By Barnes L Mawrie
Democracy is defined by Abraham Lincoln as a “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. Evidently, this is the best form of government as history has vindicated. Monarchy has had its day and it is now nearly relegated to the past. Very few nations today maintain a monarchical government. For the most part, monarchy has become a nominal institution. Dictatorship and autocracy are gradually collapsing in many parts of the world as seen recently in some North
African countries like Egypt, Libya and in the Gulf countries. Colonialism has come to an end many decades ago and communism is on the verge of extinction. Perhaps a theocratic form of government is still predominant in some Muslim countries but this will one day give way to democracy. Democracy is the most popular form of government today and different forms of it are being practiced all over the world.
Democracy may be the best form of government but it is not a ready-made solution to our social problems. Democracy needs adequate ground work in order to become effective. USA and the European nations have had long years of history in democracy and that is the reason why democracy is effective. Let us not forget that India instead had been under monarchy for centuries. Dictatorial monarchs had appeared off and on and in the last few centuries we had been under colonial powers. From this point of view we seem to be least prepared for democracy. Some of the basic pre-requisites for democracy to function are: education, civic sense, self discipline, sense of common welfare, spirit of solidarity etc. Now let me come to our country India. There are many Indians today who opine that democracy is a failure in our country. We may be proud that we are the biggest democracy in the world, but we should be equally ashamed that we are one of the most corrupt nations in the world. As they say “freedom is to be exercised with responsibility”. If this maxim is understood and practiced in democracy then democracy will be the right formula for development and peace. However, if this maxim is absent, democracy becomes a curse for the people. Democracy upholds freedom of every person (freedom to religion, to work, to movement, to speech etc). However, such freedom has to go hand in hand with a great sense of responsibility otherwise we trample upon the rights of others and then frictions in society appear. For example, the freedom to practice my religion is a basic human right, however, as it often happens in India, during the religious festivals adherents of various religions do inconvenience the public with their loud music which go late into the night. Take another example in Shillong – people do have the right to construct their houses, but how often they inconvenience the public because they use public roads to stock their piles of stones, bricks and sand. Again, citizens in India have the freedom to own as many vehicles as they could, but do they have the same freedom to use the public roads as their parking lot? These are a few glaring examples of how we misuse freedom that is guaranteed to us by democracy.
Democracy will function perfectly where citizens possess a high degree of civic sense. I always remain impressed by an incident which I saw in Germany where a little boy walking along with his mother in a public park unwrapped his chocolate, left his mother’s hand for a while and went to dispose off the wrapper into a waste bin. Have we ever seen an Indian child exercising such civic sense? In India even the so called “educated” adults take pride in littering public places. It is not unusual to see ladies and gentlemen in our cities spit and blow their noses in full public view. We have no right to blame the municipality for the poor state of cleanliness in our cities; we need to blame ourselves for this. The manner we treat public property is a clear indication that we lack civic sense.
Another area where we see poor civic sense in our country is the manner in which politicians and bureaucrats behave. The high level of corruption among such people only indicates the poor sense of “common welfare” which they possess. There is grabbing and hoarding of public resources by our rulers and government officials. As a consequence there is more of “private development” and less of “public development”. Our Shillong city is a prominent example of this disturbing phenomenon where we see private mansions on the rise while public amenities like roads, water supply, electricity are on the decline. The lack of self discipline is another factor that hampers the smooth functioning of democracy. This is clear in the way people take the law into their own hands or the arrogance they exhibit when corrected for their mistakes. It looks as if we still need an iron hand to put order and to deal sternly with every form of indiscipline.
From all this, we may sum up by saying that we have not learnt to exercise our freedom responsibly. We have not learnt to capitalize on the assets of democracy. However, there are still many challenges ahead for India to be able to benefit from our democracy. First of all, we need to educate every citizen of the country. Let us not forget that where ignorance thrives democracy itself can become a deadly tool in the hands of a few manipulators. Today with the implementation of the RTE we hope that education will reach every person in this vast country. Secondly, citizens must be made sensitive to socio-political and cultural issues. Issues like injustice, corruption, exploitation etc must become every citizen’s concern. Today with the implementation of RTI there is a lot of progress in this area. Religions must also play a more active role in fostering moral and spiritual virtues in people so as to give a divine sanction to positive attitudes essential for common good.
Thirdly, education in civic sense is a major concern for our country. This should begin from our homes and our elementary schools. Children must be taught to be responsible citizens. This is perhaps the greatest challenge for India and the very ingredients for the development and prosperity of our country. If Asian countries like Japan and China have developed so rapidly, it is all because of the high degree of civic sense they possess. Such civic sense is demonstrated in their personal and collective discipline, in their work culture, in their sense of solidarity and common well-being. These are the very virtues that our countrymen are lacking in. To achieve this goal, we as a nation must strive vigorously and decisively to form our younger generation to become true citizens of India. We need to get rid of our ghetto mentality, our selfishness, individualism, our religious and ethnic sectarianism. Our only hope for a better future lies in our children and not in our adults who have become incorrigible. It is rather unfortunate to see that civic education or education for responsible citizenship, has not found a place in many of our educational institutions. It looks like the present education is bent on producing mere intellectuals or employable graduates and not “true citizens”. Education today has become a commercial enterprise rather than a nation building programme. It is here that we as Indians must stop and reflect a while and resolve to change the tide of events. Let us make Indian democracy vibrant, productive, free of all vices and an example to the rest of the world. “Let our democracy be not only the biggest but the BEST”. (The author is a scholar and political commentator)