Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: From Democracy to Sampoorn Swaraj

In the bottom-up view of participatory democracy where institutions, ideas and ideologies are worked out by the people themselves, there is a contradiction in terms to suggest institutions of governance. When the recipients of the Right Livelihood Award met in Salzburg in 1999, issues of WTO came up. The solution suggested was not an alternative WTO, but basically a plea to pause and undertake introspection seriously. It was suggested that the operation of the WTO should be suspended for five years, a Citizen’s Commission should be appointed to go into the various kinds of damages it has inflicted over humankind, and civil society dialogues should be organised all over the globe, especially among the affected communities.

Instead of giving a top-down solution, we would like to engage with the following questions with regard to the potential and direction the present flux will take. The main issues for a democratic basic transformation of society involve (a) faith, (b) hope and (c) the methods.

Faith: Regarding faith in fellow human beings, the widely shared view among the community of activists we belong to, is that selfishness and greed are only one part of the human journey and not the dominating, defining characteristic of human life. Wants can be fulfilled, and even indulged in, without being glorified.

We insist that it is very degrading to define human beings as entities with material wants only. They have moral, spiritual and cultural orientations as well. Commenting on an earlier draft of the Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam statement Professor B.K. Roy Burman, a leading Indian anthropologist, said the following:

“My understanding of anthropology impels me to accept the basically social nature of human beings. [...] Democracy is the other name of practice of companionate value oriented culture. It is a process in non-stop dialectical relationship with antinomous culture. Commitment to responsible democracy is commitment to the processual dimension and not to any pre-fabricated structure.”

Hope: The task of building true democracy is now firmly linked with the global struggle to reform or transform capitalism without a readymade version of socialism. It is a new project. However, it is based on perennial values of compassion, justice, equality and freedom. It is based on understanding the spiral and web of life and to nurturing life in its most holistic sense in the contemporary context. There has to be hope for such a creative endeavour.

Method: The method for democratic struggles has three aspects. One is ‘dialogue’, basically to recognise the contours of the present times. Through dialogues we not only recognise our times but also understand the calling of our times. Dialogue at all levels, including with the adversary, is possible only if we do not believe in the conspiracy theory and believe in the willingness of the human spirit for struggle and self-sacrifice against injustice. However, grasping the essence of the times will be incomplete if we do not simultaneously fight the injustice. For this, the second component is ‘non-violent civil disobedience’. The third component of the method is ‘constructive action’ to create structures, activities and life styles in consonance with the vision of a democratic society.

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