Book/Film Review- 4
Javeed Alam
Who Wants Democracy
Orient Blackswan, Rs- 325/-
Javeed Alam, an eminent professor, writes this book ‘Who Wants Democracy’ in 2004 under the series—Tracts for the Times—of publisher Orient Blackswan to examine the rapid changes, in the internal structure of Indian democracy.
Tracts for the
times attempts to provide a meaningful information, critical perspective, and
theoretical reflections on various themes written by eminent social scientists,
journalists, lawyers and social activists, that is edited by S. Gopal, Romila
Thapar and Neeladri Bhattacharya.
Freedom is a
covenant between the elite and the masses
The book starts
with the definition of modernity and later he theorizes the democratising
modernity. In his opinion, the inauguration of democracy in India was the
result of a covenant between the elite, the middle class and the
intelligentsia, on the one side and the ordinary people in their great
diversity, with all their problems, on the other.
He argues that initially,
the ordinary people had great power of mobilisation against exploitation, but
in a short period, they went backward from the Pabna and Deccan revolts to
Fakir-Sanyasi insurrections.
This notion is
extremely acclaimed in the centre-left intelligentsia and the liberal circle
but denied by the people who are not part of this club and appreciate the
Fakir-Sanyasi rebels as a revival of cultural nationalism.
Mandal Reward:
Benefiting Democracy
The implementation
of Mandal commission’s recommendation impacted the internal function and the
structure of Indian Democracy. Alam categorized these in several
points—‘leaders who occupy positions in democratic institutions are lack in
principles and prone to shift loyalty’ and ‘a sharp increase in social
disharmony’ and therefore caste conflicts became the bane of politics with
figures like Laloo Yadav, Mulayam Singh and Mayawati, are two of them.
He portrayed the
‘Public Confidence’ as a source of democracy and argues that Indian governments
have solved none of the problems- work, food, shelter, health etc, even after
the public have not lost confidence ever and always believe in democratic
processes and vote with enjoy to maintain the sustainability of Indian
Democracy because democracy is a weapon of the weak.
Making of Indian nation and role of civil
society
Explaining
the making of the Indian nation, Alam observes that the dominant secular
Nehruvian model is now threatened by the communal politics and regional
assertion. The monolithic conception of nation derived either from the secular
or from the Hindutva has been rejected by the linguistic cultural regions and
multiple ways being Indian is taking shape over a period of time.
The
elites who are educated and capable of exercising their rights constitute the
core members of the civil society and set the rule for the functioning of
democracy in India without the support of a very large part of the civil
society.
Despite of some weaknesses, the book is readable for understanding a different point of view on Indian Democracy. The rise of new middle class, role of civil society, the elite-masses relationship and a deep analysis of Hindutva are the themes of the book that Javeed Alam describes.
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