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Democracy and India

Angelo

Indian constitutional architect Dr Ambedkar argues that there are three important things we have to do to maintain democracy. We must hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic objectives; the individuals liberty, at all cost, should be maintained; and Dr Ambedkar argues for a social democracy, for, he believes mere political democracy will decay. Let us analyse these deep and sound arguments of Ambedkar in the 21st century context.

If we have to hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving social and political objectives, both the Government machinery and the people have to be responsible and matured. Both the Government and people should learn to be objective and not subjective in their outlook on any issue. Invariably, the Governments in the 20th century ( at least in the last three decades) had been interested only in the survival of their own parties or vote banks. Generally, the ignorant people had to decide between the devil and deep sea. Moreover, all the political parties usually cheat the people. No politician or political party had been responsible towards their citizens in this strange country. No Government office can be help responsible for any of their malpractices or inefficiencies.

The people are harassed by almost every Government office irrespective of health, education and justice. To get an ordinary signature, an ordinary citizen will be driven from pillar to the post despite giving money from office assistants to the officers in position. Ironically, the officer is paid by the citizens. (Ideally, we must hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving social or economic objectives.) It is very difficult to find a responsible officer in Government machinery. It is more difficult to find a responsible minister in any political party.

Dr Ambedkar is at once against non-violent methods of revolution and satyagraha. The question is what can an ordinary citizen of India do in the prevailing situation? An Indian is at an absolutely helpless situation. He is a victim of a democracy, which has become irrelevant to a common man except for his voting rights. This is only one side of the coin.

A Government servant has not understood his responsibility as a citizen of a country. He believes, he is responsible only to his family and not to a society at large. Most of the unions in this country are more powerful than the Government itself. Most of the unions are made up of educated fools.

The unions are not interested in the welfare of the nation. They become a refuge to the individuals who are lazy, irresponsible, corrupt and inefficient. Moreover, the unions are interested in more money and perks but less accountable either to the institution or to the public.

For example a college lecturer works hardly three hours a day. Hardly 10 per cent of the teaching community can be seen in any libraries today. But, they demand the maximum salary in the countrys cross-section of the Government sector. Any retires professor will agree with me that 90 per cent of college lecturers do not deserve the salary they get. The Government is unable to make a teacher correct his student’s university exam paper without payment. A teacher demands exorbitant amount for a clumsy piece of correction work. After all they are paid their salary for the holidays they enjoy. Logically, they are responsible for the correction work. Ever for examination supervision, they are paid a token amount which is again should be a part of their workload. The unions demand more and more for correction and supervision. Are the unions accountable for a job well done? (or) Are they right in their demands?

Every other trade union is as irresponsible as the college unions. Every union that goes on a strike forces the Government to pay its salary for the strike period. The Government becomes helpless in the hands of the powerful but irresponsible unions.

India has a democracy where neither the Government nor the people are responsible towards its country. The question is, do we have a solution to this irrelevant, non-existing democracy? A revolution is on the cards. It may not necessarily be in the Gandhian way.

Individual is a major concern in a democracy. Thorean argues in one of his essays, an individual should be able to question the Government, if it is on the wrong path. The individual should be willing to go to jail, if needed to correct the Government policies. In India, an individual’s life is not guaranteed even in jail. An individual is dwindled into helpless victim of a non-existent democracy.

The gratefulness of an individual at the cost of his liberty is dangerous, warns Ambedkar. He says, No woman can be grateful at the cost of her chastity and no nation can be grateful at the cost of its liberty. The sacrifice of an individual’s liberty is a sure road to dictatorship. The path to devotion or hero-worship plays an unparallel part in Indian politics. This again is a dangerous sign. Gandhi preferred an individuals liberty than the nations. This nation does not care for a human life. Mother Teresa’s life was dedicated to the life of the neglected individuals in this poverty stricken country. In the novel The City of Joy by the French authors, we see thousands of helpless individuals in an unlivable slum meanders through life’s journey. A polish catholic father had done more to the slum dwellers than the millions of Indians and the so-called democratic Government in West Bengal. Is there hope to the millions of Indian individuals? Hermingway says in The Old Man and the Sea, Not to hope is a sin, and every day is a new day.

Mother Teresa quoted a touching real-life incident in one of her interviews. A mother got one meal for her hungry-crying child. Then the mother heard the neighbours child crying. She divided the food into two equal portions and shared the little food she had with her neighbour. What a gesture? if only every individual understands the meaning of a neighbour from this incident, and learns to share with care and love what he has, this country has hope in spite of this democratic set-up. Truly, this country has more hope in an uneducated, rustic, helpless individual than the educated, healthy individual.

Ambedkar too argues for a social democracy. So, he accepts the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity as the base for the social democracy. We have elaborately discussed the liberty of an individual. Equality, in a pragmatic sense, is possible only in a time frame. Young or old, rich or poor, healthy or sick, educated or uneducated, everybody is given by nature 24 hours a day, 30 days in a month and 365 days in a year. This is the only equality other than birth and death a man can dream of in the realistic realm of life. Fraternity is very much practical, if a human being learns to treat another human being first as a human being. In the Indian context, we are in battered fragments in the name of gender, caste, creed, language and state. Forester, in the essay Tolerance argues that tolerance is a negative virtue but it is a very practical one. He also believes that tolerance is the need of the hour. If only the Hindu political organisations and the Muslim fundamentalist outfits learn to tolerate each other, this country has a hope to live in harmony. The other important factor, which this nation should wake-up to the hour of the need, is caste. The lower caste, upper caste divides and the general caste system may not wither away. But, if a human being learns to treat the other human being as human a human being, that is enough. This is practically a feasible solution in the battered psyche of the Indian context. Ambedkars idea of social democracy is definitely better than a mythical political democracy. Liberty, equality and fraternity form a trinity. We can divorce one from the other. They are inter-dependent.

Political democracy is a myth today. If India has to survive in a democratic set-up, then social democracy is the only way out. The hope to create new social order at present looks dim. NATURE has the power to create new societies irrespective of selfish Governments and selfish leaders. Let us firmly believe in the language of Hermingway, every century is a new century.