DOES INDIA NEEDS DICTATORSHIP FOR PROGRESS?

Dust and smoke billows out from a residential house which was blown up during a gunfight between militants and Indian soldiers in Durbagh village of Chadoora, 15 km from Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir on March 28, 2017. One militant was killed and an Indian soldier injured during a 10-hour-long gunfight. Three civilians were also killed and at least 15 injured during clashes near the gunfight site. Photo courtesy Agencies SOURCE - NAM NEWS NETWORK

Mukesh Devrari

First, Young generation of Indians are least bothered about freedom and liberty ensured in this country to each and every citizen. They feel too much of freedom is hampering decision making and implementation of policies. Students, mostly upper caste, who have never seen any hardships in life, have been coaxed to believe that democracy in India is a barrier in our rapid progress and economic development.

These emerging militant nationalists are not ready to accept that almost all rich nations on this planet are also thriving and stable democracies. No dictatorship has ever achieved what free nations have achieved in terms of political, social and economic progress. They counter this argument by saying that all democratic nations which could rapidly develop in the last century were smaller nation states. They had smaller problems. The country like India cannot succeed because it has a huge population and complex society.

They ignore that the US has a population of more than 300 million and it is the world’s largest economy. Japan, the world’s third-largest economy has also a population of around 100 million. The difference between a dictatorship (North Korea) and democracy (South Korea) is not visible to them.

Secondly, military personnel are the utmost symbol of sophistication, discipline and progress for these youngsters. These students have developed this creepy understanding that all civilian officers and bureaucrats are corrupt. They have been given more preference and prestige in comparison to their counterparts in armed forces. They have not accepted yet that the greatest part of Indian armed forces is that is totally subservient to elected government aided and guided by the civilian bureaucrats.

Third, they argue that armed forces must play a role in the civilian government of this country. This kind of perverted reasoning is quite common in Pakistan. In Pakistani newspapers, not in left-leaning and moderate papers like Dawn but in the right-wing press, many eulogize military dictatorship and argue that it is preferable than the elected government. It is not difficult to see why dictators cropped up every now and then in our neighbourhood and could rule without any popular opposition for decades. Right-wing ideologues and outfits prepare a ground for such thoughts on a continual basis. Whenever favourable opportunities arise there masters make a killing.

Fourth, our militant nationalists also argue for military-style hierarchy in governing India. No one should be allowed to question once something has been decided. They believe that prescription has to be written for all from the above and must be thrust down upon the throats of common masses. They have no sympathy for public participation in governance and have hatred for any kind of dissent. They cease to be human and immediately argue for crushing dissenters with utmost brutality through the state machinery.

I gave them a situation and asked them to respond. Suppose you are working in a factory and your employer makes millions of dollars of profit every year, but he pays very low wages to his employees to maximize his profit. After working for years you may expect more salary if your employer refuses to accept your demand after repeated requests.  Don’t you think it will be proper recourse on your part to protest against your employer, raise slogans, take out a rally and make all other efforts for fulfilment of your legitimate rights?

They retorted, “Why anyone should demand more salary. What they will do with more money. In this country, civilian bureaucrats are already paid more than they deserve. Military personnel are paid less. Once something has been decided as adequate, no worker in any industry has the right to demand more.” Concepts like human dignity and human rights are seen with utmost disdain. Rule of law and the concept of justice have no meaning here.   

Fifth, they oppose affirmative action. In India success of RSS and its concept of cultural nationalism, which can also be described as Hindu Nationalism, represents Brahminical supremacy. So, it is quite natural that they are against any kind of affirmative action. They oppose reservation tooth and nail. They declare that there is no discrimination in India. They repeat an age-old argument that reservation should be given on an economic basis and not on caste basis. Reservation leads to inefficiency.

I think Reservation for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes is essential. Otherwise, they will always be subservient to upper castes. Although reservation has not changed social realities much for any of them, still it created thriving middle class among them, which can argue for its rights. It is not viable to give reservation on an economic basis. Economic situation can change anytime, one can overcome it. But in a fixed social hierarchical order like caste system, one cannot overcome caste. Dalits require constant and perpetual assistance for many more decades to regain human dignity. At one point Ambedkar implied that without changing religion they may never get rid of it. They rejected all this.  

Sixth, Our young militant nationalists see an ultimate hero in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They have no qualms in saying Modi should impose emergency and must remain the ruler of India for the next 40 years. You need a certain amount of immaturity to say this kind stuff.

When I reminded them about the national emergency in 1975 and asked them about the implications if Indira Gandhi would have continued the emergency. They replied, “India needs elected and acceptable dictator”. Perhaps the acceptable dictator here means someone acceptable to the majority community.  

I personally think, if this kind of militant Hindu nationalism succeeded in pervading all campuses and became part of dominant discourse. Then we will definitely have Mardan like incident India very soon. But another Mashal will be killed in India not for being blasphemous to god but for being blasphemous to the nation-state.

Last, India should brutally crush all dissenters. They also firmly believe that there is no world order which will raise voice against the human right violations. The United States and its allies ignore human right violations in friendly dictatorships. India must crush all dissent with iron hands and befriend powerful nations so that nobody raises a question on what we do internally.

This article is based on my conversation with my students. It tells you about the held beliefs of students who feel affability to the right-wing ideology. It tells you in a strange way about what inspires them. How they have been taught to believe certain things without questioning. Rather than having a moderate take on things, they prefer extremes. 

With time their thoughts may evolve and they may not glorify state violence as they currently do. As a teacher I like this kind of conversation with students. They give me an opportunity to test the level of my patience and endurance for unstructured conversations. It convinces me that simple truths must be repeated in simple words. Concepts like liberty, freedom, democracy, rights etc. must be continually discussed. It's a not finished affair yet. 

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