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Challenges
to Democracy:
6th lecture in the series on Oct.26, 2007
By Sri. Vaisakhan
Sociologist,
Writer of fictions and
short stories, Social activist…
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"A
citizen is the one who abides to the democratic principles and
the rule of law of the land and who devotes himself/herself for
the security and well being of the fellow citizens. In a market
oriented society, the citizens are reduced to sheer
consumerists."
- Sri. Vaisakhan |
I wish to approach the topic from a lay
man’s perspective. I would submit that the number of citizens in
India is alarmingly
falling short, despite the escalating population. A citizen is the
one who abides to the democratic principles and the rule of law of
the land and who devotes himself/herself for the security and well
being of the fellow citizens. In a market oriented society, the
citizens are reduced to sheer consumerists. The market fills the
minds of the poor with dreams of the affluent. This splits the
citizen into a non entity. In short, the net result of the market is
the ‘disposable people’ created by its passionate, consumer friendly
advertisements. It was the name given to the people who had no
creative energy. Hitler used to torture people until they were
drained off their physical energy; then they were asked to dig their
own tomb. Once the tombs were ready, they were physically thrown
into those tombs and were buried. It was in this sense, Capitalism
was once defined as “Fascism with glouses”.
This chaotic situation is best exploited by the capitalistic,
communal and fascist forces for their advantage. What emerges is the
unholy alliance between the market, political and religious mafia.
Religions that should be confined within the portals of
spirituality, make inroads to accumulation of wealth, political
power, management of corporate markets and institutional
triumphalism, tensions are created in society. Well, it is profit
oriented business, and hence often remains opposed to spiritual or
ethical values. Amassment of wealth, in what ever name or form, can
not be the object of religions; they are sheer political
interventions only.
The greatest threat and challenge to democracy is the religio-political
nexus. Because, religions apparently do not believe in democracy,
they are often opposed to democratic structures and statutes. And
when such religions start controlling the political process and
civil governance of the land, invariably it becomes an inherent
threat to the democratic system and texture of the society. It was
self imposed danger and catastrophe in Indian democracy that a
political party was approved and was given sanction by the Election
Commission of India bearing a community’s name, the ‘Indian Muslim
League’.
Religions promote intellectual servitude. They do not
tolerate or approve the right to hold independent thinking,
independent opinions or the right to dissent. And these are the
foundations of any democratic move. Therefore, it is disastrous to
permit or allow religions to get involved in public arena, in
political activities.
There are no
democratic values in our family system. Hence there is no reason to
expect the children begotten from such conjugal relations and
brought up in such family surroundings to be rooted in democracy. By
bribing gods for personal satisfaction, we have legitimized bribery
and got it institutionalized. When beliefs got in, reason went out.
The tendency to punish the righteous and to reward the errant has
become the order of the day and it is detrimental to democracy. What
is opposed to democracy should be held the severest form of social
sin and blasphemy. |
