The
58th Republic Day Of India
By Mirza A. Beg
26 January, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Indians
are proud to celebrate the 58th, anniversary of the founding of the
Republic of India, “The Republic Day”. Though India became
an independent country on the 15th of August 1947, but for political
convenience, for a while in name only, it remained a part of the British
dominions. It took more than two years of very hard work by the constitutional
convention appointed by the founding fathers, under the leadership of
Dr. Ambedkar, an untouchable to design a thoughtful and inclusive constitution.
It was officially adopted on the 26th of January 1950. India the political
state became the Republic of India.
On the Republic Day India
awards high honors to its citizens who have contributed to peace and
growth in all fields of humanity, arts and sciences. Among the many
deserving peace activists, this year the recognition of Teesta Setalvad
is particularly noteworthy. She could as well be awarded medals for
bravery, because in the face of bigotry of some lethal forces, to be
a voice of reason and resolute advocate of the rights of politically
weak and marginalized is the greatest act of bravery. Award to her does
credit to the Government and people of India
Democracy, especially a liberal
democracy in a huge sub-continental, mutli-ethnic, multi-lingual and
multi-religious country is very difficult indeed. It becomes even more
daunting where many communities that make up the fabric have long and
rich histories of rise and fall of indigenous empires that they are
proud of, and some hark nostalgically to those gone by days. Those pre-modern
norms were based on ethnic supremacy of some casts and a history of
perennial, structural deprivation of casts at the lower rungs of the
economic, social and religious ladder. India has struggled to right
these wrongs with inevitable resistance and numerous setbacks.
To say, it is very difficult
to create and sustain democracy in such conditions is an understatement.
In the wake of the Second World War it became very clear that imperialism
practiced by the Western democracies was an obvious oxymoron and on
its last legs. Hundreds of countries including India, with artificial
borders designed for the convenience of the imperial powers, woke up
to a new dawn and felt the invigorating winds of change in Asia and
Africa. Unfortunately almost all of them except India fell to the lure
of dictatorships promising shortcuts to fast and easy solutions to the
myriad problems partly a colonial legacy. They never found solutions.
Dictatorships only created more problems, succumbing to the exploitation
by superpowers or past colonial masters. They only succeeded in strangling
their citizens with false promises. A few of those countries, after
many pitfalls, have finally awakened to learn from India that there
are no short cuts.
To build a democratic republic
requires hard work, unplanned sacrifices and to grow deep sustainable
roots, it demands tremendous patience in the face of terrible challenges.
The growth of democracy in India has been full of pit falls. The forces
of bigotry that inevitably take advantage of democratic values of tolerance
have menaced India continuously. They have often succeeded in sowing
mayhem in different regions of the country and the struggle has been
arduous. The protection of the right to free speech of fascistic organizations
that indulge in mayhem to violently deny these rights to others, mostly
minorities have been excruciating. Many innocent lives have been lost
owing to treachery of some in power taking advantage of inevitably slow
and inherently cumbersome methods of democracy. These victims in effect
have been forced, unwilling martyrs, or one may say sacrificial lambs
at the altar of democracy. It indeed is terribly shameful and sad, but
abrogation of constitutional guarantees of free speech and free assembly,
even when reprehensible forces exploit these rights under the umbrella
of democracy have been the death knell of the states that have fatally
spiraled into the abyss of dictatorships, scrapping the constitution.
Though draconian shortcuts
to rein in undemocratic forces are often very appealing, they tend to
destroy the very system leading to the evolution of a civil society.
It is a conundrum for all decent people, but so far no easy answer has
emerged.
It is a credit to the sustaining
vision of the founding fathers of Indian democracy and Indian people
that with all the terrible pitfalls and many horrendous mistakes of
omission and commission, Indians have maintained a generally upward
trajectory towards a better tomorrow with a patient nurturing of a democratic
republican form of government. The price paid by the sacrifice and the
blood of innocent victims and faith in democracy has helped India to
emerge from the depths of colonial past, poised to take its place among
the modern nations and the potential to be one of the great powers of
the 21st Century.
Mirza A. Beg invites your
comments at [email protected]
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