Our economy, polity and society, are in an unregenerate mess today. There has been surfacing of a crude kind of materialism, an unlawful lust for unearned income that is playing havoc with youth psyches. Who else can tackle the growing barbarity, obscurantism and pitiless strictures except the truly educated citizens who know the effects and consequences of these forces operating in our body politic?
Despite the media hyperbole to the contrary, the liberalization and globalization of the Indian economy and society have not solved our problems. While wealth has been created for a privileged few, the common man’s lot has worsened with spiraling cost of living and myriad survival woes on a daily basis. Globalization has also created pressures and fissures in Indian society; all are fighting with hammer and tongs for a slice of the mythical pie that simply does not exist.
Gandhi’s teachings are passé; his message was aimed at uplifting the lowest common denominator of India society. So it has no relevance for all those who have risen above that denominator. To think we can practice continence in this day and age is absurd. To believe that we can yet find Utopia in village life is equally absurd. Urban values have so infected the villages of India that rural folk are sacrificing the security of the village economy to flock to towns and cities in search of jobs and modern lifestyles.
For democracy to succeed, it must be driven by education and educated people. None can create the vision of the good life that is attainable with limited means except intellectuals. Relying on the ballot and the judgment of the masses to ensure good and responsible governance is not a solution. We need an electorate that is guided by superior beings than just street politicians with their ‘give and take’ variety of politics. The very foundation of Indian democracy has been corrupted by the need to appeal to the lowest common denominator of society in public life. This explains the growing decay in our cities as more and more slums proliferate on the expectation that some nefarious politico will take up their defense in return for votes. As a consequence, criminal activity with the attendant violence has been legitimized in these urban pockets of poverty.
Today the masses are reduced to bread and materialism; they cannot have a higher vision of life unless shown that vision by educated, thinking people. In the long run ‘roti, kapda aur makaan’ cannot satisfy the people; something higher and loftier is needed. By empowering the intellectual, true service will be given to the nation whose future will be shaped by thinking and motivated people – not robots and automatons who work for pay only.
A singular and tragic fact of the Indian republic’s advent into the 21st century is the recruitment of politicians of all hues and colours from the illiterate class. This development could sound the death knell for Indian democracy. Simply put, it presages rule by the mob and the street demagogue. So, will the educated now rise to save our democracy and the nation at large?
