DEMOCRACY AND DISCONNECTION

A WIDE CANVAS

DEMOCRACY AND DISCONNECTION

In democracies, people are said to elect the govt which is supposed to be responsible to the people. It is the people's will that is supposed to prevail.

A scene from the first general election in India, 1952www.oldindianphotos.in/2014. Copyright status not stated.

Yet, this has proved to be a great illusion, the mother  of many more.How do people express their will? They vote on the basis of parties' programmes; thus from the beginning, they submit to a group's will, which usurps the place of 'people's will'. Once elected, the legislature acts as the supreme body, over which people have no control. 'National interest' is taken to be what these legislators think it is, and they always think in terms of their constituencies, both physical and ideological. In India,our parliamentarians think in terms of minority interests, not national interests. And those minorities are always religious and communal. Thus the so called 'secular' parties are those who promote 'communal' interests, while shouting against communalism all the time!

But we may take comfort from the fact that it is happening in England, which is called the 'mother of parliaments' and in the US which is the most powerful democracy . This is happening in every West-European country, which nurses democracy. Nowhere is this seen more clearly or ominously than in the way people perceive Islam in the West, and the govts there treat it.

After the second world war, the govts of Europe felt a sense of guilt and dissatisfaction on issues such as Nazism, Fascism, etc. A liberal wave swept through those lands, the elite rooting for multicultural societies. Immigration was allowed on a large scale. It was expected that the immigrants would gradually integrate with the society, absorb European values and over time get fully assimilated. 

But it did not happen that way. Especially with the Muslims.

In the last century, Europeans  adopted secularism- not only in the sense of separation of church and state in the public sphere, but non-religious attitude even in private life. More and more, women started working, and traditional family life disappeared. Moral relativism replaced ethical certainties. Modern science questioned all old values. Traditional authority lost its hold.  All these were reinforced through their art, literature, music and public discourse. Thinkers still admitted that somehow the good old 'Christian values'  held sway, but no one would acknowledge it openly, for fear of inviting ridicule. To even say that one's parents were religious and still attended church was felt to be embarrassing!

When the Muslims arrived, they not only brought their religion, but boldly flaunted it. They would not mind kneeling on the road, if they had no mosque. As their numbers swelled, they started so kneeling even when they had one! 

Muslims praying in the street in Paris
www.americanfreedomunion.com

And in London
www.clarionproject.organalysis/ramada/europe-2013

And in Moscow, outside the largest mosque, on 8 August,2013
www.patriotbillboard.org.

As they acquired citizenship and voting rights, they started asserting their distinct identity as Muslims, not merely as citizens of the countries in which they lived. Palestine, US- European involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, Western support to Israel, rising anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism etc helped forge a universal  Islamic identity, even in the absence of a formal Caliphate. Curiously, even 9/11 helped boost the Islamic  power and identity, while neither the US nor the Christian Europe could agree on anything!

And New York parishes are closing!
www.worldreligions.com 12 Nov,2014
htttps:://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=525087450934194677

But they seemed to have agreed on one thing: ignore the growing power and force of Islam, and look the other way! Not only have the Muslims  refused to embrace Europe's secular values as price of citizenship, they have demanded that their rights  be respected and honoured as a separate religion! Thus Europe and America, who have encouraged anti- religious sentiments among the natives , through their educational systems and public discourse, are made to make big concessions to their main, historical adversary of 1400 years, many of whose followers are immigrants, on their own soil!

Ordinary, native citizens find that their freedoms are shrinking. For fear of offending Muslims, they can't use certain words; their children can't wear their crosses in school, if they want Muslims not to wear veil; they can't visit a bank with a head helmet, but the Muslim women can enter covering their whole face! As Muslim numbers increase in a neighbourhood, they can't retain the old Christian names of their schools! They can't celebrate thousand-year old festivals because they may give offence to Muslims! This is a very curious phenomenon: without running the govt, the Muslims are getting their demands fulfilled and  wishes respected! Europe, which repudiated its own religion and  its associated cultural traditions, are now compelled to honour an alien and adversary religion, and its traditions! Europe which proclaimed "God is Dead" is now required to honour Allah and the Prophet and his followers!

England, which divided India, is now facing a similar division! It is already facing a divide! Had I been sadistic, I would have loved the situation! But I pity them. We may disagree, but we could still argue with them; they looted us, but we also learned things from them. Many Britishers have been great friends and admirers of India. This is hardly something we can say of the Muslims!

Annie Besant  who fought for India's freedom.

Sister Nivedita, disciple of Vivekananda who served the cause of Indian women's education, besides supporting the Nationalists.

Sir John Woodroffe, Judge of the   Calcutta High Court, who learned and interpreted our Tantra and showed its connection with Vedanta. In this picture, he is shown at Konark.

European experience was that as they got educated, they became secular; they expected the same in respect of Muslims. This has not happened.

Europe had hoped that Muslims in Europe would be different. Muslims demand that Europe be different. Not that Muslims would become Europeanised, but that Europe would become Islamised! They have made it clear from a hundred platforms. But the European politicians do not want to hear, or see, or speak about it.

Muslims have genuine concerns about the state of society in the West. The hedonism and crazy consumerism of the West are not acceptable to them.. Women's liberty and claims to equality with men are against Islamic understanding and practice.Equally, the Islamic position on these issues is distasteful for the European. No educated woman in the West would like to be confined to the home; nor would she give up economic independence. The issue of sexual morality is tough: the Muslims would view the European stand as immoral; the West would consider the Muslim position hypocritical. How the two can go together, and for how long, is problematical. Europeans have separated politics and religion. For the Muslims, their politics is part of their religion, as also every other aspect of life. These differences are real and sharp, and cannot be bridged by academic theories or political subterfuge. To be Europeanised means in effect to cease to be a Muslim as they understand it.

No Muslim country, or Muslim cleric has condemned 9/11. They  all celebrated it. It is the West which is making them concessions. What they give up is concrete; in return, they are not getting even an assurance of anything. One would not have thought them to be so stupid. That is what they are.

In this has a great disconnect occurred between the voters and those they have voted for, between the ruled and the rulers. The native people feel intimidated, threatened- even the police would not enter certain areas!

A demonstration in London  by English Defence League'

Byhttp:://www.flickr.com/photos/Lionheartphotography [CC BY-2.0 Creative Commons via Wikimedia Commons.

The politicians neither reflect, nor serve or protect the interests of the people- the native people of those lands. In the name of fighting terrorism, they have placed restrictions on their law abiding citizens , even while extending concessions to those from whose ranks the terrorists are drawn! They have , perhaps unwittingly, become agents of Islamisation of Europe and America, even while not speaking up for their own religion! 

Our secularists, so called intellectuals etc, who get their ideas from the West, how can they be better or different,or original, when their sources are stupid?