Maharaja; An essential lesson for Indian democracy
Yesterday I was going through an old Pritish Nandy blog published in the Times of India in 2010. Quite vividly it depicts the fallacy of our democracy. It said out of 543 Mps in Loksabha 315 are crorepatis and 43 out of 54 newly elected MPs in Rajyasabha are millionaires in a country where 68.7% live on less than $2 /-per day. After being granted with free electricity, furniture, water, subsidized gas and Rs.1000/- they can demand a 500% hike in their salary!! So who are these people? Public servants, semi monarchs or a bunch of democratically elected kings and queens? For they are elected by us, again we cannot blame them if we cannot blame ourselves. But amidst of moral bankruptcy and inept governance, as a common man of India like R K Laxman I intend to draw an example from the past from which these monarchs and semi monarchs can learn some vital lessons.
On 7th of July, 1799, an eighteen year old boy enters the city of Lahore through its colossal gateways not only to consolidate his ambitious plan for an unified state of Punjab which was divided by numbers of warring principalities in the following years but to lead an unconscious emergence of Punjabi Nationalism which would draw respectful attention and curiosity within the next twenty years from every corner of the world. He became perhaps one of the greatest conqueror of Northern India whose empire would stretch itself between the dry, cold mountain series of Hindukush in the North West, the lash green expanses of Ganga-Jumna doab in the south East and Kashmir in the North.
When tyranny is the usual expression of every monarchical rule, what lessons our democratically elected politicians can learn when they are guilty of shameful display of greed for more power and inefficiency in office? When entire Uttar Pradesh is frequented with ugly and pain in the eye statues of its former Chief Minister Mayavati just to immortalize herself, our Maharaja did not even built a grandiose throne for himself like Xerexes in Persepolis or the Mughals in Delhi. He preferred to sit cross legged on a simple chair and often received his visitors just reclining on a cushion on a carpet. He preferred to wear a simple turban quite discordant with the other monarchs, both in North and the south. Unlike other kings and queens, Ranjit Singh displayed his extraordinary humbleness by rejecting his own effigy and name to be inscribed on the coins and government seals. Both did not have any reference to him other than Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikh faith.
When most of our Mps and MLAs are completely out of touch with the common people, Maharaja never lost his connection with his own men. The necessary flavour of a constitutional monarchy quietly departed from the land of five rivers with the establishment of Sarkar Khalsaji and Darbar Khalsaji.
The most significant and perhaps the most cardinal principal we need to imbibe from this leader is his idea of secularism. He famously said “God wanted me to look upon all religions with one eye, that is why he took away the light from the other.” The history between the three doabs of Punjab had been cruel, murderous. Its fertile landscape had been blood soaked with religious atrocities which exploded during the reign of Aurangzeb and continued till the Mughals were considerably subdued by its inherent weakness, the Marathas and the East India company. But Singh Sahib showed no unwanted prejudices and blind hatred for his Muslim subjects. After assuming the thrown of Lahore his first act would be paying homage to the Badshahi Mosque and the mosque of Wazir Khan.
When an obvious number of Indian politicians are accused and often found guilty of instigating religious violence and minority appeasement compromising the national security with unbroken continuity since Independence, Ranjit Singh’s offer to the minorities was not restricted to mere symbolic visit to its shrines. His administrative acumen did not offer any brotherly partisanship to his Sikh subjects and every job was awarded to its best and most worth candidate irrespective of cast, creed and religion. His Prime Minister Dhian Singh was a dogra Hindu, foreign minister Fakir Azizuddin was a Muslim and finance minister Dina Nath again was a Hindu. Two Muslims, Ghaus Mohammad Khan (Mian Ghausa) and later Sheikh Elahi Baksh were given the charge of his artillery brigade which consisted mostly Muslim gunners. Significantly, these gunners were quite instrumental in securing Attock, the gateway to North India and fought many gruesome battles for Punjab.During his reign, state of Punjab did not become a sacrosanct land for Sikhs, neither anything stopped Persian to be the official court language of it. Hope our leaders learn a bit from it and say hell to our reservation policy; let the best man to do his job.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh earned his thrown by his extraordinary courage and military aptitude, unified the state of Punjab by his unmatched diplomatic skills and ability to command with an iron fist, maintained peace and harmony by building Punjabi nationalism based upon honest faith in secularism and utmost respect for its body politic. Our leaders today, most of whom look down upon democracy with an appallingly contemptuous way and who are doubtless crippled with administrative inefficiency might learn how to behave like a King at least if not serving the commoners is their best forte.
Yesterday I was going through an old Pritish Nandy blog published in the Times of India in 2010. Quite vividly it depicts the fallacy of our democracy. It said out of 543 Mps in Loksabha 315 are crorepatis and 43 out of 54 newly elected MPs in Rajyasabha are millionaires in a country where 68.7% live on less than $2 /-per day. After being granted with free electricity, furniture, water, subsidized gas and Rs.1000/- they can demand a 500% hike in their salary!! So who are these people? Public servants, semi monarchs or a bunch of democratically elected kings and queens? For they are elected by us, again we cannot blame them if we cannot blame ourselves. But amidst of moral bankruptcy and inept governance, as a common man of India like R K Laxman I intend to draw an example from the past from which these monarchs and semi monarchs can learn some vital lessons.
On 7th of July, 1799, an eighteen year old boy enters the city of Lahore through its colossal gateways not only to consolidate his ambitious plan for an unified state of Punjab which was divided by numbers of warring principalities in the following years but to lead an unconscious emergence of Punjabi Nationalism which would draw respectful attention and curiosity within the next twenty years from every corner of the world. He became perhaps one of the greatest conqueror of Northern India whose empire would stretch itself between the dry, cold mountain series of Hindukush in the North West, the lash green expanses of Ganga-Jumna doab in the south East and Kashmir in the North.
When tyranny is the usual expression of every monarchical rule, what lessons our democratically elected politicians can learn when they are guilty of shameful display of greed for more power and inefficiency in office? When entire Uttar Pradesh is frequented with ugly and pain in the eye statues of its former Chief Minister Mayavati just to immortalize herself, our Maharaja did not even built a grandiose throne for himself like Xerexes in Persepolis or the Mughals in Delhi. He preferred to sit cross legged on a simple chair and often received his visitors just reclining on a cushion on a carpet. He preferred to wear a simple turban quite discordant with the other monarchs, both in North and the south. Unlike other kings and queens, Ranjit Singh displayed his extraordinary humbleness by rejecting his own effigy and name to be inscribed on the coins and government seals. Both did not have any reference to him other than Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikh faith.
When most of our Mps and MLAs are completely out of touch with the common people, Maharaja never lost his connection with his own men. The necessary flavour of a constitutional monarchy quietly departed from the land of five rivers with the establishment of Sarkar Khalsaji and Darbar Khalsaji.
The most significant and perhaps the most cardinal principal we need to imbibe from this leader is his idea of secularism. He famously said “God wanted me to look upon all religions with one eye, that is why he took away the light from the other.” The history between the three doabs of Punjab had been cruel, murderous. Its fertile landscape had been blood soaked with religious atrocities which exploded during the reign of Aurangzeb and continued till the Mughals were considerably subdued by its inherent weakness, the Marathas and the East India company. But Singh Sahib showed no unwanted prejudices and blind hatred for his Muslim subjects. After assuming the thrown of Lahore his first act would be paying homage to the Badshahi Mosque and the mosque of Wazir Khan.
When an obvious number of Indian politicians are accused and often found guilty of instigating religious violence and minority appeasement compromising the national security with unbroken continuity since Independence, Ranjit Singh’s offer to the minorities was not restricted to mere symbolic visit to its shrines. His administrative acumen did not offer any brotherly partisanship to his Sikh subjects and every job was awarded to its best and most worth candidate irrespective of cast, creed and religion. His Prime Minister Dhian Singh was a dogra Hindu, foreign minister Fakir Azizuddin was a Muslim and finance minister Dina Nath again was a Hindu. Two Muslims, Ghaus Mohammad Khan (Mian Ghausa) and later Sheikh Elahi Baksh were given the charge of his artillery brigade which consisted mostly Muslim gunners. Significantly, these gunners were quite instrumental in securing Attock, the gateway to North India and fought many gruesome battles for Punjab.During his reign, state of Punjab did not become a sacrosanct land for Sikhs, neither anything stopped Persian to be the official court language of it. Hope our leaders learn a bit from it and say hell to our reservation policy; let the best man to do his job.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh earned his thrown by his extraordinary courage and military aptitude, unified the state of Punjab by his unmatched diplomatic skills and ability to command with an iron fist, maintained peace and harmony by building Punjabi nationalism based upon honest faith in secularism and utmost respect for its body politic. Our leaders today, most of whom look down upon democracy with an appallingly contemptuous way and who are doubtless crippled with administrative inefficiency might learn how to behave like a King at least if not serving the commoners is their best forte.
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