Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: From Democracy to Sampoorn Swaraj

People in South Asia have long cherished values which, in modern times, are best expressed under the rubric of ‘universalism’ and various dimensions of ‘democracy’. Before the colonial interventions of the West, the distinctive features of our socio-political system were cultural plurality, devolution of political power at all levels and the participatory mode of governance from the grassroots to the top.

We had our own failings, such as the obnoxious practice of untouchability, or the fact that communitarian principles manifested through the caste system degenerated into hierarchical fundamentalism. But despite all kinds of failings, the sense of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (a Sanskrit concept, meaning ‘The World is a Family’) has been part of our cultural sensibility since time immemorial. That is why our socio-cultural diversity is a source of strength and in fact the primary defining force behind our unbroken identity. There have, of course, been brief phases of ideological or identity polarisations. But soon after, the pluralist perspective prevails. The basic premise of this world-view is that no sect, religion, ideological group, class, socio-political formation, the state or ‘church’ can claim a monopoly of the truth. All truths have to start with the small letter ‘t’ and, depending upon the vantage point, they are able to capture only some aspects of the Truth and not the Truth as a whole. This forms the basis for a democratic society.

Conventionally, democracy is taken to be a political system based on the separation of judiciary, executive and legislature. In this system the legitimacy of governance is derived from the electoral process and the right to vote. Such a narrow definition reduces democracy merely into a political instrument.

However, the last century has witnessed a series of transformations. They have generated an explosion of human energies never known before, devoted to redefining human life. The praxis of ‘new’ social movements embodies a much deeper and comprehensive meaning of democracy than what is understood and practised in the mainstream political discourse. Never before in the history of humankind have such a large proportion of human beings worked for swaraj. (‘Swa’-‘raj’= self + rule, a term commonly used by Gandhi and the Gandhi-inspired movements in India.)

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is an idea aspiring to redefine democracy from a mode of governance to a way of life. If democracy informs all levels and dimensions of life, this perspective of comprehensive democracy can be called sampoorn swaraj (full realisation of self-rule).

The idea of ‘self-rule’ goes much beyond the political. It encompasses life itself in a comprehensive manner that makes our lives more meaningful. Swaraj relates to all dimensions of human life and applies to relationships at all levels, from the individual to the global:

(1) the relationship between nature and human beings,

(2) the dynamic of ‘the individual’ and ‘the community’,

(3) the dynamic inter-relationship of ‘the self’ and ‘the other’,

(4) the relationship of individuals and various types and levels of collectivities with governance structures and

(5) the relationship of individuals and collectivities with the market.

The striving for democracy within these relationships can be respectively termed ecological democracy, social democracy, cultural democracy, political democracy and economic democracy.

There is a comprehensive democratic revolution in the making: humankind is striving to redefine all the basic relationships of human life. No single ideology or region can be identified as the vanguard in terms of striving for the above five dimensions of democracy simultaneously.

Issues of self-rule, related to the dynamic of nature - human being, have given rise to green parties, groups, movements and intellectuals all over the world. These green movements are increasing rapidly even in those parts of the world where, according to the conventional development indices, standards of material life are very high. In the societies of material affluence there is an attempt to recover the ‘green consciousness’ and to address the challenges of ecological degradation. In the most of the countries movement groups are engaged in defensive action of saving the livelihood support systems, along with revitalising of ecological and cultural sensibility. Since these energies aim at greater participation of local communities in resolving the nature-human dynamic, we could call this the age of striving for ecological democracy.

Similarly, there is phenomenal human energy on this earth trying to redefine the individual-community dynamic. Issues of dignity are on the central agenda of many groups for human rights, gender, anti-caste and anti-apartheid. There is almost a global churning for redefining social relationships, what we could term as social democracy. The response to the Conference against Racism in Durban is an indicator of the revolutionary energies we are talking about. The women’s movement has now a gender perspective on all issues, it is no longer just a women’s rights movement. From this standpoint this is an age of strivings for social democracy.

If we analyse the dynamic of the self and the other and systems of meaning, an entire set of issues emerge under the broad rubric called ‘culture’. The human activity on this front is also of an unprecedented kind. There has been an explosion of new ideas and ideological confrontations, both violent and non-violent. The varied strivings of a cultural democracy are many: critiques of the culture of industrialised societies and modernity, the attempts at revitalising indigenous knowledge systems, emphasising the importance of the plurality of ideas and ways of life, and loosening the controls of orthodoxy are all part of it.

After the majority of the states were liberated from colonial rule, they acquired greater control over their economies. Standard of living started rising, even though very slowly for some. Now, indigenous peoples with natural resource-based economies, and small and marginal farmers are in search for dignified ways of earning their livelihood. This is done through two ways of search and striving: first is to emulate (and even blindly imitate) the rich and prosperous North, the other is to recover the control over natural resources as well as knowledge systems in agriculture, medicine, food, water management and so on. Both represent the pervasive desire for an economic democracy.

The anti-colonial struggles in the majority of the nations have constructed new political identities. A desire for self-rule is pervasive. The people are re-examining and redefining the transplanted colonial instruments. Sometimes there is regression as the firmly established elite imposes some form of authoritarianism. Fortunately participation of people in the political institutions has acquired a tremendous legitimacy. (This explains why many dictators have had to undertake a legitimatisation exercise through some form of election, how so ever partial or imperfect.) This constitutes political democracy.

The imperative of democratic revolution requires that we recognise and relate to the positive dimension of all these energies and contribute in forming them into a definable world-view and a dream for the future. This is our vision of a universal humanistic globalisation.

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