Back to: Maharashtra Board Class 11th English Guide & Notes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar has emphasized the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity. According to him, these principles will make India a strong nation. These principles make our life liveable. He opines that hero-worship is a sure road to degradation, eventual dictatorship, and the collapse of a nation. He shows the threats of such hero worship and asks the readers to keep away from such thinking.
Important Names
- John Stuart Mill: An English philosopher, political economist, member of parliament, and civil servant of England
- Daniel O’Connel: Political leader of Ireland’s Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century
- James Bryce: Academic, jurist, historian, and Liberal politician in London.
How to maintain Democracy
The doctor emphasizes on what we must do to maintain democracy, that is we must be determined to believe in the constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives. When there were no ways left for constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods. But when constitutional methods are open, no unconstitutional methods can be justified. These methods can be called the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are rejected it will be better for us.
The other thing that we must do is to keep in mind the warning that John Stuart Mill has given to all who wants to maintain the democracy is that one must not lay their liberties at the feet of any man with power or trust him as it will allow him to control the institutions. It is not wrong to be thankful to people who have given life-long service for the country but even that has to be done within limits.
The Irish patriot Daniel O’Connel once said that no man can be grateful at the cost of their honor no woman can be grateful at the cost of her modesty and no nation can be grateful at the cost of their liberty. This awareness is more necessary in India than in any other country because faith and worship play an important part in politics which is far less than the importance it plays in other countries. Devotion in religion is the road to salvation but in politics, idol-worship is a sure road to shame and absolute domination.
Equality in politics and inequality in social and economic life
On the 26th of January 1950, we entered into a life of differences. We have equality in politics but inequality in social and economic life. The writer wants to know for how long are we going to ignore equality in social and economic life. If we continue to ignore, we will do so only by putting our political democracy at risk.
We must remove these differences as early as possible otherwise the people suffering from inequality will ruin the structure of political democracy which the assembly has determinedly built. Fraternity means a sense of common brotherhood of all Indians. According to the writer, it is not easy to achieve fraternity in Indian social life. The amount of difficulty can be realized from the story by James Bryce in his volume on American Commonwealth about the United States of America.
The story stated that the American Protestant Episcopal Church was celebrating its 300th anniversary as a ritual. At its triennial convention, a prayer for all the people was said. The words ran as “O Lord bless our nation” But the objections were raised by the people of a religious community and later on the words in the prayer was changed as ‘O Lord, bless these United States’.
Castes in India
There was very little unity in the U.S.A. at the time of this incident and the people of America did not think that they were a nation. If it is difficult for people of the United States to consider themselves as a nation, it is far more difficult for people of India to accept themselves as one nation. India consists of innumerable castes and considers itself to be a nation.
The sooner we realize that it is still not a nation yet in the social and psychological sense of the word, the better. It is important to realize the necessity of becoming a nation and think of the ways and means of realizing its goal as a nation. This realization is going to be very difficult even more difficult than it has been for the United States.
The USA has no caste problem still the people did not accept it as they were a nation. In India, there are so many castes. Castes are anti-national. They bring about separation in social life. Castes are antinational as they generate jealousy and antipathy between common people.
However, we must overcome all the difficulties if we wish to become a nation in reality. As Fraternity can be a fact only when there is a nation. Without fraternity, equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paints.
Conclusion
The pillars of democracy are liberty, equality, and fraternity. Liberty, equality, and fraternity lead to an ideal nation. These three concepts build a strong, supportive, caring, and united nation. Here people work for the well-being of all. They love and respect other people. There is no separation in respect of social life. So, such a nation is an ideal nation. They build the foundation of a strong nation.
