Roots of Democracy by Consensus in India
For decades we were made to believe that everything good in India was started by the British, that the House of Commons is the Mother of all Parliaments, that Indian education began with Lord Macaulay, that….
All this because those who were mentally slaves of the English or were Left-oriented wrote our history. Few knew that before the ‘education’ that is equated with knowledge of English, India had a Gurukul system which is what our universities now adopt at Ph.D. level – of having a mentor or Guru to guide.
Thanks to the biased ‘historians’ Akbar became ‘great’, Taj Mahal a symbol of love and Tippoo sultan a great patriot, but nothing was known of Rani Abbakka Chowtha’s clash with the Portuguese. Also not known was that a King of Mysuru in Karnataka, Krishna Rajendra Wodeyar introduced representative democracy with a people’s council long before we imported a 51:49 system where 51 idiots are considered right and 49 wise people are branded wrong simply because of numerical superiority.
Not taught in our schools was that the system in India was of consensus of Tarka and Meemamsa followed by Adi Shankara who vanquished divergent opinion with debate and discussion to achieve consensus. That this is the foundation of real democracy is universally accepted. Otherwise there is no need for parliamentary debates; the ruling party can do whatever it wants because of the numbers on its side.
And for one such a debate with Mandana Misra, he accepted the rival’s own wife as the judge (in the days filial loyalty existed and disagreement did not lead to divorce). She admitted defeat of her husband but said she also should be argued with being (the better) half of the man.
India of Ardha Naarishwara is told that feminism was born in the West and that women were oppressed in India.Every school of philosophy agrees that there is only one truth – that any political stand is either right or wrong.
Bhagwad Gita teaches acceptance of right and rejection of wrong. Parliament is meant to debate and arrive at a consensus, not for a majority vote. Politics of bipartisanism and a national government are touted by the bootlickers as a Western concept in the country of Adi Shankara, the advocate of consensus.
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