Dispatch #77: Ethical Reflections on Contemporary India: Part 1

In this dispatch we will go through the essays from Rajeev Bhargava's book 'Between Hope and Despair - 100 Ethical Reflections on Contemporary India’

Source: Time

I just finished reading Rajeev Bhargava’s book ‘Between Hope and Despair - 100 Ethical Reflections on Contemporary India’. This is one of those books that I believe everyone, who believes strongly in Indian constitutional values but also losing hope and slipping into despair, must read. After reading the 100 essays you will feel a bit more hopeful as the disenchantment slips away gradually while reaffirming your confidence in the idea of India. This book has come at a time when we, as Indians, 'don't seem to agree on what our collective good is’ anymore. It has become difficult to reinstate the inclusive and pluralistic vision of India as politics gets polarised and we either see things in binary or don’t see them at all. Bhargava is hopeful that these concerns can be addressed ‘within the basic framework of India’s constitutional democracy’. Through this book, he is trying to persuade us to do ethical reflections on contemporary events to make sense of what is good and bad, what is right and wrong.  He argues that:

If we get our fundamentals right and properly understand the ethical language of the original vision, we might still be able to save our country from further polarisation and may even heal some of its divisions. I hope that by reading this book, those who have recently become sceptical of this vision will be less so, and those who have rejected it altogether will reconsider their views.

In the very first chapter of the book, the author offers its readers a framework to cultivate ethical reflections on contemporary events in India. This is how it goes. 

Every individual in a society dreams about a better future and puts in efforts to realise it. It’s these dreams that give a sense of purpose and direction to the individual. Each person dreams individually and collectively. Collective dreams can be dreamt together as a family, community or even as a nation. These collective dreams need to be communicated with everyone who is a part of that collective. This results in cultivating a common mind. Take the example of our freedom struggle. We as a country cultivated a common mind and had a collective dream in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to ‘think of ourselves as Indians’ and resolved to overthrow the colonial rule. While theoretically, collective dreams sound good, in a diverse society such as India, it is challenging to cultivate a common mind and forge solidarities. Dreaming as a collective to pursue dreams as a nation has something innately ‘good’ about it. The act of dreaming is not only a psychic act but also a powerful visualising tool for a better future that is desirable and worth striving for, in the case of freedom struggle it was worth dying for. It is this collective pursuit of good which becomes the core of our ethics. Ethics cover two sets of important dimensions: good or bad; right or wrong. We Indians get our sense of ethics from our Constitution which acts as a moral framework to evaluate between good or bad and right or wrong. The Constitution helps raise questions on whether liberty is a good thing or not; whether the caste system should continue or not; whether women or Dalits should be allowed to enter certain temples or not; and many other such questions. While doing this we are constantly making value judgements by slotting the above-mentioned acts into good or bad and right or wrong. However, making value judgements is exceedingly difficult because of 2 reasons:

1. The educated section of our society has suspended making any value judgements. The reason for this is calling something ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is subjective and lacks objectivity. In other words, there is no objective good or bad, there is just subjective good, which is a version forced by those who are in power. This has resulted in creating a large moral vacuum which is filled by the second reason mentioned below.

2. The moral vacuum is filled by too many negative value judgments or overly exaggerated positive value judgments which distort reality. These judgments are prejudicial, lack constitutional values and are prone to be exploited by a populist majoritarian leader.

This finally brings us to the last part of this framework - objective value judgment. An objective judgment about ourselves is morally grounded in constitutional values, helps us understand our ‘motives, intentions, goals, desires and values’, assesses us critically, evaluates our acts, reveals our shortcomings and enables us to do ethical reflection. 

Bhargava clarifies:

The essays in the book do not shy away from making ethical judgements- to condemn or praise, as the case may be. But they seek to do so with empathy and understanding. They make these value judgments in light of the values enshrined in the Indian Constitution. These essays assume that if we reason with proper understanding of one another with an open mind and shed our deep rooted prejudices and narrowness of spirit, we can reach agreement on what is good and right. By taking it beyond subjective opinions, this agreement establishes the objectivity of good and right. Overall, I reject the idea that ethics and morality are mere opinions and that all morality, ethics and truth are relative to the subjectivity of individual persons. There is a wide range of goods that are objective in the sense that they are worth pursuing not just by me or you but by an entire community. Some are considered worth pursuing by an entire nation and not just a community. This is what our Constitution makers tried to articulate, and the consensus they reached was and remains an objective common good.

In this and the subsequent dispatch, I will summarise some of the ethical reflections, from this absolutely wonderful book, in a few lines.

Reflection 1: Why have faith in the great Indian experiment?

We should trust India’s unique inclusivity and pluralistic moral fibre because humans benefit more from diversity than uniformity. Our history has enabled us to develop habits of respect, tolerance and peaceful co-existence of different religions. 

Reflection 2: A nation is a people in conversation

A nation is one where the people are in continuous conversation with each other. A multitude of conversations give birth to different voices and ideas about the common good. Finally, at no stage, this conversation should be disrupted or hijacked by the state (or the government).

Reflection 3: Why do we celebrate Republic Day?

Because the republican nature of India offers an alternative to a one-man-dominated tyrannical rule. Republic does not only mean liberty. It means government by discussion. It also allows its citizens to live under the laws made by them through the state apparatus. The word ‘democratic’ and ‘republic’ ensures that the decision-making is democratic and power is dispersed irrespective of caste, gender and other social divisions. 

Source: India Today

Reflection 4: Why do we need a constitution?

The Constitution provides a barricade against the tyranny of the state to take away the liberty of the citizens. It also strives for a delicate balance to ensure that the collective power of society invested in the state is neither dissipated nor fragmented to become ineffective nor so tightly organised and untrammelled that it takes away our freedom and becomes oppressive. It also provides a ‘framework of law’ which prevents people from falling into the traps of a majoritarian populist. Another major contribution to the Constitution is providing a moral framework for social transformation.

Reflection 5: No other book can trump the Indian Constitution

On the matter of religion, the Indian state must maintain a principled distance from all religions. In the words of Bhargava:

“Principled distance requires the state to eschew a formal alliance with religion but not to build an insurmountable wall between the two. The state disengages from religion or engages with it - engages positively (actively promoting religion) or negatively (intervening to inhibit it) - and in order to treat all as equals, does not accord the same treatment but helps or hinders one religion more than others, as the occasion demands. Thus, without abandoning respect for Hinduism, the state must engage to abolish the degrading practice of untouchability justified by certain Hindu texts”.

Reflection 6: The importance of a nation’s self-image

There is a huge difference between a country’s self-image with a person’s self-image. There are two kinds of self-images: self-reflecting and the one which thrives on deliberate distortion. The former is aware of its vulnerability and flaws and acknowledges defects. 

Reflection 7: Taking pride in our national culture

The question one must ask ourselves is whether we should display a vulgar and obscene act of cultural pride by shouting from the rooftops that we are the best in the world. Or should we shine through the actions, deeds and moral stand that we take as a country?

Reflection 8:  Why do we treasure democracy?

Democracy ensures a peaceful transfer of power without a single shot being fired or a drop of blood being spilt. It allows its adherents to speak, think and behave the way they want without succumbing to the fear of being killed or beaten. The durability of Indian democracy in conditions where it was assumed to die a slow death is nothing short of a wonder. 

Reflection 9: Bicycle ride as a metaphor for democracy

Which one is better? Only the village head owning a bicycle and lending it to the villagers to buy their goods. Or the villagers have their own bicycles or have a common bicycle that they can use to buy and sell their goods? We need to think about democracy like this. We are better off when everyone has the means to fulfil their dreams rather than a tiny elite dominating others. 

Reflection 10: What do the ruler and the ruled owe one another?

Even a democratic system can become tyrannical and arbitrary if there are no checks and balances and the rule of law is undermined. As citizens, we owe it to ourselves and to other citizens to ensure that:

1. There is a rule of law that checks the abuse of power

2. Constitutional morality - justice, tolerance, freedom, equality - guides us and our political class

Reflection 11: Respecting leaders in a democracy

The hierarchical notion of respect and deference towards a leader undermines democratic accountability and is incompatible with democracy.

Reflection 12: What qualities should we expect from our leaders?

1. Putting collective interest before his own and of preferred members of his group

2. Ability to listen, even to the criticism

3. Good communicator. However, good communication is useless if the words lack sincerity 

4. Ability to rise above politics and reach out to others when it comes to national problems

Reflection 13: The importance of listening well

The ability to listen to others is a hallmark of a compassionate democracy. Listening becomes all the way more important in times of disagreement and polarisation. Binary thinking makes matters worse. 

Reflection 14: The importance of democratic education 

The key elements of democratic education are:

1. Cultivation of democratic virtues and ability to identify a ‘minimally common good’.

2. Not succumbing to ‘pleonexia’ which essentially means greed to grab everything for oneself without thinking about others’ needs

3. Become a part of political debates keeping history in mind. 

Reflection 15: The right to protest in a free society

The right to protest is essential to make a democratically elected government accountable when either it has become complacent or is acting against the interests of the citizens.

Reflection 16: The politics of enmity

In a competitive electoral democracy like India, it is legitimate to see some as adversaries who need to be temporarily defeated and deprived of the seat of power. But treating them as enemies and calling them pejorative names like urban naxals only signals a deep sense of prejudice and a warning that one can go to any lengths to defeat the ‘enemy’, even if those measures are not in the rulebook of a democracy.

Reflection 17: The legitimation crisis of Indian democracy

Legitimacy exists when the citizens are convinced that the state has delivered whatever they want. There’s a legitimation crisis when there is a massive gap between what was expected and what was delivered by the state. One of the forms of this kind of crisis is the crisis of democracy’s moral legitimacy. This results from an acute sense of dissatisfaction with the democratic process. People get the feeling that the ‘systems’ are not working for them but helping a tiny elite. Two responses emerge from this crisis:

1. Rise of a populist leader who promises that only he can fix things.

2. Citizens take matters into their own hands and demand more transparency and accountability

Reflection 18: Subjects, citizens and Maharajas

We don’t need to thank our politicians for the Covid-19 vaccine. This happens in a monarchy, not in a democracy. We are citizens, not subjects. 

Reflection 19: Enter the passive subject, exit the active citizen

The new welfarism in India is turning the active citizen into a passive subject. Let’s define the categories:

1. Active citizen: Can vote, participate in discussions on public issues, can influence policy-making and can also criticise the government

2. Passive citizen: Does not vote or take a stand on any public issues. They are happy to receive goods from the state, hence passive citizens.

3. Passive subjects: Could easily subordinate rights and give away liberty for the leader and for a larger common good. Always receives goods from the state and has a hierarchical relationship with the ruler.

The emergence of ‘labharthi’ as a separate political category is one of the examples of the third category. 

Reflection 20: The importance of rights

Rights in the constitution ensure moral equality- the fact that ‘no one is intrinsically superior or more powerful than the other. A person’s moral worth is the same as that of anyone else’s.’