So long as man considers himself more personality than principle, this feudal mentality that gives rise to dynastic politics will continue. It is seen in every sphere in India, from abject prostration at the slipper-clad feet of monks --- who do not even care to take off their slippers to facilitate the taking of the dust of their feet --- to the servile following of the descendants of notable families like those of Nehru and Netaji. The worst such recorded case in history has been the blind adulation of the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. Even Communism, for all its grandiloquent talk of principle above personality, has not been far behind in this respect. Lenin's embalmed body, Stalin, Mao, Castro's larger than life portrayal before the gullible public, the destruction of ancient monuments and statues of the pre-revolution culture and their replacement with gigantic statues of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and the like, all these have only reaffirmed the feudal mind-set in the people where personality rules in the name of principle and dupes the people otherwise as being the masters of their destiny as declared in the celebrated phrase, 'the dictatorship of the proletariat'.
This has been the history of the world thus far in this age of democracy and its cater-cousin, the dictatorship of the people. The situation in Indian is no better except for the far more benign nature of the rulers here on account of their cultured Hindu tradition. But democracy still means dynastic politics as mass adulation of film-stars, cricketers and politicians from celebrated families continues to dominate the public imagination, blurring the distinction between adulation and the abject surrender of their hopes and aspirations to the hands of a privileged few.
Written by Sugata Bose
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