For the
most population of the world what we have been able to achieve in the name of
democracy is nothing but effective autocracy or aristocracy of a few more than
who ruled the kingdoms say, two centuries ago. This is a view that appeals to
the common sense of a very big majority of the world population. This view
overlaps, only in a way, on how a UK based Economic Intelligence Unit
categorizes democracies of the word under four types, which are Full Democracies,
Flawed Democracies, Hybrid Regimes and Authoritarian Regimes. According to the
latest report from the said unit only 8.9% of the world population has accepted
fair amount of political pluralism to govern itself.
The well-known fact that about
90% of the world’s resources are controlled by 10% of the world population
appears to corroborate with the level of political pluralism the world has been
able to achieve. Does it reconfirm, in an opposite context, the famous sentence
used by George Orwell in ‘Animal Farm’, that is, All animal are equal, but
some are more equal than others?
The God, or the nature did not
distinguish a human being from another while allotting the resources for his
survival, but the man did it; and then went on establishing various systems,
viz. political, social, economic, educational and religious, etc. to help the
humanity survive. Has it not been like prohibiting a man from expressing his
feelings and thoughts but, giving him lessons on effective communication,
improving pronunciation or vocal music? What is the use of talking about the electoral
process, pluralism, political participation, political culture, civil liberties,
functioning of governments, etc. unless and until the humanity decides to give equal
freedom to all without distinction to satisfy their basic needs by putting in
necessary labor for it?
Is it too late to talk about a
truly democratic process based on what has been said in the preceding paragraph?
Only those who have reconciled to the thought of the futility of the journey of
humanity in this world would say ‘yes’. Can’t we begin by extending the freedom
to those who are most deprived of their God-given natural rights so that they
can make use of their just share of natural resources for their survival by
adding to it their physical efforts, the ability that also is God-given?
An experimental initiative would
perhaps be of a kind when a democracy of today identifies the most deprived
sections of the society and make enough natural resources available to them,
provided the deprived are ready to add their physical efforts to such resources
for generating ‘essential’ wealth to satisfy their basic needs and also leaving
a surplus for the use of the others. Perhaps, that was how the man began his
journey towards building civilized societies. I call it experimental
initiative, because we do not know how the societies of today will respond to
it. After all, the human society has come to a stage where the concept of
individual ownership of natural resources, which were freely available to all
living on the earth once upon a time, is considered as something that must be
lawfully protected.
Political pluralism is meaningless
unless all have equal rights to manage the resources that are freely available
to all for use by all. Like many other religions the ancient Indian philosophy
also viewed the Almighty as the Lord or owner of whatever is available to the
humanity for its survival. The ancient Indian philosophy did not stop at that;
it went ahead to defining the sacred duties of the human beings. It was thought
the man, at best, is only the trustee or manager of the natural resources
available to all for the survival of all that was living and nonliving. The
first step towards establishing a true democracy can be taken if those who
possess much beyond their needs realize that their title to the excess wealth
they possess is defective, and they would be doing a favor to themselves if
they will begin to relinquish their self-proclaimed rights over things that
actually belong to others.
PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA
[The writer of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A
Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]
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