal, opened schools and colleges, that aimed at a more balanced education.
In a developing country like ours ‘competition’ has still it’s significance. Now, in the millennium years, with website’s, internet multiplying, with our talents acquiring knowhow (= skill) in the ever new fields of computer technology, a liberal view of ‘competition’ as I have enunciated ought to be pursued. It is, indeed, heartening to see NRI’s or technocrats doling out assistance – both financial and expertise – to their parent bodies in the country. It seems, the term ‘competition’ has suffered a sea-change (= change for the better).
