EDITORIAL: The G-20 Baton Passed To India goes a long way

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is organizing programs of the G-20. Programs organized through G-20 have taken the form of festivals with the participation of the society in India, instead of being just diplomatic programs belonging to certain representatives.

The specialty of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s working style is that he plans programs for the entire society by linking government schemes with the society. The goal declared him ‘One Earth – One Family – One Future’ (One Earth – One Family – One Future) has become a means of connecting to the world. This is the embodiment of the concept of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ of Indian culture. Through the G-20, India wants to put forward the model of development, diversity, and democracy through the democratic method of diversity-rich India before the world.

Speaking among overseas Indians on the occasion of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas organized in Indore this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that we all are proud that India is the Mother of Democracy. Till now, while praising the democracy of India, we used to say that we are the largest democratic country in the world. While on the one hand, there was a crisis in the democracies of the world, democracy in our neighboring country Pakistan was also trampled under the boots of the army, on the other hand, we proved to be a successful democracy. Prime Minister Modi has addressed India as the mother of democracy himself, and also said that it is not just a great democracy, but there has been a tradition of democracy also in India, since the Vedic period itself.

During the period of ‘slavery’, there was a planned attempt to make us forget ‘ourselves’. We were taught that India had nothing of its own, everything was given to us by the British. Mathematics, knowledge, science, art, literature, and the concept of development – are all we inherited from the British. In this sequence, they told us that we did not even have a governance system in India. The democratic system is also a gift to us from the British. After studying the well-planned Macaulay education system, a large section of India also started believing this to be true.

We were taught that the first democracy in the world is the Republic of Athens. The state of Athens became the first republic after being freed from dictatorship, whose history is 2000 years old. Thousands of years before the existence of the Republic of Athens, the spirit of democracy had already developed in India since the Vedic period. The word republic is used forty times in Rigveda and it is mentioned nine times in Atharvaveda. There are examples in the Rigveda of the king running the rule in consultation with his allies. There are examples in the Rigveda of running the government in consultation with the king and his supporters also. The group formed by the king and his associates was addressed by the name ‘Samiti’. The presence of the king in the meetings of the committee was mandatory, as in ‘Raja na satyaḥ samitriyanḥ‘ (The king who does not come to the meeting of the committee is not a true king.)

There is a description of three types of gatherings in the Vedas. In these, the evidence of governance is first found through VidyArya Sabha (related to education), DharmArya Sabha (related to justice) and RajArya Sabha (related to governance). Like the committee, the assembly was also the medium of governance. Many proofs of this are available in the literature. Describing the specialty of the assembly, he has said that the assembly is not an assembly in which there are no good people. Good people are those who talk about justice by being free from attachment and hatred- ‘Na sa sabha yattham na santi santo!’

In Mahabharata’s Shanti Parva, Bhishma Pitamah explained the importance of the republic to Yudhishthira and said that the republic is the medium of direct connection with the public. Shakya, Kauliv, Lichchavi, Vajji, Pippalvan, Allalpalvan – all are examples of democratic republics in the Buddhist period.

Speaking in the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Sarvopalli Radhakrishnan has mentioned the dialogue between a king and the vanikas (merchants) who had gone from north to south two thousand years ago. When the king asks them – Who is your king? The merchants then replied that some of us are ruled by the king and some by the council. There is a description of the democratic governance system in the works of literature of various Indian scholars, like Patanjali, Kautilya etc. Foreign scholars Megasthenes, Hiuen Tsang, etc. also have written about the republican system of India.

The secret of the success of democracy in India is that in the general society of India, the feeling of democracy is a natural ingredient. In many countries of the world, democratic systems were established due to the reaction against the dictatorial tendency of the king there. On the other hand, democracy was born in India with a positive spirit. The deep study of the human mind in Indian culture is not seen anywhere else. The reason for this is the spirituality derived from the rich tradition of India. Rigveda’s mantra – Sangachchhadhwam Samvadhwam. Samvo Manaansi Jaantaam. Samano Mantra: Samiti: Samani.

In other words, we walk in the same direction, speak the same, and know everyone’s feelings, our committee should be the same, and everyone’s mantra (goal) should be the same.

This positive spirit of democracy has originated in India since ancient times and is absorbed deeply in the values and minds of the Indian people. The framers of the Indian constitution confirmed this sentiment by giving equal voting rights to everyone while framing the constitution. The Prime Minister is revealing this historical truth to the world by calling India the Mother of Democracy. Undoubtedly, the G-20 will become a medium to establish Indian specialty, by realizing Prime Minister Modi’s Panch Pran, India will also be freed from mental slavery.