Victim of anarchy?
I am a common man, rather a common working man leaving his family hundred miles away in search of an earning. Holidays are so welcome relief for a working person! And if you are not in love with your work, you will just be yearning for those lazy days. So, one day when I had got few such golden holidays, without further ado I planned to go to my native village so that I could meet my family members after few long months. Luckily I was able to book a berth in the sleeper class of an evening train, thanks to online booking system. It was a hectic day for me; somehow finishing my qouta of work in office, I had to literally run to catch the train on time. By the time I had reached the station I was almost exhausted. A tedious journey of an entire night was awaiting me, however, I was not much worried about that, because, I had a confirmed berth. I was tired and hence obviously there was only one thought in my mind at that moment – sleep. So, I was waiting impatiently for my train to arrive. I thought I would just jump to my berth and fall asleep on its arrival. But, alas, if I could know my ill-fate before!
That day, I saw–the station was more crowded than usual. Throng of enthusiastic people making groups among themselves were roaming at the platform; there were all kinds of people– young boys, men, women, aged persons. Literally a sea of people. They were certainly not regular commuters–I assumed. Looking at them, I wonder whether there were some special events in the city, as otherwise such unusual number of people would travel only in festive seasons. Of course I was right! Overhearing conversations among them, I got to know that there was indeed a big rally in the city arranged by a popular leader of an organization. These people had come to attend that rally from far away villages or small towns and now were heading back by this train. At that moment one thing amused me– the number of people at the platform were many times bigger than our poor train could carry and the train generally had only few general compartments. Moreover from their conversation I could understand that they were least bothered about buying a ticket.
Anyways, the train had arrived, before I could move an inch, a sea of people ran towards it. Being in India, I was not new to these scenes; if you don’t occupy a seat as early as possible in a general boggy, you will definitely be in trouble. So, I could understand the situation.That day, there were more people would travel in the unreserved compartments, hence, there would be even more competition. Somehow collecting my luggage I tried to walk towards my compartment, but I was almost kicked away by the current of human. It took me few good minutes to understand that these people were not heading only to the general unreserved compartments, actually they were jumping all over the train. By the time I reached my berth, the compartment was jam packed; there were people and people all over. Three young boys were lying on my berth and giggling, pulling each other’s legs in merriment. I saw in other berths also same drama was going on. I approched the boys and asked them to vacate the seat showing my ticket. They almost ignored me and asked me to go away. Then I saw–few hapless passengers like me with tickets were roaming to and fro. What should we do? Someone suggested – let’s inform the ticket checkers or Railway police. But, we knew – that was to no avail; they could not do anything in this situation. We overheard the gossip of the people who were boasting about their famous leader and their skirmish with police that day. We were indirectly got our warning; how dangerous and unruly they could be!
However, it took us little time to adapt the situation. After all we are also common man! Had I not been staying in the city doing a little job, I would also perhaps be one of them. I may not understand what our leader preaches, but I am quite eligible to join his group of protestors and shout slogans. So, without wasting our precious time, we sleeper class passengers decided to invade the Air-conditioned compartments in the next stoppage. Let’s the train be a classless one! In the next stoppage we ran to an AC compartment, but, to our utter dismay, the AC compartment was even more crowded. However, one smart co-passenger found a pantry personnel near the urinal and he accommodated us in the box used for storing clothes. Suddenly we heard an amusing argument between few passengers. An old lady among the protestors started to smoke a bidi; perhaps some gentleman asked her not to do so inside the AC compartment, but, the old woman was adament too– she must smoke, and would smoke where she was!
Lying in the small cage like box along with few other passengers, I was wondering–did the great leader know what was happening in this train. Perhaps he would just ignore it; a throng of participants of his rally travelling without tickets in a government train without any little concern about others was not a big issue at all. Yes, not a big issue. Moreover you can’t control a huge group of people entirely. I knew it. I also knew that many enthusiastic participants were actually ignorant of the ongoing protest or too optimistic about the results; I also knew that many came there just to visit the city and had little interest in the rally.
After a sleepless night, I got off the train at the local station near my home. It was dawn then; a breeze welcomed me home. While strolling towards home, I was ruminating the bitter experiences of the passing night. So many questions were lingering in my mind! Does freedom mean irresponsibility? How responsible we are to enjoy the benefits of democracy?
How important demonstration in democracy is!
In a democratic country like India, People have every right to express their concerns, if the democratically elected government acts arbitrarily and cannot fulfill the expectations of the people. Even the constitution of the country provides for such right through the provision of freedom of speech.
Democracy, as we perceive it now, has reached present stage through many upheavals. From the autocratic kingdoms of medieval period, to the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini or colonial imperialism of European countries, the common people had to fight for their right tooth and nail. From the pages of history of mankind we have seen how people successfully defied the oppressive rules and freed the yoke of the oppression. We see examples of uprising of people as violent and ruthless as the French Revolution and on the other hand, as unique and peaceful as the Indian Independence Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. With the inspiration of charismatic leaders, people somehow, found some ways to protest against the misrule of the tyrants.
In Indian context, Mahatma Gandhi led a movement to free the people from exploitative colonial rule which was based on nonviolence (Ahimsa). He devised a way out in the form of ‘Satyagraha’, through which people could defy the oppressive rule without resorting to violence or armed rebellion. We may say that the forms of protest in India exist today like ‘Bandh’, ‘Hartal’, ‘Mass rally’ etc. are basically inherited from the Indian Independence Movement. These are great tools in the hands of citizen of our country to show their discontent to the Government in various issues of the state, if the state uses its power and authority in atrocious manner. However, people must use these tools judiciously; otherwise it may be very dangerous.
So, we have inherited intrinsically and also historically some fierce social traits through which we always keep an eye upon the activity of the state. However, in this context, we must remember that a nation or state is established by the people for their own benefits, particularly the democratic nations. A democratic nation can prosper only if the people of the nation wholeheartedly participate in the process of governance.
How too much demonstration can lead a nation to its doom
In this context, we may look into the matter how too much conflicts between the ruler and the ruled can lead the state of a democratic nation to a disastrous condition:
Disruption of public life: Whenever a demonstration happens in a public place, it generally disrupts normal pubic life. Ways of protest like ‘Bandh’, where people are asked to shutdown all the public or official activities, extremely affect the lives of common people. Usually, such demonstrations are led by some organizations, as such, if a common man even does not agree to the purpose of such demonstration; he has to follow the same in fear of the organizational power of the party, who calls the Bandh. General public services or facilities like transport, market, school etc. come to standstill in such situations.
Hindrance to economy: Normally various organizations resort to such means of protests which affect public life. Transport and communication and markets are the areas which are halted by agitation or demonstration. Complete shutdown like situations badly impacts small time businessmen. Additionally, such agitations may also cut down the transportation of various essential goods to different places of the country. In this way in a country like India, every year a huge economic loss is incurred due to the complete shutdown like situations called upon by various national and regional organizations. So, the purpose of such demonstration may be noble, but, these also hamper the society inadvertently.
Vandalism: Whatever is the form of governance or the state of law and order of a country, there are always some anti-social element in the society which always looks for proper opportunity to disrupt the order and stability of the society. In Demonstration like situation, where large number of people gathers in single place, such anti-social people get golden opportunities to satisfy their gruesome mentalities. Moreover, it is very easy to get agitated in such situations where even a common man may jump into untoward vandalism in the heat of the moment.
Vested interest of Political parties/organizations: In a democracy, power of a political party depends on amount of support it can garner from the people. The party, which enjoys the backing of the largest number of people, only can form a government. So, to keep garnering the trust or support of the general mass, the political parties always try to propagate their propaganda. Sometimes, just to get attention and support, they may mislead the people with their propaganda. In a nutshell, some power-hungry political organization or person may agitate a portion of a mass by taking chance of a false (sometimes genuine may be) issue(s) concerning the people; but their motive may or may not be wellbeing of society as a whole.
Unhealthy culture of activism: Power lies with people in democracy. Some shrewd, opportunist leaders generally organize large number of people in the form of rally, dharna etc., on the pretext of an issue. Generally some of such issues are genuine and concerns of the people relating to those issues may also be genuine. But, many so called leaders and their organizations make a career out of such issues. They actually don’t allow such issues to die down. They would organize a mass gathering or protest to showcase their power, but, actually they aspire to acquire an unheralded guardianship of the society, just to bargain with the authorities or any other party(s) for their own benefits. Thus, an unhealthy culture of activism grows which sometimes tends to destabilize the society.
Too much of everything is bad. Like everything else, society also needs balance. If sometimes tyranny of the Government suffocates a society or nation, likewise anarchism due to too much freedom to the people may also destabilize the society. For inclusive growth of every member of that society, perfect balance is very much necessary. That balance will come to a democracy if only most of the people realize their roles fully well irrespective of their social status. In a democratic nation like India, indeed people need to pull the string of power as and when necessary, but, it should be judicious and should not be based on vested interest of opportunist politicians or persons.
by Saralananda Prakash