The “social contract” is the bedrock on which citizens give up their natural state of liberty to the sovereign or the government to be governed by laws or the volonté générale (general will), as Jean-Jacques Rousseau called it, for the common good and to form a commonwealth for the people. It is this contract that lies broken today in much of the world. Wars, riots, mass protests and strikes are a clear reflection of this phenomenon.
The rise of extremist movements and parties, be they of the far Left or the Right, are harbingers of dangerous times. Both the government and the citizens must have a relook at the broken contract. I call it broken because the seven primary duties of the State — defence and security; law and order; justice; protecting rights and liberties; public goods and infrastructure; economic management; and social welfare — are in a state of disarray across most nations.
We live in a time where the world is at war with itself. The history of mankind is largely a narration of wars. Wars over territory, trade and empire-building are invariably justified by leaders wanting to divert attention from internal undercurrents of instability and the desire to blame the “foreign hand”. In these wars, nations attack each other and embroil millions of innocent people. It also means that a large part of the nation’s wealth is diverted to the war effort, with education, healthcare and social uplift taking a back seat, worsening the disparity and discord within the nation. Wherever we look today, we see countries at war — either directly engaged, actively or passively providing support or causing collateral damage.
Ukraine is backed by NATO and Russia by China and North Korea. The Russian and Ukrainian economies are in tatters, with Ukraine having to commit vast natural resources to the US in lieu of arms and tactical support. Russia is under an almost complete economic blockade, having become hugely dependent on China. The collateral damage has hit the rest of the world as high inflation caused by the disrupted supply of Russian/Ukrainian oil, gas and wheat has taken its toll. Germany, France, the UK and other European nations have vastly increased their military spending at the cost of other sectors.
Europe is the new ground for domestic unrest and discord. France, Italy, Germany and Serbia have recently seen violent movements, with hundreds of thousands of protesters clashing with security forces. Property has been plundered or destroyed.
In France, the movement started with the students and spread to other sections of society, with parents, teachers and professionals joining the mass protests. The students were agitating over poor infrastructure and lack of teachers. As the protests spread, demands such as adequate and cheap housing, lower cost of living and oil prices came up. Unchecked immigration into these countries is often blamed for the malaise. For the past decade, much of Europe has had a stagnant economy, with increasing unemployment, high inflation and the accompanying decline in the standard of living.
Similarly, if we look at the Middle East, it seems that everybody is fighting everybody, with Iran in the crosshairs of the Americans and Israelis. The war has engulfed the whole region and its aftermath has impacted the global economy again, with rising inflation, disrupted supply chains and an ever-increasing cost of living hurting most households.
In South America, the US has virtually annexed Venezuela. With the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ (Donald Trump’s version of the Monroe Doctrine) being the basis of its policy, the US is trying to militarily and economically dominate the continent.
In Asia, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have seen violent movements and consequent regime change. It’s a long list and I have touched upon only a few instances. The common thread in all of them is that the “social contract”, both in letter and spirit, between the government and the people appears broken.
Closer home, as per the 1951 Census of India, the number of educated people (at least matriculate) was around 1% of the entire population (about 36 crore); graduate unemployment was around 5% (about 2 lakh) of that 1%. Compare this to around 40% unemployment among young graduates today. The nation’s population (140 crore and counting) is four times that recorded in the 1951 Census. Around 50 lakh graduates enter the job market each year… you can draw your own conclusions. It is not just that the opportunities are limited; it is also the calibre of the so-called graduates.
Our vast population, with half of it being under the age of 30, should be the nation’s demographic dividend. Unfortunately, it is by and large poorly educated, undernourished and unemployed. This is fast becoming a time bomb with the potential of being misused by elements that are hostile to the nation’s success. For too long have our political leaders ignored education and healthcare, allocating these fundamental fields a paltry budget and preferring to keep the masses uneducated and thereby easily deceived and controlled for their selfish purposes. One crore unemployed people in the age group of 20-29 years is a daunting figure — it is more than the population of some countries.
It is alarming that we have no social safety nets. George Bernard Shaw summed it up well when he said, “The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty.” We have multitudes wallowing below the poverty line. The aspirations of the modern-day youth are high, given their exposure to social media and the world at large. This age group is easily radicalised, especially so when ruling parties propagate a radical ideology.
It’s a trend that can be observed worldwide with increasing victories for the extreme Right or Left, wherever unemployment and its accompanying evils start surfacing. In an increasingly hostile global and regional environment, India cannot afford to be complacent.
Lack of appropriate forums for the unemployed youth to voice their grievances and seek redressal spurred a militant ideology in Punjab, central India, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, etc. To control the extremist movements, governments of the day chose the last resort — the use of force — which led to mass alienation and social upheaval.
There was very little effort to provide useful employment through better education, training and rapid industrialisation. Today also, rather than focusing on the fundamental issues, the easy route of giving unproductive, competing freebies to woo voters is taken; it has become the new opiate of the masses. However, the unemployed remain so even after years of freebies. All these factors put together give rise to gangs, militancy and mass use of drugs.
In the drug trade, a whole new evil industry has sprouted up, nourished by the complicity of governments, political parties, the bureaucracy and the police. The so-called demographic dividend of a youthful nation is increasingly threatened and fast turning into a liability. There is a need to renew the “social contract” with the youth and give them security, justice, education, good health facilities and a stable social welfare system, which are the primary duties of a sovereign State.
The writer is former Governor of Manipur and former DGP, J&K
THE TRIBUNE, India’s oldest, daily English-language newspaper, was first published on February 2, 1881, in Lahore (now in Pakistan), and save for 40 days in the immediate aftermath of Partition, has come out every day over the last 145 years. THE TRIBUNE was started by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, a public-spirited philanthropist of the time. The newspaper is run by a five-member Trust, which is chaired by Shri N N Vohra, former Governor of J&K State (2008-2018); as well as Justice S S Sodhi, former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court; Shri Gurbachan Jagat, former Governor of Manipur; Lt Gen. Shamsher Singh Mehta, former Western Army Commander; Shri Paramjit Singh Patwalia, Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court. THE TRIBUNE is free, objective, and independent. Restraint and moderation, rather than agitational language, are the hallmarks of the paper. The Tribune has two sister publications, Punjabi Tribune (in Punjabi) and Dainik Tribune (in Hindi).
Remembering Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia
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