Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I Speaking Tree Website I Monday, January 27, 2014

Modern industry was a boon for mankind, but at the same time it created a problem. Those who were able to invest more money emerged as masters of the market, while moneyless people were dubbed as a deprived group. This situation in the economy created a new saying, that is, compete or perish.

An English thinker, Herbert Spencer (d. 1903), justified this phenomenon by a theory which he termed Social Darwinism. This theory, in his own words, means, "Society is like a living organism. Just as biological organisms evolve through natural selection, society evolves and increases in complexity through survival of the fittest, that is, the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life." Darwin applied this concept on the biological phenomenon and Spencer applied it on socio-economic phenomenon.

In science Darwinism is still a controversial theory. At present I have nothing to say about it. But I would like to say a few words about Social Darwinism. It is a fact that there is competition in socio-economic life. But this competition is not evil. It is good for every society. During the process of competition, a group may temporarily emerge as a privileged group, and the other group may seem to be underprivileged.

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However, this state of affairs proves to be positive in terms of result. According to natural law, a new spirit is bound to appear in the underprivileged group to overcome its present situation. This spirit may play a revolutionary role. If the underprivileged group was earlier an uncreative group, it will now emerge as a creative group under pressure of circumstances.

Keeping this in mind, one can safely say that 'compete or perish' is a wrong saying. In economy, victory and defeat come and go on an alternate basis.

Competition is not the phenomenon of capitalism, it is a phenomenon of nature. Nature always adopts the course of competition. Competition creates challenge, challenge results in motivation, and motivation leads to reaching new heights of success. In this sense, a better saying than 'compete or perish' is, 'compete and grow'.

So, by following the law of nature we can say that survival of both is the right formula, and not survival of the fittest.