Justice Markandey Katju-
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman of Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own)
I have said that India’s huge economic problems of massive poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, etc. can only be solved by a historically united people’s struggle and a people’s revolution, not by parliamentary democracy.
I have also said that historical experience shows that before any actual revolution, there is an ideological revolution, without which the actual revolution cannot take place, e.g. the ideological revolution led by Voltaire and Rousseau before the French Revolution of 1789.
In this period of ideological revolution, everything becomes topsy turvy. As Shakespeare said in Macbeth ” Fair is foul and foul is fair ”. In other words, old values are challenged e.g. caste system, which was regarded as good earlier, but is regarded as bad today by the enlightened section of society, or arranged marriages.
India is presently passing through its period of ideological revolution. Most people are confused, bewildered and confounded in this period, not knowing what is happening and where the country is heading.
But I have no confusion, and with the advantage of over 60 years of intense study and discussions with first-class minds and self-reflection, I can accurately describe the correct path that our people, particularly our intellectuals, must follow in the ideological revolution..
There are certain issues on which no two opinions will be entertained. Too much democracy and freedom is also bad, and on the following issues there is either my way or the highway :
- Our national aim must be to transform India into a modern industrial giant, for only then can we abolish poverty unemployment malnutrition etc, the great social evils which have plagued us for centuries
2 For this historical transformation a mighty united people’s struggle is required led by modern-minded patriotic leaders determined to set up a political order under which our people enjoy a high standard of living and lead decent lives.
- While freedom of religion must be supported, and all religions are given equal respect, religious bigotry and extremism, and attempts to incite religious or caste hatred must be crushed with an iron hand
4, The biggest problem in this ideological struggle in India will be to change the feudal mindsets of our people, which is full of casteism and communalism. This will require great patience and may even carry the personal danger of physical attacks by these backward feudal-minded people who don’t want to change their views.
We need our Voltaires, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Paines now, not the shallow, superficial self-styled ‘intellectuals’ with little deep understanding of anything, but who strut around like plumed peacocks on the national stage, with the gullible public hailing their every word as if it was a pearl of wisdom.
