“It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves. It is, therefore, in the palm of our hands. But such Swaraj has to be experienced, by each one for himself. One drowning man will never save another.”
“I believe that you want the millions of India to be happy, not that you want the reins of government in your hands. If that be so, we have to consider only one thing: how can the millions obtain self-rule?”
[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj]
Over the past seven decades, the political structure has taken the shape of a pyramid form, whereas the social structure in the country continues to be in a ladder form.
In a pyramid structure, the space at the top is limited. The people are continuously at struggle with each other. Those who have reached the top fight with each other to stay there. They have also to fight with a multitude of other people who are trying to reach the summit. To survive at the top, you need to push all others down. The concepts such as mutual trust, harmony, cooperation, equality, justice, etc. have little relevance under this structure. The laws of the jungle prevail - the strongest survives and his interest is accepted as justice. This intense and consistent struggle to survive, seldom allows the leaders at the top to bother about the people below.
On the contrary, traditionally Indian society is structured in a ladder form. The ultimate goal is well-defined as salvation from this material world. The space at the top is unlimited. There is no competition. Most people wish that the person ahead of them moves higher faster so that they could also move up. It's like a queue in the temple. You want the people ahead of you to move forward faster so that you could also get to worship the deity sooner. No one pulls anyone back. Everyone pushes the others forward.
I have been highlighting since ever that one of the best things India has got in the past 150years is Mahatma Gandhi. And the most unfortunate thing to occur since independence from British rule in 1947 is the brazen desertion of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian politicians. To my mind hanging his pictures in government offices or currency notes and naming roads after him is even more contemptuous given the blatant irreverence for his principles and ideas.
Mahatma Gandhi understood Indian society as no other Indian leader in modern India did. Based on his understanding, he suggested the model of Swaraj (self-rule). Trust me, the Gandhian idea of Swaraj could have been proposed only by a person like him who had experienced India so intimately.
M. P. Mathai explains the Gandhian idea of Swaraj very succinctly as follows:
“Although the word swaraj means self-rule, Gandhi gave it the content of an integral revolution that encompasses all spheres of life. “At the individual level swaraj is vitally connected with the capacity for dispassionate self-assessment, ceaseless self-purification and growing swadeshi or self-reliance".
Politically swaraj is self-government and not good government (for Gandhi, good government is no substitute for self-government) and it means continuous effort to be independent of government control, whether it is foreign government or whether it is national.
In other words, it is the sovereignty of the people based on pure moral authority. Economically, poorna swaraj means full economic freedom for the toiling millions. For Gandhi, swaraj of the people meant the sum total of the swaraj (self-rule) of individuals and so he clarified that for him swaraj meant freedom for the meanest of his countrymen. And in its fullest sense, swaraj is much more than freedom from all restraints, it is self-rule, self-restraint and could be equated with moksha or salvation."
In one of his letters to Leo Tolstoy Gandhi explained Swaraj as follows:
“Independence begins at the bottom. A society must be built in which every village has to be self-sustained and capable of managing its own affairs. It will be trained and prepared to perish in the attempt to defend itself against any onslaught from without. This does not exclude dependence on and willing help from neighbors or from the world. It will be a free and voluntary play of mutual forces. In this structure composed of innumerable villages, there will be ever-widening, never ascending circles.
Growth will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose center will be the individual. Therefore, the outermost circumference will not wield power to crush the inner circle but will give strength to all within and derive its own strength from it.”
Thus, the individual is the sole basis of Swaraj. Swaraj is unfathomable without dispassionate self-assessment, ceaseless self-purification, and growing self-reliance at the individual level; and sovereignty of moral authority, as against the political authority.
Swaraj encompasses a fiercely competitive free market, moral duty to be free, fearless, truthful, fair, just, self-reliant, nationalist, and religious.
This Swaraj, many argue is Utopian in the current context. Some argue that it is desirable but we have traveled too far down the road we took post-independence from British rule, and it is too late to go back and begin again.
In my view, this defeatist and fatigued attitude is unwarranted. What we need is a zero-base discussion on the subject and solutions will emerge that would lead us to the desired goal of making 1.3bn people free, fearless, and happy. An incremental approach howsoever sincere might not yield the desired results.
With this in mind, I dream of a free, fearless, and fair socio-political organization for the country."
During my various visits to the hinterlands of the country, I found strong evidence of numerous democratic assemblies within various communities and localities. From my experience, I know for certain that most Indians not only feel comfortable working with the members of their own community but are usually most productive when operating within the network of their “Own people” or "Community".
This “communism” is arguably a key strength of Indian society. Therefore, in my view, the social ecology model suggested by author and activist Murray Bookchin which advocates a “stateless, classless, decentralized society consisting of a network of directly democratic citizens' assemblies in individual communities/cities organized in a confederal fashion” appears relevant in our context. Unfortunately, our politicians and social activists have dissipated the term “communism” to mean a defunct political ideology that claims to have its genesis in the ideology of the 19th century German philosopher Karl Marx.
Besides, religious fundamentalism (which is usually referred to as “communalism” in the Indian context), is mostly a political problem in India. A secular political system, as envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi and incorporated in the soul of our Constitution, would automatically weaken these minuscule elements leading to their eventual extinction.
My solution to India's political problem is thus predicated on our ability to build and nurture strong communities that live in harmony with nature.
Tomorrow I shall present the broad contours of the political structure that in my view can rid our country of nepotism; conflicts between various interest groups that undermine the national interest; mediocrity at the expense of meritocracy; promote communal harmony, equity, and cater to the aspirations of all the people.
…to continue
Also read
Battle Ground 2024 - Forces are aligned
Battle Ground 2024 - The Narrative and Rhetoric
Battle Ground 2024 – The Problems
Battle Ground 2024 – In search of solutions
