Lessons on democracy and development from India, By Ibrahim Lawal Ahmed

India overcomes and is overcoming the limitations of democracy and is economically developing by tapping into its ancient values and wisdom. This I came across when we visited the Lokh Sabha – the Lower House of the parliament. There is an inscription written in the parliament that was translated to us as stating: “the truth is one, but wise men describe it differently.” This statement is deep. It suggests that the leaders of India must be ones who pursue the truth.

It was a privilege and honour for me to be among the Nigerian delegation at the eighth batch of Gen-Next Democracy Network Programme from 6th to 15th March. The Gen-Next Democracy Network Programme is a course initiated and organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) with the aim of exposing the younger generation, who are potential leaders in their countries, from the 75 democracies of the world, to the spirit of democracy as embodied by India. It is important to state that India is the largest democracy in the world. It is the ‘largest’ in almost every meaning that the word denotes and connotes.

India has a population of 1.4 billion people living on a three million, two hundred and eighty seven thousand, two hundred and sixty three-kilometres square (3,287,25km²) land mass. The land size of India is so huge that it scared the British colonials, back in the day, into describing it as a sub-continent. But maybe it is a sub-continent for its population, which is so diverse; there are three thousand communities (3,000 castes) and twenty-five thousand sub-communities (25,000 sub-castes), nineteen thousand (19,000) dialects and twenty-nine (29) official languages in India. Moreover, India is a society with a unique sense of spirituality that is hard to understand through the lenses of orthodox theology. This is because the spirituality of India is embedded in beliefs that are divinely philosophical, and which can only be understood if one can be able to see and understand the essence embedded in existence. This makes the Indians to be quite fluid with the notion of ‘god’, making them to have so many ‘gods and goddess.’ This maybe the reason why when the Christian missionaries walked into India carrying the cross with the sculpture of a crucified Jesus (May Allah’s peace be upon him) on their shoulders, Indians added him to the 330 million gods and goddess they already had without fuss!

Such is the diversity, complexity and distinctiveness of India that when they were granted independence in 1947, the colonials predicted that Indian democracy would not last long. In fact, Winston Churchill went on to remark that Indian democracy has gotten everything needed to have a stable democracy wrong. He predicted that, and I quote, “Power (in a free India) will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles.” Poor Churchill! He must be turning in his grave now astonished that seventy-five years after independence, Indian democracy is still firm and standing. In fact, what may be deemed as an irony of history is that the current Prime Minister of the Great Britain is of Indian origin. It is commendable to note that there has never been a military intervention in the history of India. Thus, one of the critical questions I raised in one of the several lectures we had was: How has India being able to maintain a stable democracy for seventy-five years?

Democracy is a system of limitations. The powers of the executive are limited by the legislature. The powers of legislature are limited by judiciary. The powers of judiciary are limited by executive. This is what is called checks and balances. But the biggest limitation of all to democracy is popular opinion, which can loosely be referred to as the ‘general will.’ Democratic governance requires the accommodation of divergent views and opinions, as well as embodying the popular will (or at least the will of the majority) of the people in public policy. This may sound easy but it is a difficult task, especially in India that has, in addition to its cultural diversity, 40 million newspapers that sell 100 million copies every day; 90 television stations; and over 900 million registered voters, with a voter turnout, in the last 2019 general elections, above 67%. The question remains: how has India managed these limitations – the checks and balances?

India overcomes and is overcoming the limitations of democracy and is economically developing by tapping into its ancient values and wisdom. This I came across when we visited the Lokh Sabha – the Lower House of the parliament. There is an inscription written in the parliament that was translated to us as stating: “the truth is one, but wise men describe it differently.” This statement is deep. It suggests that the leaders of India must be ones who pursue the truth. The pursuit of truth is an occupation for wise men. And saying the truth requires courage, sincerity and integrity. The inscription also suggests that the leaders of India must be accommodating of each other’s differences, but on the basis of a common ground which is the truth. In a post-truth era, in which facts and figures seem meaningless; and authorities lie shamelessly, I found these words and the underlying values profound.

Along with my colleagues from Nigeria: Mubarak Rabi’u, Ijudigal Kadzai, Chima Christian and Fahad Terrang; and from seven other democratic countries of the world, namely: Kenya, Chile, Suriname, Ecuador, Switzerland, Mexico and India, we travelled across India and had a first-hand exposure to the people and institutions that are running the democracy of India and driving its development. We travelled both by air and land to and across four cities – New Delhi, Agra in Utta Pradesh, Assam in Guwahiti, and Shilong in Meghalaya. We visited several monuments; political, cultural and educational institutions; and also met with the very wise people of India.

As I stated above, we visited the parliament and were honoured to sit for a moment at the floor of the Lokh Sabha and have a sense of what it means to partake in the largest democracy in the world. We then moved to a conference room and had two series of lectures by Professor Sangit Kumar Ragi and Professor Dr Shahi Bala on the nature of Indian democracy and culture(s). I really learnt a lot from the two lectures.

You cannot separate aesthetics, singing and dancing from the lives of Indians. I may not be wrong to say that in the multifaceted lives that Indians live, there is one that is aesthetically flowing in rhythms. This is well reflected in their Holi celebration. It is a festival of colours and we were lucky to celebrate it with the officials of the ICCR in the compound of the ICCR Headquarters in Delhi. We danced, sang and very much soaked ourselves in colours. It was a memorable fun for me.

We wrapped the programme with a visit to India’s temple of democracy, the Electoral Commission of India (ECI). This Commission is one of the best in the world. It has a permanent staff of about 500 and employs temporary staff of over 12 million during elections. The Commission has only three electoral commissioners, who are seasoned civil servants appointed by the president. The Commission has more than one million polling stations across India.

There is no monument, not only in India, but in this whole world, that has captivated me like the Taj Mahal. As a student of philosophy, with a keen interest in ‘love,’ I was so excited to visit the Taj Mahal and pay homage to the symbolic manifestation of love. The Taj Mahal is magnificent. For hundreds of years, this symbol of love has stood well erected, with its beauty, which many are enamoured of. The Taj Mahal was built with marvelous marbles that were transported from a place 365 kilometres away. The marbles have floral decorations, with precious stones that were imported from present-day Iran. It is a painstaking job to expertly carve through hardened marbles and to polish precious stones to fit into the marbles. Yet, using this technique, the doors of Taj Mahal and the inside walls of the Tomb, where Shah Jahan and Mumtaz lay, were beautifully decorated with the verses of the Qur’an from Suratul Fajr, Yasin and Fatiha. The walls, gates and minarets of the Taj Mahal were built symmetrically with extraordinary precision.

The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan in honour of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Mumtaz was the only wife of the Emperor, who bore him 14 children. She made the Emperor promise her that if she died, he would build a house for her that has no similar and would have no similar in the world. When she died in 1631, the Emperor chose a location 2.5 kilometres from his Palace to build the Taj Mahal and house her grave; and his own later. It took 22,000 workers some 22 years to build that embodiment of beauty and symbol of love. Hazrat Amir Khurasau once remarked that “love is an ocean. Only those who enter it can understand it.” However, when I look at the Taj Mahal, I think only God can explain the mysteries of love.

Close to the Taj Mahal is the Agra Fort. It was the palace of Mughal emperors like Shah Jahan and his grandfather, Akbar the Great. It is the most intimidating house I have ever seen and imagined. It has about five layers of sophisticated defence lines. Little wonder that no one in history has ever succeeded in penetrating the Fort. In the Fort, I saw array of windows through which the Taj Mahal can be clearly sighted. I guess those windows were not an accident. They were probably constructed to give Shah Jahan a constant view of his beloved Mumtaz.

We visited a number of museums in Delhi, Guwahiti and Meghalaya, and learnt about the personalities and events that shaped India, as well as the cultural traditions of the country. We were occasionally entertained by arrays of traditional dances throughout the programme. In fact, we were honoured to grace the Phagun Utsav organised by the National Institute of Kathak Dance, Kathak Kendra, New Delhi.

We particularly enjoyed our visit to the States of Guwahiti and Meghalaya in the North East of India. Flying beside the Himalayans, we had the opportunity of seeing the top of the mighty Mount Everest, and its peaks thrusting through the clouds. We visited the Guwahiti State Assembly and Tea Estate in Assam, North East Hills University, Indian Institute of Management, and Elephant Falls in Shilong. North-Eastern India is arguably the most beautiful region of the country. It is hilly and greenish, with a serene air that is not polluted. The people were very cordial and friendly. And the food was delicious.

We wrapped the programme with a visit to India’s temple of democracy, the Electoral Commission of India (ECI). This Commission is one of the best in the world. It has a permanent staff of about 500 and employs temporary staff of over 12 million during elections. The Commission has only three electoral commissioners, who are seasoned civil servants appointed by the president. The Commission has more than one million polling stations across India.

The nature of elections in India is such that voting is done electronically over a period of days, and not just on one day. This allows for more participation and the ease of voting. At the risk of our bus leaving without us, I and a few of my colleagues stayed in the meeting room for Mr Harun Sharma, an official of the ECI, to practically demonstrate to us how the electronic voting machine works in India. Unlike that of Nigeria, the electronic voting machine (EVM) there is not connected to the internet, therefore it is not at the risk of any server attack. It is used in such a way that everyone’s vote count – there is no invalid vote – and the record is well secured in the machine’s memory. Thus, while the voting takes days, counting is done in a day and the result is announced thereafter.

Indeed, it would be helpful if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria learns more from the ECI. Democracies such as South Africa, Brazil and Russia have signed Memoranda of Understanding with the Indian ECI to enhance their capacities in conducting free, fair, credible and safe elections.

Notably, by drawing from its cultural values, India is developing without Westernising, while building a unifying narrative for strengthening its nation-building. This is something Nigeria could learn from. In “Imagine Nigeria” – a project-document by Federal Government of Nigeria on building a new Nigeria – a case is made for promoting the national narrative as a precursor to a grand narrative.

The lessons I learnt in India is a nexus between culture, democracy and development. The philosophy of nation-building in India, like that of Nigeria, is “Unity in Diversity.” It connotes emphasing on shared values and appreciation of differences as uniqueness of each. From those traditional values, India draws its spirit of democracy that is based on the pursuit of ‘truth’, while agreeing to disagree. The public and foreign policy of India is guided by an Hindu value, Vasudhaiva Katumbakam – roughly meaning ‘the world is a one family.’ It denotes a kind of spiritual approach that emphasises harmony and shared existence among humans, and between humans and nature. Policy wise, it connotes inclusiveness and welfarism, and collective approach to global challenges.

In addition, India is drawing from its cultural value of respecting nature and women in developing a pragmatic model of sustainable development. It is pertinent to state that nature, including animals, rivers and mountains, as well as women, were worshipped in India. The reverence to women in India is reflected in the existence of several goddesses.

The economic development of India, which is built on its cultural values and democracy, is driven by investment in hard and soft infrastructure across the country, as well as ensuring food security. The current government, in particular, seems to be paying attention in the provision of welfare or public goods, such as schools and health institutions, to the people of India. I was fascinated to find out how investment in public toilets is not only addressing open defecation but also increasing the enrollment of girls in schools.

Comparatively, in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari signed Executive Order 009, which is titled, “The Open Defecation-Free Nigeria by 2025 and Other Related Matters Order in 2019.” The policy aims at empowering the people and providing structures to addressing open defecation by 2025. In India, I saw the value of this policy.

Notably, by drawing from its cultural values, India is developing without Westernising, while building a unifying narrative for strengthening its nation-building. This is something Nigeria could learn from. In “Imagine Nigeria” – a project-document by Federal Government of Nigeria on building a new Nigeria – a case is made for promoting the national narrative as a precursor to a grand narrative. A grand narrative is a narrative that is unifying and national in outlook, as opposed to the primordial and silos-type narratives. It is also progressive and embeds Nigeria’s vision and worldview.

Beyond learning about India, I also learnt so much about life from my colleagues who came from eight different democracies of the world. I particularly enjoyed the company of the Surinamese delegation, who are actually the sons and daughters of Africa we lost to slavery. The ICCR deserves a strong commendation. We were accommodated in nice hotels and very well fed. Worthy of mention is the ICCR’s protocol officer, Mr Aslam Khan.

In the nine days we were with him, Mr Aslam showed us so much care and did all he could to make our stay in India comfortable. He was always the first to wake up and the last to sleep. He was also always the last to eat, after making sure that everyone had eaten.

I learnt so much in India that I could write books about. I had the best moments of my life in those few days in which I was there. I returned to Nigeria much wiser than when I left. And as days pass by, the wise advice of Professor Dr Bala to us keeps coming back to my mind: “Live your life, enjoy it. But with the sense of sacrifice for the future.”

Ibrahim Lawal Ahmed is a public servant with keen interest in history, philosophy, nation-building and political economy.