E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Is There an Alternative to… 167continued practice of discrimination, illegal andinhuman manifestations of the might of the socalledupper classes, and the stealthy support thatthey receive from the guardians of law and ordercontinue to mock our professions;(6) Caste and the vested interests of the economicallypowerful have combined to defend regimes ofexploitation and to suppress the socially andeconomically backward, particularly the landless inthe rural areas;(7) This, as well as inter-caste rivalry, has led to theformation of, caste armies, and to massacres andretaliatory massacres. It has been reported thatbetween March and September 1990, nearly 370Dalits were killed every month in one State ofIndia. It is not necessary to quote figures to showthat many districts in the State of Bihar are in thegrip of a relentless and barbarous caste war;(8) The Mandal riots gave us an idea of what is in storefor the nation, if the fires of caste-conflict areallowed to spread, and not contained;(9) Here again, we find that the democratic politicalsystem has been exploited by the power-hungry toaccentuate conflict, and take society to the brink ofa civil war.I have referred to the other foundational ideas of ourpolity-viz., sovereignty, democracy, and socialism. Of these,the word 'socialist' was introduced to describe the nature of ourRepublic only decades after the Constitution was adopted.These days, many countries that once prided themselves onbeing 'socialist,' are dropping the use of the adjective todescribe their State or parties. Socialism is sometimescompared to an old hat, and it is said that as the hat that adorns