PARADIGMS OF DECOLONIZATION IN INDIA


Mukesh Devrari

Decolonization is a continuous process. We might have succeeded in throwing the British government out of this country seventy-five years ago, but as a nation, we failed in throwing out the British influence out of this country. The word British symbolizes the entire western world. It was not a single nation state. It was a manifestation of the European idea of supremacy over other beings. We achieved our political freedom. With it, by default we attained our economic freedom to some extent and utilized it for a few decades to advance our national interests. However, economics is no longer exists within a nation state alone, it exists in must bigger and connected global structure. Third is cultural freedom. India did not utilize its cultural freedom to ouster alien cultures out of this country, not in the sense of complete decimation, but in the sense of diluting western cultural hold on our society.

Political Decolonization
India is a success story. It is a great shining example for other Asian and African nations to follow. When the British government left the shores of India, they left behind broken society, totally divided into communal lines, and an extremely weak economy. At the same time, they had a deep impact on the illiterate population about their efficiency, intelligence and superiority, whom they subjugated for centuries.

It was unimaginable for western public intellectuals to think about a democratic India, where people have more reasons to disunite than unite. Fortunately, India had great leaders who were fully acquainted with the idea of liberal democracy due to their close contacts and exposure to the western society.

Despite many hiccups, this country moved ahead step by step. Our leadership was visionary enough to accept the popular verdict. Smooth transfer of power took place at various states and at the national level over the decades. India is the first nation on the planet where communists came to power through a popular vote. The Communist party won legislative assembly elections in Kerala.

Survival of democracy was almost like a shock. How a country like India, which is highly diverse, highly discriminatory, totally irrational, superstitious and overly religious can function as a democracy. How the illiterate masses of India will practice the art of political freedom through a parliamentary system evolved in Britain in more than eight centuries. Western intellectuals were sceptic how the Indians will imbibe the values and discipline needed in functioning democracy?

This country has proved all sceptics wrong. Illiterate, uneducated and marginalized communities in India participated in democratic processes more enthusiastically. Well to do portions of our population has less participation in the democratic processes. Political freedom not only includes right of every citizen to caste his or her vote without any fear, but it also includes right of every pressure group to influence the policies of the state through all non-violent methods which include criticism and protests.

Political freedom also includes the right of common citizens to aspire for the highest political office. To ensure this political freedom constitution of India made proper arrangements. However right to vote is not a fundamental right yet, but other rights like the right to assemble peacefully, form organizations for political purposes, freedom of speech and expression have been properly guarded.

There is only one dark spot in the political history of India. It is a national emergency which was imposed in 1975. During the emergency not only our grand old party failed us, but our judiciary also failed us, our media also put our honour at the footsteps of the ruling elite. The emergency lasted almost two years. It gave power to the ruling party to extend its own tenure for six months at a time for an indefinite period. During emergency Supreme Court ruled that ‘during emergency no citizen has a right to life’. Our media who was asked to bend started to crawl.

There were some courageous people among us who fought against the emergency, who were not ready to relinquish values and legacies of our freedom struggle. Finally, the emergency was lifted. Congress lost power. Constitution was amended and powers of any political dispensation to abuse the emergency provisions were heavily restricted. In the year 2017, the Supreme Court reversed its decision. Media is also much more diverse today and it is committed to liberal democracy rooted in neoliberal values.

Apart from this minor hiatus, the record of this country is more than satisfactory. We still prefer to vote to criminals and men of dubious credentials during elections. We defeated Ambedkar in general elections and we elected goons, dacoits, alleged murderers to our legislative assemblies and parliament over the decades. Still, when we compare ourselves with other nations, we have done fairly commendable job. In Pakistan, no prime minister could complete his tenure even once in last seventy hours. China has one party system. Nepal was a monarchy and still struggling to create a working constitution. Sri Lanka butchered its own minority Tamil populations and invited global condemnation. This list is endless. Many Asian and African states are struggling to survive as a democracy. India can afford to give itself passing marks in the section related to political decolonization.

Economic Decolonization

Political freedom cannot survive too long without economic freedom. What is economic freedom then, in the context of our discussion? It is definitely not a right of industrialists or capitalists to fire their employees as per their whims and wishes. Economic freedom definitely does not mean the right of an individual to start a business to make a profit with complete disregard for human health, environment, rules and regulations framed for regulating business activities. Economic freedom does not mean the right of an employer to practice gender discrimination and disregard the concept of natural justice of equal pay for equal work.

In the context of our discussion, economic freedom means the right of a nation state to pursue any economic policy which advances its national interests. Immediately after the decolonization, newly independent nation-states chose to tread on a path which eventually leads to self-reliance. Former colonies might have gained political control over the destiny, but economic decolonization was still elusive as economies of third world countries were closely tied to colonial powers.

Due to the rapid industrialization in former colonial powers, most of the invention which led to the creation of newer consumer products took place there. These former powers refused to cooperate with their former colonies if they chose to attain self-reliance and refuse to be a part of free trade regime.

Still, it was not easy for them to break the strong willpower and genuine commitment of these newly independent states to their citizens. They struggled economically, attempted whatever they could to improve their economic fortunes. Former colonial powers continuously undermined the efforts of these newly independent states. They put restrictions, sanctions and refused to cooperate with nation states who refused to join economic world order propagated by the western world.

Contemporary American experts on foreign policy openly boast that the US economic sanctions also played a prominent role in destabilizing the Soviet Union and finally in the destruction of socialist world order. India also could not escape the ideological onslaught of western world, which was powered by powerful international monetary organizations and international media.

Immediately after independence first Prime Minister J. L. Nehru declared the creation of ‘socialistic pattern of society’ as his government’s objective. India defined itself as mixed economy, where privately owned as well as state owned companies functioned side by side. However, India was more leaned towards the socialist economic model.

In 1991, India faced existential crisis, partly due to our own failings and partly due to global structures designed to destruct former colonies who charted their own independent path. This country did not have the money to pay for its monthly imports. International Monetary Fund (IMF) came to our rescue, but they attached many conditions on us. We were invited to join global economic world order led and designed by former colonial powers and their progeny to keep western supremacy intact in all spheres of human activity.

India caved in and decided to bring structural changes in the economy. It definitely led to the more inequality, but it also created a lot of wealth for huge population. Indian economy grew by leaps and bounds. But this new system is more beneficial to powerful former colonial powers than the former colonies.
In this globalized world, former colonies are totally dependent on economic might of former colonial powers. Third world seeks capital from western global giants. They willingly accept the invitation. In this new structure, western world has kept its influence and power intact without having a direct political control over others.

The absence of global brands from Third World countries ensures that they will never be the ‘net beneficiaries’ of globalization. China is the only exception which did not allow western nations to dictate terms to it. It used existing model for the benefit of its people in the best possible manner. Perfect example of their approach can be seen in the way they handled IT sector. China denied entry to global giants like google, facebook, twitter and Amazon. It encouraged Chinese nationals to make the best possible use of the huge national market by creating similar IT companies.

Chinese IT companies are today capable of raising billions of dollars for their expansion and invest billions in research and innovation. On the other hand, India prefers to define itself as IT superpower, but it does not have a single global product in business to consumer segment.

In short, former colonies do not have the power to pursue their independent economic policies. They cannot refuse to be the part of the global economic order led created by former colonial powers. Decolonization should include the abolition of coercive power in the hands of former colonial powers.

Even today, if any third world country chose to divert from the prescribed path, it is gagged, demonized and dismissed as a rogue state. Without complete economic freedom and liberty, the project of decolonization remains incomplete.

Cultural Decolonization

The third part of decolonization paradigm is cultural freedom. Unfortunately, in the modern world culture is also a part of the consumer market. Culture cannot be seen beyond consumerism in the west. Western world is looking for cultural homogeneity, not because Christianity is interested in it or benefitting from it, but because it helps western companies in expanding their economic interest.

Due to the extreme diversity and multiplicity of opinion in India, our society remained reticent about their cultural identity and ethos. Internal rifts and divisions also contributed in our defeated approach to express our cultural identity in forceful manner. Cultural freedom in this context refers to a global order which allows individual states to pursue and shape their cultural evolution without any external influence. However, it is unlikely to happen. As western films, music, songs, video games, cartoons, books, magazines, news channels, websites, fashion, culinary habits are expanding globally.

According to many western scholars, twenty-first century will be marked with cultural clashes. It will be the clash of civilization. Samuel Huntington wrote research on clash of civilization. It became so popular that he wrote a book with the same title to further propound his theory. In this hypothetical clash, India is not ever considered a challenger to western civilization. In fact, India and its cultural evolution are in sync with the western values. Both are moving in the same direction.

Individualism will prevail and traditional value system will wither away. Is there any way to reverse it? In the absence of internal movements and education system geared on completely western lines, it is highly unlikely to happen. Strong liberal tradition in India also opposes any cultural movement rooted in Hinduism. Left-leaning intellectuals strongly object to inserting Hinduism as a regressive and backwards-looking approach.

Here is a strange paradox. Left is a strong western ally when it comes to how culture should be shaped. Right is also a western ally when it comes to how the economy should be shaped. Left ideologues vehemently oppose economic prescriptions of the western world for third world countries.

In this land of paradoxes, people must not take an extreme position on any issue. In this land of Buddha middle path is the only path to ensure peace stability, tranquillity, love and affection. India can opt for few cultural traits of western society, we cannot close our doors completely, but at the same time, we must ensure that Indian culture remains at the centre of human life in this land.

end. 

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