The purpose of politics

Guest Columns by Sauvik Chakraverti,

The Newindpress on Sunday, 2007-2008

The purpose of politics

Politics, as a complex human activity, arose in the Greek city-states of old. Aristotle called it the ‘master science’, and indeed it must be, because whatever visions any people may have for their society are best accomplished through politics (rather than civil war). Aristotle criticized Plato’s Republic for this very reason, because the ‘philosopher-king’ nullified politics, ‘rendering a harmony into a mere unison, a theme into a single beat’. Without politics, the polis would cease to be a polis. There is politics, Aristotle said, because a polis is made up of many, many different members. The function of politics is to give voice to all these different constituents of a free polity, thereby accommodating them in civic life and creating civic order.

Successful polities are those wherein the political process secures this common goal of civic stability and order. What we in India have to wake up to is the stark reality that we inhabit a ‘democracy’ without politics as defined above. Nehru morphed into a philosopher-king occupying the ‘commanding heights’, centrally planning all economic activity. He claimed to be able to get even a lamp-post elected on a Congress ticket — and surely this cannot be called politics.

Indeed, India and Pakistan were founded on the inability to find a political solution to the rival claims of two ‘political parties’. The political situation has only worsened since: Pakistan and Bangladesh have jettisoned democracy, and in India, the only real alternative to the brain-dead Congress is the BJP with its fascistic Hindutva agenda – which is also a nullification of politics. What then is politics? And what is its true purpose?

Once again, let us turn to Aristotle. Politics arises, he said, simply because there isn’t one great leader with a perfect character and mind, a flawless being. The philosopher-king is a piece of fiction (as is, if I may add, Rousseau’s ‘general will’). For this very reason, whenever a civic community faces a problematic dilemma, many voices must be heard and many views taken into account. This is how the ‘master science’ of politics enables a civic community to make use of all the other sciences (like Economics) and weigh the rival claims of individuals, scholars and, finally, politicians. The objective is not only to accommodate all voices, but also to deliberate in public about the various ideas on offer, so that the civic community can decide upon the best step forward. It is at this last stage that the popular politician steps in. The task of the politician is to forge a moral consensus. As Bernard Crick says in his penetrating analysis of the nature of political rule: “The moral consensus of a free state is not something mysteriously prior to or above politics: it is the activity (the civilising activity) of politics itself.” He adds that “if war is the game of kings, politics is the game of free people”.

We have now arrived at the true purpose of politics, and the true objective of any real politician: which is, to forge a moral consensus in a civic community. It is only on this moral basis that elections are won, public offices are occupied, statues of political heroes are erected, and even the armed forces yield to political authority. That this authority cannot exist without an intellectual-moral basis is central to the idea of a moral consensus. In other words, as with Economics, so also with Politics, there exists an honest purpose. This should be fairly obvious to any elected legislator who votes to decide whether bills proposed will be made into laws binding on the community: surely, the immoral cannot be allowed to decide such questions?

I will not waste precious column inches telling my reader that ‘moral purpose’ is an alien concept in modern Indian politics, which is all about misusing power and accumulating spoils. My reader, I will assume, is more interested in knowing why this happened, and what the political way out is.

The root cause of our present discontents lies in our acceptance of themoral consensus that Nehru and Gandhi, and their Congress party, forged 60 years ago. The very idea of a strong, centralised state with totalitarian economic powers, which is what those of that generation collectively chose, lies at the root of all the public immorality that exists today.

The task before liberals, therefore, is to weld together a new moral consensus. The first part of it should consist of a commitment to politics, of accommodating all the various voices in any polis – as, for example, in Srinagar, Kashmir. This moral ideal of ‘political rule’ will yield more for every minority, who clearly lost out in the ‘secularism’ that the otherwise totalitarian Congress, with its ‘palace politics’, championed. It must not be forgotten that present-day Gujarat comprised over 250 ‘princely states’ before Nehru took over; a great many of these small states had Muslim rulers; and, during the terrible massacres of the Partition, nowhere was there greater peace than in Gujarat – simply because there were so many different ‘polities’. The era of big government must end; let a million flowers bloom.

The second part of the moral consensus lies in an acceptance of Shubh Laabh: that the community considers profits competitively earned moral and honourable. The civic community is therefore deliberately opting for a way of life wherein survival is sought through market exchanges. The government then, and a vastly decentralised one at that, exists to act against the enemies of this natural order — and nothing more.

Politics is cherished, but also severely restricted.

As a footnote to rally liberals, I will add that all dissenters start out as isolated individuals. They succeed in gaining followers by continuouslyharping on and on about a great abomination, much to the disgust of the Anti-Noise Society. Elections are not even thought of; and such dissenters are often aware that their objectives may not be reached in their own lifetimes. So, my fellow liberals, let’s not tarry. Let’s begin a moral crusade, the true politics.