Intellectuals Pull ourselves

Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell were two great intellectuals of the present century. Shaw, to quote A,C. Ward, “behaved consciously as a mountebank employing the weapons of laughter and ridicule to attack bad housing, bad education, bad conditions of labor, bad morals and other social evils.” Russell had to suffer a lot for his pacifist views. He was called a trailer by his compatriots. All the same, he remained’ as a conscientious objector. He was a great humanitarian who used all his erudition to bring home to the people the terrible destructiveness of a nuclear war and the necessity of scientific temper.

Iqbal  was the Chief exponent of the early phase of the 20th century. He awakened the Muslims from the deep slumber and gave new meanings to Muslim nationalism.

Intellectuals have helped us greatly to pull ourselves out of the rut of conventions, customs and superstitious beliefs and other evils that impeded human progress. Mankind would have been poorer indeed had not they lighted their torches of wisdom, rationality and human goodness.