Interests of the Governement authorities never matched that of ordinary citizens in India.
2. Predatory/Command Government
It is a well-established fact that economic and individual freedoms are necessary for the development of a nation. A Command Economy is definitely inconsistent with economic growth and development of the nation.
The reason for why India has such Predatory/Command type of Government (there is lot of evidence to prove this) lies in India’s colonial history.
Imperial powers (British Raj) get into the business of running colonies for economic gain (can anyone deny this fact?). British had indeed plundered the great wealth of the country and nobody can deny this fact.
Power is clearly asymmetric during the British rule. The rulers have the power to extract rents from the Economy, at the expense of the ruled (in the form of taxes etc.,). To create such a conducive atmosphere for wealth creation and greater control over the people, the Masters (here it is British) created the laws and regulations which are consistent with their goals. It doesn’t take much to realize this, isn't it?
It is clearly understandable that the British had framed laws that gave them the supreme power of control. During the British Raj, the Govt was the Master and People were its Servants.
Now let’s see how the ruling has changed post-Independence era (post 1947):
The laws which British had framed for their purposes continued to operate. The Institutions continued to operate as before, with minor cosmetic changes, such as renaming Indian Civil Service to Indian Administrative Service etc.,
Different people occupied the chairs but the functions remained exactly the same, as that were existent when British ruled us. In effect, it’s been the same old pay, on the same old stage with the same old script but different actors now.
Everything from the functioning of the Govt offices to the methods the Officials ruled the people, remained more-or-less the same. In effect, this can be seen as a British Raj 2.0
Unlike the United States, India did not have a Revolutionary war of Independence. Actually, India never had any revolutions, to speak of, unlike other countries, nor did it have a civil war.
Indians are, as a lot, are not very excitable, and prefer the laid back “Chalta hai” attitude. This attitude is predominant even among the highly educated people, even today, which is one of the factors that the Govt exploits for their own gain.
Hence, the British, having known this very well (about the laid back attitude of Indians), left in their own sweet time, when it suited them. They had extracted enough wealth out of India by then.
Let’s analyse constitutional differences between India and USA:
There are major differences in the case of India and US, though they were both British colonies at some time. The Americans won their freedom by defeating the British, and decided that they will not ever be subjects of a king. They gave themselves a new set of rules and were not interested in reusing or recycling British rules. This can be attributed to one of the major successful factors in the overall development of the country.
The Americans have written an absolutely brilliant constitution which gave the people power over their government. Americans are taught this in schools and they were made sure that they imbibe the basic principles and rights of constitution.
The American constitution spelled out what the Govt could and could not do. The constitution severely limits the power of the Govt, and prudently distributes it across three institutions – the Legislative, the executive and the Judiciary.
The people are the Masters and the Govt that they elect does what the people allow them to do.
In the case of India, the Govt is the Master and the people exist to serve it. The Indian constitution is a set of prescriptions and prohibitions limiting the freedom of the people.
What India needs now, is a fundamental transformation, a change in the rules of the game, not a mere change in the set of players.
The Independence that Indians should have fought for should have been about real economic and personal freedoms. Granted that Indians have the political freedom to choose but it is more a matter of servants choosing which master they wish to serve, rather than free people choosing who is to serve them.
I personally feel that these people who are fighting for anti-corruption, and which they did recently at Ramlila Maidan and Jantar Mantar, are asking for another institution (independent) which can punish the corrupt and that corruption will vanish. This, to me, is just like replacing one Govt authority (corrupt one which exists today) with another Govt authority. Does this really serve any purpose? It’s something like we might need another institution, in the future, to guard the current one.
The way ahead for India is to reduce the power of the Govt and shift it to the people.
Also, there is a need to educate people and demonstrate (atleast verbally) to show how rooting of corruption can lead to the overall benefit and development of the society.
The Govt definitely is aware of this fact about Educating people, and hence it fragments the population along caste and religion, easily manipulating them by withholding and granting favors to groups as needed to maintain control. That divide-and-rule worked in both British Raj 1.0 and British Raj 2.0. Don’t you agree this for a fact?
The Govt, having known the fact that the, if people have all the information, that will be a huge trouble. Hence, the Govt starts to monitor and control the flow of information to the people.
The citizens should be educated on such knowledge and only then can we have that power to get ourselves out of the Govt clutches.
The Unfortunate fact is that we have to realize that freedom does not come without a struggle. The illusion that India is a free country is persistent.
The time has come that people need to get together and fight against the master/slave mentality that the Govt holds.
Please find my analysis below, which talks about root cause of the current state of India and our Constitution, the attitude (Master/Slave attitude) which political figures enjoy today and also talks about the "chalta hai" attitude of most of the Indians, which has created a perfect atmosphere for corrupt politicians.
There are two types of Government:1. Development-oriented government
Indian Govt falls under predatory/command type of Govt, which denies citizens freedoms for their selfish means.
It is a well-established fact that economic and individual freedoms are necessary for the development of a nation. A Command Economy is definitely inconsistent with economic growth and development of the nation.
The reason for why India has such Predatory/Command type of Government (there is lot of evidence to prove this) lies in India’s colonial history.
Imperial powers (British Raj) get into the business of running colonies for economic gain (can anyone deny this fact?). British had indeed plundered the great wealth of the country and nobody can deny this fact.
Power is clearly asymmetric during the British rule. The rulers have the power to extract rents from the Economy, at the expense of the ruled (in the form of taxes etc.,). To create such a conducive atmosphere for wealth creation and greater control over the people, the Masters (here it is British) created the laws and regulations which are consistent with their goals. It doesn’t take much to realize this, isn't it?
It is clearly understandable that the British had framed laws that gave them the supreme power of control. During the British Raj, the Govt was the Master and People were its Servants.
Now let’s see how the ruling has changed post-Independence era (post 1947):
The laws which British had framed for their purposes continued to operate. The Institutions continued to operate as before, with minor cosmetic changes, such as renaming Indian Civil Service to Indian Administrative Service etc.,
Different people occupied the chairs but the functions remained exactly the same, as that were existent when British ruled us. In effect, it’s been the same old pay, on the same old stage with the same old script but different actors now.
Everything from the functioning of the Govt offices to the methods the Officials ruled the people, remained more-or-less the same. In effect, this can be seen as a British Raj 2.0
Unlike the United States, India did not have a Revolutionary war of Independence. Actually, India never had any revolutions, to speak of, unlike other countries, nor did it have a civil war.
Indians are, as a lot, are not very excitable, and prefer the laid back “Chalta hai” attitude. This attitude is predominant even among the highly educated people, even today, which is one of the factors that the Govt exploits for their own gain.
Hence, the British, having known this very well (about the laid back attitude of Indians), left in their own sweet time, when it suited them. They had extracted enough wealth out of India by then.
Let’s analyse constitutional differences between India and USA:
There are major differences in the case of India and US, though they were both British colonies at some time. The Americans won their freedom by defeating the British, and decided that they will not ever be subjects of a king. They gave themselves a new set of rules and were not interested in reusing or recycling British rules. This can be attributed to one of the major successful factors in the overall development of the country.
The Americans have written an absolutely brilliant constitution which gave the people power over their government. Americans are taught this in schools and they were made sure that they imbibe the basic principles and rights of constitution.
The American constitution spelled out what the Govt could and could not do. The constitution severely limits the power of the Govt, and prudently distributes it across three institutions – the Legislative, the executive and the Judiciary.
The people are the Masters and the Govt that they elect does what the people allow them to do.
In the case of India, the Govt is the Master and the people exist to serve it. The Indian constitution is a set of prescriptions and prohibitions limiting the freedom of the people.
What India needs now, is a fundamental transformation, a change in the rules of the game, not a mere change in the set of players.
The Independence that Indians should have fought for should have been about real economic and personal freedoms. Granted that Indians have the political freedom to choose but it is more a matter of servants choosing which master they wish to serve, rather than free people choosing who is to serve them.
I personally feel that these people who are fighting for anti-corruption, and which they did recently at Ramlila Maidan and Jantar Mantar, are asking for another institution (independent) which can punish the corrupt and that corruption will vanish. This, to me, is just like replacing one Govt authority (corrupt one which exists today) with another Govt authority. Does this really serve any purpose? It’s something like we might need another institution, in the future, to guard the current one.
The way ahead for India is to reduce the power of the Govt and shift it to the people.
The way forward is only through the power of Voting. To make this more prominent effect, people at all levels need to be Educated on the ill-effects which are plaguing our country today and how they affect a common citizen (you and me).
Also, there is a need to educate people and demonstrate (atleast verbally) to show how rooting of corruption can lead to the overall benefit and development of the society.
The Govt definitely is aware of this fact about Educating people, and hence it fragments the population along caste and religion, easily manipulating them by withholding and granting favors to groups as needed to maintain control. That divide-and-rule worked in both British Raj 1.0 and British Raj 2.0. Don’t you agree this for a fact?
The Govt, having known the fact that the, if people have all the information, that will be a huge trouble. Hence, the Govt starts to monitor and control the flow of information to the people.
The citizens should be educated on such knowledge and only then can we have that power to get ourselves out of the Govt clutches.
The Unfortunate fact is that we have to realize that freedom does not come without a struggle. The illusion that India is a free country is persistent.
The time has come that people need to get together and fight against the master/slave mentality that the Govt holds.
Even though, it takes time to clean the country of such predominant ailments, plaguing our country today, there needs to be a start somewhere and it is now the right time to start the struggle and each and everyone’s contribution will definitely help to root out the corruption at large and pave a new way for our young generations to come.
2 comments:
i am in office right now.
but surely will read and make related comment to the topic.
Well said Sir,I totally agree with you.We must support Anna now.
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