No original thinking among people: Bargohain Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Nov 12 – Journalist and author Homen Bargohain today said a true intellectual never fears to express his or her opinion even when it means going against mass opinion on sensitive issues. He said that intellectuals were often an unpopular lot as they had to speak strongly against popular perceptions or prevailing norms. Bargohain was addressing a gathering at a function at Hotel Ambarish where he formally released Anubhavar Pratidhvani, a collection of articles by Mayur Bora, published by Aank Baak. Stressing the need for questioning anything and everything, Bargohain said that a vast majority of the people refrained from questioning and were content to lead a life devoid of any original thinking. “This urge not to accept things at face value and question their rationale is what distinguishes a true intellectual from those who pretend to be,” he said, adding that intellectuals were not the best of men in a society but were critical to its progress. Bargohain said that a capacity to think clearly and to voice that with courage and conviction were essential to become an intellectual. Citing the example of the Assam Movement against infiltrators, he said that very few dared to question many of the activities concerning the conduct of the movement for fear of hostile public backlash as the situation was surcharged with emotion. The author, Bora, in his speech, gave an account of his pursuits in the literary arena since the last two years. He said that it was his endeavour to reach the truth and also “the positives that abound in our society but are often overlooked”. Dr Rohini Kumar Baruah said that books were witness to the evolving process of civilizations through the centuries and a world without books would be hard to imagine. Equating a society without books to a soulless body, he said that books were a yardstick to gauge the progress of human civilization. Anubhavar Pratidhvani contains articles by Bora on wide-ranging issues, including historical, political and socioeconomic.
(The Assam Tribune ,13.11.2011) _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
