Applicability of Newton’s laws to Nations & Societies.
Newtons’ three laws of motion hold good not only for all physical objects but are perhaps applicable to every aspect of our lives including the social and political. And for a nation to be successful one needs to take a note of these laws, a little more seriously as these may have grave implications on the future of a nation.
Some political and social thinkers might find this funny but when these laws are examined deeply their applicability cannot be undermined. The destinies of civilization and societies can be explained with the help of these three laws.
- The First Law of Motion.Also called the law of inertia, it says:‘if a body is in the state of rest or in uniform motion, it will continue to remain likewise, provided it is acted upon by an external force’.
This implies: A body may remain in the same state till some external force is applied because of the inherent tendency of Inertia.There is no distinction between rest and uniform motion in a straight line. It is difficult to change the state of rest or uniform motion of a body of heavier mass and vice-versa.An internal force cannot change its state. (Refer to the paragraph below for the definition of External and Internal Force).
Examples.
a) You apply force if you want to move your study table from one side of the room to another side. And it takes more force to move a heavy table than a lighter one because of factors like mass, friction and inertia. It would similarly require a colossal force to make a huge table move and to STOP its motion.
b) When a bus starts moving suddenly, the head of the passenger sitting in the bus strikes the back of his seat. This can be explained on the basis of the first law of motion.
Applicability to Society.
This law can explain how great civilizations and nations continued their journey of progress and how they perished. A Society remains in the same state of uniform motion or rest or stagnation till such time an external force is not applied.There is always a tendency to remain in uniform motion or of rest, both states signifying stagnation, till an external force is applied. Refer to paragraph below for external force.
Self-opinionated societies stagnate and start decaying because they tend to remain in inertia in the absence of any external force as they stop learning and upgrading themselves as they rely only on Internal force. But societies are not lifeless objects and so when it stagnates, invariably external forces come and push them. Internal force cannot drive a society to progress and development, because these are status quoists ; YAHAN TO AISA HI HOTA HAI, HAZAARON VARSH KI PARAMPARA HAI.
Nehruji while analysing the reasons for India’s political decline and cultural stagnation writes in Discovery of India: “A small country might easily be overwhelmed by superior power, but a huge, well developed and highly civilized country like India can not succumb to external attack unless there is some internal decay which was clearly evident in India”. He further emphasised that Shankracharya was the last greatest philosopher(800AD) and Bhaskara II (12thcentury) was the last great Mathematician that this land produced. The Vedic Civilisation had lost its vigour and the political decline and cultural stagnation was quite visible by 8th century. The process, however, was a slow one and lasted several centuries.
Likewise, Alberuni, a noted historian who came to India with Mahmud Ghazni rightly described the attitude of the Indians at the time. He wrote, “They are haughty, foolishly vain, self contained and stolid, and they believe that there is no country like theirs, no king like theirs and no science like theirs”.
This was the cause of having lost our Political Freedom in medieval times.
This is exactly what happened to the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization and other great civilizations. They could not overcome the inherent Inertia and hence disappeared.
Babur, while describing the native Indians, mentioned that there was no lack of skilled workers and artisans but there was no ingenuity or skill in mechanical invention. Babur surprised the Indians with his artillery. Once again there were many changes in India that brought freshness and life to art and architecture and other cultural patterns. Thus, came forth some of the world’s most beautiful monuments and gardens such as Red Fort, Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri and Qutub Minar.
After few hundred years, once again because of Inertia, the society started stagnating and so the British came in. Nehruji writes ; It seems clear that India became a prey to foreign conquest because of the inadequacy of her own people. The contrast between the leaders on both sides is marked.The Indians for all their ability, functioned in a narrow, limited sphere of thought and action, unaware of what was happening elsewhere and therefore unable to adapt themselves to changing conditions. He further writes that the impact of Western culture on India was the impact of a dynamic society of a modern consciousness on a static society wedded to medieval habits of thought which, however sophisticated and advanced in its own way, could not progress because of its inherent limitations”.
The British introduced to us ; telephones, railways, judiciary system, and system of governance as it exists today with all its rules and regulations.
Thus over reliance on Internal Forces as a Driving force stagnate the society.
- The Second Law of Motion: The law states ‘the rate of change of momentum of a body is directly proportional to the external force applied to the body. Further, the momentum of the body happens to be in the direction where the force is exerted’.
It implies that when an external force is applied to a body it can change the magnitude of the momentum or its direction or both.
Examples. When we kick a ball we apply some force on it, and in a specific direction. The ball moves in that direction.
Applicability to Society.
This Law explains the reason as to how great civilizations and nations were born.To move a society ahead on a course of continuous development and progress there is a need for an unceasing and un ending external force which can continuously provide acceleration. When an external force is applied on the society, its direction and momentum changes. (Once again refer to para below for External Force)
For instance, the inventions of the 16th-17th century led to Industrial Revolution in the West and swept these nations way ahead of those societies who missed those inventions. However, it also took Germany to disastrous consequences when it relied on its historical past of Aryan/Racial supremacy.
Are we not witnessing the same sort of desire within Islamic societies world over or for that matter the rise of this narrow-minded interpretation of Hinduism? And consequently, we find such societies in turmoil today.
For instance, China’s progress in the last two decades relied on adoption of technology and innovation. Nonetheless, it is now turning inwards, invoking on past glories and that may prove to be disastrous.
- The Third Law of Motion: It is also known as the law of action and reaction. Simply put, ‘To every action there is equal and opposite reaction’.This implies that no matter what the action, there will always be an equal & opposite reaction.
Example. When an individual is swimming, she pushes the pool water backwards. In return, the water pushes the swimmer in a forward direction, which makes her proceed.
Applicability to Society.
To move forward you must push the water backward. This means that pushing internal forces of history/past glories backwards so that the society can move forward. If a society continues to live by its past Glories, texts, the society as the swimmer will retard or sink.
Cries of Go Back to Quran or Go Back to Vedas or Puranas or Go Back to Bible etc do not take us ahead as a Society .
This also implies that within a society there will always be a continuous tussle amongst various kind of Internal and Extrenal forces.If the External Forces are trying to push there will always be members IN THE Society who will be opposing it by Internal force and vice versa.
For instance when Mr Nehru was betting for more Engineering institutions, research facilities etc there were members who were opposing all these.
What is an External & Internal Force?
According to Newton's first law of motion, An external force is a force originating from outside an object rather than a force internal to an object.
For instance, the force of gravity that Earth exerts on the moon is an external force on the moon. However, the force of gravity that the inner core of the moon exerts on the outer crust of the moon is an internal force on the moon.
Internal forces within an object can't cause a change in that object's overall motion.
Implications for the society
The External Force can therefore be generated by two ways ;
One. Being Open, continuous learning from other societies, other Nations, upgrading itself, rejuvenating itself, improving itself, technological development, spiritual development, art, and cultural development and offcourse that leads to economic development.
Two. If a Society shuts itself up and becomes self opinionated, it stagnates due to Inertia and then the External force comes in the form of an Invasion which provides that acceleration and momentum and once again rejuvenates the society.
Whereas, Internal Force is an outcome of Body’s Mass and in case of a society it comes from its past traditions, customs, its old Religious scriptures, and so on. So the Mass of the Body may give it the strength but it also creates More Inertia. More the Internal Force, more will be the Inertia and More will be the tendency to stagnate and decay.
To conclude, Nations and Societies do not exist in isolation. There is a lot of interaction amongst its members within and outside and so there is a lot to give and take amongst the societies as well as nations.
The development in science and technology, social, art and culture is an outcome of those interactions. When a society or a nation becomes self-opinionated and turn inwards the force so generated is an internal force, which by itself can not drive a society.
However, an open society which is willing to learn from other societies, its members interact with other members and learn and emulate them, generate External force which brings innovation, inventions, and progress in all aspects of the life: social, political, economic, art and culture.
And if it does not do so , the External Force then comes in the form of INVASIONS by foreign powers.
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Author. Col N Bhatnagar is an alumnus of NDA, Prestigious Def Services Staff College and XLRI. He served in Indian army as an Infantry Officer in all parts of the country and also in Srilanka and has also worked with Reputed Companies - Power, Hospitality and Health Care sector . He has also worked as a National Assesssor of CII for its CII-EXIM Bank Award and HR Excellence award. He has also authored Three Books.
Disclaimer. The views expressed are of Author.