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From: sk@duke.UUCP (Sanjaya Kumar)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Re: Political maturity of the masses
Message-ID: <5534@duke.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 11-Mar-85 20:43:57 EST
Article-I.D.: duke.5534
Posted: Mon Mar 11 20:43:57 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Mar-85 04:02:46 EST
References: <2458@hplabsc.UUCP> <173@sbcs.UUCP>
Reply-To: sk@duke.UUCP (Sanjaya Kumar)
Organization: Duke University
Lines: 62

>> 
>> Here is a letter from an American-born professor who was in India
>> at the time of the last elections.  You all might find it of interest.
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>> India and the U S
>> 
>> Sir, - As a political scientist - with the University of Washington -
>> on my first visit to India, I have been amazed to witness at first
>> hand, the virility and maturity of Indian democracy in the general
>> elections. ...
>
>Give me a break!  Does this guy have any idea of what factors influence joe
>villager's vote?  Weighty non-issues such as the candidate's religion, caste,
>community, mother tongue, and whether or not he pees facing the wind are
>all important factors;

Who is to say which issues are weighty and which are not?For an Indian villager,
hounded by the upper castes to give up his 3 acres, or forced to walk 20 miles
for the nearest water supply other than the upper caste well, maybe the caste
of the candidate he supports is far more important than the "weighty" issue of 
whether Rajiv supports Reagan's plan for a Star Wars defence system or not.

Even in a western democracy such as Canada the mother-tongue of a candidate
may influence his chances for being elected. Why not in India ?

>But it irks me that Indira Gandhi's defeat in the 1977 elections is seen by
>some pundits as some sort of victory of Democracy and The Forces of Light
>over Tyranny and The Forces of Darkness: she lost because nasbandhi wasn't
>a hit with the people ... but you don't have to look at profound ideologies
>for that, people can become surprisingly recalcitrant when threatened with
>forcible sterilization!  Mrs. G. actually did pretty well in the
>South, where Sanjay Gandhi's N-point programmes hadn't been quite so
>harshly implemented.
>
People didn't like what she had done and she hadn't delivered what she had 
promised, so they voted her out. Isn't that the essence of Democracy? I for one,
don't need any profound ideology to see that. And if it is perceived as a 
"victory of Democracy ...", well, it was. 

>I'm especially flabbergasted at talk of "political maturity" when political
>nonentities like Amitabh Bachhan win landslide victories over veterans like
>H N Bahuguna and Chandra Sekhar.  Whither maturity when the only factors
>that matter are a celluloid reality and caste and party stickers?
>Saumya Debray
>SUNY at Stony Brook
>

Why does a lawyer-turned-politician deserve one's vote more than a film-actor?
Mr Bahuguna has, at one time or another, been a member of just about every 
political party in India except the Communists before forming one of his own.
Given a choice between him and Mr Bachhan, I would certainly have voted for
Mr Bachhan. At the very least, you can be sure he won't be bribed, and maybe
he will bring some extra attention (and therfore funds) to your district.
After all, if the (presumably) "politically mature" people of North Carolina
voted Sen. Jesse Helms into office, I'd Rather (pun intended) be politically
immature anytime !

Sanjaya Kumar
Duke University
Durham, NC