End Of Ideology In 21st Century: An Indian Perspective

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Is politics a lucrative business or social service? In search of the answer to this question, various issues have come to the fore. People of civilized society are entering politics with the promise of social service. But that has now become a business. The concept of public welfare is changing in capitalism. Where a class of exploited and humiliated people is getting used to living a black and white life and on the other hand a class of people is making the colorful by playing with different colors. If we look at history, we can see that people believed in the concept of ‘absolute gain’ in the language of liberalism through a political party with a specific ideology with a common ideology for the people. That character has not changed over time, but its past reflection has changed radically. For people, personal interests are gaining importance instead of ideology. How people once mocked the idea of Fascism and Nazism, directly or indirectly, is merely a stone’s throw in modern thought.

The famous thinker Daniel Bell beautifully presented the subject of this ideology in a book called ‘The End of Ideology’ published in 1960. Where he showed how the idea in ideology was slowly becoming unimportant from people. In the post-World War II period, the tendency towards market economy was seen in the advancement of civilization and the unimaginable advancement of technology to strengthen the economy of one’s own country. In the midst of the spread of white-collar jobs, ideology could not find its past. Where all the developed and developing countries of the world were running behind the ideology in the interest of their economy and running towards development and later on, Samuel P. Huntington beautifully portrayed the struggle of liberalism and socialism in the Cold War period of his book ‘The End of History and The Last Man, published in 1992. It also beautifully presented what the ultimate outcome of this ideological struggle was in the 1990s. Where he showed to the world that one idea successfully proved itself was liberalism. But with this liberal idea in mind, different people have bound themselves to different ideologies and joined political parties, but the picture of present-day India is different.

Although the current issue has come to the fore, it has been going on since India became independent. The coming and going of different people from different political parties in post-independence India at different times is portrayed in Indian politics as the politics of ‘Aayaram and Gayaram’.This is because the tendency of various political leaders to leave the party was seen to be increasing from one political party to another. In the interest of preventing this, the ‘anti-defection law’ was passed in the Indian Constitution in 1985 through the 52nd Amendment to the Constitution. But this ‘anti-defection law’ is nothing more than four lines on two pages of a book. People enter the field of politics with one ideology in front of them and target a political party with love. If we look at those ideologies, we can find the ideals of public welfare there. Although we may not have the foresight to understand or try to understand. The ideology which puts forward or indirectly speaks for the welfare of the people and the political leaders who sign up for different political parties have to sacrifice that idea for the benefit of the individual. However, in the current politics, the firmness of this ideology is not seen in such away. Now the word that is coming up in public is ‘I want to work for the people. Another issue that comes up here is that even working from different NGOs can achieve that goal. As a result, the issue of writing the names of leaders from one political party to another in faith or love for an ideology has raised question marks in the existence of ideology at present.

The issue that is finally emerging is the concept that Daniel Bell introduced in the 1960s called the ‘End of Ideology’, proving it once again in the 21st century. Because in the present era of postmodernism, a political leader has nothing to do with ideology. The real example of which has come up or is coming. However, many will oppose this and try to prove themselves as believers in a political ideology. But in the history of international relations, such a thing is very acceptable that in the international arena, there is no permanent friend, no permanent enemy, only permanent interest. In the same way, the permanent political ideology of present-day India does not have anything to do with a political leader or a leader who is just serving the people in front of his own politics in a slightly different language.

Author: Saurabh Dalal (Independent Researcher)

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