Mankind has been here for well over nine hundred thousand years in fifty thousand generations. However, man started living in groups on riverbanks only in the last ten thousand years. Ever since that time the powerful have been trying to keep the ordinary folk under their thumb by various methods. We have had the rich controlling the poor, plutocracy, then the blessed ones, the kings, looking after their subjects, the monarchy, interspersed with dictatorships where an individual controlled the society, and finally we have arrived at the supposedly best form of egalitarian society, the democracy. Religion, from time to time, controlled man’s life both within and outwith the governments. Abraham Lincoln described democracy as that which is “for the people, by the people and of the people.” Lincoln’s model of democracy would have been a panacea for man’s ills on this planet, but that was not to be.



Today’s democracy, in many countries, is “for the powerful, by the powerful and of the powerful.” This sorry state of affairs was brought on by man’s proclivity for comfort and his greed. This was not seen in the time honored sustenance economies. Monetary economy brought all the ills of society. It has reached a stage where making money has become man’s religion and money his God, resulting in the inverse care law. Ninety per cent of the wealth of this planet is enjoyed by a paltry ten per cent of the population while the large majority of ninety per cent would have to make do with the remaining ten per cent of wealth. This economic gap between the rich and the poor is widening by the day even in the industrialized west, although the economists, the heartless beasts that they are, do not decry that in so many words. They feel that concentration of wealth in a few hands is good for generating more money.



India and the United States of America are the world’s two largest democracies. While America has settled down reasonably well with the concept, we in India still have our teething troubles. Compared to America when their democracy was half a century old India has done wonderfully well. Fifty years after independence America was still in the middle of the bloody civil war. While America is the largest in area India is three times its size in population. Both of us would have to have the common goal of doing most good to most people most of the time. That aim is yet to be reached even in the USA. The less fortunate in both our countries need to be helped to come up to meet the better off people in society for mutual benefit. A true democracy will have to work for that goal. Are we doing that? This is a million dollar question that begs an answer.



It was Confucius that told his disciple, Kung Tsze, that for a king or a country, there are three basic needs-food, weapons and trust. He did say that even if the first two were in short supply people would not let the king down as long as he enjoyed their trust. Examples of food shortage during the Second World War did not let the colonies to betray the British. People have fought battles for the king even in times of scarcity of weapons, but when trust is lost everything is lost. A recent example will highlight this point. Saddam Hussein’s foot soldiers betrayed him without putting up any resistance against the American forces, as the former had lost the trust in their dictator. Dame Onora O’Neill, of Northern Ireland, a living philosopher, delivering the John Reith Lecture series 2002 for the BBC in London gave a graphic description of the lack of trust that the world suffers these days and the consequences of such a scenario. Lord Reith was the first Director General of the BBC appointed in the year 1948. In his long innings he transformed BBC into a very powerful autonomous institution. He was the one who introduced the concept in the 40’s that the media should not only entertain but must educate. The lectures are instituted to commemorate his memory. Dame O’Neill has been the last speaker so far. The talks have gone into the aspect of trust in such great detail that she ends the series by this feeling: “when trust is lost we can not even get up in the morning feeling safe.”



In a democracy we are exactly in that situation now. The four pillars of democracy- the legislatures, the judiciary, the bureaucracy, and the media have all lost the trust of the common man. It is power that runs the democracies-money power, muscle power, or, at times, even brain power. Elections have become a farce in most countries. The wily politicians have found out even sophisticated methods of rigging elections. Politicians are a special class wherever they are. They could not have been better portrayed than in that beautiful book written by Eric Blair (George Orwell) in his Animal Farm. Just like the animals, which initially declared that all animals are equal, they very soon changed that slightly to say that all animals are equal but a few of them are more equal than the rest. This is the same philosophy with human politicians. “They make murder look respectable, could even give solidity to pure air, and promise a bridge even where there is no river.” wrote Eric in that book. Having seen the tyranny of the British police in India during the Raj, where he was deputy commissioner of police, he resigned his job in disgust and went back to his mother country. There he found democracy to be in shambles. Having had no steady job he took to writing “pot-boilers.” Friends told him that communism is the best form of government. Those were the days of Stalin’s dictatorship in USSR. Because Stalin opposed Hitler even the capitalists eulogized Stalin. With that background he went over the Moscow to study communism. He found communism to be the worst kind of tyranny and, in disgust, wrote the true picture of a politician irrespective of his/her beliefs.



Be that as it may, let us find out what ails democracy now. Basically it is the lack of trust in the four pillars of democracy. Nothing seems to be transparent. Keeping the secrets of security being uppermost in the minds of our politicians, with that excuse they could take us for a ride in any sphere of their activity. They are not accountable at all. We have to believe them. Recent events have shown how they could blatantly flout simple human courtesies to earn the trust of their people. They would shamelessly come to the people for votes when the time comes. Their asset is the short memory of the public.



The bureaucracy seems to have completely forgotten its conscience and bends over backwards to please the political masters to get some breadcrumbs thrown back. The recent events in Britain where a senior government functionary had to commit suicide bares the truth even in the country, which boasts to be the mother of all democracies. This happens every day in India and other countries of the world. America is no exception and, in some areas, takes the cake for mesmerizing the public. The media seems to have forgotten its true role to be the watchdog for all the happenings in society. Today money power controls the media and the editors, by and large, have become tools in the hands of the media barons who shamelessly pursue their hidden agenda.



Judiciary is no exception. It was Shakespeare who wrote, “ Man, whether in the palace or pad, castle or cottage, is governed by the same emotions and passions.” The judiciary is also chosen from the same society that has become corrupt and they could not be divine in their dealings. That apart, in the adversarial justice system that India has borrowed from the British, the judge is only an umpire. He could only give his judgment based on the evidence provided. Most of the time the crafty lawyers take the judges also for a ride. Poor man is at the receiving end in all this. There are instances where justice is dispensed after two or three generations have perished! Justice delayed is justice denied, indeed.



For better or for worse we have to hang on to democracy as the other systems could be abused more easily. In democracy at least there is an apparent attempt to make the actions of the powers-that-be to be above board, but in other forms state cruelty is very difficult to control. Our effort must be to see that democracy really becomes a boon to the common man. In this context one must remember the father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi. He refused to attend the first independence celebrations in the Red Forte on August 15th, 1947. He was of the strong opinion that the type of democracy that we were going to inherit from the British after independence would be bad for the poor man. He wanted representative village democracy. His idea was to empower the poor villager with powers to control his destiny and the central government was only to look after the external affairs and defense. He called this concept swaraj-self rule. However, that was not to be, as his own followers did not have any use for him after they got power. He did not live long to see that his true democracy-swaraj-become a reality. He died a broken man.



A recent study-Cross study-- has shown that most governments in the next half a century would become irrelevant to the common man’s day-to-day life and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) will have larger role in shaping the future of mankind. Hope to see that day where any man, woman or a child could hold his/her head high and make an honorable living. That would be the day when everyone would be totally educated. Adam Smith defined total education as that process which trains a man (in 1644 women were not to be educated) to act justly, skillfully and magnanimously under all circumstances of war and peace.



References:



www.bbc.com “Reith Lecture Series 2002. by Dame Onora O’Neill.

Hegde BM Democracy-the true variety. The Hindu June 2000.

Animal Farm by George Orwell. London