Sangamitra Madras

People say there is “democracy” in India. We got “independence”’ in 1947 and India became a “re public” in 1950, they say. Prime Ministers have given great speeches from the ramparts of Red Fort, at New Delhi for 45 years now. The Indian Constitution in its preamble upholds the Principles of French Revolution namely Justice, Equality and Fraternity, Everything is OK, but… What does democracy mean? People participate in govt. everyone has a vote and every vote had one and the same value. The collective wish is trans formed into a quite rule. A leader reflecting the wishes of the people emerges. The ideas and principals voted for by the largest number of people are put into practice, the leaders voted for the largest number of people forms the govt. These are some of the tenets of democracy. Democracy is called the game of numbers. Democracy also signifies the repeated sub mission of leaders and rulers to the power of elections.

What is a republic?: Similarly, “republic” refers to the type of rule, It implies that the sources of power are the people. Democracy refers to people while republic refers to the system. From an all India angle it is democracy, and from the New Delhi angle it is republic, so, democracy and re public are two angles of the same phenomenon, holding aloft the people’s banner.

 

Fundamentals: The fundamentals are important. Wishes of the people must prevail. The majority will have its way while the minority will have its say. A nice, just, and fair system where lame, dumb and deaf too will participate. But in India the working of democracy is strangely crazy. Normally the majority should have the way. In India, a small 3% elite has the way, while the majority generally submits.

Majority are Dalits but? The majority of Indians are Dalits. About 30% belong to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Another 35% are Backward Castes. Thus 65% are Dalits. Ina true democracy a Prime minister should have come from these Dalit castes as they form the majority. But of the 10 Indian Prime Ministers not even one was a Dalit. Out of the nine Presidents of India, only one, Zail Singh, was from a Backward Caste. Is democracy working in India?

Monopoly of posts: Not only as President or Prime Minister, in numerable posts like that of members of Parliament, members of State legislatures, High Court judges, Supreme Court judges, IAS/IPS Officers, Class 1 Posts everywhere we can find up to 50% Brahmins, Some unseen hand is at work to place the alien Aryan Brahmins on top while the native Indian masses rot as slaves. This has been so at all times and at all places in Indian “democracy.”

Caste pyramid: Just as the Aryan Brahmins, the cobblers also are an all India caste, with almost similar numerical strength. Why have not five Prime Ministers of four Presidents come out of them? Why were not 25% population of the Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes able to produce cither one President or one Prime Minister while 3% population of the Brahmins have been able to do it repeatedly? It is just because the Indian society is a pyramedically structured instrument of exploitation the Allen upper castes Aryans getting all gains and benefits while the indigenous Dravidians called “lowest castes” sweat and toll. History, mythology, law, mule, justice, administration and even attitude of people are so conditioned to uphold the exploiter and suppress the exploited. Fraud called democracy: Democracy, therefore, is a fraud in India, There can be no equality between un equals. Without equality, it is nonsensical to talk of fraternity. Justice will only be a dream. Dr. Ambedkar says that a “low caste” person is trained to be a slave. He will gladly and readily forego anything democracy may bestow upon him. We, look at it differently, A Brahmin is the most wretched of human beings our civilization has ever produced. He has been trained for several centuries to look upon fraud, theft, cunningness and m justice as nothing dreadful: when he himself perpetrates. Until this root sickness called Brahmanism is Overcome democracy in India will be only democracy ie., rule by the wicked.

Excerpt Courtesy of Dalit Voice

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 4, 1993