Lessons learnt from history make our present and future safe. ?

Lessons learnt from history make our present and future safe. ? (1195 Words)

History gives lessons. Lessons of history are valuable; provide insight, inputs and foresight for action to carve out present and future safe. Lessons from history are to be learnt to become wiser, smarter and make present and future safe. Otherwise, history will repeat itself. If lessons of history are ignored and not learnt, preventive and corrective actions are not taken, same happenings, good or bad may repeat. History repeats if the same mistakes, commissions, omissions are repeated and the same circumstances are allowed to thrive. Whether it is at the individual level, family, society, or at a political or economic sphere, history will repeat itself unless one learns the lessons of history and transform and build one’s present and future safe.

History provides lessons for individuals, institutions, civilizations, communities, countries and the world for taking the right action to make our present and future safe. Those organizations or individuals who learn lessons from history will understand the root causes of certain unfortunate incidents. They can build their present and future safely by internalizing the principles contained in the lessons to create present and future safe. If one analysis the nuances of history understands the undercurrents and one can try avoiding those circumstances that can lead to the same history and make one’s present and future safe. Learning lessons from history is advantageous in many ways: It would save time, energy, resources, efforts, and help to become wise to manage the course of happenings by taking the right actions on time.

Eminent leaders, scientists, military generals, inventors, discoverers, successful personalities know not only the value of lessons of history but also apply the lessons of history to mould the course of events for safer present and future. For example, great military generals like Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte; leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, scientists like Galileo, Copernicus, Marie Curie, Marconi, Graham Bell, Wright Brothers; discoverers like David Livingston and Columbus had internalized the lessons from earlier failures in warfare, events in the political arena, experiments and failed attempts to transform failures into success in the present and future. In international politics, the world witnessed two world wars. After the First World War form 1914-19, the committee of nations formed the League of Nations to prevent future world wars. However, the same mistakes of rivalry in building an army, armaments and power blocs in history repeated. Consequently, the institutional mechanism created to prevent future world wars failed to prevent another world war.

 The Second World War in 1939-45 could not be prevented by learning the lessons from history. After the Second World War, the United Nations Organization was formed. The inadequacies of the UN System and the composition of Security Council are still serious concerns before the world nations especially in the light of cold war era intensifying the arms’ race between the USA and then USSR and even now when many countries in the world are subjected to constant warfare, bombings and catastrophic war crimes and consequent sufferings of humanity. Gulf wars, Afghan crisis, Syrian civil war, Palestine-Israel conflicts, India-Pakistan disputes, troubles in Yemen and ongoing migration and crisis in many parts of the world bring many significant lessons for the humanity to learn to build present and future safe.

History validates that unless the lessons of history are learnt by humanity and benefited from them in carving out a safe present and future, history will repeat itself bringing in those unfortunate incidents. At the national level, in India’s freedom struggle, Mahatma Gandhi entered with firm faith in nonviolence, truth and non-cooperation as moral weapons against the colonial powers. He disagreed with those leaders who believed in extremism and fought violently. They failed to learn the lessons of history. Warring against the world’s most powerful army was not an easy, winning task. They continued violence against the world’s mightiest empire of the times. Gandhiji studied history and lessons of history meticulously. He learnt valuable lessons from his own life experiences in South Africa and India and learnt to improvise and innovate his strategy learning lessons from every incident in the past for improving and adapting his present and future strategy to fight for India’s freedom struggle till he succeeded.

 The axiom is useful in every sphere of human interface. In case of economic growth of a country, what the nations need to examine is the impact of government policies towards improving different sectors of Indian economy – agriculture, manufacturing and manning, construction, infrastructure, industrial development, service sector, finance, banking, capital market, and import-export and learn lessons from failure to change the outcome of the policies. Non-Performing-Asset crisis happened in India’s banking sector because of not learning the financial prudence lessons from the banking sector. India’s backwardness in health care, education system and management of sustainable development goals validates the need to learn the lessons from the past experience to make the present and future safe.

The Millennium Development Goals could not be achieved on the scheduled date. They had to be replaced by 17 Sustainable Development Goals in critical areas: the eradication of extreme poverty, hunger, lack of education, health and well-being. Gender equality is essential for the wellbeing of society. Management of water and sanitation facilities to households, providing energy, and boosting economic growth is critical. Creation of jobs, inclusive growth, infrastructure, industry and innovation can help in reducing inequalities and building sustainable cities. Creation of equitable societies is linked to environmental protection and industrial development. Lessons of history highlight the need for a renewed global partnership between governments, businesses, civil society and individuals. Unless problems of implementation of 169 targets are identified and addressed it will not be possible to achieve the envisage sustainable development goals by 2030 with the objective, ‘leave no one behind’. The Government of India is committed to the achievement of SDGs by 2030. India’s objective,

 “Sab ka Saath, sab ka Vikas” or “development with all, and for all,” for inclusive development converges with SDGs. NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s think tank mapped SDG schemes and highlighted need to adopt a government-wide approach to sustainable development showing linkages across economic, social and environmental concerns. State governments have a significant role to achieve SDG Agenda ‘putting people first’ and ensuring that ‘no one is left behind’. Many of India’s flagship programmes such as Swachh Bharat, Make in India, Skill India, and Digital India can be effectively implemented only when the lessons from their implementation issues are identified and properly addressed on time. The role of rural and urban local governments is equally important to achieve 15 of the 17 SDGs. The UN Country Team in India supports NITI Aayog’s efforts to address the SDG goals. Lessons of history must be learnt if the country has to succeed in achieving SDGs as planned. In any field and any discipline, at individual, societal, national and global levels, lessons of history provide valuable lessons to be learnt. Individual, who fails to learn from life’s failures and success, cannot ensure a secure and safe present and future. Failures of life must be analyzed to learn the lessons to succeed in the ensuing attempts. Success in life also throws lights on how success could be achieved providing inputs for transforming success in the different gamut of human activities.