Under capitalism, unlike feudalism and socialism, the poor can claim to be part-owner of the biggest enterprise in the country. Democracy helps further broaden this shift of power to the downtrodden
let’s be clear — democracy and capitalism are inseparable. The world over, throughout history, feudal forces have resisted democracy. England has a great past when it comes to the rise of democracy as a political order.The lords fought with English Kings to have a Parliament-like body where their opinions would matter on critical questions such as taxation and wars. Once the House of lords became a reality, lords opposed the idea of the House of Commons. To neutralise the influence of the House of lords, the King promoted the idea of the House of Commons. Once the House of Commons, too, became a reality, both the Houses restricted voting rights to the underclass and women.
India’s is a unique story. Once the British left this country and a sovereign state with its well-written Constitution came into being, many people joined the communist movement seeking dictatorship of the proletariat. The idea of the dictatorship of proletariat in India was truly nonsensical. The term ‘proletariat’ refers to the industrial working class that lived in urban centres. Circa 1950, India was neither industrial nor urban. The majority of working people were either landless agricultural labourers tied to landlords or the peasants and artisans.
The concise history of the social characteristics of leadership of the communist movement would show that most top leaders had a feudal ancestry and, most often, an upper caste background. And, to a good number of the upper caste citizens, Indian democracy was unacceptable. Now, people with similar ancestry are opposing capitalism again, in the name of saving the proletariat. let us consider two situations which we have seen in our own lives. In feudalism, workers, peasants and artisans can never become shareholder in the farmland owned by landlords. It’s not that business and manufacturing don’t exist under this system. However, in feudalism, businesses are mostly individual or family-owned. Workers under such family-owned businesses can never claim stake.
Another virtue of democracy is that it democratises even capital. In a developed capitalistic system, corporations are rarely individual/ family-owned. Individuals or families might have majority stakes, but there can be countless number of other people including employees who have stakes in their own companies. Come to Bombay House, which is the headquarters of the Tatas, and meet peons and clerks who have shares in Tata companies. A Tata Motors employee in Pune or lucknow can claim with pride that he/she produces a Tata bus or car!
Under capitalism, large corporations have a host of owners. The founder capitalist is an owner, his/her employees are owners, banks are owners, and even the masses have their shares. Also, corporations are duty-bound to release balance sheets at regular intervals. They also need to call general body meetings once a year. It is this general body meeting where representative shareholders and bankers alike are called in to review the performance of the organisation and take policy decisions.
In all societies the world over and in all kinds of systems — feudal/socialistic or capitalistic — owners or the influential people were in minority. Despite being in minority, they ruled the majority because of the absence of democracy. The universal adult franchise was the death blow to feudalism. But feudalism didn’t end in a stroke anywhere in the world. It took time as it evolved.
In India, feudalism is slowly dying. By 2030, India might become 70 per cent urban. As of now, only 31 per cent of the country is urban and 53 per cent people still depend on agriculture. In the United Kingdom, in contrast, only 1.4 per cent people depend on agriculture. Similar are the stories in Germany, France, the United States and Australia. In all these countries, machines have ousted landlords. Three prominent East Asians societies, too, have taken the capitalist path that once the West took. After dropping socialism, China is fast catching up with South Korea and Japan.
Where is India headed toIJ All societies that are modern and where people are happier follow the path that England presented before the world — that of capitalism. Under capitalism, ownership of enterprise is often social where poorest of the poor can claim to be part-owner of the biggest enterprise of the country. England’s capitalism that spread over large part of the world shattered the notion of one individual/family owning the entire business. If you still have any doubt about it, just find out the caste background of intellectuals opposed to capitalism.