POLITICAL IDEOLOGY IN INDIA(updated)

BY K P PASWAN.

 India is a land of diversity. The diversity was united by the British, when India was under colonial rule. The legendary PM Indira Gandhi was of different opinion. According to her, there was a feeling of oneness in the country from ancient times, when people from south visited holy places in north India. for conducting religious rituals and similarly people from north used to visit south for conducting pilgrimage. The late PM was right as the sense of belonging to one country is prevailing from time immemorial. But that sense of belonging does not mean the emergence of modern united India. We find that from ancient time, India was divided into countless small kingdoms ruled by influential local chiefs. Some of them were master of huge population and called himself as king. These kings always fought for expansion of their kingdom. Some of the kings were highlighted by their victories over their rivals. We also find that these kings, barring exceptions took welfare measures and earned their names in history, while a few others, known for their violence are still demonized. Conducting religious related rituals were confined to a few groups of people belonging mostly to priestly classes and upper strata of society, except the Untouchables (SHUDDERS) who were not allowed to make pilgrimage to holy places. It is left over the historians to describe in details the prevalence of political philosophy in ancient India.

 UNITED INDIA.

 It is wrong to say that the foreign invaders especially the Mugfuls founded a united India. They controlled large swath of modern India, but the far away provinces enjoyed greater autonomy, so long the head of these provinces paid taxes in time. East India company brought along with its different political system. As the East India Co, expanded its tentacles, mostly by defeating or bribing the local chieftains, these political systems were put to test. In the course of time, the Mughal dynasty virtually came end and, in their place, a large number of small and medium size kingdoms, submitted to the whims of the East India Company, and these kingdoms were forced to adopt western ways of life  The East India company  also introduced western  concept of economic and political ideas. Thus, we see paradigm shift in economic policy. Parliamentary system of democracy based on universal franchise. 

  Colonial powers in USA brought a large number of Blacks to the US from Africa and they were maltreated, if these Blacks failed to serve their masters as per their wishes. So worst system of slavery started in modern USA. Every president before Abraham Lincoln patronized racial discrimination and this attitude of anti-Black feeling still prevails in USA. It will be not an exaggeration to say that every sovereign country in the world is following the policy of Divide and Rule. In India caste-based discrimination prevails from the days, Vern ashram(Cast) system was introduced and discrimination against Dalits turned into a philosophy of divide and rule. The colonial power has ended, but discs not prevailing in any colonial power. The concept of a sovereign United India did not emerge until East India company was taken over by the crown.

The British brought hundreds of local small kingdoms, under a federal structure and introduced western system of education, English being the language of instruction, some major cities like Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi and Madras become the centers of higher education and barring exceptions, colleges and research institutes were located in prominent cities, The Christians missionaries, encouraged English system of education in remote areas with a view to spread Christianity and to some extent they succeeded. In absence of a central authority, the Hindus were benefited as the Muslims had their own Madrasa based education. But they were unable to deter the religious lunatics from carrying away their nefarious activities against other religions. The British is being accused of dividing the society for their own benefit, but this was happening everywhere in contemporary world and continues with greater zeal in modern world.

Discrimination based on caste system still persist.There is no difference between the words NIGGER being used for the Blacks in US and DALITS in India for the Shudras.

 Coming to political ideology in an independent India, we find very interesting development, Communists were strong force in pre and post independent India. Political landscape in India  changed to great extent.Political heavyweights in different states developed their own undefined political ideology.

 After first general election in India we find a good number of political parties based on different political ideology, it is difficult to navigate, but the Communists maintained strong presence in parliament. The first general election was fought under the shadow of a free India and there was only one leader, who guided the political and economic character of free India, with great skill and it was impossible to carve out a distinctive political philosophy by any political party. With the spread of education, people all over India. become aware of disparity in equitable distribution of income. Mixed economy as championed by the Govt in power was not generating enough money and importation of wheat and other food grains, saved mass starvation. With new technology at their hands, western countries were making tremendous industrial progress. Spread of technical education in India needed modern industries, in absence of which, we witnessed large scale migration of engineers and doctors to other countries. In fact, this type of migration started long ago.

After 1980 Indian economy was opened and we see marked decline in left wing philosophy, even though Communism maintained their presence felt in Parliament, because of their large following in two states, West Bengal and Kerala. Narendra Modi enjoying absolute majority, has been a blessing, soaking up all the attention and outrage as his main critic stumbled about trying to find out comfort zone. Sonia Gandhi has been a blessing too,  yes she has been drawing big crowds.  While mostly taking standard liberal reforms positions, that Narendra Modi can sand down and make acceptable to moderates among his critics.

 Secularism is not the binding force in India. Any political stalwart may be most secular in the morning and by way of defection, he may become most communal in the evening, after enjoying sound sleep, next morning, he announces his defection, to a party of atheists, every politician is an opportunist and devotee of several deities, but these deities don’t bind them together.

NO POLITICAL IDEOLOGY.

 Right now, every state and union territory have its own political ideology, which is based upon caste considerations and regionalism. This political ideology is neither left, right and centrist. Some countries are politically stable, because the government exercises tight control over of the countries’ politics and freedom of speech by restricting the flow of information, available to those, who live within country, but with openness, the government loosens control their grip and they tend to become less stable. The result is gross misuse of the freedom of speech. Fundamental rights turn into right to kill Dalits and other weaker section of society with immunity. Absence of a charismatic leader with a project to unite India is proof, that something positive cannot emerge from the darkest nationalist turmoil. The history of India before the advent of British is a series of wars trying to dominate others. Some of the politicians (rarest among rare) has a voice and a role to play, but this role cannot be played and voice is not even listened to.

 In natural resources a few states are abundant in natural resources but are not properly distributed. What is most surprising is that every party swear by welfare of every section of society. Some of the leaders declare themselves as followers of Dr Lohia, whose political philosophy is not known widely as this  is not taught in any school. Before the introduction of Electronic Voting Machine, there was different system of casting votes and Dalits in most cases, were not allowed to cast their vote., Booth capturing was very common. Now booth capture is not necessary. Just allow unauthorized foreigners to come for vote. There is a highly educated and much respected lady politician, who incite encroachments from a neighboring country to come in groups to vote for her political party without fear and stay here to enjoy  hospitality. Than there is a politician in power in South India, who has been accused of encouraging gold smuggling. He calls himself a true devotee of Marx. but he allows his own supporters to pray for his success by special offerings to a particular deity, who is popular in every corner of this country But story does not end here, several politicians in power have issued executive order, instructing bureaucrats to greet the criminals (Politicians) and show proper respect to them.

 As most of  elected representatives are criminal and corrupt, so in reality, it is the corruption which bind them together and this is the biggest contribution to the world by the biggest democracy.

FINAL WORDS.In India, no political party can claim to have political ideology of distinctiveness, They fight election on the basis of caste and creed and resort to corruption to amass wealth, disproportionate to their income.

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