Lack of coherence in Indian democracy: millions go hungry, spend night in open sky

By Harasankar Adhikari 

Just after India's independence, Dr. Rajendra Prasad declared that "it is a democratic constitution, and its successful functioning requires in those who have to work them, a willingness to respect the viewpoints of others and the capacity for a comprehensive accommodation. It does not function without taking into account the choice for voting, and the divisions in lobbies strengthen that hope. If the elected representative is capable and a man of character and integrity, he would be able to make the best even of the defective constitution. If they lack these, the constitution cannot help the country. After all, a constitution, like a machine, is a lifeless thing. It acquires life because of the electorates that 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."

However, after 75 years (and more) of independence, millions of people are hungry, have to spend the night under the open sky, suffer from ill health, and are unemployed, among other hardships. They are facing an uncertain future. On the other hand, globalization has fueled rampant competition between markets and consumers. Indians, irrespective of their own capacity, are drawn into a world of consumerism. Thus, the emphasis is on the money economy within the capitalist economic system. This facilitates the rise of opportunist groups of people who are blindly supportive of a particular political party. Consequently, a gradual intellectual, social, and ecological breakdown is disrupting human relations.

People believe that the world is irrational. In every sense of the word, it is not only pitted against external, non-human nature; it is also pitted against human nature. The current system is inherently irrational and anti-ecological. For instance, it has been observed that India is ruled by different political parties and their leaders. Every political party has its own strategies and methods for the development of the people. However, the primary focus of all these parties is to accelerate the development of the people while primarily exploiting people's ignorance to maintain their power.

Ultimately, our society is "trapped within a system of growth, of conflict with nature, of turning the organic into the inorganic. An ecological movement turns into a social ecology. Finding out the roots of the ecological problems reveals the underlying social problems of hierarchy, the domination of one gender by another, people by politics, and so forth."

According to Harold (1906), a coherent theory attempts to "make reality or understanding of reality rational; that is the point behind coherence. Coherence literally is a process of thinking out and giving reason to whatever our ideals may be or to whatever reality we are trying to create. It means giving a rational understanding to the reality in which we live—which does not mean that this reality is rational but that we understand how it came about and where it is going. We are now living in a period of incoherence. It denies the existence of rationality, the existence of history, the existence of ideals, and has essentially put a text under our noses and asked us to catalyze it."

Today, political violence is rampant across India, particularly during elections. It has become a tool for establishing absolute partisan control by a single political party. Political leaders incite violence to suppress the opposition. The electoral process itself is being terrorized. It is evident that there is little scope for positive political action aimed at empowering the people, especially at the grassroots level. Instead, it fosters a culture of political absolutism. Consequently, political murders and conflicts are commonplace. 

The rejection of moral beliefs and the possibility of ordinary people taking charge of their own development leads to the consolidation of power in the hands of political leaders, a so-called elite class, and stifles the imagination for alternative modes of development. The rapid deterioration of human relations stems from the intellectual poverty of political leaders. The abuse of people's ignorance will not allow for the long-term building of a progressive nation. The day will come when internal unrest within the country will make it vulnerable to external interference without any actual battle.