The evolution of India's co and democratic polity
India-Sri Lanka relations, in recent times, have matured to become a model template for good neighbourly relations, said India’s Law and Order and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, delivering the 2018 Lakshman Kadirgamar Memorial Lecture on Monday, at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies. We publish today, excerpts of Mr. Prasad’s speech, wherein he analyses India’s rise as the world’s largest democracy and an economic powerhouse.
Ihave consciously chosen the evolution of India's democratic and constitutional polity as the topic for this memorial lecture today. The winds of change which brought about India's extraordinary freedom movement, found its eloquent resonance in Sri Lanka too. This was but natural, because the two countries share abiding values of civilisational and cultural heritage.
Spiritual links
Lord Buddha was born in Nepal, got spiritual enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, which is my home state Bihar, and initiated an extraordinary spiritual transformative movement based upon compassion and love. This shared heritage of Buddhism, which has a very profound presence in Sri Lanka, bears a voluble testimony to our common heritage. The story of Lord Ram is equally central to our shared heritage. The majestic statue of lord Hanuman located in Galle, which draws many visitors from India, is also a reflection of our shared heritage.
The meaningful meeting of two of our eminent social and spiritual leaders; Swami Vivekananda of India and Anagarika Dharmapala of Sri Lanka, was yet another manifestation of our shared heritage. I get nostalgic today when I recall that in my last visit to Sri Lanka, when I was in the opposition, I was invited to the inauguration of a postage stamp on Swami Vivekananda by the Sri Lankan Government and a request was made to me that the Government of India must bring out a stamp on Anagarika Dharmapala. I had promised then that I will do my best.
However, the majestic hand of destiny had something else in store for me. When the government led by Shri Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, it was my duty as the Communications Minister of India, to get published a postage stamp featuring Anagarika Dharmapala and have it released by Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the distinguished former President of India.
Our relationship of history, heritage and sharing is profound, strong and enduring. Both countries also had the misfortune to suffer colonial rule and our urge for independence also took on contours, which in many ways, was similar in nature.
The same ethos of democracy, liberty and peace that propelled the freedom movement of India also fired the imagination of Sri Lankan freedom fighters. The leaders of the freedom struggle of India kept close links with their counterparts in Sri Lanka and the two sister movements grew in strength together. Like the Indian freedom movement, the struggle in Sri Lanka was more than merely for casting off the colonial bond. It was to create a new nation -- free, sovereign and proud -but also to create a society that was inclusive and humane.
India-Sri Lanka relations in recent times have matured to become a model template for good neighbourly relations. I recently had the pleasure of welcoming the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka when he graciously agreed to be present for the inauguration of the GCCS 2017 by our Prime Minister. The rapport and understanding shared by our top political leadership is reflected in the deepening of our bilateral relations and development cooperation programmes.
This morning, I have signed an MoU for extending our cooperation in IT and ITeS sector that will open doors for deepening our cooperation in a range of IT-related issues.
India has been and will remain a steadfast and true partner to the people of Sri Lanka in their quest for progress, peace and prosperity. Our approach has not been one of demanding privileges or rights to projects, but rather a desire to contribute to the achievement of Sri Lanka's develop- ment objectives as they are established by Lankans themselves. India has sought to develop innovative mechanisms for implementing these initiatives, such as grants and concessional Lines of Credit, which are tailored to the requirements and capacities of our partners in Sri Lanka, to ensure that these do not become another channel leading into a debt trap.
It is now more than seventy years that India has become free and has been governed by a democratic polity under a constitution. I only thought it appropriate that the evolution of India's democratic and constitutional polity in the last seventy years should be the theme of this memorial lecture today.
Unity in diversity
India is a land of extraordinary diversity on account of regions, languages, dialects, religions etc. Yet amidst this wide diversity, there is also a unifying thread. In the modern times, democracy has become a great leveller which acts as a powerful bridge amidst extreme diversities of languages, castes, communities and religions.
India is secular not only because our constitution says so, but because our heritage resonates with the value of ‘Sarva dharma sambhavv’ -- respecting the other's way of life. We celebrate secularism because respecting each other's views has been ingrained in our ethos. This civilisation has been the birth place of three great religions of the world, namely Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Today, India is also home to the second largest population of believers of Islamic faith. India has allowed all different religions to flourish on its soil -- numerous sects, faiths and beliefs have peacefully coexisted in India ranging from monotheism, polytheism to atheism. This underlines the ethos of democracy and the age-old tradition of secularism as inherent in the world's longest surviving civilization.
At the time of independence, India was home to nearly 20 major languages, each one spoken by a substantial number of people in their own regions while less spoken languages and other dialects exceeded 16,000. Obviously, Hindi was spoken by the majority of Indians. Apart from this vast religious, cultural and linguistic diversity, there was a daunting challenge to incorporate in the Constitution 562 princely states; most of which had their own monarchical tradition with many bordering on the divine.
Another challenge was to incorporate the imprint of the various shades of the freedom movement into the wider identity of the democratic India which the Indian Constitution sought to establish. Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, satyagraha -- insistence on non-violence in pursuit of truth and justice --became a powerful tool for freedom.
Yet, there were elements in the freedom movement equally dedicated who had different ideas of achieving independence. Their aspiration could not be ignored altogether. However, a very reassuring feature of India's heritage has been that effort for violent transformation has never become mainstream and the proponent of these ideas had to assimilate themselves into the larger narrative of peaceful change. It is for this reason that Mahatma Gandhi continues to be a global icon even now who inspired generations of freedom fighters world over.
Indian freedom movement was singularly fortunate for being led by iconic leaders of extraordinary integrity and commitment. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime Minister of free India had his own pre-eminence but we need to emphasise the monumental role of Sardar Patel in forging the foundations of unified India and merger of more than 562princery states. The commitment of Maulana Azad, in spite of pulls for Pakistan, to the idea of India and the iconic role played by Subhash Chandra Bose can hardly be minimised. It is a tribute to India’s temperance that even those who believed in violent revolution, like Bhagat Singh, who was hanged through a judicial process which is still being questioned, today, continue to remain an important part of India’s psyche.
Mahatma Gandhi and other great leaders of the freedom movement trusted the innate goodness of ordinary Indians and believed that they must be given a stake in the democratic and constitutional evolution of India. Therefore, in spite of forceful contrary plea, the authors of India's Constitution took the extraordinarily bold step of giving all adult citizens the right to vote, making India the world’s first large democracy to adopt universal adult suffrage from its very inception. We remember today with gratitude the vision of our founding fathers, for whom democracy was an act of faith.
I need to recall here that gender justice was firmly ingrained in the ethos of our Constitution making. Men and women both regardless of their literacy, religion or financial station, were given right to