DEMOCRACY “VERSUS” MOBOCRACY

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

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DEMOCRACY “VERSUS” MOBOCRACY

 

 

 Looking at the surface there is but a thin dividing line between mob-law and the people’s law. And yet the division is complete and will persist for all time. India is today quickly passing through the mob-law stage. The use of the adverb signifies my hope. It may be our misfortune to have to pass through that process even in slow stages. But it is wisdom to adopt every means at our disposal to have done with that stage as quickly as possible. There is much tendency on our part to yield to the rule of the mob. There was mob rule at Amritsar on the 10th April 1919. There was mob rule at Ahmadabad on the same fateful day. It represented undisciplined destruction and therefore it was thoughtless, profitless, wicked and harmful. War is disciplined destruction, much more bloodily than any yet committed by mobs. And yet war has been apostrophized, because we have been deceived by the temporary but brilliant results achieved by some wars.

So, if India has to achieve her freedom by violence, it will have to be by disciplined and honourable (insofar as it is possible to associate honour with violence) violence, named war. It will then be an act not of mobocracy but democracy. But my purpose today is not to write mobocracy of the Ahmadabad type. I intend to deal with the type with which I am more familiar. The Congress is a demonstration for the mob and in that sense and that only. Though organized by thoughtful men and women it may be called a mob-demonstration. During the memorable tour of the khilafat mission through the Punjab, Sind and Madras, I have had a surfeit of such demon-strations. I have been ashamed to witness at railway stations, thoughtless though unwitting destruction of passengers’ luggage by demonstrators who in their adoration of their heroes have ignored every-thing else and everybody else. They have made, much to the discomfort of their heroes, unmusical and harsh noises. They have trampled upon one another.

They have elbowed out one another. All have shouted, all at the same time, in the holy name of order and peace. Ten volunteers have been heard to give the same order at the same time. Volunteers often become demonstrators instead of remaining people’s policemen. It is a task often dangerous, always uncomfortable, for the heroes to be escorted through a broken chain of volunteers from the platform to the coach intended for them. Often it is a process which although it should occupy no more than five minutes, has occupied, one hour. The crowd instead of pressing back, presses towards the heroes and who therefore requires to be protected. The coach is taken possession of by anybody who dares, volunteers being the greatest sinners. The heroes and other lawful occupants have to reason with the intruders that they may not mount the foot-boards in that summary fashion. The hood of the coach is roughly handled by the precisionists.

It is not often that I have seen hoods of motors left undamaged by crowds. On the route instead of crowds lining the streets, they follow the coach. The result is confusion worse confounded. Every moment there is danger of accidents. That there is rarely any accident at such demonstrations in not due to the skill of the organizers, but the crowd is determined to put up with all jostling and retain its perfect good humor. In spite of everyone jostling everyone else, one has not the slightest wish to inconvenience one’s neighbour. To finish the picture, there is the meeting, an ever-growing cause of anxiety. You face nothing but disorder, din, pressing, yelling and shouting there. A good speaker arrests the attention of the audience and there is order such that you can hear a pin drop. All the same this is mobocracy. You are at the mercy of the mob. So long as there is sympathy between you and the mob, everything goes well. Immediately that cord is broken, there is horror. An Ahmadabad episode now and then gives you the mob psychology. We must then evolve order out of chaos. And I have no doubt that the best and the speediest method is to introduce the people’s law instead of mob-law. One great stumbling block is that we have neglected music. Music means rhythm, order.

Its effect is electrical. It immediately soothes. I have seen, in European countries, a resourceful superintendent of police by starting a popular song controlling the mischievous tendencies of mobs. Unfortunately like our Shastras, music has been the prerogative of the few, either the barter of prostitutes or high class religious devotees. It has never become nationalized in the modern sense. If I had any influence with volunteer boy scouts and Seva Samiti organizations, I would make compulsory a proper singing in company of national songs. And to that end I should have great musicians attending every Congress or Conference and teaching mass music. Much greater discipline, method and knowledge must be exacted from volunteers and no chance comer should be accepted as a full-fledged volunteer. He only hinders rather than helping. Imagine the consequence of the introduction of one untrained soldier finding his way into an army at war. He can disorganize it in a second. My greatest anxiety about non-co-operation is not the slow response of the leaders, certainly not the well-meant and even ill-meant criticism, never unadulterated repression.

The movement will overcome these obstacles. It will gain even strength from them. But the greatest obstacle is that we have not yet emerged from the mobocratic stage. But my consolation lies in the fact that nothing is so easy as to train mobs, for the simple reason that they have no mind, no premeditation. They act in frenzy. They repent quickly. Our organized Government does not repent of its fiendish crimes at Jallianwala, Lahore, Kasur, Akalgarh, Ram Nagar, etc. But I have drawn tears from repentant mobs at Gujranwala and everywhere a frank acknowledgment of repentance from those who formed the mob during that eventful month of April. Non-co-operation I am therefore now using in order to evolve democracy. And I respectfully invite all the doubting leaders to help by refusing to condemn, in anticipation of a process of national purification, training and sacrifice. Next week I hope to give some illustrations of how in a moment order was evolved out of mob disorder. My faith in the people is boundless. Theirs is an amazingly responsive nature.

Let not the leaders distrust them. This chorus of condemnation of non-cooperation when properly analyzed means nothing less than distrust of the people’s ability to control them. For the present I conclude this somewhat lengthy article by suggesting some rules for guidance and immediate execution. 1. There should be no raw volunteers accepted for big demonstrations. Therefore none but the most experienced should be at the head. 2. Volunteers should have a general instructions book on their persons. 3. At the time of demonstrations there must be a review of volunteers at which special instructions should be given. 4. At stations, volunteers should not all be centred at one point, namely, where the reception committee should be. But they should be posted at different points in the crowd. 5. Large crowds should never enter the station. They cannot but inconvenience traffic. There is as much honour in staying out as in entering the station. 6. The first duty of the volunteers should be to see that other passengers’ luggage is not trampled upon. 7. Demonstrators ought not to enter the station long before the notified time for arrival. 8. There should be a clear passage left in front of the train for the passengers. 9. There should be another passage if possible half way through the demonstrators for the heroes to pass. 10. There should be no chain formed. It is humiliating. 11. The demonstrators must not move till the heroes have reached their coach or till they receive a pre-arranged signal from an authorized volunteer. 12. National cries must be fixed and must be raised not anyhow, at any time or all the time, but just on the arrival of the train, on the heroes reaching the coach and on the route at fair intervals. No objections need be raised to this on the score of the demonstration becoming mechanical and not spontaneous. The spontaneity will depend upon numbers, the response to the cries above all the general look of the demonstrators, not in the greatest number of noises or the loudest. It is the training that a nation receives which characterizes the nature of its demonstrations. A Mohammedan silently worshipping in his mosque is no less demonstrative than a Hindu temple-goer making a noise either through his voice or his gong or both. 13. On the route the crowd must line and not follow the carriages. If pedestrians form part of the moving procession, they must noiselessly and in an orderly manner take their places and not at their own will join or abstain. 14. A crowd should never press towards the heroes but should move away from them. 15. Those on the last line or the circumference should never press forward but give way when pressure is directed towards them. 16. If there are women in the crowd they should be specially protected. 17. Little children should never be brought out in the midst of crowds. 18. At meetings volunteers should be dispersed among the crowd. They should learn flag and whistle signaling in order to pass instructions from one to another when it is impossible for the voice to carry. 19. It is no part of the audience to preserve order. They do so by keeping motionless and silent. 20. Above all, everyone should obey volunteers’ instructions without question. This list does not pretend to be exhaustive. It is merely illustrative and designed to stimulate thought and discussion.