Ponmala

Revolution first appeared as a popular uprising against foreign rule. The Jewish revolt against Roman rule is the first instance that comes to mind. The Jews had thought of the Messiah as a God-sent prophet who would lead people’s fight against foreign domination. In fact, three messianic leaders – Judah of Galilee, Astronges of Emmaus and Simon of Perea – predated Jesus. Simon of Perea and his followers were defeated and slain. Jesus revolutionised revolution by transforming it into a spiritual revolt against selfishness and narrow-minded bigotry. He thus laid the foundation for liberal democracy.
In 70 AD, the Romans crushed the initially successful Jewish uprising of 66 AD. They conquered Palestine and destroyed the Jerusalem Temple. Later came the Peasants’ Revolution of England in the fourteenth century and the French Revolution in the eighteenth century against tyrannical rulers who headed exploitative feudal systems. Almost on the heels of the latter came similar revolutions in Russia, China and South and Central America. Then followed in quick succession armed and non-violent revolts that threw off the yoke of colonial rule and ushered in democracy in numerous countries throughout the world.
America, the champion of liberal democracy, went about with evangelical zeal to establish it all over the globe. But her own president, Donald Trump, led a violent insurrection to overthrow it. He schemed to invalidate the results of the elections that unseated him, breaking the very backbone of electoral democracy. He still enjoys the ardent support of one-third of Americans. He continues to be the unchallenged leader of the Republican Party. And he and his party continues to describe the uprising as peaceful protest. Thankfully, the courts and constitutional bodies have saved the day for American democracy – at least for now. In American democracy, revolution has become a tool of partisan politics and it has changed hands from the exploited to the exploiter.
A call for revolution is now being heard from many parts of our country. K Chandrashekar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana, said recently, “Indians need to wake up, youth need to wake up. These fake talks and talk of religion which instigate riots might make you happy for a day or two, but can’t fix our problems, can’t bring development in the country… It’s time for a big change, for a revolution in the country.” Democracy, which came as a solution to dictatorship, has itself brought autocrats to power in India, Turkey, Russia, Hungary and even in America. They now have dictatorship ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’. The Moneyed and the well-connected can do anything and get away with it.
In India, all the guardrails of democracy are one by one being dismantled. The ordinary citizen is losing faith in law enforcement and the courts. Corruption has spread its roots in all spheres of governance. Caste, religion, regional affiliation and money power are joining hands to bring hardened criminals, corrupt politicians and religious bigots to positions of power. The average citizen has become a helpless victim of all around exploitation. The Prime Minister nonchalantly buys a foreign spyware to snoop on rival politicians, media persons, judges and even the ministers of his cabinet. The ruling party jollily undermines people’s verdict with wholesale purchase of elected representatives. A bishop repeatedly rapes a nun and gets away with it. A popular actor believes that he can with impunity employ paid criminals to rape a female actor and thus wreak vengeance. Consequently, a woman openly says she thinks it a futile effort to have a DNA test of her three-year-old child to prove that a powerful and wealthy man is its biological father, because she believes the test result will be compromised. When people lose faith in the system, what we are left with is a banana republic.
When governance became a project ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’, exploitation also gradually became a thing ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’. A significant portion of the people have become callous to wrong doing. What’s more, they have wittingly or unwittingly become collaborators to it. In the court of law and in the court of public opinion, truth and justice have become expendable. Democracy is slow-poisoning people’s ethical conscience. What was intended as a cure is morphing into a fatal disease.
That has laid the axe to the very concept of revolution. The theoretical underpinning of democracy is that the majority will always choose what is right and just. But now, an unethical society votes to power unethical people who will do unethical favours for them. In such a scenario of orchestrated exploitation, who is there left to rise against it? Who is there to lead a revolution against it? Popularised exploitation has pulled the plug on popular uprising. The Arab Spring will in all probability go down in history as revolution’s swan-song.
There is revulsion and anger brewing against this attitude of ‘all is fair in love and war’. And that is a good sign. But will it gather sufficient momentum in time to save democracy through a ‘revolution through votes’, which alone can put things right? A revolution by the fair-minded is imperative for putting a halt to it. If not, military takeovers or proxy rule by the military are the inevitable result, as evidenced by recent developments in many a tottering democracy. Prophet of Doom is a disgraceful label, but situations do arise when one is compelled to done it – if one has a heart.