A new political system for India

Introduction

 

On the 15^th August 1947, India attained its independence from British rule and Sri Aurobindo was requested to give a message on that occasion. Here is an extract from the message:

 

I have been asked for a message on this great occasion, but I am perhaps hardly in a position to give one. All I can do is to make a personal declaration of the aims and ideals conceived in my childhood and youth and now watched in their beginning of fulfilment, because they are relevant to the freedom of India, since they are a part of what I believe to be India's future work, something in which she cannot but take a leading position. For I have always held and said that India was arising, not to serve her own material interests only, to achieve expansion, greatness, power and prosperity, - though these too she must not neglect, - and certainly not like others to acquire domination of other people, but to live also for God and the world as a helper and leader of the whole human race. (SABCL VOL 26 P401)

 

Sri Aurobindo worked actively in the political field for the freedom of India and for awakening her to her mission of leading the world towards spirituality. His political career was short – only four years from 1906 to 1910. But the Indian nation was always in his consciousness and he strove to raise it to its highest destiny. In the words of the Mother: “Sri Aurobindo always loved deeply his Motherland. But he wished her to be great, noble, pure and worthy of her big mission in the world. He refused to let her sink to the sordid and vulgar level of blind self-interests and ignorant prejudices”. (CWM VOL13  25 April 1954vol13)

 

Sri Aurobindo retired from active political life in 1910. But this did not mean, as it was then supposed, that he had retired into some height of spiritual experience devoid of any further interest in the world or in the fate of India. It could not mean that, for the very principle of his Yoga was not only to realise the Divine and attain to a complete spiritual consciousness, but also to take all life and all world activity into the scope of this spiritual consciousness and action and to base life on the Spirit and give it a spiritual meaning.

 

Consequently even in his retirement, Sri Aurobindo kept a close watch on all that was happening in the world and in India and actively intervened whenever necessary, but solely with a spiritual force and silent spiritual action.

 

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The Mother too kept a close watch on developments in India and openly intervened now and then; at other times she sent messages to Indian leaders or sent answers to disciples on questions relating to India.

 

In 1970, Mother made some observations. We are quoting some portions of those remarks:

 

What must be done to pull the country out of its difficulty? Sri Aurobindo has foreseen all the troubles and he has given the solution. Just now we are approaching his Centenary; it seems arranged, you know, divinely arranged, because this would be a wonderful occasion to spread his teaching all over the country: the teaching, the practical teaching, his teaching about India, how to organise India, the mission of India.

 

And it is only this that gives a clue to all these difficulties. About all that has happened and all that is happening now, he has said clearly that to go back to it is useless. We must give the country its true position, that is, the position of relying on the Divine. And this is above politics, you see. It is above all politics. It is to organise the country beyond politics. And it is the only way. In politics it is always fight and ugly fight—ugly.

 

And it has become so bad. He was telling me always that things would become worse and worse, because it is the end of this age. We are entering into an age where things must be organised differently. It is a difficult time because of that. Because we know what will come, we can help to make it come sooner and with less turmoil. There is no hope in going backwards; it would make things last endlessly. We must go forward, absolutely, and go beyond, beyond party. And nobody can explain that better than Sri Aurobindo, because he was so much, so much beyond party; he saw the advantages and disadvantages of all parties and he stated them exactly. If you read carefully what he has written—so much—you will find the answer to all these questions. And at the same time you will know that you will have the full support of the Divine Power. The Power that was behind him is behind this transformation. It is time for transformation. We can’t cling to the past.

 

The best way to go beyond politics is to spread the message of Sri Aurobindo. Because he is no more a political element wanting to take power; there are only his ideas and ideals. And, of course, if people could understand and realise his programme, the country could be very strong, very strong. Politics is always limited by party, by ideas, by duties also —unless we prepare a government that has no party, a government that admits all ideas because it is above parties. Party is limitation; it is like a box: you go into the box (Mother laughs). Of course, if there were

 

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some people who had the courage to be in the government without a party—“We represent no party! We represent India”—that would be magnificent. Pull the consciousness up, up, above party. And then, naturally, certain people who couldn’t come into political parties—that! that is truly working for tomorrow. Tomorrow it will be like that. All this turmoil is because the country must take the lead, must go above all these old political habits.

 

Government without party. Oh, it would be magnificent!

 

In the following articles, we are making an attempt to study some of the problems which India is facing today and suggest solutions in the light of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Mother.

 

The present state of India

 

It is 60 years since India attained its independence. It will be useful and instructive to do some stock taking and see what India has achieved in these six decades and then to see what more needs to be done.

 

Let us start with the positive elements.

 

Soon after attaining independence, India gave herself a constitution and became a democratic and socialistic Republic. India became formally a Republic on 26 January 1950 and has since been governed by its Constitution. This   was indeed a great achievement more particularly when one looks at some of the countries in our neighbourhood and even around the world. For it established a system of governance, a sound legal system and a fairly sound basis for a democratic socialistic society where elections were held regularly and the popular mandate was respected.

 

We may thus say that the democratic system has been fully established and accepted as an indispensable part of Indian political life; undoubtedly there are some serious shortcomings and these need to be corrected sooner or later. But the very fact that democracy has become an integral part of Indian political life is a positive and great gain. There are sometimes doubts cast on this system suggesting that a dictatorial system – often referred to as enlightened dictatorship - would have served India better. This proposition is doubtful although one can admit its necessity in certain exceptional circumstances. On the whole however, a democratic system is always more desirable. The justification for this can be found in the following statements of Sri Aurobindo.

 

Sri Aurobindo writes in the Human Cycle:

 

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Man needs freedom of thought and life and action in order that he may grow, otherwise he will remain fixed where he was, a stunted and static being. If his individual mind and reason are ill-developed, he may consent to grow, as does the infrarational mind, in the group-soul, in the herd, in the mass, with that subtle half-conscient general evolution common to all in the lower process of Nature. As he develops individual reason and will, he needs and society must give him room for an increasing play of individual freedom and variation, at least so far as that does not develop itself to the avoidable harm of others and of society as a whole.( CWSA-VOL 25 p211.)

 

Similarly in the first decade of the twentieth century, Sri Aurobindo wrote in the Bandemataram:

 

“Socialistic Democracy is the only true democracy for without it we cannot get the equalised and harmonised distributions of functions, each part of the community existing for the good of all and not struggling for its own separate interests, which will give humanity as a whole the necessary conditions in which it can turn its best energies to its higher development”.

 

Along with this democratic structure we have adopted, India has taken great strides in many other areas.

 

A strong industrial base has been developed.

 

Agriculture production has increased greatly and we have become more or less self sufficient in food production.

 

In the economic field there is great progress and India is being viewed as one of the super powers in the next few decades.

 

In the scientific and technological fields, India ranks among the leading powers whether it is in space research, bio-technology or information technology.

 

Even in education, we have made great strides with an educated population of over 150 million Indians.

 

India has become the third largest reservoir of skilled scientific and technical manpower, the fifth military power, the sixth member of the nuclear club, seventh in the race for space and the 10th industrial power.

 

Consequently, India’s voice is being heard today on the international plane with respect. That s a great gain and portends well for the future.

 

Despite all these positive factors, there are whole areas in which there is a lot to be disturbed about; consequently there is a great deal of despondency in the country. Many intelligent observers are wondering as to where we are going and sometimes the question is even asked

 

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whether India as a nation will remain united and survive. In this context, I am paraphrasing portions of an article written by Aparajita Mehta: She writes: “Numerous technological, scientific and other significant achievements have definitely taken place in our country. From automobiles, to satellites and to computers and the internet, the list is endless and deserves praise. But will computers alone, however sophisticated and all embracing, bring about the desired multisided revolution that is envisaged in the next decade or two? She moves on to point out some of the serious shortcomings in India today.

 

“With several antinational and secessionist trends gaining strength, India has in recent years, developed several fissures and fractures, some of them highly disconcerting in character. The hope of reversing these negative trends is vanishing and the prospects for the future seem disheartening. Must India break up into splinters and fragments?

 

There are more fractures in Indian society today, than bonds of unity; there are more splits and discords than wholesome fraternal bonds and accords. Communal wrangling continues to persist, despite all the tall talk of cohesion. Behind the dazzle and display of prosperity, lie the fears, miseries and deprivations of millions.

 

Since independence, much of our social structure has been torn by hatred, tensions and inter-caste rivalry; and this is not all! India's vast area, illiteracy and the massive burgeoning population is one big cause for alarm. Clashes over religion are prevalent. Corruption is reigning in every field of national activity. Sincerity, honesty and the true spirit of service, which can help check these negative trends, are not much in evidence. Politics at the state and national level, is fast losing it's motto of "patriotism and duty."

 

Today, the image of the political class in India is very poor; even the present Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Somnath Chatterjee, had this to say recently: “the images of "intrigue, venality, disorder and anarchy" held by people about politicians needed to be corrected urgently”.

 

Here is another extract from an article by M.R. Venkatesh.  He starts his article with a quote from Winston Churchill:

 

“Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw." Winston Churchill on the eve of Indian Independence.

 

Sometimes facts speak louder than comments. The following are some extracts from the Approach Paper to the 11^th Five-Year Plan, prepared and published by the Planning Commission last year.

 

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Coming from the highest echelons of the government, these remain an authentic and a grim reminder of what has gone wrong since Independence. Consider these dismal facts from this document of the Planning Commission:

• Official poverty stands at 28 per cent. Significantly, one has to appreciate that the current definition of poverty is hopelessly inadequate. It is defined on the premise of whether a person can afford to consume 2,400 calories of food in rural India or 2,100 calories of food in urban India per day. Naturally, this limited definition ignores the other bare minimum necessities required for a decent living. Obviously, if one were to consider a more realistically defined poverty line, based on the basic needs for a decent living, the number of poor in India could be far more than the officially stated figure of 30 crore (300 million).

   

• The abhorrent practice of manual scavenging continues even today.

   

• Quality of education and curative health services are beyond the reach of the common man and those provided by the private sector are costly and of variable quality.

   

• A major institutional challenge is that even where service providers exist, the quality of delivery is poor and those responsible for delivering the services cannot be held accountable.

• In the health and education systems, there is a large number of staff vacancies that have not been filled up due to resource constraints.

• The cost of displacements of our tribal population is high and the compensation tardy and inadequate.

• Corruption is now seen to be endemic in all spheres and this problem needs to be addressed urgently.

   

• The legal system in India is respected for its independence and fairness but it suffers from notorious delays in dispensing justice. Delays result in denial of justice.

   

• Literacy rate is still below 70 per cent.

   

• The most difficult task is to ensure good quality of instruction and the position in this respect is disturbing. A recent study found that 38 per cent of the children who have completed four years of schooling cannot read a small paragraph with short sentences meant to be read by a student of class 2. About 55 per cent of such children cannot divide a three-digit number by a one-digit number.

   

• Drop out rate in primary schools for the country as a whole was at a staggering 31 per cent in 2003-04.

 

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• While some of our institutions of higher education compare well with the best in the world, the average standard is much lower.

   

• India's infant mortality rates, under-five mortality rates, maternal mortality rates and immunisation rates are higher than that of Sri Lanka, China and Vietnam.

   

• The biggest constraint in achieving a faster growth of manufacturing is the fact that infrastructure -- roads, railways, ports, airports, communication and electricity -- is not up to the standards prevalent in our competitor countries.

   

• Indian roads are very accident-prone and claim a large number of lives representing an enormous human and economic loss.

   

• The Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP) initiated in 2001 was expected to bring down AT&C losses to 15 per cent by the end of the Tenth Plan. In fact, the average for all states is closer to 40 per cent.

• The net result is that today India languishes at the bottom half of the global Human Development Index (HDI) wedged between underdeveloped countries like Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe, and Solomon Islands. Even countries endowed with lesser amount of natural resources and lower calibre of human capital have performed better, perhaps even miraculously. This has been largely due to effective, responsive and effective governance. India definitely deserves better.”

I have quoted these extracts just to highlight the sense of despondency that is prevalent and widespread among many serious political thinkers in India.

 

In sum, the problems facing India are:

 

• A political system borrowed from the West which is hampering all progress and dividing the polity.

 

• Serious anti-national and secessionist trends

 

• A society deeply divided in the name of religion, caste and even gender

 

• Corruption at all levels and particularly at the higher political levels; India ranks high among the corrupt nations.

 

• An absence of national feeling leading to regionalism and parochialism where local interest becomes more important than the national interest.

 

• The enormous gap between the rich and the poor despite a vigorous economic growth.

 

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The dangers emanating from our neighbourhood, where most of the nations are facing serious tensions and seem to be heading towards being called “failed States”

 

• The shortcomings in the educational system both in quality and quantity and its failure to uplift the nation as a whole.

 

We shall now try to see where the root causes for this situation lie. For, it is only after finding out the causes that we can think of applying the remedy.

Viewed from the point of view of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the root of the problem is as follows:

 

• The first cause is the adoption of the present political system

 

• The second cause is the acceptance of the Partition of India as final and not merely as a temporary aberration and an accident of history.

 

There are undoubtedly other causes, but these two are the primary causes.

 

We shall start with the first problem, that is to say the political system.

 

The political system in India

 

The first and most pressing problem that the nation is facing today lies in the constitution and consequently the political system that we have adopted. In this article we shall try to analyse the political system and suggest some remedies, both short term and long term.

 

The political system that we have adopted in India is basically the modern version of Democratic Socialism; it has been developed first in the western nations more particularly in Great Britain and has been adopted with some variations in almost all the countries of the world. It should however be noted that democracy is not something new to India. History shows us that ancient India had a vigorous democratic system. Indeed there was a strong democratic element and even institutions that present a certain analogy to the parliamentary form; but in reality these features were of India’s own kind and not at all the same things as modern parliaments and modern democracy. It did not in any way resemble the scrambling and burdensome parliamentary organization of the party system and veiled oligarchy, which is what the modern period truly represents.

 

The one principle permanent in ancient   Indian polity was the principle of an organically self-determining communal life,—self-determining not only in the mass and by means of the machinery of the vote and a representative body erected on the surface, representative only of the political mind of a part of the nation, which is all that the modern system has been able to

 

 

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manage, but in every pulse of its life and in each separate member of its existence. A free synthetic communal order was its character, and the condition of liberty it aimed at was not so much an individual as a communal freedom.

 

 

 

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The application of these principles created the modern political system of individualistic democracy, whether of the Parliamentary or the Presidential form. It was believed that with the application of Reason to human life, we would eventually arrive at a harmonious and ideal society.

 

However, in its application to society there was a shortfall in the expected results. The reasons were firstly, that a large number of individuals in the society had not yet developed their rational faculties and secondly that even those who had developed them did not generally use them for the search of truth; rather, reason was used more to justify the satisfaction of their interests, desires and preferences.

 

The inevitable corrective to this situation was the introduction of universal education; for if man was not by nature a rational being, he would by education become one. However, even after the introduction of universal education, a new problem has revealed itself. In the words of Sri Aurobindo:  “But here a new and ennity,—and that does not the use and reward of his faculties and the enjoyment of his desires. In the old societies the possibility of these could be securehim to a certain extent according birth, his fixed status and the use of his capacity within the limits of his hereditary status. That basis once removed and no proper substitute provided, the same ends can only be secured by success in a scramble for the one power left, the power of wealth. Accordingly, instead of a harmoniously ordered society there has been developed a huge organised competitive system, a frantically rapid and one-sided development of industrialism and, under the garb of democracy, an increasing plutocratic tendency that shocks by its ostentatious grossness and the magnitudes of its gulfs and distances. These

 

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 have been the last results of the individualistic ideal and its democratic machinery, the initial bankruptcies of the rational age”.(CWSA VOL25 P199-200)

 

The Socialistic Principle

 

The natural corrective to this state of affairs was the introduction by Reason of the principle of Socialism. In the words of Sri Aurobindo, the aim and justification of Socialism is as follows: 

 

“Socialism sets out to replace a system of organised economic battle by an organised order and peace. This can no longer be done on the old lines, “an artificial or inherited inequality brought about by the denial of equal opportunity and justified by the affirmation of that injustice and its result as an eternal law of society and of Nature. That is a falsehood which the reason of man will no longer permit. Neither can it be done, it seems, on the basis of individual liberty; for that has broken down in the practice. Socialism therefore must do away with the democratic basis of individual liberty, even if it professes to respect it or to be marching towards a more rational freedom. It shifts at first the fundamental emphasis to other ideas and fruits of the democratic ideal, and it leads by this transference of stress to a radical change in the basic principle of a rational society. Equality, not a political only, but a perfect social equality, is to be the basis. There is to be equality of opportunity for all, but also equality of status for all, for without the last the first cannot be secured; even if it were established, it could not endure. This equality again is impossible if personal, or at least inherited right in property is to exist, and therefore socialism abolishes —except at best on a small scale—the right of personal property as it is now understood and makes war on the hereditary principle. Who then is to possess the property? It can only be the community as a whole. And who is to administer it? Again, the community as a whole. In order to justify this idea, the socialistic principle has practically to deny the existence of the individual or his right to exist except as a member of the society and for its sake”. He belongs entirely to the society, not only his property, but himself,

 

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his labour, his capacities, the education it gives him and its results, his mind, his knowledge, his individual life, his family life, the life of his children. Moreover, since his individual reason cannot be trusted to work out naturally a right and rational adjustment of his life with the life of others, it is for the reason of the whole community to arrange that too for him. Not the reasoning minds and wills of the individuals, but the collective reasoning mind and will of the community has to govern. It is this which will determine not only the principles and all the details of the economic and political order, but the whole life of the community and of the individual as a working, thinking, feeling cell of this life, the development of his capacities, his actions, the use of the knowledge he has acquired, the whole ordering of his vital, his ethical, his intelligent being. For so only can the collective reason and intelligent will of the race overcome the egoism of individualistic life and bring about a perfect principle and rational order of society in a harmonious world”.(CWSA VOL25 P 200-201)

 

But even at its best the collectivist idea contains several fallacies inconsistent with the real facts of human life and nature. The central defect through which a socialistic State is bound to be convicted of insufficiency and condemned to pass away before the growth of a new ideal, lies in the pressure of the State organisation on the life of the individual; in fact many political commentators complain that it has reached a point at which it is ceasing to be tolerable.

 

Again in the words of Sri Aurobindo: “If it continues to be what it is now, a government of the life of the individual by the comparatively few and not, as it pretends, by a common will and reason, if, that is to say, it becomes patently undemocratic or remains pseudo-democratic, then it will be this falsity through which anarchistic thought will attack its existence.

 

But the innermost difficulty would not disappear even if the socialistic State became really democratic, really the expression of the free reasoned will of the majority in agreement. Any true development of that kind would be difficult indeed and has the appearance of a chimera: for collectivism

 

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pretends to regulate life not only in its few fundamental principles and its main lines, as every organised society must tend to do, but in its details, it aims at a thoroughgoing scientific regulation, and an agreement of the free reasoned will of millions in all the lines and most of the details of life is a contradiction in terms. Whatever the perfection of the organised State, the suppression or oppression of individual freedom by the will of the majority or of a minority would still be there as a cardinal defect vitiating its very principle. And there would be something infinitely worse. For a thoroughgoing scientific regulation of life can only be brought about by a thoroughgoing mechanisation of life. This tendency to mechanisation is the inherent defect of the State idea and its practice. Already that is the defect upon which both intellectual anarchistic thought and the insight of the spiritual thinker have begun to lay stress, and it must immensely increase as the State idea rounds itself into a greater completeness in practice. It is indeed the inherent defect of reason when it turns to govern life and labours by quelling its natural tendencies to put it into some kind of rational order”. (CWSA VOL25  P 212-213 )

 

Modern India

 

In India the Central Government has not adopted the Socialistic system in its purity and entirety. However, in some States like West Bengal and Kerala where the Communists have been in power, a more or less complete Socialistic Government has been functioning.

 

The Central Government has pursued the middle path adopting the democratic socialist system.

 

While this seems to be the most rational way, there is today in India a great deal of dissatisfaction with the present political system. Many political commentators are wondering whether a change in the system is necessary and even inevitable.

 

“And just as the idea of individualistic democracy found itself before long in difficulties on that account because of the disparity between life’s facts and the mind’s idea, difficulties that have led up to its discredit and

 

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approaching overthrow, the idea of collectivist democracy too may well find itself before long in difficulties that must lead to its discredit and eventual replacement by a third stage of the inevitable progression. Liberty protected by a State in which all are politically equal, was the idea that individualistic democracy attempted to elaborate. Equality, social and political equality enforced through a perfect and careful order by a State which is the organised will of the whole community, is the idea on which socialistic democracy stakes its future.

 

If that too fails to make good, the rational and democratic Idea may fall back upon a third form of society founding an essential rather than formal liberty and equality upon fraternal comradeship in a free community, the ideal of intellectual as of spiritual Anarchism”. (CWSA VOL25  P 202-203)

 

 Before we proceed further, let us see what are the gains the democratic system that we have adopted in India.

 

The Gains of the Democratic System

 

Let us now see what the gains of the parliamentary system in India are. In the words of Sri Aurobindo:

 

“Parliamentarism, the invention of the English political genius, is a necessary stage in the evolution of democracy, for without it the generalised faculty of considering and managing with the least possible friction large problems of politics, administration, economics, legislation concerning considerable aggregates of men cannot easily be developed. It has also been the one successful means yet discovered of preventing the State executive from suppressing the liberties of the individual and the nation."  (VOL 25 CWSA P472-473)

 

 The other gain of modern democracy is a full freedom of speech and thought. And as long as this freedom endures, the fear of a static and unprogressive condition of humanity and subsequent stagnation seems to be groundless,— especially when it is accompanied by universal education which provides the largest possible human field for producing an effectuating force. Freedom of thought and speech—the two necessarily go

 

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together, since there can be no real freedom of thought where a padlock is put upon freedom of speech—is not indeed complete without freedom of association; for free speech means free propagandism and propagandism only becomes effective by association for the realisation of its objects. This third liberty also exists with more or less of qualifying limitations or prudent safeguards in all democratic States including India.

 

The limitations of the democratic system

 

The dissatisfaction with the present democratic system is raising some questions. These may be summed up as follows:

 

Is the present democratic system truly democratic?

 

Is there not the danger of constant instability in the present form of Government?

 

A third point that is constantly raised in the Parliamentary form of government is the very slow process of decision making which accords ill with the need of efficient government. And so far, it has not yet been found possible to combine the parliamentary system and the modern trend towards a more democratic democracy; it has been always an instrument either of a modified aristocratic or of a middle-class rule. Besides, its method involves an immense waste of time and energy and a confused, swaying and uncertain action that “muddles out” in the end some tolerable result. This method is contrary to the more stringent ideas of efficient government and administration that are now growing in force and necessity and it might be fatal to efficiency in anything so complicated as the management of the affairs of such a large country as India.  To illustrate this point, here is an extract from a news item: 

 

“Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has decried the "Indian brand of deliberative democracy" having innumerable checks and balances that often "paralysed decision-making," leading the country to accept "sub-optimal solutions" with enormous costs in terms of time and money in implementing a programme. Pointing out that China owed its progress to its "one country, two systems" theory, he regretted that India followed "one country, one system and as many interpretations as

 

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 there are political parties." This "Indian brand of deliberative democracy" must change and the time had come when, in the case of development programmes, the country, after due deliberations, must adopt a system and work it to the best advantage of the people, eschewing conflicting interpretations”.

 

Again, Parliamentarism means too, in practice, the rule and often the tyranny of a majority, even of a very small majority, and the modern mind attaches increasing importance to the rights of minorities.

 

Finally, the party system is creating great obstacles to the development and growth of India.

 

As a matter of fact the sole democratic elements today are, public opinion, expressed through the media or through public agitations, periodical elections and the power of the people to refuse re-election to those who have displeased it. The government is really in the hands of the bourgeoisie, the professional and business men, the landholders, —where such a class still exists,—strengthened by a number of new arrivals from the working-class who very soon assimilate themselves to the political temperament and ideas of the governing classes”.

 

In a comment on democracy, Sri Aurobindo writes:

 

Democracy is by no means a sure preservative of liberty; on the contrary, we see today the democratic system of government march steadily towards such an organised annihilation of individual liberty as could not have been dreamed of in the old aristocratic and monarchical systems. It may be that from the more violent and brutal forms of despotic oppression which were associated with those systems, democracy has indeed delivered those nations which have been fortunate enough to achieve liberal forms of government, and that is no doubt a great gain.

 

It revives now only in periods of revolution and excitement, often in the form of mob tyranny or a savage revolutionary or reactionary repression. But there is a deprivation of liberty which is more respectable in appearance, more subtle and systematised, more mild in its method because it has a greater force at its back, but for that very reason more effective and

 

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pervading. The tyranny of the majority has become a familiar phrase and its deadening effects have been depicted with a great force of resentment by certain of the modern intellectuals;  but what the future promises us is something more formidable still, the tyranny of the whole, of the self-hypnotised mass over its constituent groups and units.(VOL 25 CWSA P 508)

 

In this context, we are quoting some extracts from a very insightful article written by Dr. Sajitha Bashir. She writes:

 

The only logical political power that the people are given in all these countries is the right to vote and hence formally speaking, the power to elect a government of their choice. How even this power is circumscribed by the electoral mechanism and the political process in which political parties play a dominant role in the choice of candidates will be examined later. The main issue at stake is that beyond the right to vote that is given to them every few years, there is no other constitutional power that the people enjoy in terms of the governance of their society once they have voted, they surrender all their powers to the elected representatives. Thereafter, they are effectively forbidden by law to participate in the governing of society. Political power formally derives from the people but in practice vests in Parliament, and in a much smaller group of people called the Cabinet. What is meant by popular sovereignty in a parliamentary democracy is, in fact, the sovereignty of the legislature. At all times, except at the instant of casting a vote, political power is actually wielded by the representatives of the people, with the people themselves being only the subjects of the rulers. In the course of the development of parliamentary democracies, even the sovereignty of Parliament, or of the elected representatives, has been eroded and today the real sovereign power is vested in the government of the day. The emergence of the party form of  government and its concomitant, the modern system of cabinet government, has meant that after the elections, the party with the majority of seats in parliament virtually controls the entire legislative and executive authority of the state

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The role of parliament from one of acting as the tribunal of the people with the role of controlling the executive and removing it in cases of abuse of power, has been reduced to one of ventilating grievances and airing opinions or as in our country offering some vulgar entertainment to the populace. The original power of parliament as the initiator of legislation and control over the executive has been all but eliminated. Today, it is common practice for the government of the day to initiate all legislation. Further, the executive is in practice not bound by Parliament, let alone by the electorate, for as long as it commands a majority of' votes in Parliament either through party mechanisms or through the medium of money power, its position is unassailable.

 

All this only goes to show that the modern democratic system, despite all appearances, is hardly democratic and is not fulfilling the purpose for which it was created. The question naturally arises: How do we make the democratic system truly representative of the people and their aspirations?

 

Since the democratic system is based on the governing of life by Reason, it follows that only when the population has more or less developed the power of Reasoning, can it be truly effective. As of now, a very large section of the people have not yet developed this faculty as they have not been given sufficient opportunities to get educated. The first step therefore is to provide universal education which will lead to a rational education.

 

The tremendous importance of the power of thinking was underlined by Sri   Aurobindo in a letter written in 1920. This is what he wrote:

 

"It is my belief that the main cause of India's weakness is not subjection, nor poverty, nor a lack of spirituality or religion, but a diminution of the power of thought, the spread of ignorance in the birthplace of knowledge. Everywhere I see an inability or unwillingness to think - incapacity of thought or thought phobia. This may have been alright in the medieval period, but now this is the sign of a great decline. The medieval period was a night, the day of victory for the man of ignorance; in the modern world it is the time of victory for the man of knowledge. He who can delve into and

 

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 learn the truth about the world by thinking more, searching more, labouring more, gains more power”.(translated from original Bengali in A&R April 1980 p1-10).

 

But there arises another problem. Even in those who are getting a sound and good rational education, there is a glaring deficiency. For what after all is a rational education? Sri Aurobindo writes:

 

 “But a rational education means necessarily three things, first, to teach men how to observe and know rightly the facts on which they have to form a judgment; secondly, to train them to think fruitfully and soundly; thirdly, to fit them to use their knowledge and their thought effectively for their own and the common good. Capacity of observation and knowledge, capacity of intelligence and judgment, capacity of action and high character are required for the citizenship of a rational order of society; a general deficiency in any of these difficult requisites is a sure source of failure. Unfortunately,—even if we suppose that any training made available to the millions can ever be of this rare character,—the actual education given in the most advanced countries has not had the least relation to these necessities”.(CWSA VOL 25 P198)

 

The Parliamentary debates today are very illustrative of this shortcoming. We see clearly how the power of Reason is being used only for narrow party interests even at the cost of national interest and worse still even of Truth. The political class seems to be only interested in their smaller goals most often at the cost of the nation. Much worse they take full advantage of the simplicity and gullibility of the ordinary people who have not yet developed their power of reasoned understanding. Sri Aurobindo describing the modern politician writes: “he does not represent the soul of a people or its aspirations. What he does usually represent is all the average pettiness, selfishness, egoism, self-deception that is about him and these he represents well enough as well as a great deal of mental incompetence and moral conventionality, timidity and pretence. Great issues often come to him for decision, but he does not deal with them greatly; high words and noble

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ideas are on his lips, but they become rapidly the claptrap of a party. The disease and falsehood of modern political life is patent in every country of the world and only the hypnotised acquiescence of all, even of the intellectual classes, in the great organised sham, cloaks and prolongs the malady, the acquiescence that men yield to everything that is habitual and makes the present atmosphere of their lives”.(CWSA VOL 25 P 299)

 

 In a book written by  G.S. Bhargava, titled Star Crossed India: Let Down by Leadership, the author points out the failure of the political class right from 1970 onwards. Reviewing this book M.V. Kamath writes:

 

Reading this book is like re-living the history of India from 1970 onwards in all its foul details, the chicanery of politicians, the various riots and the pig-headedness of petty politicians. Bhargava’s contention is that “India is star-crossed because its leaders undoubtedly great and promising individually, repeatedly failed the people…turning out to be persons with clay feet”.

 

The Party system

 

India adopted the system of democratic socialism immediately after attaining independence. For the first few decades after independence, it seemed to be working reasonably well; the Congress Party won a two- thirds majority in the first few elections and consequently there was political stability.  But with the maturing of Indian democracy, many other parties have come up and today it seems that there is no chance of a single- party majority in the near future. All signs point to an era of coalition governments. As of now it is affecting the stability of the political system. Therefore many political observers feel that it is necessary to have a two party system or at the most three or four recognized national political parties. In their opinion, all other regional parties or smaller parties should not be allowed to contest the national election. While appreciating the intention behind these proposals, it seems to be an ill judged endeavour which is not likely to succeed. For this goes against the very grain of the Indian temperament. The Indian subcontinent which is so vast has such a

 

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 tremendous diversity in every detail that it is almost impossible to have a unified system political, economic or cultural. There will inevitably be parties with differing perceptions which will not only play a role in their states, but also would like to be heard in the national arena. We have therefore to find another solution which respects the Indian temperament of unity in diversity and yet ensures political stability.

 

More important, the party system is proving to be very divisive and is hampering all development and growth.

 

To sum up, these are the deficiencies of the present Parliamentary democratic system being practiced in India.

 

• As seen already, the democratic system can function only when the capacity and habit of reasoning becomes universal. Unfortunately, even today a very large number of Indians are lacking this faculty because of lack of educational opportunity. The consequence is that that a very large number of Indians are being taken for a ride and cheated by political parties by slogans and catchwords.

 

• It is not truly democratic, for power rests in the hands of a very small number of persons who are in some way supposed to represent the people of India. The decision making process is in the hands of a small coterie. The present parliamentary system has in practice come to mean the rule and often the tyranny of a minority, even of a very small minority. Here is an extract from a speech in Parliament by    P.C. Alexnder,: ``we may create an oligarchical system where a few people will be benefited while the integrity and strength of the country as a whole would have got eroded''.

  

 

• The party system is proving to be very divisive.

 

• The parliamentary method is very slow and takes a very long time with all its inevitable consequences.

 

• A habit of Machiavellian statecraft has replaced the nobler ethical ideals of the past; aggressive ambition is left without any sufficient spiritual or moral check and there seems to be a coarsening of the

 

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national mind in the ethics of politics and government. This tendency which manifested itself quite some time back was held in abeyance by a religious spirit and high intelligence, Dharma. It needs to be revived so that politics can be raised to a higher level.

 

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The Solution

 

Where then is the solution? Sri Aurobindo wrote in 1914:

 

“Spirituality is India's only politics, the fulfilment of the Sanatana Dharma its only Swaraj. I have no doubt we shall have to go through our Parliamentary period in order to get rid of the notion of Western democracy by seeing in practice how helpless it is to make nations blessed. India is passing really through the first stages of a sort of national Yoga. It was mastered in the inception by the inrush of divine force, which came in 1905 and aroused it from its state of complete tamasic ajñanam [ignorance]. But, as happens also with individuals, all that was evil, all the wrong samskaras [imprints] and wrong emotions and mental and moral habits rose with it and misused the divine force. Hence all that orgy of political oratory, democratic fervour, meetings, processions, passive resistance, all ending in bombs, revolvers and Coercion laws.... God has struck it all down, — Moderatism, the bastard child of English Liberalism; Nationalism, the mixed progeny of Europe and Asia; Terrorism, the abortive offspring of Bakunin and Mazzini.... It is only when this foolishness is done with that truth will have a chance, the sattwic mind in India emerge and a really strong spiritual movement begin as a prelude to India's regeneration. No doubt, there will be plenty of trouble and error still to face, but we shall have a chance of putting our feet on the right path. In all I believe God to be guiding us, giving the necessary experiences, preparing the necessary conditions.”[1]Archives and Research December 1977,p84)

 

Later, in another conversation dated 27 December 1938, Sri Aurobindo refers to the Parliamentary form of government:

 

“Parliamentary Government is not suited to India. But we always take up what the West has thrown off.... [In an ideal government for India,] there may be one Rashtrapati at the top with considerable powers so as to secure a continuity of policy, and an assembly representative of the nation. The provinces will combine into a federation united at the top, leaving ample scope to local bodies to make laws according to their local problems”. (   Evening talks Dec 27 1938)

 

On 6 October, 1969, the Mother gave a message to Mrs Indira Gandhi: