By Don Aguiar
Mumbai: Is this change becoming reality, as India celebrated 75 years of Independence this August 15? It is time to evaluate the progress of the Constitutional promises of a dignified life to the common man. The right to a dignified life without discrimination against any individual or community is a pledge we have given to ourselves at the beginning of our Republic, to be upheld at all times. Is this happening at present times?
We need to recognise that Independence comes with tremendous challenges and responsibilities. When we look at our democracy of the last 75 years, India is a story of unfulfilled potential, massive deviation from the Indian Constitution. The persecution against Christians and Muslims is not only horrific, but it is also systemic and carefully orchestrated.
An atmosphere of deep trauma, fear and anxiety pervades the Christian and Muslim communities as they have a sense of being excluded from power structures, with their lifestyle, food habits, cultural symbols becoming objects of suspicion. Caste too remains a fundamental reality, with the political assertion of the marginalised not translating into their economic empowerment. Even after 75 years of Independence parties still play caste politics and divide the country. There is no talk of development.
Our founding fathers wanted political freedom as well as freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship. They wanted justice and equality of status and opportunity. And they wanted us to be free of poverty. As we look back at the dream and vision of our founding fathers of the nation after 75 years, we see a massive deviation from the Indian Constitution, as a whole host of factors have begun to conspire with each other. For one it must also be acknowledged that government support for their dream Hindu Rashtra has been steadily increasing.
Which bring us to something that is become challenging. Something important (founding fathers dream and Vision) has shifted. Nationalism comes in many shades. There is a strident form of hyper nationalism that invents enemies and inflates imagined successes which can be deeply divisive, but there is also the purer more inclusive nationalism that we feel when India does keep to its Constitution.
The current governments closed mind-set of nationalism, is, after all, a biased self- perception. Instead of critically evaluating what we lack and what skills must be acquired vis-à-vis a certain opportunity, having a closed mind-set inspires inaction and by default, disqualify the nation from the race. It kills our nation’s ability to embrace risk, to trust its citizens and destroys possibilities of both good self-governance and professional achievement.
A nationalist’s agenda of government is giving rise to hard-right Hindu extremists and their dream to make India a Hindu Rashtra. The nationalist policies promote similar hard-line majoritarian policies. This kind of politics is not only prevalent in political discourse, but also translates to regressive laws such as seeking to punish Christians for ‘forced conversions’ or punish Muslims for ‘love jihad’. Even if a local reporter captures the real story, the final edit will be dictated by an institutional hierarchy which is either risk averse or loyal to powerful Hindutva organisations and parties.
The government Hindu Rashtra dream is being made reality by patronizing the practice of Democide to be the rule, as it is usually a slow-motion and messy process. Wild rumors and talk of conspiracies flourish. Street protests and outbreaks of uncontrolled violence happen. Fears of civil unrest spread. The armed forces grow agitated. Emergency rule is declared but things eventually come to the boil. As the government totters, the army moves from its barracks onto the streets to quell unrest and take control. Democracy is finally buried in a grave it slowly dug for itself.
Citizens’ ability to strike back, to deliver millions of mutinies against the rich and powerful, is in principle never to be underestimated in a democracy. But the brute fact is social indignity undermines citizens’ capacity to take an active interest in public affairs, and to check and humble and wallop the powerful. Citizens are forced to put up with state and corporate restrictions on basic public freedoms. They must get used to big money, surveillance, baton charges, preventive detentions, and police killings.
For when millions of citizens are daily victimized by social indignities, the powerful are granted a licence to rule arbitrarily. Millions of humiliated people become sitting targets. Some at the bottom and many in the middle and upper classes turn their backs on public affairs. They bellyache in unison against politicians and politics. But the disaffected do nothing. Complacency and cynical indifference breed voluntary servitude. Or the disgruntled begin to yearn for political redeemers and steel-fisted government. The powerless and the privileged join hands to wish for a messiah who promises to defend the poor, protect the rich, drive out the demons of corruption and disorder, and purify the soul of “the people”.
When this happens, demagoguery comes into season. Citizen disempowerment encourages boasting and bluster among powerful leaders who stop caring about the niceties of public integrity and power-sharing. They grow convinced they can turn lead into gold. But their hubris has costs. When democratically elected governments cease to be held accountable by a society weakened by poor health, low morale, and joblessness, demagogues are prone to blindness and ineptitude.
They make careless, foolish, and incompetent decisions that reinforce social inequities. They license big market and government players — oligarchs — to decide things. Those who exercise power in government ministries, corporations, and public/private projects aren’t subject to democratic rules of public accountability. Like weeds in an untended garden, corruption flourishes. Almost everybody must pay bribes to access basic public services. The powerful stop caring about the niceties of public integrity. Institutional democracy failure happens.
Finally, in the absence of redistributive public welfare policies that guarantee sufficient food, shelter, security, education, and health care to the downtrodden, democracy morphs into a mere facade. Elections still happen and there’s abundant talk of “the people”. But democracy begins to resemble a fancy mask worn by wealthy political predators.Self-government is killed.
Strong-armed rule by rich and powerful oligarchs in the name of “the people” follows. Cheer-led by lapdog media, phantom democracy becomes a reality. Society is subordinated to the state. People are expected to behave as loyal subjects, or else suffer the consequences. A thoroughly 21st century type of top-down rule called despotism triumphs. Might this be how democracy dies in India?