Short-term policy actions are necessary, but are not sufficient. Tangible strategies will require ethically sound ideas with thorough understanding of ‘India and Indians'. For this, real meaning of Swaraj must be understood
It appears highly unlikely, under the prevailing conditions, that India could get rid of black money and corruption in the near future. It has prominently emerged, during the last two months, that people are willing to undergo hardships in the hope that once these two exploitative entities are removed, or substantially reduced; life would become easier and probably more dignified. The hope generated by the introduction of new currency has been considerably dampened by the numerous instances of recovery of hundreds of crores of new currency from people who had no business to hoard it.
Those involved in misdeeds and unethical diversions of new currency were all resourceful, educated and professionally competent persons and groups! They left the illiterate, weak and deprived and poor to suffer their well-planned and precisely executed machinations. Apart from illegality and immorality, these educated ones inflicted avoidable inconvenience and torture on everyone who was not in their fold.
It also stands confirmed once again that short-term administrative and policing actions may be necessary but are not sufficient to bring long-term sustainable improvements in the situation. Tangible strategies would emerge out of ethically sound and pragmatically implementable conceptualisations that indicate through understanding of ‘India and Indians’.
Yes, that should be possible provided the real meaning of Swaraj is thoroughly understood and put to practice by the elected representatives, bureaucracy and institutions created to prepare generations ahead. Unless India acknowledges its obligation to prepare young men and women — in its schools and institutions — fully imbued with humanistic, moral and ethical values, schemes and initiatives to ameliorate the lot of the weak and unprivileged shall be invariably reduced to ‘another’ source of accumulating black money and earning and amassing ill-gotten money.
This strategy could be woven around preparing young persons of character, commitment and eager to perform their duties for others, ready to serve others. They would be equipped to wake up citizens to ensure that only the honest are elected by people in place of money bags and unscrupulously greedy aspirants. Tough it may appear, but efforts must begin on these two counts. Churning of the minds of themasses must begin how to prevent the hijacking of real Swaraj by the greedy and unscrupulous.
Swaraj, literally meaning, ‘self-rule’, became a household term in un-partitioned India. When lokmanya Tilak declared, “Swaraj is my birthright”, it caught the fancy of every Indian. Mahatma Gandhi further expanded the horizons of Swaraj as was normally interpreted, to include moral, ethical and spiritual dimensions, apart from its political imperatives and economic implications. Attaining Swaraj, to him, was not mere relinquishing of the power of governance by the British and their departure back to their homeland, and taking over of the reins of the Government of India by the Indians.
It was much more than that: “Responsibility of ruling their country in the spirit of self control, as against of self-indulgence”. On April 28, 1946, he wrote in Harijan that “self discipline or rule over self is the first condition of self rule or Swaraj”. Narayan Desai, who spent first 22 years of his life in the Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi in his close proximity, outlines the elements of Swaraj as conceptualixed by the Mahatama: “It was a society where the individual got the opportunity to develop materially and spiritually without hampering the development of other individuals. It was also a society where the individual offered his talents and services for the society ad took care of the welfare of the individual. Gandhi envisaged a society where the individual will be devoted to the family, the family to the village, the village to a larger group of villages until these concentric circles would touch the zenith of the globe”.
Obviously, in such a society, there would be no place for violence, hatred, bigotry, distrust, exploitation and injustice. It would take special care of the disadvantaged, disabled and deprived. Those outcastes from the society for ages, on the pretext of caste and creed, shall have to be supported to enjoy a sense of dignity and self confidence along with others.
Another significant aspect that emerged in the Mahatama’s writings on Swaraj indicated that “Swaraj comes only from the performance by individuals of their duties as citizens”. In 1924, he said, “My Swaraj is to keep intact the genius of our civilisation”. To him, the power of the people; the voter; was not mere cliché, but the moral weapon to ‘regulate and control’ those in seats of power and authority!
Towards this, he wanted the masses to internalise a sense of responsibility. After 70 years, one wonders how many of our present-day-leaders care to acquaint themselves with ideas articulated by the Mahatma with superb clarity and pragmatism within the reach of every individual. Over the years, people have witnessed continuous dilution of practically every basic ingredient that was widely perceived as the foundation stone of Swaraj before independence was achieved.
As the Constituent Assembly consisted mostly of the stalwarts of freedom struggle, these do find careful inclusion in the Constitution of India. Have we accepted the erosion of values, shameful pursuits of the ‘wealth without work’ and ‘politics without principle’s’ as fate accompliIJ Had the constitutional framers not anticipated the rot that would set in once power is tasted by the generations aheadIJ
It is common knowledge that the quality of any system of governance is directly related to the character, commitment, integrity, moral fiber, and sense of responsibility internalised the people. The Mahatama had warned in 1922 that Swaraj would not bring happiness to our people as four factors would weigh heavily on them: Injustice, tyranny of the rich, burden of governance and defects of elections!
Realistic apprehensions were expressed by Rajendra Prasad as the President of the Constituent Assembly in his speech delivered on November 26, 1949: “Whatever the Constitution may or may not provide, the welfare of the country will depend on the way in which the country is administered. That will depend upon the men who administer it. It is a trite saying that a country can have only the Government it deserves. If the people who are elected are capable, and men of character and integrity, they will be able to make best even of a defective Constitution. If they are lacking in these, the Constitution cannot help the country. After all, a Constitution like a machine is a lifeless thing. It acquires life because of the men who control it and operate it, and India needs today nothing more than a set of honest men who will have the interest of the country before them”.
There can be no better articulation of the anxiety and anguish that every concerned Indian citizen experiences at this juncture of history. India needs awakeners in every section of the Indian society.
(The writer is former Director, NCERT)