Studies in Cola History and Administration c10.7

c10.7

Democracy as we now understand it, as a form of popular government, a state of society and an outlook on economic life, is essentially a modern conception. To import the associations of democracy in the interpretation of early Indian records, because some of them happen to mention elections and ballot, is unconsciously to raise fresh obstacles in the way of a correct understanding of the atmosphere surrounding the working of these and other institutions in ancient India. By stressing the committee-system, the elections to the committees, and the employment of ballot in the elections, and then almost ignoring the whole complex of notions associated with caste, custom and religion which dominated social life in those times, one may find it easy to paint the picture of a society in which people cared much for political rights and representative institutions and regulated their conduct almost entirely on secular and rational considerations. But it seems hardly worth while to make the attempt; for the doubtful satisfaction that may be derived from claiming modern wisdom for our ancestors is purchased at the cost of any chance of our knowing them as they were. From this point of view, it is perhaps an advantage that democracy does not rouse the same enthusiasm at the present day as it did some years ago. To cast a doubt on the democratic nature of ancient Indian society and government is no longer a mortal sin against patriotism.