Long Live the Raj, the Raj is dead

     Long Live the Raj, the Raj is dead

Ghost stories

The English have a saying, “The king is dead, long live the King.” India has taken a straw out of the English hat, for now we too have sayings like, “Long live the Raj, the Raj is dead”.And no, we are not talking about the pale ghosts of the British hovering around in the hills and old Bungalows.

This might be true of all the other post imperial colonies as well, where the structures of exploitation have been readily 'indigenised", the local elite taking over what was the position of the colonialists once, not only in the socio-economic terms, but also in terms of adopting the culture, language, dress, food habits of their former masters. 

Our  Indian independence was the death of the British Raj, but then for the people, the Raj simply never ended. It was a transfer of authority that they saw happening, but the same sort of mentality, institutional structure and public dealing of the Raj continued, with “Desi Sahibs” taking the coveted positions of our new masters. 

People see the Raj everyday, seeped into the uniforms of the police, carrying the same bludgeons. They can see the Raj in the un-responding legislators, running on the orders of their party whips. They can see the Raj in the apathy, the cowardice and ultimately the surrender of their own countrymen. 

Even as the red beaconed cars pass, children would line up the streets to see which which convoy it is, of the Maharajas of the modern times. Then the offices of these ‘Babus’ would be unapproachable, just like in the older times. People would still be beaten for demanding their rights in a similar manner. What is the most disturbing is that this non responsiveness, this brutal use of force against the citizens, this high handedness has become the norm and no one seems to mind!

Orderlies and Batmans

Foreign observers are more venerated in our country. ( Perhaps they’re the only ones who are allowed to speak their minds). One of them had this to say, “ Ostentatious pageantry and grandeur of senior officers was an obvious, visible form of authority. The morning parade and the salute to the commanding officer, the armed sentry at the superintendent’s gate,  and armed escort on their torus were symbols that placed the officers on a high pedestal. A deliberate paternalistic style of governance was created in which a few selected officers took all the decisions for the people.” (Griffiths 1971)

This form of governance was required in the Raj to maintain distance from the masses so that no one could complain, this distance was required to maintain the dignity of the few thousand “Sahibs” ruling over the millions. Tiger hunts and other entertainments were adjunct to propagating the myths of the Raj, thus institutionalising corruption in the ranks of the police. The subordinate officers had to arrange all of the entertainment and shelter for the large visiting party, making bribes, commissions a necessary part of duty. 

The same traditions of senior officers are still visible in a new manner. Since tigers have become rare, there are New Year parties, picnics and official get togethers at “Dak Bungalows”. The expenses for entertaining the senior officials are still passed down to subordinates. The officers are proud of their association with the British legacy. In some offices, the ‘succession list’ coming from the British period are still seen. The same palatial ‘bungalows’, house the present officers, the baton has successfully been passed to the IPS, army, Vice chancellors, collectors, Secretaries of government… and so on. 

There’s a wide gulf between the ‘ruler’ and the ‘ruled’. Class hierarchy even within the force is strict. Constable and middle level officers won’t sit in front of the SP. IPS officers still use constables as personal orderlies ( euphemism for domestic servant).Army officers have a more colourful name, that of the Batman ( no one knows the origin of this one). Drivers, coolies, gardeners, helps, call it by any name; all of them are state employees paid by taxes of people, taken out of their duty to serve whims of ‘sahib log’. The poor Kipling would have been infuriated with the misappropriation of his term for the 'bandar log' ( the monkey people). 

Un-Azaadi in Democracy?

We know that India is an elitist society, but the superior officers take it to scandalous level. The blatant use of official resources in name of cultural traditions is rarely criticised and accepted, to the point that the not accepting these would be considered deviant. 

One of the bitterest fallout of such cultural practices is that the democratic ethos of our society has been damaged to the root. Public institutions stifled by their own damning cultural practices cannot get out to reform themselves. We know that the police needs autonomy, needs an independent investigation department, we know that the IAS needs lateral entry, mid career checks for incompetent officers, we know that the army needs to be organised on more egalitarian lines without breaking it into regional silos, we know that the politicians need to stop interfering in every association/governing body/regulatory organisations. 

There are sporadic outburst of public disgust against the obsolete system. We saw the effects of it in the Anna Hazare’s movement and more recently in the JNU fracas. The consciousness of the people transcended the grumbling in bedrooms to the streets. Against the lathi charge, reminiscent of those six decades back, people demanded their ‘Azaadi’, the freedom to practice their religion, to live with their sexual orientation, to have justice, to be protected against discretion, to have accountability and to implement the constitution that we have given to ourselves. 

 Our sleeping destiny can awake only if implement what  we already know, that the ‘we’ the people of India should realise the power in our hand and exercise it by voting for the right candidate and civil society organisations. Our Independence didn’t come from the top, and our ‘Azaadi’ can’t come from the top, it has to come from within.

The only problem is then, that why do the people of one nation possess the ability and the will to wake up from their slumber and break the chains of the powerful few and why do others not do so and even if they do, they place someone else in that place. Is it the culture that's to be held responsible, or is it the geography, the religion, the race... what is it that allows the essential spark of men to flower and come alive in form of collective progress of a nation?