Novelty in Creativity

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan 

It is the self regulated mechanism of freedom that really leads a society to creativity. Creativity in its ideal form must be novel and noble. By novelty, it means rejuvenation of oneself - that is the most important feature of novelty. Novelty invariably rejuvenates a person to new dimensions and it also leads one to new horizons. It is in this sense that a creative activity becomes the best form of expression that makes every society healthy and wealthy. If a society is not wealthy, it simply means that such a society doesn’t utilize its’ resources in a creative manner. Rejuvenation intends to make use of whatever one has with him/her in tune with the contextual demands and never anything from external sources. Rejuvenation for a person is not through extraction of any sort of energy from external agencies, but that person or the body of that person due to its metabolic mechanism makes use of whatever it has in a more organized manner, to make the body more strong in that context. It is what is called the adaptability of the body mechanism. When novelty rejuvenates oneself, then he/she must be able to produce the best from them. 

There is rejuvenation of economy and health. The best of a nation or of a person can be made only through the process of rejuvenation. In that process, an individual, society or a state makes use of its economic energy in a convergent manner to make it more and more useful. To make a nation wealthy, it is not proper to invade other nations or rob off other’s wealth. Instead, they have to depend upon whatever they have with them. This is how creativity is made novel and noble. The very idea of invasion and exploitation of others is not at all creative because such an idea never makes a person free. A person who is engaged in any sort of exploitation will naturally be living in a world of slavery. It is in this sense that Mahatma Gandhi made it clear that the British people who were establishing colonies in Asia and Africa were not enjoying freedom. He knew that free people never exploit others, they always rejuvenate their own resources. This rejuvenation of one’s own resources must be the source of an economic force according to the Indian concept. Mahatma Gandhi who followed the Advaita system in socio-political life, insisted that Swaraj must be the dictum to govern the socio political and economic forces in India. It is the Swaraj that gives one freedom nobility and novelty; it is the Swaraj that makes one happier. This must be the dictum for everyone who is engaged in a creative activity. 

In literature, plagiarism has totally been treated as unethical. There is no creativity in imitation. Here, no one can enjoy freedom or happiness. A plagiarist cannot also utilize his own talents. This is applicable to the nation also. The case of a nation or a society which exists exploiting others might cease to be wealthy one fine morning. Same is the case with an artist, an industrialist, layman or a family man. While addressing a writer’s conference, Gandhiji made it clear that as an Indian one has to depend on India. The writers who are trying to follow the footsteps of the western authors will never be able to make their attempts a successful one. For ex. one cannot imitate Shakespeare and create an identical play in India. In the history of the literary movements in India, we are not tracing the history of all imitators but we are after the original writers who made exclusive use of local resources, the literary history of India begins with Vyasa and Kalidasa. So, originality depends on creativity and creativity means rejuvenating oneself and rejuvenating oneself means using one’s own resources in the given context. 

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