What Does India Need to Become Liberal Democracy? Not Anything Less Than Social Revolution
If you are reading this I presume you agree with me that today we don’t have liberal democracy in our country. If you disagree with me but still reading, it means you believe in dissent and you must be one of a kind
Last week I came across this article on scroll.in by Rajgopal Saikumar, the article was ‘Why India has lost the right to call itself a liberal democracy ‘ In this, he argued by discussing recent developments in Kashmir and Assam. He also discussed rising majoritarianism in our country. The title of this article was really provoking and made me sit and think about it.
To begin with, the obvious question rises here, did we ever had liberal democracy in our country? I am not the right person to answer that. Our democracy and society always had problems like religious extremism, illiteracy, superstition, socio-economic inequalities, poverty, toxic patriarchy, casteism. We even survived the national emergency. After so many years, we survived as the nation and we are still a democracy (I can say this because we have popularly elected govt in the center and elections are still happening in the states).
The point I want to make here is, there is something fundamentally started to change in this country, the day Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Swayamsevak Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of this country in 2014.
Mr. Modi became the face for Hindu Nationalists and it all started since then. As expected, the first target was minorities of this country, especially Muslims. Instances of cow-related violence started, lynchings started in the daylight. Indiaspend website published a report on 28 th June 2017 that, 84% dead in cow related violence since 2010 are muslims. 97% attacks happened after 2014. Human Rights Watch released its report on 18 February 2019, cited, ‘between May 2015 and December 2018, at least 44 people-36 of them Muslims-were killed across 12 Indian states. Over that same period, around 280 people were injured in over 100 different incidents across 20 states’. It goes on saying, “ The attacks have been led by so-called cow protection groups, many claiming to be affiliated to militant Hindu groups that often have with ties to the BJP. Many Hindus consider cows to be sacred and these groups have mushroomed all over the country. Their victims are largely Muslim or from Dalit (formerly known as “untouchables”) and Adivasi (indigenous) communities “
The attacks on Dalits increased after BJP led govt came into power in the centre. India Today published an article citing NCRB data that says, 5 BJP ruled states have highest crime rates against Dalits. How can one forget about institutional murder of Rohith Vemulla, Una incident and planned attack in the Bhima Koregaon on the Ambedkarites, the list goes on.
The fourth pillar of Democracy, ‘Media’ collapsed long ago. News channels are now nothing but the propaganda spreading machines of the state. It helped this regime to create an atmosphere of fear in the minds of all those who do not subscribe to the upper caste, the upper-class idea of the ‘ Hindu Rashtra ‘.
Showing the middle finger to the scientific temperament is the new cool these days. Whether you are cabinet minister or a chairman of the ISRO, doesn’t matter, everyone can contribute in the stupidity.
Today, we have no/weak opposition in the parliament, on the streets. Rising and mainstreaming of the fake/propaganda news. Lynchings of the vulnerable in the daylight because of rumors or one’s religion. Demonetization scam and the degrading state of the economy. Decimating the key constitutional institutions. Curbing dissent by slapping fallacious draconian charges to put activists, intellectuals in the jail or silencing them by the bullet. All the wrong things happening that supposedly should not happen in the liberal democracy.
As the BJP got the huge majority in this general elections again, I presume things will get even worse, sadly. Some recent developments are horrifying, NRC in Assam, making more than 19 lakh people stateless overnight and human rights violations in Kashmir. Appeasement for Maratha Community by giving 16% reservation in Maharashtra and 10% reservations for the (economically weaken) savarnas by passing the bill in 2 hours in the parliament was simply unconstitutional. Is this normal in ‘liberal democracy’?
We are not on the right track, we are lost. Everyday we are going away from the idea of what the constitution of India stands for. So, is there any hope? Is there anything that is assuring us that we as a nation will walk on the path that will lead to the Bhagat Singh’s ‘Dreamland’? The Dreamland where we will achieve what the preamble of our constitution says. Is there any way forward?
Well, the architect of our constitution Dr Ambedkar can help us to find the right way. In his book, ‘Annihilation of caste’ where he is discussing the defeat of social reform party in the Congress. In which he says, there is a need for social revolution prior to any political revolution. He says “..one can say that generally speaking, History bears out the proposition that political revolutions have always been preceded by social and religious revolutions. The religious Reformation started by Luther was the precursor of the political emancipation of the European people. In England, Puritanism led to the establishment of political liberty. Puritanism founded the new world. It was Puritanism that won the war of American Independence, and Puritanism was a religious movement.” He goes on adding, “ The same is true of the Muslim Empire. Before the Arabs became a political power, they had undergone a thorough religious revolution started by the Prophet Mohammad. Even Indian History supports the same conclusion. The political revolution led by Chandragupta was preceded by the religious and social revolution of Buddha. The political revolution led by Shivaji was preceded by the religious and social reform brought about by the saints of Maharashtra. The political revolution of the Sikhs was preceded by the religious and social revolution led by Guru Nanak. It is unnecessary to add more illustrations. These will suffice to show that the emancipation of the mind and the soul is a necessary preliminary for the political expansion of the people.” ( click here to find the complete releted excerpt from the book)
As far as I understand, if you want to take this fascist communal regime down and establish a liberal democracy in our country, we need SOCIAL REVOLUTION first. There is no easy way out. And I mean the revolution is by the definition of it given by the revolutionist Bhagat Singh “ We must make it clear that revolution does not merely mean an upheaval or a sanguinary strife. Revolution necessarily implies a programme of systematic reconstruction of society on a new and better basis, after the complete destruction of the existing state of affairs” (here I mean, existing social hierarchy) from the book Inquilab, page 65, editor- S Irfan Habib.
I expect the annihilation of caste and caste system from this revolution. I expect a job for every hand, education and healthcare for everyone. I expect healthy space for dissent. The country where Santoshi will not die because of starvation, crying ‘bhat..bhat..’, where a proud transgender girl would wear a saree whenever she wants, without getting bullied in the society. No lynchings and no Prime Minister will ever wash the feet of the sanitation workers as a token, because there will be no manual scavenging. Kashmiris will be free in true sense. Where everyone could say ‘we have motherland’.
History tells us that Revolution is always sparked by the downtrodden. Those who are marginalized, forced to live in ghettos, denied what was rightfully theirs, that day the oppressed will rise and strike down this existing social hierarchical system. Let us walk on the right path. Let us stand with the Indian constitution to think and work for this social revolution. I want to see that dawn.
Author — Prashant
Originally published at https://velivada.com on September 27, 2019.
