Ability to take decision by the common man is doubted by many. It is argued that people would fight amongst each other and would never be able to come to a decision. Citizens have been taking decisions for many years in our country. It is a pity that we have forgotten our own history. From where did we adopt democracy?
Some say that we learnt of democracy from the US and some say that we learnt it from England. But the truth is that democracy has been there in our country from the times of Gautam Budha. Democracy then was far more powerful than it is today.
Vaishali was the first Democracy of the world. Demo cratic traditions are ingrained in our psyche and, therefore, we chose democracy naturally after independence in 194.A King’s son used to succeed the king. There were no election to choose the king but at the same time the King did not have absolute power. All decisions were taken by the gram sabhas. Whatever the people of the village wanted the gram Sabha wanted the same. The king had no options but to accede to the wishes of the people.
Today we elect our king once in five years but the king is not in our control. In ancient time people
did not choose the king but the king was under their control.
There is an anecdote connected with Vaishali. One day a Sabha was organized which was attended by the citizens and the King presided the meeting. Citizens proposed that a certain woman become the “Nagar vadhu”. That woman accepted but on the condition that she would be given Palace of the king as her living quarters. The proposal was accepted by the majority of the citizens and the Palace of the king was allotted to the Nagar Vadhu . The king objected as the Palace was his living quarter.
The people argued that the Palace was constructed with the tax paid by the people to the king and therefore, they were the real owners of the Palace. The wishes of the people prevailed. The king
vacated the Palace and built a new Palace for himself. It is a different matter that making a woman “Nagar Vadhu” was a wrong practice, even then. But the point that is being driven home by this example is to depict the power of people in the prevalent political system.
The President of our country lives in a sprawling palace spread over a plot size of 340 acres while 40 % of Delhi’s population is cloistered in over crowded slums. They do not have even two meters of space that they can call their own. Their existence is like in sects fostering in dirt and grime. Each hut sometimes has ten people living in it.
All ministers and government officers live in large bungalows all over Delhi. If such a thing happens suddenly Delhi will have sufficient land available to create colonies that can house all the poor. If
we as citizens propose that the president, ministers and government officers living in their sprawling houses should shift to smaller accommodation, will they ever listen? No, never.
That was democracy when people after passing a resolution could ask its king to vacate his palace.
Today we have no democracy when we are unable to even get a road fixed up in front of our house by passing a majority vote or to fix up a teacher who is not doing his duty or a doctor of a government hospital who is incompetent and lazy.
Such a democracy continued until 1860 when people took administrative decisions directly which were implemented by the king. Villagers had direct control over the administrative decisions about the village.Villagers had direct control over the format of education they wanted. They had direct control over the decision to means and type of irrigation that was suitable to their village. They were in control over their own health services. Our country was invaded many a times but they captured only the capital cities and did not disturb the working of the villages. They increased or decreased the tax of a village sitting in the capital but they did not meddle with the affairs of the village.
Lord Metcalf, the Governor General of India, wrote in 1830 that the foundation of this country is its
village sabhas. The people of village meet at a common point and take joint decisions. In 1860 the British brought in a law that destroyed the village sabhas because they had understood that until this
foundation is destabilized, they cannot rule India effectively.
A law was enacted to bring in the collector raj. All rights that the people had or the village sabhas
had, were snatched from them and given to the British collectors. Earlier the villagers ran the establishment for irrigation which the British started to control through an irrigation department. The villagers earlier had education establishment under their control. Now the British formed an Education department. All areas of life and living were now controlled by British through one or the other government department.
On top of all the government departments was a white man who was known as “The Collector” or “Burra Sahib”. It is bad luck that though we got independence in 1947 yet the rights of the people were not returned. The rights of village sabhas were not returned. We replaced the British collector with an Indian. We kept all the paraphernalia of the British government as it is: Its arrogance, its un approachability, its mentality of being a ruler. The Indian collector, a bureaucrat, is still the Burra sahib. Untill and unless the rights of the people are not returned to the people there is no hope of reform.
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