Class 12 English Guide Humility (नम्रता ) By:-Yuval Noah Harari Summary Exercise Question Answer With Solution

 Class 12 English Guide

4.Humility (नम्रता )               By:-Yuval Noah Harari  

The essay Humility is written by a renowned essayist of Jerusalem, Yuval Noah Harari. In this essay, he exemplifies the virtue of humility in that he debunks humanity’s illusions of superiority and mastery. He claims morality, art, spirituality and creativity are universal human abilities embedded in our DNA. 

In this essay, the essayist exemplifies the virtue of humility, which can be defined as “a recognition of the real limits of our techno-social knowledge and ability”, in that he debunks humanity’s illusions of superiority and mastery. Harari tells us that humility is a quality that most cultures lack. Most people tend to believe that they are the centre of the world and their culture is the linchpin of human history. 

Greeks believe that history began with Homer, Sophocles and Plato and that all-important ideas and inventions were born in Athens, Sparta, Alexandria or Constantinople. There are Indians that believe that the invention of aeroplanes and nuclear bombs were invented by ancient sages in the Indian subcontinent long before Confucius or Plato, not to mention Einstein and the Wright brothers. 

              The Jews believe that monotheism should be credited to them and that they are a significant group in the world – the top three religions. But there are only 15 million Jews and there is no reason to think that they should be considered more important than the Hindu religion that has far more followers. Each group believes itself to be the centre of the universe and the inventor of the most important philosophies and contributions. 

But no group is truly unique – some form of their philosophy and beliefs has existed before them. The religions that survived are those that were the most violent – they managed to convert the largest number of populations to their belief. For example, the Biblical phrase that Jews take credit for “love thy neighbour as thyself” has appeared before in China. Similarly, monotheism can be traced back to Egypt and is not originally Jewish. Monotheism has contributed to catastrophise in the world and one should not be proud of having invented it. Christianity a few centuries after its inception banned all religions except for the Jewish religion although many Jews were still persecuted, while Islam today considers all history prior to Mohammed to be irrelevant. 

The Chinese nationalists believe that many great ideas originated in their culture. The Jews believe that they are the chosen people and that the gentiles are not equal to them in importance according to God. While some sages have called for religious tolerance, the prevailing trend throughout history has always been to persecute those who have different beliefs. And this is ironically the same self-centeredness that most religions have warned against.                                           

  Answer these questions: -

a. Describe the claim of the Chinese nationalists about human society. 

Answer: Chinese nationalists claim that history really began with the Yellow Emperor and the Xia and Shang dynasties and that whatever Westerners, Muslims or Indians achieved is but a pale copy of original Chinese breakthroughs.  

b. What do pious Muslims believe about human society? 

Answer: Pious Muslims believe that all history prior to the Prophet Muhammad is largely irrelevant, and they consider all history after the revelation of the Quran to revolve around the Muslim ummah. 

c. What did the Aztecs firmly believe about the universe? 

Answer: The Aztecs firmly believed that without the sacrifices they performed each year, the sun would not rise and the entire universe would disintegrate. 

d. What, according to the essay are the universal human abilities? 

Answer: According to the essay, morality, art, spirituality, and creativity are universal human abilities. 

e. How are the basic yoga postures derived from the shape of letters of Hebrew alphabet? 

Answer: All the basic postures of Yoga are derived from the shape of letters of Hebrew alphabet. The Trikonasanna posture imitates the shape of Hebrew letter ‘aleph’, Tuladandasana imitates the letter ‘daled’ etc.