Abhinandan Granth (English Article)

The cultural under-development of India is very often emphasized by the Prime Minister. But un­fortunately his anxiety to take the Indian people out of the ' bullock-cart' mentality does not seem to be reflected either in Government plans or in the programmes of political parties that accept his diagnosis. The pains are almost exclusively economic in their objectives. It is true that some provision is made in them for the expansion of education and the promotion of the arts. But one looks in vain for evidence in these plans of the realization that education hi a democracy is not merely literacy or the technical or profes­sional knowledge necessary for the efficient work­ing of a modern society. It is also to be liberat­ing, freeing man from the habits, attitudes and outlook that prevent him from exercising the rights and discharging the obligations of the citi­zen of a democratic state. In particular, educa­tion must, among other things, promote the habit of critical and rational inquiry into problems and their alternative solutions in the light of relevant facts, an appreciation of human values like free­dom, truth, justice, intellectual integrity ; the willingness to question authority unsupported by rational argument and humane principles ; and finally, the ability to stand alone, to be misunder­stood and maligned as an enemy of the people, if the people seem to be rushing to the mad-house. For democracy does not mean that the people are always right in whatever they do. For instance, even a ninety-nine percent majority has no moral right to deny freedom and equality to a single person on grounds of sex, or caste, or creed. What democracy primarily means is a cretain set of fundamental values that are sought to be real­ized by a certain way of life. Democratic institu­tions are a means to an end ; their working is based on the principles of persuasion and majo­rity vote because argument is better than force and, in controversial issues which do not involve a violation of basic principles, it is more reason­able to accept the decision of the majority than of the minority. But there is nothing in the theory of democracy that would sanction, for example, the liquidation of democracy even by the full vote of a state legislature or the plebis­cite of a people.