Democratic Deification of ‘we the People’: Myth or Reality in India

Abstract

Unearthed from the word demos, democracy has been subject to varied interpretations having deleterious on what we understand, define, theorize, and practice as democratic system of government. Though the Mesopotamian origin of demos kratia long before Greeks could think over it, meant the undying penchant for power among the dispossessed rich farmers, but redounding to one’s political goal, it has been made synonymous with rule by the people. In simple democracy it has been misused and misconstrued as a cliché or demagogue to reinforce, legitimize, and perpetuate one political party or leader of a party in power in the name of we the people. A reification of dictate, command domination and application of force has taken place over the people asking the latter to be obeisant to the sovereign state. But in reality, and practice it has never been so anywhere in the world as rule by the people. Complex democracy, on the other hand advocates to bust the mystery build around the word democracy by advocating breaking up the system, disintegration, separation and decentralization of power of every organ such as legislature from the executive like on till everything and everybody stands unencumbered. It is the people who controls, governs and rules the leader, the party and state not the vice versa. Nobody commands only follows the principles and nuances of equality, freedom and justice. The traditional notion that the king is the representative of God omniscient, indivisible and immortal has been strewn around the sovereign state represented by the party in power.  This mystic element that the king as God does not do any wrong applied to the party in power in democracy needs to be dismantled. The head of the king is to be chopped off.  This has been studied in the context of India arguing for deification of ‘we the people’ written in the preamble to Indian constitution.