New Waveof political ideas in India

By: Sauro Dasgupta
Political Ideas have been present in the world since time immemorial. They have sought to improve the conditions of the society and the nation. Ideas like liberalism, conservatism, communism spread from Europe to India rapidly. In fact, the founders of these ideas had great connections with their Indian counterparts. Liberal philosopher Jeremy Bentham had a lifelong friendship with the founder of Indian liberalism, Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Similarly, the founder of modern Conservatism, Sir Edmund Burke regularly corresponded with Raja Sir Radhakanta Deb Bahadur. MN Roy was deeply inspired by Communism. After the October Revolution (1917), he visited Moscow and Lenin asked him to prepare the ground for Communism in India. Roy thus established the Communist party of India in 1920 in Tashkent. He was the father of Indian Communism.
Things started to change from the 1960s. The Soviets, who had asked the Communists to stop their movement against the Nehru dispensation in 1947 were now cold with India desiring a healthy relationship with the US. Western Liberals were also unhappy with the increasing leftward turn of Indian politics after 1969. By 1977, Conservatives were in power in Delhi.
The Conservatives were able to establish a front comprising themselves and Lohiaites, who later started several backward caste movements in Northern India. Both Conservatives and liberals started to woo them, with the hope of getting a huge vote bank in the North. The Ram Janmabhoomi Andolan put an end to Mandalisation of Indian Politics. The backward castes joined the movement with great enthusiasm.
With absolute shrewdness and social engineering, the upper caste Liberals managed to be in power from 1996-2014, after which we have seen the Conservatives returning to power after a decade, who with a combination of welfare schemes, Hindutva, resulting in Hindu consolidation behind them, irrespective of caste, class, region, etc. Many minorities began to vote for them in huge numbers. They had respect for the common man and gave him a voice- something that wasn’t particularly liked by the elite liberals, who accused the people, especially the backward castes of being manipulated by the Conservatives, just because the Prime Minister happened to be an OBC. The continuous bashing of the common man caused them to lose nearly every poll, except for a few. They were no longer able to tackle the Conservatives in their reachout to the common man.
Along came new ideas among Dalits, Adivasis and others, who felt that the existing system had failed them. It was often reasoned that had they waited a little longer, their demands would have been fulfilled. But that never materialised. It has been seen that they are creating new parties, basing them on ideas of Dr Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Many introduced schemes like free education, healthcare, water, electricity, public transport, great infrastructure, etc rather than focusing on caste and religion. These welfare parties had a field day at the polls.
At the end of the day, it must be understood that political ideas are not entirely perfect in themselves. However there needs to be a synergy between ideas and the reality of our country. Those ideas that did not benefit the nation were rightly voted out of power. It’s crystal clear that only those who will speak about the welfare of the plebians, refuse to cede an inch of space to the entrenched elite and preserve the unity, integrity and sovereignty of India, only those ideas will remain.
(The author is a PG 1 Student, Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University)