RIGHT TO VOTE IS RIGHT TO LIFE WITH DIGNITY

 

    The Supreme Court has held that ‘Access to internet by Children is a FundamentalRight under the Constitution. 

    Right to Education itself was upheld as a Fundamental Right and made a part of Right to Life as per the Judgement of the Supreme Court long ago and accordingly inserted as Article 21A.  It was on the basis of the reasoned finding that without education (basic) a life with dignity was not possible.

    However, the 'Right to Vote' is not yet accepted as a Fundamental Right, by the Supreme Court of India till date.

 This post intends to examine the issue:

Section 62 of ‘The Representation of the People Act, 1951’ defines the Right to vote as below:

“62. Right to vote.—

(1)No person who is not, and except as expressly provided by this Act, every person who is, for the time being entered in the electoral roll of any constituency shall be entitled to vote in that constituency.

(2)No person shall vote at an election in any constituency if he is subject to any of the disqualifications referred to in section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (43 of 1950).

(3)No person shall vote at a general election in more than one constituency of the same class, and if a person votes in more than one such constituency, his votes in all such constituencies shall be void.

(4)No person shall at any election vote in the same constituency more than once, notwithstanding that his name may have been registered in the electoral roll for the constituency more than once, and if he does so vote, all his votes in that constituency shall be void.

(5)No person shall vote at any election if he is confined in a prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise, or is in the lawful custody of the police:

Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall apply to a person subjected to preventive detention under any law for the time being in force.

Provided further that by reason of the prohibition to vote under this sub-section, a person whose name has been entered in the electoral roll shall not cease to be an elector.

(6)Nothing contained in sub-sections (3) and (4) shall apply to a person who has been authorised to vote as proxy for an elector under this Act in so far as he votes as a proxy for such elector.”

         Now, what if a person does not have a vote, other than due to any of the exclusions in the above Section?

         The present dispute regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a case in point.

       Though the SIR has been conducted in earlier regimes also, the present exercise has been subjected to disputes for a variety of reasons.

The statutory authority for the Election Commission to conduct a revision of the Voter List, flows out of the following provisions of ‘The Representation Of The People Act, 1950’ :

“Section 21. Preparation and revision of electoral rolls.—

(1)The electoral roll for each constituency shall be prepared in the prescribed manner by reference to the qualifying date and shall come into force immediately upon its final publication in accordance with the rules made under this Act.

(2)The said electoral roll—

(a)shall, unless otherwise directed by the Election Commission for reasons to be recorded in writing, be revised in the prescribed manner by reference to the qualifying date—(i)before each general election to the House of the People or to the Legislative Assembly of a State; and(ii)before each bye-election to fill a casual vacancy in a seat allotted to the constituency; and

(b)shall be revised in any year in the prescribed manner by reference to the qualifying date if such revision has been directed by the Election Commission:

Provided that if the electoral roll is not revised as aforesaid, the validity or continued operation of the said electoral roll shall not thereby be affected.

(3)Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (2), the Election Commission may at any time, for reasons to be recorded, direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit:

Provided that subject to the other provisions of this Act, the electoral roll for the constituency, as in force at the time of the issue of any such direction, shall continue to be in force until the completion of the special revision so directed.

 

Section 22. Correction of entries in electoral rolls.—

If the electoral registration officer for a constituency, on application made to him or on his own motion, is satisfied after such inquiry as he thinks fit, that any entry in the electoral roll of the constituency—

(a)is erroneous or defective in any particular,

(b)should be transposed to another place in the roll on the ground that the person concerned has changed his place of ordinary residence within the constituency, or

(c)should be detected on the ground that the person concerned is dead or has ceased to be ordinarily resident in the constituency or is otherwise not entitled to be registered in that roll, the electoral registration officer shall, subject to such general or special direction, if any, as may be given by the Election Commission in this behalf, amend, transpose or delete the entry after proper verification of facts in such manner as may be prescribed:

Provided that before taking any action on any ground under clause (a) or clause (b) or any action under clause (c) on the ground that the person concerned has ceased to be ordinarily resident in the constituency or that he is otherwise not entitled to be registered in the electoral roll of that constituency, the electoral registration officer shall give the person concerned a reasonable opportunity of being heard in respect of the action proposed to be taken in relation to him after proper verification of facts in such manner as may be prescribed.”

 

    The state-wise data regarding additions and deletions through the current SIR is as below (Source: https://www.newsclick.in/exclusive-sir-probe-how-many-voters-did-eci-really-disenfranchise)

 

     The investigation by the Internet Freedom foundation reveals how these ‘logicaldiscrepancies have arisen: 

“The deletions and notices do not occur evenly partly due to how the software reads names which are the data entries. The transliteration engine's failures are systematic rather than random. "Xalxo", the spelling used by the Oraon community, was rendered "Khalkho" and flagged, Md and Mohammed, Sk and Sheikh, and Chattopadhyay and Chatterjee were treated as distinct persons. Each such mismatch between an elector's name, or a parent's name, and the digitised roll surfaces either as an unmapped entry or as a logical discrepancy of the parent-name kind, and therefore as a notice.”

The Wire in its report under the heading ‘In West Bengal, SIR Hearing Notices Surgein Muslim-Majority Districts’ dated 14.01.2026, states as below:

‘..the release of the Draft Roll and Absentee, Shifted, Suspected Dead (ASSD) list sparked resentment in Matua and other Hindu Scheduled Caste localities. These communities were hit heavily by deletions and no-mapping, due to which the narrative backfired. In recent weeks, however, the administrative focus appears to have shifted, through the SIR hearing process, towards minority-heavy Polling Stations (PS).’

‘In The Wire’s earlier constituency-level reading of the SIR draft rolls, “No Mapping” emerged as a key pressure point. Voters who could not be linked to the 2002 roll, the legacy anchor in the SIR 2025 framework, were effectively pushed into a higher-risk verification pathway. But the analysis also produced an inconvenient statistical outcome for BJP’s “infiltration” propaganda. Muslim-majority constituencies appeared among the most consistently mapped and, therefore, among the most documented. In Murshidabad, for instance, Domkal (77.67% minority population) showed just 0.42% No Mapping, while Raninagar (75.40% minority) recorded 0.91%, Hariharpara (74.96% minority) 0.60%, and Lalgola (77.29% minority) 1.1%.

Yet the district-wise hearing numbers reviewed by The Wire tell a sharply different story. Across districts, the share of voters called for hearings climbs steeply with the Muslim population share. Statistical analysis of the dataset shows a strong positive correlation between a district’s Muslim population percentage and the percentage of electors called for hearing per constituency, with a correlation coefficient of 0.79. In practical terms, this implies that approximately 62% of the variation in hearing-call rates across districts can be explained by Muslim population density alone.

The implication is stark: even where Muslims appear highly “mapped” (low No Mapping), Muslim-heavy districts still show the highest hearing intensity, suggesting the system driving voters into hearings is not primarily No Mapping, but other triggers such as “logical discrepancies”, duplicates and name-related mismatches, especially those amplified by script conversion and rigid matching rules.’

In this context, the provisions of the Constitution require to be viewed:

Article 325 of the Constitution of India mandates that “there shall be one general electoral roll for every territorial constituency for elections to Parliament or State Legislatures, and no person can be excluded from or granted a special electoral roll based solely on religion, race, caste, or sex”.

Thus, any exclusion on the basis of religion, race or caste, is strictly Unconstitutional.

Now, let us come to the question of completion of the appellate proceedings under the Principles of Natural Justice.

         The appeals against deletion from the voters list is governed by the Section 24 of ‘The Representation of Peoples Act, 1950’, which reads as below:

“Section 24. Appeals.—

An appeal shall lie within such time and in such manner as may be prescribed.--(a)to the magistrate or additional district magistrate or executive magistrate or district collector or an officer of equivalent rank, from any order of the electoral registration officer under section 22 or section 23(b)to the chief electoral officer, from any order of the district magistrate or the additional district magistrate under clause (a).”

          Now, as long as the above said procedure of appeal has not been completed, the action set out in Section 22 of the said Act is not yet complete and therefore as per the Provisio to Sub Section 3 of Section 21 of the said Act, “the electoral roll for the constituency, as in force at the time of the issue of any such direction, shall continue to be in force until the completion of the special revision so directed”. 

          In respect of WB, as per The Hindu report, 38.31 lakh appeals had been filed before the tribunals as per ECI   This in spite of the ECI stating that only 27 lakhs were deleted due to ‘logical discrepancies’. 

    However as per reports by an investigation by the Internet Freedom foundation, ‘Behind the deletions lay a larger suspect population, the logical-discrepancy software flagged 1.31 crore electors in West Bengal and 2.35 crore in Madhya Pradesh, 17.11% and 41.22% of those electorates, and West Bengal's count fell to about 95 lakh within weeks as the rules were modified mid-exercise.’ 

     As per reports in the Times of India, out of the above appeals, only about 1,26,194 could be decided as in September 2026 (much after the elections have been completed in May 2026) and out of that 93% appeals have been decided in favour of the appellants and have been re-instated in the voter list. 

The remaining appeals are pending.

         Thus when the appeal proceedings are pending, the voter list could not be considered as final and therefore the voter list that existed prior to the SIR ought to have been the basis on which elections should have happened.

         But, unfortunately, in spite of a litigation before the Supreme Court, this did not happen.

    During the Bengal SIR hearings, a Supreme Court judge is reported to have remarked that even if the right to vote was taken away in this election, people wrongfully excluded could come back and vote in the future. 

         It is in this context that the question arises as to whether ‘Right to Vote’ is a Fundamental Right under the Constitution or not.  News reports state that the Supreme Court has held that it is not a Fundamental Right.

        Article 21 of the Constitution of India reads as below:

“21. Protection of life and personal liberty

No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.”

     In the landmark judgment Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978), Supreme Court held that the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 is not limited to mere animal existence but includes the right to live with dignity. The court emphasized that the procedure established by law must be fair, just, and reasonable, and it cannot be arbitrary, oppressive, or unreasonable.

     In the case of Subramanian Swamy vs Union of India, (WP (CRIMINAL) No. 184 OF 2014) Supreme Court held that ‘Right to reputation is an insegregable part of Article 21 of the Constitution. A person’s reputation is an inseparable element of an individual’s personality and it cannot be allowed to be tarnished and that the right to reputation is an inherent right guaranteed by Article 21’.

     In The Cochin Institute Of Science And ... vs Jisin Jijo The Kerala High Court in its judgement dated 4 June, 2019 held that ‘the fundamental right to life under Article 21 encompasses the right of an individual to make choices and take decisions impacting the evolution of the individual.’  In doing so the High Court placed reliance upon the judgement of the Supreme Court in Puttasamy case where it had been laid down that ‘The freedoms under Article 19 can be fulfilled where the individual is entitled to decide upon his or her preferences. Read in conjunction with Article 21, liberty enables the individual to have a choice of preferences on various facets of life including what and how one will eat, the way one will dress, the faith one will espouse and a myriad other matters on which autonomy and self-determination require a choice to be made within the privacy of the mind.”

     The News Click in its report dated 22.06.2026 states as below:

“In West Bengal and Bihar alone, the state governments –elected on the basis of this faultily implemented SIR–have simply announced –without policy discussion or judicial scrutiny –that the ‘new voters lists’ will be regarded as the final electoral list and linked this to welfare programmes. Both states are now ruled by the extreme right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a political behemoth that has –in close collusion with a non-transparent Election Commission of India (ECI) been a “beneficiary” of this SIR process.

Put clearly, if a person’s name is removed from the voter list, their ration card is deactivated, monthly cash transfers are stopped, and even their bank accounts face cancellation. There are also local reports of the possibility of unilateral deletion from agricultural land records, especially if you are a disenfranchised voter from Murshidabad and Malda, Muslim majority districts! This policy effectively treats a deleted voter as someone who has lost their official status as a citizen without the final adjudication of their citizenship status.”

Depriving someone of the right to vote and exclusion from the voters list, could deprive them the very right to exist as a citizen and get any benefits from the Government schemes, which directly impacts their life as well as that of their children, could create a stigma in the eyes of others, as if they are illegal immigrants, as if they have fudged their records earlier, as if their exercising the right to vote earlier was by reasons of fraud or forgery or misstatement and consequently causes irreparable damage to their reputation and also the right to dignity which are enshrined in the Article 21 of the Constitution as has been upheld by the Supreme Court itself.  

Further, as pointed out by the Kerala High Court in the Jisin Jijio case, when the citizens have a right of choice under Article 21 read with Article 19, denial of the right to vote, unless as per the reasons set out in The Representation of Peoples Act, would tantamount to denial of the right to choose ones representative and as a consequence the Government and directly impacts ‘the right of an individual to make choices and take decisions impacting the evolution of the individual’.

If the Supreme Court is not able to see through these, the stature of the Highest Court would be sullied as warned by Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer as below:

"One day the people of this country will rise and say that we don't want this magnificent red stone edifice on the Curson Road because it is seen to be counterproductive and in turn the High Courts."

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY DUSSERA

 

DUSSERA 2026

20.10.2026

 

O King of might!
Who walks with a thud and voice resonates with thunder,
Whose chest is so broad as to face a thousand tuskers,
Whose flashing eyes could put to shame any striking lightning,
And who with a finger raised could make the mountains crouch.


O devotee of the Lord of Bull,
Your penance at his alter, in the snow capped mounts,
Brought you a boon by which the whole world trembled.


Then your gaze shifted to the Mother Earth;
Whom you wanted to be under your very feet,
Sublime, submissive and at your service.


For your designs, you had at your service,
The master of cunning, deceit and sorcery
As the artful minister and henchman,
And of a soul sister whose beauty, a thousand poets would sing, and yet,
Who would spit fire through her eyes and venom through her words,
Bringing out the deep frustration against the prince
Who had scorned her nuanced advances.


The elders who fostered you, showed the way and yet disagreed and
Those ministers who advised against your avarice,
You packed them off into exile as senile;
That brother who would stand for righteousness,
You called a traitor and drove him out;
Another brother stands by you,
Silent but weeping within, knowing very well,
Where all these will lead one to.


The prince who had been exiled by deceit,
By stories cooked up by crooked minds,
And yet had left the throne for the forests,
Has embarked on his pilgrimage,
To reclaim what was snatched away from him,
When he was confused and in mourning,
After his father, had left this world, heart blown to pieces.


He has left his widowed and mourning mother
And all the counselors and Ministers behind.
On foot he has covered the entire stretch,
And reached the threshold of your fortress,
Where you have kept hostage, mother earth,


The prince has raised for his service,
A mighty army of little ones,
Who can riot or mutiny due to tender age,
But would not, due to his countenance.


That tiny messenger who came into your kingdom,
Elbowed the gate keeper and peeped into your court,
Looked you in the eyes and mocked at you,
You have caught, humiliated and imprisoned;
Using all powers that you and your chieftains could muster;
But know Mighty one, known to burn things down,
You have lit a flame to his wagging tail.


Mother Earth is not an inert being,
But a vibrant force, whose consort is the all mighty;
Her consent cannot be taken for granted or
Her patience thought not to wear out.


At her behest, the mighty army shall come,
It shall bring you to your knees,
Empty your head of the crowns worn with fanfare,
Even when you cowered mutely before mightier lords,
And with a shaft, the prince shall suck out of your heart,
That deeply set desire,
To lord over the Earth until humanity would last.


For, the Lord of this Universe,
Gives not a boon to torment;
And drench the earth with tears and blood,
But only to realize oneself.


So, realize now, or you are gone.

The prince or his troops may not burn you down,
But you will fall by the weight of your own deeds;
And sink into the deep trenches of history,
As a being who wasted a grandly taken boon,
And brought disrepute to those who stood by him.

 

 

-        Manimohan

  

 

Before it is too late...let better sense prevail.

 

Thought is a river. If flows across ages and regions.

In India, in spite of various exploitations by Kings, Emperors and certain upper caste communities, in spite of invasions by the Mugals and the British, in spite of mis-governance by the Congress or the BJP, the life force of the Country continues to throb.  Sometimes, the pulse is very feeble, some times the throb becomes quite perceptible.

When after the Jalianwalah Bagh massacre, everything appeared to have been mowed down, there arose a storm.  It gathered momentum day by day and ultimately lead to the freedom of the country in 1947.

Then, the new rulers yoked to some dreams started their journey and in days and months to come became enamored by the belief that any thought process alien to theirs are against national interests.  State Governments not in line with the Center started to get dismissed.

Then, the party at the center itself got divided.  The pruning within the party saw to it that all regional satraps were cut to size.  In the ensuing hurry, the Queen felt extremely threatened and isolated and hence to put to rest the ghosts of her mind, imposed the Emergency.  

The next generation started its fight. Shanthi Bushan had already started it. Ramnath Goenka stood solidly as the real fourth pillar. Kuldip Nayar's pen showed the empire that pen was mightier than the gun. Jayaprakash Narayan took up the leadership. People like Kriplani and Fernandes were solidly with him.  The dark 19 months came to an end.

But the Janatha Party which came to power also followed in the foot steps of the Congress by dismissal of State Governments, not in line with their line of thought.  They also came down tumbling within months.

Again the Congress was back at the helm.  Mrs. Gandhi was assasinated and her son rose to power.  The methods used by those around, to achieve it were dubious.  The smoke still stinks.

But the newcomer wanted to have a fresh start. Deviating from the state run organisations, he preferred more of private participation. However, being aware of its perils, he intended to provide safeguards with the Consumer Protection Act.  But in a largely illiterate populace, such measures have not done much.  He also wanted computers to be brought in for the future.  A new era had started.

But, he again was pulled down by his over reach and treading on untested soil. The days after his defeat, again saw parties squabbling and throwing away the chance offered by the people to provide a better and fresh administration.

After the assassination of Rajiv, came the Narasimha Rao Government, which went further ahead with privatization and made whole sale purchase of elected MPs open, for its own survival.

There was again an opportunity for the opposition parties to come together to give an alternative.  The years with Vajpayee lead BJP were relatively stable and more people friendly.

But in the meanwhile, the seeds of enmity within the society had been sworn by the Rath yatra, undertaken purely only to overcome the dilemma in the face of Mandal Commission implementation by V P Singh.

It was also during the Vajpayee regime that the fire of Muslim animosity got ignited at Gujarat.  The very person who had jumped on the Rath had jumped to protect his protégée from the wrath of the Prime Minister himself on grounds of 'Raj Dharma'.

This, was subsequently to become his own nemeses.

After that period, there was a change in the course of history.  The Congress which had until then been on its own, had to depend upon regional parties and form a coalition at the Center. 

The UPA government was perceived to have reached a policy paralysis due to the pulling of different parties in different directions and the public perception that the regime had reached the nadir of corruption, saw to it that it was sent out.

Then came the new BJP regime.  It was not like the earlier one.  It came with an open Hindutva agenda.  The speeches of the leaders were always a war cry, against all historical enemies, whose progenies they tried to identify and fix in the present day India.  The consolidation of the Hindu community by identifying a common enemy was played to perfection.  In the process, hidden to the ordinary man's eyes, the corruption in the name of party fund mobilisation sky rocketed. Whenever there was a public murmur against the happenings, there was the bad boy Pakistan to be punished and taken to task.  Controls became centralised. Press conference by the highest elected representative became extinct. There were only monologues.

Elected representatives were bought outright.  On their joining the BJP, any case against them stood wiped off. Instead of dismissing elected state Governments, a new method had been discovered- take over.

Elections were seen to have been manipulated by use of EVMs which even the western countries were not seen to be using. A new generation of non-political activists started pointing out with data and instances of obvious manipulations of votes and the results. Also questions regarding certain defence deals were raised. The image of the BJP as a party with a difference and incorruptible was eroded in the public eye. (Of course only for those who wanted to see and did not have any coloured vision).  The new generation of activists also repeatedly emphasised how the basic structure of the Constitution was under challenge and how the ordinary citizen would suffer. That generation consisted of  #ArunShourie, #MedhaPatkar, #Yogendrayadav, #PrashanthBushan, and their likes.

To make election rigging more convenient, a new Act was brought in whereby the PM, HM (Or any other Minister) and LOP would constitute a select committee to decide on the CECs. The HM was replacement for the CJI which had been an interim arrangement. Obviously, the PM and HM would only decide. More State Governments were thrown out.  Then came an Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls.  When large scale deletions in certain areas and large scale inclusions in some other areas were pointed out before the Hon'ble Supreme Court, the Court was not inclined to intervene.

There appeared to be an undeclared Emergency.  All organs of the Constitution, duty bound to safeguard the rights of the Citizens seem to be failing. The checks and balances were being thrown to the winds. It appeared quite obvious that the Executive, under the BJP, was keen to make Citizens of the Country who are supposed to be the real Monarchs of the Democracy, into subservient Subjects of the State.

The BJP wanted to increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha by a delimitation exercise in such a manner that some of the areas of the Country would be cut to size, due to their reduced population in the last decades.  The punishment for having adhered sincerely to small family norms, was obviously because these areas with lesser growth rate of population and higher growth rate on economic index was also consisting of a larger population of literates and hence they were not able to send in representatives of the BJP, falling for their Hindutva mantra.  To create a smoke screen, this legislation was termed as a women's reservation bill, though women's reservation bill had already been passed separately much earlier and made into an Act itself.  

This measure failed.  The BJP has not been able to overcome that road block. Only after that they want to move on to 'One Nation One Election', so that with the entire election machinery under its complete control, the Supreme Court not likely to get disturbed over matters like voting rights because it has thought in it's wisdom that it was not a fundamental right and if some one could not vote today, they can always do it the next time and even otherwise hell will not break loose just because a few crores of the people cannot vote and have been removed from the electoral rolls, with one sweep, the entire machinery of governance in the Center and the States would be under its complete control.  There will not be the disturbance of one state election after the other, when the BJP will be compelled to hold back its agenda for the future. There will be a complete five year period when they can happily legislate as they like and as they have dreamt and all these new laws can be rolled out one after the other. And by the end of that five years, it could be decided what the polity and the Constitution should look like.

Then, as per the dream of the parivars, it will be the time for 'amrit kal' to start.  This will officially be the 'muhurth' when the Nation could be declared a Hindu Nation, and all those not Hindus shall be Minorities, may be with lesser rights, but certainly not entitled to the same rights as that of the Hindus because, this is essentially Hindustan and all those having allegiance to any other religion other than those of which had origin in this soil cannot demand equal rights.  

It was at this juncture that unfortunately a word came out of the mouth of the Hon'ble Chief Justice of India. He used the work 'Cockroaches' about people without any employment and hell bent on creating problems.  He has however later withdrawn it and said that he did not say it or mean it.  Whatever, it is, the hands of time had pulled the trigger.  He would have never imagined that cockroaches would proliferate only in those areas where filth is heaped up or swept under the carpet.

A Cockroach Janata Party was born on twitter and social media.  The underlying frustration of the young generation, got manifested by the support exhibited to the name and move.  The BJP started using everything under its control to press all panic buttons. The attempt to choke the fire only lead to more smoke emanating from it.

Then came the next trigger.  The NEET paper leak.  The younger generation which had been frustrated by the charades dished out on a daily basis on the economic and job front by the incumbent Government, came out to protest.  They demanded the resignation of the Education Minister.  It was only a token demand.  The real displeasure was against the entire Party.  But, by taking away one of the Key persons on fast, to a hospital, getting him dilute the demands, the BJP thought that it will have its way.  The youth showed unflinching resolve.  The Education Minister had to go.  

The new generation of activists had taken over.  They were #DhruvRathee, who had all along been exposing the false narratives of the BJP, #Zubair of the Alt news, the fact checker and the trio, #Abhijeet Dipke, #SauravDas and #NehaBora.

                                

This new generation has once again launched its next crusade.  This was triggered by the expose by The Indian Express regarding what was not fair in the EC.  

The data raising doubts had consistently been raised by the previous generation of activists like Dr. Parakala Prabakar Rao.  But, it was scoffed at, as claims by frustrated persons.  One other person who constantly called the farce was Dr. Subramaniam Swamy belonging to the BJP himself. 

True to its image and doing proud to #RamnathGoenka and #KuldipNayar, #TheIndianExpress, brought out details of the internal differences in the CEC and how, one of them overrode the objections of the other two.  It was because, he was his masters' man.  

Even as the Hon'ble Supreme Court has consented to get into the issue, there has been no time frame.  It is not clear whether the Court will be able to step over the immunity granted to the CEC by an Act of the Parliament.  Impeachment would be out of possibility given the resistance shown by the Chairmen of both houses in recent the past.

What is at stake is the essence of democracy. People have been forced to take to the streets.  The use of Police or paramilitary forces against public angst will not solve the problem.  It will lead to further disillusionment.  

The other mindless choice would be to employ thugs to oppose the public from assembling and showing their protest.  That will lead to chaos and civil strife.

Without waiting for matters to escalate, the CEC who is in the eye of the storm should resign.  The Act which was brought in after which appointments by the three member committee without CJI should be put on hold and the earlier interim arrangement should be brought back till a neutral selection team could be finalised.  All state elections where high level of deletions and additions have taken place (and also those places where numerous votes have been reported to have been polled even after the closing hours and at an impossible speed as pointed out by Mr. Parakala Prabhakar Rao) should be conducted again as per the pre-SIR electoral rolls (with strict adherence to verification of the voter id or other permissible documents to avoid illegal votes in the name of unavailable persons).  

The established political parties had been keeping a tight lipped silence in spite of repeated allegations of electoral frauds. Rahul Gandhi was the first to bite the bullet and openly declare 'Vote Chori'.  The other part of the political establishment still appears to be in a wait and watch mode.  They perhaps feel that the present system could be conducive to themselves, when they come to power or can part take of it. 

It is typically like the donkey withstanding all the blows, dreaming that one day the King will marry of the Princess to him.

So, before it is too late, let better sense prevail on the establishment and the established political forces of the country.

Not for arm chair minions to assess

 

M.K.Gandhi cannot be called a very brilliant man right from his childhood. He himself admits it. He was a very timid person, born into an orthodox Hindu family, with all psychological disadvantages a puritan, vegetarian, puny young man could face in a world where might was considered to be right.

One thing however, different in him was a rare sense of sincerity to do whatever he believed in and believed in only. 

When his belief systems came into conflict with the outer world, he kept reviewing them, refining them and in the process indulged in a self-enquiry.

In this process, he tries to empathize with others around him and thus got pulled into social and political activities. 

Perhaps being deeply aware of his thin frame and light build, to fight against the mighty, he decided upon the passive method, which he could have got only from Jain, Budhistic and Chriistian faith systems and then applied it to the Hindu philosophy through the broader versions of Vedanta.  Perhaps, coming from a business community, the Jain influence would have been easier to have affected him; those who have a keen eye on business, are not known to pick up fights, openly.

His sincerity and dedication to the cause he took up, got him endeared to the people for whom he was working.  And the crowd grew.  First in South Africa and then in India.

He was always open to discussion, criticism and would constantly indulge in self criticism and re-examination of his stand, from time to time.

While this openness endeared him to many, his shifting stands, created problems to those who worked with him.

Particularly in an organization, once a decision is taken after consultations, it is, as a rule, anathema to change course.  This will have a demoralizing effect on the entire group and people will not be ready to undertake the next programme.

While, the above basic rule itself made organisations over bearing over a period of time, stunted their growth due to lack of willingness to change and became their nemeses, individual leaders involving in change of decision mid-way or at the penultimate hour in the name of an inner voice would create quite a stir and revolt; the people around the leader would leave him.  This was what apparently happened to Gandhi during his last days.

But in spite of such hara-kiri being committed, if Gandhi could get along, for quite a very long time, it was only because the people around him and larger masses could not fix any ulterior motive to his designs – at least a majority of the masses, during his life time.

Due to his constant discussions with people of various spectrums, on various subjects, he struck the middle ground.  That was the reason that any one from the extreme left to the extreme right could see one’s own thread of thought being supported by him to a degree, but not entirely.  This at once becomes a reason for all streams to congregate at his point and then yet, be separate on their own. 

That is precisely why an orthodox Hindu could not do away with him because he was also a supporter of varnasrama and propounded Gita as a tool; a non-believer and dalit activist could see him supporting their cause because he spoke against caste discrimination and actively mobilized in that direction; a Marxian or Communist see his support for the downtrodden or the ‘daridra narayanas’ as he would call them; the rich business men cannot hold him against their interests because he did not ask them to be divested of their possessions, but only asked them to be merely ‘trustees’ of their wealth; an average Muslim could very well see him as defender of their life, though their messiah M.A.Jinnah would call him only 'one of the greatest men produced by the Hindu community', when he was assasinated; even as the right extremists of Hinduism would accuse him of standing by Muslims and allowing violence against Hindus, he could go to Noakhali (now in Bangladesh) sit among the majority Muslim community, walk more than a 100 miles covering 47 villages and bring back normalcy and save the Hindus there and even could plan to go to Pakistan, after the halt at New Delhi, which unfortunately became his final destination; and even those in power did not feel that he had any personal animosity towards them, though they very well knew that he was out to uproot them from the Indian soil.

Since, the wheel of his times, was at a very high altitude, with each spoke being represented by highly intelligent and committed people, such as Rabindra Nath Tagore, Rajaji, Periyar, C.R.Das, Vallabhai Patel, M.A.Jinnah, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Acharya Vinobha Bhave, Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Netaji Subash Chandra Bose and Ambedkar, to name just a few, Gandhi being the axle of that wheel, was also naturally at that high altitude. It is a height, not reached ever after.

That is why, even today, opposing views, when they have to find a middle ground, are forced to take refuge in his thoughts, even though they are not entirely in agreement with him.

Any organizational person, with a pinch of conscience to take righteous decisions, in the interest of at least a majority, if not all, will find that being a Gandhi, is not an easy task.

People may list out his failings, personal or in terms of his vision.  He himself had discussed these in public domain, to an extent, no other human on earth is known to have indulged in, before or after.

And for all that, he himself did not accept being called a Mahatma, and he very clearly repeated that among atmas, there can neither be Mahatmas nor Duratmas.

And it is precisely because of this humility and frankness that even people like Netaji, whose Presidentship Gandhi had opposed and thwarted, because he was not in agreement with his methods, would seek his blessings before embarking upon his Military operation to free India.  In his broadcast from Rangoon Radio on 06/07/1944, Netaji during the course of his address, directly addressed Gandhi as below:

“Father of our Nation!’ (As per S.A.Ayer, a close associate of Netaji, who was with him in the broadcasting station and was a witness, Netaji’s voice had become somewhat hoarse, then it quivered a bit; a solemn look came over his face; then his throat cleared, the words now came out clear and strong and he continued) ‘In this holy war for India’s liberation, (then again with a slight pause, a slight lowering of the pitch, a tone of supplication,) ‘we ask for your blessings and goods wishes’. (‘The New Icon’ by Arun Shourie, p. 496).

          The above prayer of a son to his father, was not out of a sudden emotion. It was consistent with his feeling for the older man, all along. When Bose had to part ways with Gandhi, he had said, ‘it will always be my aim and object to try and win his confidence for the simple reason that it will be tragic for me if I succeed in winning the confidence of other people but fail to win the confidence of India’s greatest man’.

          Why he called him the greatest man, was spelt out in his speech from Bangkok on Gandhi’s Birthday in 1943, when he said:

“The service which Mahatma Gandhi has rendered to India and the cause of India’s freedom is so unique and unparalleled that his name shall be written in letters of gold in our national history for all time…For twenty years and more Mahatma Gandhi has worked for India’s salvation, and with him the Indian people too have worked.  It is no exaggeration to say that if in 1920 he had not come forward with his weapon of struggle, India would today perhaps have been still prostrate.  His services to the cause of India’s freedom are unique and unparalleled.  No single man could have achieved more in one lifetime under similar circumstances”. (Selected Speeches of Subash Chandra Bose, Publications Division, Government of India, 1962, pp. 201, 203)

 

 

 

 

WHAT ABOUT THE NAXALS THEMSELVES?

 

    The Bar and Bench reports in X the entire proceedings that took place before the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the matter of the petition filed by #T.M.Krishna against insisting on singing all the stanza of the Vande mataram. #Dr.S.Muralidhar, the former Judge of the High Court has appeared for Krishna.

    What is appalling is that the Solicitor General seems to be speaking in a language of a Sanghi General.

    SG Mehta is reported to have said, "Those who did not like objected in Parliament, now they are bringing it here... decisions are taken by Parliament as per the Constitution. Not the manner in which naxalites decide."

    By the above observation, he clearly implies that those who opposed it in the Parliament and those who are now before the Supreme Court are naxallites.
    
    When Dr. Muralidhar objected, SG is reported to have had the temerity to repeat it saying, "I will repeat what I said...Decision-making is done by Parliament, and I said that is the constitutional way, not what the Naxalite wants. And I am not sorry about it."

    Consumed by the fire of intolerance, the SG has perhaps forgotten that any law made by the Parliament can very well be subject to being questioned in the Supreme Court, much so when it becomes an issue related to Fundamental Rights or affecting the Basic Structure of the Constitution. ‘Secularism’ is clearly one of the foundation stones on which the Basic Structure of the Constitution rests.

    As per the Wire SG reportedly says “secularism cannot be this narrow”.  But we are yet to understand what is the broader secularism that BJP has in mind. We are aware about their use of the work sickular, for secular, all along.

    But The New Indian Express (dt 23.09.2026) states that the SG said 'the issue should not be viewed narrowly through the lens of secularism'. This appears to have been the most possible argument from the spoke person of the BJP/RSS Government. For them Secularism is narrow.  Secularism is an anathema.  They may cry from the roof tops that Hinduism is itself plural and secular.  But, within the bone marrow of all this propaganda, is to beat the batter into a single monolithic structure.

     Marginalising the minorities has been part of the programme with the singular aim to consolidate Hindu votes.

    And in the process, any thought process alien to their line of thinking is discredited, branded as anti-national, etc.

    Of course, no surprises because the Prime Minister, who is the elected head of the Union Government, who is supposed to be like a father figure (and some times claims to be so) and who is expected to take all citizens along (even those accepted as citizens by Mr. Gynanesh Kumar) himself as PM of the Country brands people who protest, ask questions, think differently from the RSS/BJP method of thinking, as ‘#Andolan Jeevis’, ‘#Urban Naxals’, ‘#Demagi Naxals’, etc. From the ramparts of the Red Fort, in Parliament, etc, he says these. So smaller minions cannot be expected to be taller than that.

    This brings to question who are the #Naxals themselves?

    The Naxalite movement has its origins in the peasants getting organized to fight against the oppression and exploitation of the land owners.

    Fight against any oppression has had several methods. Largely, until Gandhi introduced the non-violent method, it has always, as a rule been bloody.

    In most of the cases, when it is by the have nots against exploitation by the haves, it has been a reciprocation of the violence that had been unleashed upon them by innumerable methods.

    The person who said that ‘the Capitalists could always, and as a matter of practice, the world over, formed cartels, which was not seen to the public eye, to lower wages, but when the labourers came together to demand higher wages, that alone was seen in the public’, was not Karl Marx; it was Adam Smith, in his seminal work, ‘The Wealth of Nations’.

    Those who could not organize a fight, stayed to weep and wail, and of course curse their tormentors and their own fates.

    The Indian epic #Mahabaratha starts with the instance of a helpless mother dog cursing the mighty King #Janamejayan.

    Victor Hugo would say in the ‘Les Miserables’ that Napoleon was defeated due to the curse and wailings of the war widows.

    But, those who have some power with them, try to organize and even after the non-violent methods, get to be forced to adopt violent means.

    Great people like Acharya #Vinobha Bhave and Lok Nayak #JayaprakashNarayan, have addressed the core issue which created the Naxal movement.

    The Bhoodhan movement and work by Vinobha and JP created an atmosphere where many Naxals surrendered their arms and returned to public life.

    After rebellion against land owners, Naxal movement started against exploitation by miners of the rich resources at areas predominantly occupied by tribal people. They came to be referred to as Maoists.

    The general term of Naxalite continues to be used against all those who resort to terrorism.

    But, instead of eliminating the cause for Naxalism, like Vinobha and JP attempted (and succeeded to a great extent) the later day leaders justify eliminating the Naxalites.

    As the next step, they have started branding whomsoever they do not like, as Naxalites.

The prophesy that the Shudra power shall rule.

 

(Excerpts from ‘Modern India’ an Article by Swami Vivekananda published in March 1899 - Available in Vol.4 of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda)

 

Neither under the Hindu kings, nor under the Buddhist rule, do we find the common subject-people taking any part in expressing their voice in the affairs of the State. 

 

Again, all those laws are in books. Between laws as codified in books and their operation in practical life, there is a world of difference.

 

With the rise of Rajput power, on the decline of Buddhism, the sceptre of the Indian empire, dislodged from its paramount power, was again broken into a thousand pieces and wielded by small powerless hands. At this time, the Brahminical (priestly) power again succeeded in raising its head, not as an adversary as before, but this time as an auxiliary to the royal supremacy.

 

That Brāhmanya power, since the appearance of Rajput power, which held sway over India under the Mihira dynasty and others, made its last effort to recover its lost greatness; and in its effort to establish that supremacy, it sold itself at the feet of the fierce hordes of barbarians newly come from Central Asia, and to win their pleasure introduced in the land their hateful manners and customs. Moreover, it, the Brāhmanya power, solely devoting itself to the easy means to dupe ignorant barbarians, brought into vogue mysterious rites and ceremonies backed by its new Mantras and the like; and in doing so, itself lost its former wisdom, its former vigour and vitality, and its own chaste habits of long acquirement. Thus is turned the whole Āryāvarta into a deep and vast whirlpool of the most vicious, the most horrible, the most abominable, barbarous customs; and as the inevitable consequence of countenancing these detestable customs and superstitions, it soon lost all its own internal strength and stamina and became the weakest of the weak. What wonder that is should be broken into a thousand pieces and fall at the mere touch of the storm of Mussulman invasions from the West! That great Brāhmanya power fell—who knows, if ever to rise again?

 

On one side, the royal power is now centred in kings professing a different religion and given to different customs. On the other, the priestly power has been entirely displaced from its influential position as the controller and lawgiver of the society. 

 

The Sanskrit language has to remain confined only to the purely religious writings and religious matters of the conquered and detested Hindu, and, as such, has since been living a precarious life at the hands of the neglected priest. The priest himself, the relic of Brāhmanya power, fell back upon the last resource of conducting only the comparatively unimportant family ceremonies, such as the matrimonial etc.

 

According to the prevalence, in greater or lesser degree, of the three qualities of Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas in man, the four castes, the Brahmin, Kashatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra, are everywhere present at all times, in all civilised societies. By the mighty hand of time, their number and power also vary at different times in regard to different countries. In some countries the numerical strength or influence of one of these castes may preponderate over another; at some period, one of the classes may be more powerful than the rest. But from a careful study of the history of the world, it appears that in conformity to the law of nature the four castes, the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra do, in every society, one after another in succession, govern the world.

 

Among the Chinese, the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Āryas, the Iranians, the Jews, the Arabs—among all these ancient nations, the supreme power of guiding society is, in the first period of their history, in the hands of the Brahmin or the priest. In the second period, the ruling power is the Kshatriya, that is, either absolute monarchy or oligarchical government by a chosen body of men. Among the modern Western nations, with England at their head, this power of controlling society has been, for the first time, in the hands of the Vaishyas or mercantile communities, made rich through the carrying on of commerce.

 

As in the ancient days the priestly power, in spite of its long-continued struggle, was subdued by the more powerful royal power, so, in modern times, before the violent blow of the newly-risen Vaishya power, many a kingly crown has to kiss the ground, many a sceptre is for ever broken to pieces. Only those few thrones which are allowed still to exercise some power in some of the civilised countries and make a display of their royal pomp and grandeur are all maintained solely by the vast hordes of wealth of these Vaishya communities—the dealers in salt, oil, sugar, and wine—and kept up as a magnificent and an imposing front, and as a means of glorification to the really governing body behind, the Vaishyas.

 

That mighty newly-risen Vaishya power—at whose command, electricity carries messages in an instant from one pole to another, whose highway is the vast ocean, with its mountain-high waves, at whose instance, commodities are being carried with the greatest ease from one part of the globe to another, and at whose mandate, even the greatest monarchs tremble—on the white foamy crest of that huge wave the all-conquering Vaishya power, is installed the majestic throne of England in all its grandeur.

 

Therefore the conquest of India by England is not a conquest by Jesus or the Bible as we are often asked to believe. Neither is it like the conquest of India by the Moguls and the Pathans. But behind the name of the Lord Jesus, the Bible, the magnificent palaces, the heavy tramp of the feet of armies consisting of elephants, chariots, cavalry, and infantry, shaking the earth, the sounds of war trumpets, bugles, and drums, and the splendid display of the royal throne, behind all these, there is always the virtual presence of England—that England whose war flag is the factory chimney, whose troops are the merchant-men, whose battlefields are the market-places of the world, and whose Empress is the shining Goddess of Fortune herself! It is on this account I have said before that it is indeed an unseen novelty, this conquest of India by England. What new revolution will be effected in India by her clash with the new giant power, and as the result of that revolution what new transformation is in store for future India, cannot be inferred from her past history.

 

I have stated previously that the four castes, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra do, in succession, rule the world. During the period of supreme authority exercised by each of these castes, some acts are accomplished which conduce to the welfare of the people, while others are injurious to them.

According to the law of nature, wherever there is an awakening of a new and stronger life, there it tries to conquer and take the place of the old and the decaying. Nature favours the dying out of the unfit and the survival of the fittest. The final result of such conflict between the priestly and the other classes has been mentioned already.

 

On the other side, the king is like the lion; in him are present both the good and evil propensities of the lord of beasts. Never for a moment his fierce nails are held back from tearing to pieces the heart of innocent animals, living on herbs and grass, to allay his thirst for blood when occasion arises; again, the poet says, though himself stricken with old age and dying with hunger, the lion never kills the weakest fox that throws itself in his arms for protection. If the subject classes, for a moment, stand as impediments in the way of the gratification of the senses of the royal lion, their death knell is inevitably tolled; if they humbly bow down to his commands, they are perfectly safe. 

 

As the priest is busy about centralising all knowledge and learning at a common centre, to wit, himself, so the king is ever up and doing in collecting all the earthly powers and focusing them in a central point, i.e. his own self. Of course, both are beneficial to society. At one time they are both needed for the common good of society, but that is only at its infant stage. But if attempts be made, when society has passed its infant stage and reached its vigorous youthful condition, to clothe it by force with the dress which suited it in its infancy and keep it bound within narrow limits, then either it bursts the bonds by virtue of its own strength and tries to advance, or where it fails to do so, it retraces its footsteps and by slow degrees returns to its primitive uncivilised condition.

 

Kings are like parents to their subjects, and the subjects are the kings’ children. The subjects should, in every respect, look up to the king and stick to their king with unreserved obedience, and the king should rule them with impartial justice and look to their welfare and bear the same affection towards them as he would towards his own children. But what rule applies to individual homes applies to the whole society as well, for society is only the aggregate of individual homes. “When the son attains the age of sixteen, the father ought to deal with him as his friend and equal” —if that is the rule, does not the infant society ever attain that age of sixteen? It is the evidence of history that at a certain time every society attains its manhood, when a strong conflict ensues between the ruling power and the common people. The life of the society, its expansion and civilisation, depend on its victory or defeat in this conflict.

 

Such changes, revolutionising society, have been happening in India again and again, only in this country they have been effected in the name of religion, for religion is the life of India, religion is the language of this country, the symbol of all its movements. The Chārvāka, the Jain, the Buddhist, Shankara, Rāmānuja, Kabir, Nanak, Chaitanya, the Brāhmo Samāj, the Ārya Samāj—of all these and similar other sects, the wave of religion, foaming, thundering, surging, breaks in the front, while in the rear follows the filling-up of social wants. 

 

We ignore this sublime truth; and though we suffer a thousand times for our folly, yet, in our absurd foolishness, impelled by the brute in us, we do not believe in it. We try to deceive, but a thousand times we find we are deceived ourselves, and yet we do not desist! Mad that we are, we imagine we can impose on nature! With our short-sighted vision we think ministering to the self at any cost is the be-all and end-all of life.

 

Wisdom, knowledge, wealth, men, strength, prowess, and whatever else nature gathers and provides us with, are all only for diffusion, when the moment of need is at hand. We often forget this fact, put the stamp of “mine only” upon the entrusted deposits, and pari passu, we sow the seed of our own ruin!

 

The king, the centre of the forces of the aggregate of his subjects, soon forgets that those forces are only stored with him so that he may increase and give them back a thousandfold in their potency, so that they may spread over the whole community for its good. Attributing all Godship to himself, in his pride, like the king Vena, he looks upon other people as wretched specimens of humanity who should grovel before him; any opposition to his will, whether good or bad, is a great sin on the part of his subjects. Hence oppression steps into the place of protection—sucking their blood in place of preservation. If the society is weak and debilitated, it silently suffers all ill-treatment at the hands of the king, and as the natural consequence, both the king and his people go down and down and fall into the most degraded state, and thus become an easy prey to any nation stronger than themselves. Where the society is healthy and strong, there soon follows a fierce contest between the king and his subjects, and, by its reaction and convulsion, are flung away the sceptre and the crown; and the throne and the royal paraphernalia become like past curiosities preserved in the museum galleries.

 

The Brahmin said, “Learning is the power of all powers; that learning is dependent upon me, I possess that learning, so the society must follow my bidding.” For some days such was the case. The Kshatriya said, “But for the power of my sword, where would you be, O Brahmin, with all your power of lore? You would in no time be wiped off the face of the earth. It is I alone that am the superior.” Out flew the flaming sword from the jingling scabbard—society humbly recognised it with bended head. Even the worshipper of learning was the first to turn into the worshipper of the king. The Vaishya is saying, “You, madmen! what you call the effulgent all-pervading deity is here, in my hand, the ever-shining gold, the almighty sovereign. Behold, through its grace, I am also equally all-powerful. O Brahmin! even now, I shall buy through its grace all your wisdom, learning, prayers, and meditation. And, O great king! your sword, arms, valour, and prowess will soon be employed, through the grace of this, my gold, in carrying out my desired objects. Do you see those lofty and extensive mills? Those are my hives. See, how, swarms of millions of bees, the Shudras, are incessantly gathering honey for those hives. Do you know for whom? For me, this me, who in due course of time will squeeze out every drop of it for my own use and profit.”

 

To what country does not the merchant go? Though himself ignorant, he carries on his trade and transplants the learning, wisdom, art, and science of one country to another. The wisdom, civilisation, and arts that accumulated in the heart of the social body during the Brahmin and the Kshatriya supremacies are being diffused in all directions by the arteries of commerce to the different market-places of the Vaishyas. But for the rising of this Vaishya power, who would have carried today the culture, learning, acquirements, and articles of food and luxury of one end of the world to the other?

 

A cloud of impenetrable darkness has at present equally enveloped us all. Now there is neither firmness of purpose nor boldness of enterprise, neither courage of heart nor strength of mind, neither aversion to maltreatments by others nor dislike for slavery, neither love in the heart nor hope nor manliness; but what we have in India are only deep-rooted envy and strong antipathy against one another, morbid desire to ruin by hook or by crook the weak, and to lick dog-like the feet of the strong. 

 

The Shudras of countries other than India have become, it seems, a little awake; but they are wanting in proper education and have only the mutual hatred of men of their own class—a trait common to Shudras. What avails it if they greatly outnumber the other classes? That unity, by which ten men collect the strength of a million, is yet far away from the Shudra; hence, according to the law of nature, the Shudras invariably form the subject race.

 

Yet, a time will come when there will be the rising of the Shudra class, with their Shudra-hood; that is to say, not like that as at present when the Shudras are becoming great by acquiring the characteristic qualities of the Vaishya or the Kshatriya, but a time will come when the Shudras of every country, with their inborn Shudra nature and habits—not becoming in essence Vaishya or Kshatriya, but remaining as Shudras—will gain absolute supremacy in every society. The first glow of the dawn of this new power has already begun to break slowly upon the Western world, and the thoughtful are at their wits’ end to reflect upon the final issue of this fresh phenomenon. Socialism, Anarchism, Nihilism, and other like sects are the vanguard of the social revolution that is to follow.

 

In spite of the spread of education in the West, there is a great hindrance in the way of the rising of the Shudra class, and that is the recognition of caste as determined by the inherence of more or less good or bad qualities. By this very qualitative caste system which obtained in India in ancient days, the Shudra class was kept down, bound hand and foot. In the first place, scarcely any opportunity was given to the Shudra for the accumulation of wealth or the earning of proper knowledge and education; to add to this disadvantage, if ever a man of extraordinary parts and genius were born of the Shudra class, the influential higher sections of the society forthwith showered titular honours on him and lifted him up to their own circle. His wealth and the power of his wisdom were employed for the benefit of an alien caste—and his own caste-people reaped no benefits of his attainments; and not only so, the good-for-nothing people, the scum and refuse of the higher castes, were cast off and thrown into the Shudra class to swell their number. Vasishtha, Nārada, Satyakāma Jābāla, Vyāsa, Kripa, Drona, Karna, and others of questionable parentage were raised to the position of a Brahmin or a Kshatriya, in virtue of their superior learning or valour; but it remains to be seen how the prostitute, maidservant, fisherman, or the charioteer [2] class was benefited by these upliftings. Again, on the other hand, the fallen from the Brahmin, the Kshatriya, or the Vaishya class were always brought down to fill the ranks of the Shudras.

The present government of India has certain evils attendant on it, and there are some very great and good parts in it as well. Of highest good is this, that after the fall of the Pātaliputra Empire till now, India was never under the guidance of such a powerful machinery of government as the British, wielding the sceptre throughout the length and breadth of the land. And under this Vaishya supremacy, thanks to the strenuous enterprise natural to the Vaishya, as the objects of commerce are being brought from one end of the world to another, so at the same time, as its natural sequence, the ideas and thoughts of different countries are forcing their way into the very bone and marrow of India. Of these ideas and thoughts, some are really most beneficial to her, some are harmful, while others disclose the ignorance and inability of the foreigners to determine what is truly good for the inhabitants of this country.

 

But piercing through the mass of whatever good or evil there may be is seen rising the sure emblem of India’s future prosperity—that as the result of the action and reaction between her own old national ideals on the one hand, and the newly-introduced strange ideals of foreign nations on the other, she is slowly and gently awakening from her long deep sleep. Mistakes she will make, let her: there is no harm in that; in all our actions, errors and mistakes are our only teachers. Who commits mistakes, the path of truth is attainable by him only. Trees never make mistakes, nor do stones fall into error; animals are hardly seen to transgress the fixed laws of nature; but man is prone to err, and it is man who becomes God-on-earth. If our every movement from the nursery to the death-bed, if our every thought from rising at day-break till retirement at midnight, be prescribed and laid down for us in minutest detail by others—and if the threat of the king’s sword be brought into requisition to keep us within the iron grasp of those prescribed rules—then, what remains for us to think independently for ourselves? What makes a man a genius, a sage? Isn’t it because he thinks, reasons, wills? Without exercise, the power of deep thinking is lost. Tamas prevails, the mind gets dull and inert, the spirit is brought down to the level of matter. Yet, even now, every religious preacher, every social leader is anxious to frame new laws and regulations for the guidance of society! Does the country stand in want of rules? Has it not enough of them? Under the oppression of rules, the whole nation is verging on its ruin—who stops to understand this?