In the opinion of M.N. Roy: “Humanism is cosmopolitan. It does not run after Utopian internationalism, which presupposes the existence of autonomous national states.
A cosmopolitan commonwealth of free men and women is a possibility. It will be a spiritual community, not limited by the boundaries of national states-capitalist, fascist, communist or any other ism, which will gradually disappear under the impact of cosmopolitan humanism.”
The universe is just like a joint family. Peace and tranquility depend on a well-knit socio-economic structure. The molding of the socio-economic structure depends on the ideological outlook. First we should have a constructive ideal. The ideal should not only be a culminating point but it should be a starting point also.
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To materialize the concept of universalism a world government is necessary. This world government should be a confederation of all the federated states of the world. These federated states will consist of self-sufficient economic units or zones formed entirely on socio-economic and geographical considerations. Economically developed areas have a tendency to exploit economically undeveloped areas and hence federated states should be formed of different units.
If we take a concrete example inside India, Vidarbha, being a Marathi-speaking area, does not want to remain a part of Maharashtra and wants to become a separate state. Another important example is Azarbaizan. The Persian portion of Azarbaizan agitated to merge with the Soviet portion of Azarbaizan to ensure economic development. The different units or zones formed in this way may be redefined and rename for administrative convenience. These units may have certain common factors and these common factors will unite them into federations.
In the initial stage, the world government will be a law-making body and the different federations will have executive powers to implement the laws passed by the world government. The federations may or may not fully materialize the laws of the confederation but they must not go against them.
The confederation will, however, have some executive power for limited and defined purposes, namely, for maintaining inter-federal peace and tranquility and for settling intra/inter-planetary disputes. This will mean the maintenance of a world militia under the full control of the confederation.
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The federation and the units will also maintain a police force to ensure internal law and order. The economic units or zones will have parliamentary boards to govern and dictate politically. These boards will form one higher board, which will be called federated boards. These federated boards will govern the different federations. The collection of these federated boards is called the confederated board or body. This body will look after the confederation as a whole, but will not ignore the interests of any federation.
Neo-humanism expands the humanistic love for all fellow human beings to include all of creation – plants, animals and even inanimate objects. Neo-humanism provides a philosophical basis for building a new era of ecological balance and human kinship.
One of the important factors in the development of any society is a proper social outlook. In the past, entire civilizations have weakened and crumbled simply because one class or group in the society considered another to be inferior and treated them as slaves.
Today one of the greatest weaknesses of contemporary civilization is that there is no proper regard and mutual love amongst humans. Race is pitted against race, religion against religion, linguistic group against linguistic group. The divisions in human society are endless and are sapping the vital life out of our civilization.
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Not only is there a lack of mutual respect among people, but humans have lost all esteem, appreciation and responsibility towards the animals and plants who share this plant with us. Our wanton destruction of the plant and animal life and our unthinking pollution of the air, earth, sea and space threaten to permanently damage the earth’s eco-system making it inhospitable for all forms of life.
In his earliest writings on this subject, P.R. Sarkar said that humans must think of themselves as part of one great family comprising all of humanity, rather than identifying with a particular race, religion, nationality or linguistic group. This type of social outlook he termed “universalism”. In 1982 he further elaborated on the method of attaining universalism in a series of discourses published in a book Liberation of Intellect: Neo-Humanism. In that book he noted that traditional humanism has not been capable of elevating humanity to the height of universalism and presented a reformulated humanism based on spirituality, and called it ‘Neo Humanism’.
Neo-Humanism is derived from an understanding of the fundamental nature (Dharma) of human beings. Human life has three aspects: physical, mental and spiritual. Regarding the physical aspect, the science of biology has already said much about the workings of the human body. However, the psycho- spiritual needs or humans have not been, up to now fully understood despite the efforts of psychologists and spiritual seekers.
The higher possibilities of human nature demand that the mind be free to expand and to flow towards the Supreme Consciousness (God). When this happens, a human being develops love (devotion) for the Supreme Consciousness and love for all other beings. This love for the Supreme Consciousness should be considered to be the most valuable treasure of humanity. Without it life becomes dry and meaningless.
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Today, however, humanity does not have a proper philosophy of life and so the society which we have constructed is not in harmony with the inner longings of the human heart. Materialism pervades all parts of present day life and materialism is crushing the devotional sentiment in humans. As a result of this imbalance between the inner needs and outer realities we find much misery, depression and mental illness in society today.
The solution to this rectifying this imbalance is a philosophy which harmonizes the inner needs of humanity with the outer demands of the material world. In order to implement such a way of life we must know the ways in which the spiritual treasure (devotion) of humanity is threatened. There are three human sentiments which impede the expansion of the mind towards universalism.
When one is obsessed with one’s geographical land, this is called geo-sentiment. In the past, and even today, many people were concerned only with their own land or own country. Out of this love of their land they evolved other sub-sentiments such as geo-patriotism, geo-politics, and geo-religion and geo- economics.
Using geo-patriotism to stir the masses, politicians have goaded them into fighting many bloody wars. The colonialism of the past and the neo-colonialism of today is nothing but a form of geo- economics (“Let us develop our own country even if it creates misery and poverty in satellite states” is the slogan behind geo-economics).
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Another sentiment which has harmed humanity is called socio-sentiment. Here people focus their attention on the particular social group to which they belong. It may be a national, linguistic, social or religious group. Although this sentiment is sometimes more expansive than geo-sentiment (if the particular social group happens to be very large), still it creates a group consciousness which comes into conflict with the sentiment of other groups. The religious wars of the past and even of the present were and are caused by this socio-sentiment.
Finally, the expansion of the human mind is blocked by another seemingly “good” sentiment that is, “humanism”. Love and respect for other human beings or “humanism” should be a noble sentiment uniting humanity and elevating the minds of everyone. However, ordinary humanism has some serious shortcomings. First of all, such humanism does not extend to plants and animals.
People talk of “human rights” but continue to deny the rights of plants and animals to exist. Another defect of humanism is that, bereft of a strong spiritual background it often degenerates into pseudo-humanism. For example, many so-called developed nations give “foreign aid” to less developed countries in the name of humanism, but behind the scenes the multinational corporations of these same nations are extracting all the wealth out of the less developed nations, creating extensive misery for people and massive ecological destruction in their reckless pursuit of profits.