Much earlier in history, the Jews took the successors of David and Solomon as messiahs, hoping them to be the anointed ones who would bring god’s blessings to them. The kings repeatedly failed them. The Jews continued to be persecuted. After several generations of suffering, they could not take their kings as emissaries of God anymore. They shifted their belief to the future rather. They started awaiting a figure who was yet to come, and who would bring God’s rule on earth.[break]
Closer home, the Manusmriti gave the mandate to the Aryan kings to rule their subjects. Barring a very few, most kings of the Aryawart and the areas influenced by them misused the trust so bestowed upon them by the commoners, and took their elevated societal status as heavenly sanctions.
Hidden in the Himalaya, Nepal kept suffering from the betrayals of human kings disguised as incarnates of Lord Vishnu until as late as 2008 – much after most of the world consigned the concept of such divine sanctions to the history books.
Faith in heavenly beings and gods is a matter of private choice. The utility of religion sought to be respected even by non-believers. Religions have been the most resilient institutions of all times, outliving even most powerful emperors and dynasties.
But the same could not be said of blindly trusting the mere mortals hidden behind the larger-than-life edifices. Humanity has paid heavily since time immemorial of this weakness of ours. It is not the clash of religions that kill people, as popularly believed. It is the misguided application of religious fervor by people we allow to act as our leaders who is to be blamed.
We in Nepal, and to some extent a large part of South Asia, continue to suffer from this largely cured disease elsewhere. We still get mesmerized by the words of fellow humans, and start trusting them without examining if they truly live those very words. Despite accepting many democratic ideals, we have failed to internalize them. Somewhere deeper in our minds, we want to be ruled rather than governed. We are in constant search of princes and kings among a group of mere mortals otherwise known as political leaders. Personal charisma and lineage of politicians become more important that their track records as doers, managers and leaders. We constantly remain hooked to our TV screens and morning newspapers for quotes from the people who we all know cannot be trusted. Media agencies that keep criticizing the politicians day in and day out simply ignore any public activity that shuns the presence of the same politicians they criticize. This strange behavior of ours could only be explained if we agree that our genetic construct is more than a match for our cognitive thinking.
No wonder, most of South Asia still remains entrapped in personality cult, routinely resulting in the rise to power of demagogues and dictators.
Nepal is no exception. While the western world dealt with this universal human challenge a long time ago and swiftly moved on the path of all-round progress, we remained frozen in history, giving our immobility a permanence, believing it to be our real identity.
But is this parochial character our real identity?
The reality is that the Aryan culture in the northern part of the Ganga (the Ganges) that is in the immediate vicinity of Nepal saw the advent of republicanism around the same time as the ancient Greek republics were coming into place. The Lichchhavis, Shakyas, Koliyas and Videhas were some of such republics that existed as early as in the middle of first millennium BC. Challenging conventional wisdom and acceptance of the same by the society that are considered western beliefs today flourished in the Hindu society even in ancient times. Mahavira and the Buddha were both born to Hindu parents but founded and promoted new religions without any acrimony or bloodshed. Yet this is also true that further down the history, we missed the train of progressive thinking. Kingships and demagoguery we trusted (or accepted) took over, and continued for a painfully long time. The result, today, is that we stand at the lowest end of human development index.
Recent history certainly has not been much of a help to us. But that should not become a reason for us not to help our own future. Our bright future hinges on us following pragmatism rather than continuing to fall prey to dogma of any genre.
The beauty of democracy and pluralism is that it respects ‘questioning.’ It allows evolution. It welcomes positive changes. It makes us decide our courses. It certainly has its share of demerits, yet it allows constant improvements. It makes our political leaders accountable to us. It is by far the best political system humanity has ever developed.
It is outrageous even to hear that in the 21st century some politician or some political party could contemplate grabbing power in Nepal. Nepalis have practiced democracy of some sort or the other for many decades now. No thriving democracy has ever been converted to dictatorship in the world, and kept that way for a long time. Democracy is here to stay in Nepal. Our rights may remain suppressed for a while, but they cannot be denied for long. We can snatch them back in no time.
Yet, for our democracy to improve, we must improve as citizens. We must be careful of demagogues who just thrive on playing to the gallery. We must develop the habit of questioning the political candidates and parties of their track records of delivering goods. We have been cheated enough number of times to be wiser now, and not to be bogged down by useless and abstract dogmas and political beliefs until the people who are talking about them prove to us that they live the values they are propagating.
Charisma, indeed, is a desirable characteristic in a leader. But without content, it is like a plastic flower that has neither life nor any fragrance. Let us, therefore, trust deeds and not just words.
Prashaant Singh is Founder of HCI.
prashaantsingh@gmail.com
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