It is common to regard the history of humanity mainly in terms of progress, particularly when longer-term comparisons are involved. However, if we are looking at real welfare of people, then there is no reason or evidence to believe in the inevitability of progress.

This is even more so if we consider the welfare of all forms of life, and not just of human beings. Instead of taking progress for granted over any long period, it makes much more sense to look in detail at the commitment to justice, equality, peace etc. at various points of time and then see if human welfare increased along with this. In fact, there is a remarkable continuity in terms of the safety, happiness and welfare of humanity as well as other forms of life increasing or decreasing across time periods and regions, depending on whether precepts of justice and equality, peace, protection of environment and all life forms (JEPP) are followed or not.

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Another way of stating this would be that when human relationships with each other, with nature and with other forms of life get rid of the menace of dominance and self-centeredness and are instead based on protection and cooperation, happiness, safety and welfare increase in our world. In other words, the key determinants of welfare and happiness in world are these three relationships – relationships of human beings with each other, with nature and with other forms of life.

To these we should a fourth one – relationship of the present generation of people with the next generation of people, other forms of life and nature. This too should be based on protection and understanding, not on self-centeredness and dominance. In various creative and interesting ways, the truly wise people the world have been sending this message to as many people as would listen to them at various times.

Despite this, many people have a different view which says what is most important is the acquisition of more knowledge and its application to increase the comforts and capacities of humanity. This results sometimes in very attractive achievements, and those who make the achievements possible also get a lot of benefit and fame. However, the fact remains that this accumulated higher knowledge and technologies based on this can also be used to destroy others and to harm nature, but this adverse side does not get adequate attention when attractive looking achievements are the main focus.

Hence there can be a widespread tendency to neglect the four key relationships, and to instead focus mainly on raising the capacity for producing and consuming more and more, endlessly adding to comforts and luxuries as well as accumulation of these with those who have the means for this. This is generally seen as ‘progress’ or ‘development’. Thus if we compare a forest community of 10,000 years back with a modern-day gated colony of a very ‘developed’ city, then many people would of course be very impressed by the ‘progress’ achieved.

This would be the case even if it was found that the people living in the forest 10,000 years back lived on the basis of high levels of equality, and took care not to harm the forest or its animals beyond meeting their very limited needs. Such positive aspects of forest communities of very ancient times would be brushed aside before the many attractive comforts the modern city offers. However, if people do not look merely at the consumption and comforts of most people living here but also inquire honestly whether these have been acquired by depriving others, or by imposing too great a burden on nature and other forms of life or on future generations, then many questions will arise regarding whether the modern city is a true indicator of progress.

If this inquiry is extended to whether in the midst of increasing consumption and comforts the people of the rich city have also achieved deeper happiness/contentment/ understanding or not, then a view may emerge to question progress in this context too. Hence without giving adequate attention to the crucial four relationships, or to basing human life on justice, equality, peace and protection of environment and other forms of life (JEPP), the journey of humanity cannot be called true progress.

The mistaken path pursued increasingly by humanity has resulted in a situation in which most other forms of life have been increasingly wiped out or are threatened, where there is a very serious environmental crisis, and there is continuing poverty, deprivation, discord, conflict and war on a large scale. What we have seen for the most part is an illusion of progress rather than real progress. This is not to say that there have not been inspiring examples of real progress.

These exist to a lesser or greater extent in all societies. To give examples from India, the period of roughly around 6th century BC of the spread of Buddhist and Jain thought, the period of roughly 14th-16th centuries AD of spread of Bhakti-Sufi philosophy and the spread of the freedom movement in the first half of the 20th century are examples of real progress of humanity. Unfortunately, such examples are less frequent in human history which is characterized more often by illusionary progress.

This peaked during the last 500 years or so when in the middle of fast increasing human knowledge, technology advances were used by the most powerful forces of the world to unleash unprecedented destruction and cruelty on the world, its people, animals, birds and nature.

This phase characterized by colonialism, imperialism and neo-colonialism, which is still continuing, has now reached a stage where the lifenurturing conditions of the planet are threatened. Hence, while earlier there was hope that mistakes would be corrected in future, increasingly we are reaching a stage when time is running out and the fast drift towards serious threats to basic life-nurturing conditions of our once bountiful planet may spiral out of control. Hence largescale, well-coordinated, sustained efforts with continuity are needed today to reframe genuine progress based on justice and equality, peace and protection of environment and other forms of life (JEPP), as well as improvement of four crucial relationships.

(The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include ‘Planet in Peril’, ‘Protecting Earth for Children’ and ‘Man over MachineA Path to Peace’.)