The falacy that democracy = freedom is best illustrated by India. I point to the naxal movement as also to the tsunami of corruption scandals exposed these last 2 years and rest my case.
How different is India from Egypt?
Only in ONE way – freedom of speech. When that was abbrogated briefly during India’s “Emergency”, it led to a revolt just like the one in Egypt; except India dealt with it in an election. Everything else remains comparable with the situation in Egypt.
The irony is human beings aren’t actually looking for democracy; People looking for equity, fair play & justice and the freedom & opportunity to aspire for a better life. Thats what all the hoopla boils down to.
This isn’t my own theory; it’s Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs I was taught at IIMA. The only exception is he postulated it in the context of marketing management!
The public needs a “simple” and “single” idea to get transfixed upon and then chase mindlessly. That’s why they termed it as “democracy” – and made it marketable. And like all marketing, they spin the benefits and not the duties & drawbacks.
Actually, dictatorships (aka Kingdoms) which ensure that the aspirations of it’s people are met enjoy a great deal of harmony and progress even though their freedom of speech is delicately limited: UAE, KSA, China, etc. apart from the whole history of Indian Kings over a thousand years!
Conversely, when people find that the only access to prosperity and a good life are the preserve of a few, while the majority are left to face an unresponsive administration and justice & equity is only available to the few connected, rich & famous, their experience is one of denial of ‘freedom’ even if their laws theoritically grant them the ‘freedom’ – equity, justice and a good life.
This is India’s situation. And growing worse with an inept and corrupt ruling clan.
Since this realisation is slow to dawn, so will the pressure be slow to build to a bursting point. But when it does, and I dare say it will, the events of Egypt will look like a low tidal wave against the tsunami that will be witnessed.
The Egyptian revolution is credited to the youth using the internet/social media as a tool to communicate and gather in the streets. Even though they “feared” the authorities would swoop down on them for their anti-establishment posts.
Yet, in India, we do NOT see people expressing themselves freely, even though we “enjoy” a theoritical freedom of speech. Why?
It’s the fear and selfishness of the middle class, not the regime that is their worst enemy.
For that to change, the middle class must reach the depths of the “experience” of life as the rural poor did – like the Naxals. Till then, the pressure will continue to grow in the cooker with no outward signals of an impending explosion.
@jsvasan
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. – Marcel Proust