.. , .. December 21, 1968 -- " ". - • BOOK REVIEWS: and order turn the biind eye ·tothe - happenings. - Passengers in trains or trams or on rail platforms. may not -DEMOCRACY IN.ACTION l-egard trains suddenly set on fire or blazin·g platforms as 'non-violent' asser­ . DEMOCRACY AND NON-VIOLENCE tical illusionism to regard it all as any­ thing other than the 'majority' in action. tions of the democratic will of the -A Study of Their Relationship . persons participating in the exercise,· This is· indeed 'democracy' in action. EDITED BY KRISHNA KUMAR • even as so often ill , ·in "the im­ Delhi Citizens Peace Committee, spon­ Of course Congress legislators and mediate· presence" of ilie so-called sored by Peace Foundation, their franker comrades (who bluntly agencies of law and· order. 221/223, Rouse Avenue, New Delhi call them. elves Communists) may One. wonders if the millions of wor­ Price: Rs 20 . . regard the enforced. starvation of the kers who can be easily misled by in­ This expensive book is the record of landlord (or the mill-owner, or pro­ terested politicians who seek power a symposium sponsored by. the Gandhi prietor of an industrial unit) by· gheriro with a view to self-advancement are Peace Foundation, in which some lead­ as 'non-violent'. But the other party entitled to be classed as enlightened u~g personalities have expressed their may not be impressed by such intellec­ citizens. Since democracy· does· not· views on the essential inter-relationship, tual subtletIes. Violence is not a mere abjure the use.of physical force or as they think it, between Democl'acy matter of the unpact of sharp steel or legislative coercion, it is meaningless to and Non-violence mid the varied. im­ brickbats or broKen glass or small suggest that 'non-violence' is its foun­ plications of this presumed. inter­ bOUlders on some portion or other of a dation. Well established dictators like relationship. Among the contributors live human beulg you don't like. There Dr Salazar are presumably 'non~violent' are Messrs V. V. Giri,. , may be more actual violence involved because· forsooth· they do nothing more· R. R. Diwaker, U. N. Debhar, G. ­ in legislative expropriation of rights, than prevent people saying or doing chandran, Humayun Kabir and a fOlmer goods (tangible _and intangible), etc., things against them by shutting them in Professor of Political Science, Dr long cherished by individuals or groups. prison or sending them to 'another A. Appadorai. TIfe Prillces who· surrendered. theu­ place'. It may he that politicians are some­ States to the Congress-dominated Gov­ The platitudes uttered by the partici­ times loose thinkers. and speak fluently ernment of India of twenty odd years pants of this symposium have exer­ buf make imprecise generalizations and ago, puttulg theu' trust in the word of cised themselves in futile purpose. They draw illogical infgrences. One is not the then leaders of the Government, all' seem· to be. talking . in the air; not surprised to find . the vast majority of may feel thelnselves to be helpless vic- one of them has taken the trouble to those who participated in the symposium· . tims of the most iniquitous legislative. say ho~ far the present ruling claimants saying the things they say herein. But violence. Industrialists prevented from to political successorship to ·Gandhiji . one is a bit startled when a profsssor having a ~cup of drinking wateI' (Of. have any real title to it, though _they of politics makes imprecise and un­ watching their conveyances and homes never cease to exploit the Mahatma's warranted statements. Dr Appa,dorai set; fire to mld their near and dear· ones name to their own' ends. Indeed. the says (on page 79) that "the democratic abused and hooted out, may preier the present Government of India· has, in method precludes arriving at a decision 'non-violence' of the kind resorted to action, 'repudiated everything Gandhi on social policy in the streets, which· is by their employees under one pretext strove for during· his lifetime. the way of mobocracy". What is the or another, when the preservers of law -S.R. • authority for this view, apart from Dr -, Appadorai's personttl preferences? Many things are "settled" in the streets by THE PROBLEM OF UNBELIEF the well-known 'democratic' principle of 'majority', the minority being forced VALUES IN THE CHANGING other persuasive appeal for belief· is nn into their homes (if any are left), per­ WORLD' the ground of benefit to oneself, not to society. - haps bruised and bleedulg. It would DR P. NAGARAJA RAo In the existing state. of knowledge be snobbish to suggest that this is not Indian Institute .of World Culture, democratic. Abuse of the people by Bangalore-4 and climate of opinion, belief of the. calling them a mob is a sign of intellec­ relevant type is difficult. Beliaf of the Price: Re 1.50 relevant type does not mean belid tual insecurity. The 'mob' are always the people! We have given a saJl1ple It . is always possible to get a cheer merely in a non-materialistic cosmo­ logy. That is not difficult. Pantheism, of the illogicalities found in the book. by denouncing the follies of the age. The underlying thesis of the book Pl:ofessor P. Nagaraja Rao's lectures in hylozoism, the elan vnal, and the like that non-violence is the inescapable Bangalore, which did so with resound­ are fairly credible. But such doctrines and inextricable correlate of democracy Ulg rhetoric and apt quotations, must have no rational .. bearing on conduct, will not bear serious examination. When have aroused much enthusiasm. His and very little emotional impact on it. a party in power in a 'democratic'. theme was the folly of materialism and They do not picture a universe in which State is opposed to' . landlords regarding the need for religious faith to sustain the human individual or his actions land· and what is grown on it as their. society. But: after the clapping, will have any importance. What is wanted own, the process of persuasion of the the listeners' faith have been strength­ is a belief that the individual's life and landlords into acquiescence with ex-. ened? work count for somt;lthing and get some propriatiori is not. at any ·significant Many people would agree that with­ recognition. This belief is necessary in point 'non-violent'. When labour out religious belief both morals and employer-employee relations, and thq gheJ'aos . the landlord or massively. morale are in a bad way and likely to same applies to life as a whole. abuses him in language not notably get worse, but appeals on that ground The ancients understoOd that and eloquent or· occupies the land or walks appear to have little success. After all, taught that the individual . will be away with the harvested paddy Or pre­ the beneficial· effectS of belief are no rewarded or p~ished accofclin:g as. he vents ariythin'g like a harvest altogether, ground for bi;!lieL The only proper olleys ordisob"eYs. the nidral law. But it is sheer semantic snobbery or poli- gioimd fOT belief is truth, and the only experience notoriously belies this. It is