Prof. M. K. Bhat
When there was neither Kingdom, nor Kings, there was neither governance, nor governor; the people protected themselves by dharma.
Mahabharata, xii.59.14
Dharma has been the mainstay of Indian politics since times immemorial. Its versions may have taken new turns but the core is still alive and dominant on the Indian political horizons. Politics without dharma is null and void; it may either end up in appeasement, inhuman attitude towards the human problems or anti national activities. Dharma has often been misused as religion, thereby made an item ascribed to sectarian views but it in fact involves more than this. It is a way of life, socially approved code of conduct, which helps one to live in an amicable manner with others and also in harmony with nature. Dharma helped in the survival of foreign faiths with equal respect in India because it was based on the principle of compassion. It talks of peaceful living for all ‘Sarvav sukhinov Bhavantu’. It emphasises communal harmony, social values and proper utilization of finance for the use of society rather than for self pleasures. The current conflicts in society are a result of deviation from Dharma. The English through the teachings of Macaulay tried to scuttle it, but could not take its core from the head and heart of Indians. Its inherent appeal survived many onslaughts and got different interpretations because of its adaptability.
In post 1947 era, it was minimized as sectarian and made synonym for Hindu religion. This gave an easy rope to all those who wanted to exploit minorities for their narrow political benefits because they firmly believed that the gaps in majority community created by Britishers on caste bases were too wide to vote amass and voting by minorities amass can help them to gain power easily. Caste and religious politics became dominant, Dharma turned into a dirty word, people tried to make distance from it and a new term called secularism got its birth. This new term has no locus stand as far as Indian culture is concerned. It was best suited to vote politics and lead to the appeasement of a few at the cost of many. This divided the socio- cultural fabric of the country on the bases of religion and governments without compassion came into existence. The protagonists of this thought tried to use it to its optimum, secured votes by creating threat perceptions in non Hindus and projected themselves as the saviors of minorities in India. Political parties extensively reaped short term benefits from this fodder in last seventy years of independence. This appeasement of few at the cost of many, lead to an undercurrent for the revival of Hindu religious sentiments.
It may be worthwhile to mention here that the British attitude of dividing Indians on religious lines culminated in the bloodshed of people in 1947 leading to the partition of the country. In the post independence era pseudo secularism based on the self interests made Kashmiri pundits refugees in their own country. They had to bear the cost of being Indians at heart. Such instances are nowhere seen in the history of India during the era when dharma was dominant on the conscience of rulers. People were not persecuted for bearing their allegiance to one or the other faith rather India has been proud of giving a proper place to all those religions which came from outside be it Zoroastrianism, Christianity or Islam.
In the post Ram Janam Bhoomi dispute era, religion has become a buzz word for political parties. It bears fruits for them and the country today stands at cross roads between those who try to protect pseudo secular values at any cost and those who see interference in religious affairs in each and every thing. The protagonists and antagonists of secular values have lately become nationalists and anti national stooges in every television channel discussion. The nationalists indianise each and everything while as the other group denounce every such move irrespective of the fact whether it is in national interest or not. Indian polity revolves around these two things.
In the recently conducted elections in Gujarat people eloquently reminded the two big parties to follow Raj Dharma and to desist from gimmickry. It emphatically conveyed the ruling party to concentrate on job creation and agriculture development. It reminded the BJP of economic development and to give a practical shape to the slogan ‘sab ka sath sab ka vikas’. The ruling party may be performing its Raj Dharma, if it gets success in job creation. It needs to see that no one sleeps without food, children get proper schooling, old are taken care of, women get their share of cake and no farmer commits suicide. This can be possible by escalating the domestic demand of goods in the country by reviving the construction sector, small and medium industries and tourism. These sectors bear enough capacity to create jobs in the country. The high growth rate attained through service sector is not creating more jobs, the industrial and agriculture sector need to be strengthened for making things easy for the common man.
It is an age of information and theatrics cannot help political parties for too long. They have to think about the welfare of people and the opposition shall not oppose for the sake of opposition rather it must appreciate the positive steps of government and expose their wrong doings. This will develop confidence in people about the attitude of political parties and can be a stepping stone for healthy democracy. The parties across the board shall desist from colonial legacy of negative politics based on caste and religion.
The sole agenda of gaining power by Modi hate brigade bears no value for People; the latter want a solution of their problems. The opposition by doing its Dharma of raising the voice of the neglected will perform a great service to the nation. While performing their respective roles both the opposition and the government shall in no way neglect that country, not self interest, stands first. They may have to work hard for restoring the esteem of constitutional bodies rather than degrading them as per their own agenda.
Raj Dharma holds politics as a tool for the development of society rather than concentrating power for self development.
(The author is Director (MAIMS) Guru Gobind Singh Indiraprastha University Delhi)
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