By Krishna Jha
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Paris on official visit on the Bastille Day this year .It was July 14, 1789. Thirty four years after the discovery of steam power that the storm on Bastille happened. Feudalism was in tatters and the age of capitalism was ushering in. Bourgeoisie was in the grip of deep discontent for not having a share in power; hegemony was still in the hands of the royalties. Workers were dissatisfied as the price of bread was ninety percent of their wages. They could not afford any other essentials like clothes and shelter or health and education. Peasants were sick of the shackles they were chained in to follow every whim of the feudal lords.
Steam power was changing everything, from infrastructure to hegemony. It was an age of transition, from fields to factories. Change had its price. In Paris, it was the storming of the Bastille that signaled the new beginning, a Revolution, after which a republic was established based on the ideals of “liberty, equality,and fraternity”. But days were unusual. The entire superstructure, the agrarian system and blind feudal rule had started crumbling. King and queen were no more the divinities. People had no faith in Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. There was one glaring fact that brought extreme suffering with no end in sight, and that was all pervasive hunger
People were hungry, and hence angry. Another basic fact, which was even on its own was enough to bring the storm was bankruptcy, hovering over France. It was then that in May, 1789, political uncertainty and economic hardship had both aggravated. The situation was getting volatile. Slowly were emerging the signs of a new society, with new thinking. There was growing need of representative government, based on individual rights, and equality.France was not alone to shape the ideas of democracy, entire developed world was awaiting the new dawn. It was the rule of capitalidentified by not only France, but also was inspired by the American Revolution.
Then the rumor started floating in the morning of July 14, that the troops had been ordered by the king to surround Paris. The response was not fear and betrayal, it was strong and loud. The moment was historical and was followed by a shift that changed the world. Against the royal tyrannical rule, Bastille, a living symbol of feudalism, was attacked by huge fearless masses. The governor of the fort tried to negotiate, but failed and became almost the first victim.
His head was cut and taken on a spike, people roamed around the streets. They were not intoxicated with power that they had now over those who always crushed them, but it was the holy anger that kept simmering along with them. The Revolution had begun. French Republic was declared in September, 1792. On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI was tried by the revolutionaries. Monarchy came to an end. It was considered the Year 1 of the French Republic, and was declared so. He was called by people as Louis the Last.
The king, Louis XVI, was placed under the guillotine. With his death, the feudal system started coming to an end. No king ever lived in the Palace of Versailles.
The results of revolution were amazing, but not unexpected. Change is eternal and is led by evolution, of tools. In this case, it was steam power. Slowly industrial age was ushered in, with new machines, and a democratic set up to rule over. The revolution at this level brought a new component with it, the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen”. First time in the history, human rights were recognized. That brought the struggle for real liberation to a new level. It was struggle for social justice.
Protests are still carried on, with new slogans, interpretations. The system has kept the issues alive. The issues that signaled basic shifts. One example is Pension protests. Then there were the recent riots over the killing of a teenager by police.
It is the same occasion, the same storm over the Bastille that had once signaled a new dawn. India has joined in their celebrations standing at the threshold of a new age, ruled by not monarchy but finance capital, promoting the rightist forces.
BJP has coined its slogan as ‘Sewa, Sushasan, GaribKalyan’. In both the two general elections, held in 2014 and 2019, the Modi government has simply used its power to impose the thinking and ideas of the RSS on the country.The principles and ideals of the Constitution are alien to the forces that are in power, supportive of the finance capital. The Storm over Bastille was the beginning of the process of Capitalism, with that came the industrial age, which promoted corporatization. The system got involved in dismantling relentlessly the constitutional principles, riding roughshod over people’s aspirations and stifling their voices. The ambition is to build a majoritarian system that would usher in a dictatorial, majoritarian state crushing the working people, religious and linguistic minorities, and finally destroying the democratic system, violating the rule of law to reach its target.
For the corporate sector, it is through concentrating all power into the hands of the Centre, and putting all the medieval regressive ideas into practice, offering a second class status for so called ‘lower’ castes, for women, and generally for all those who slog to produce wealth, but do not posses it. To achieve this, it needs to leave the Constitution bereft of its rules that are replaced by a monolithic regime. The “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” that was brought after Bastille was stormed, has lost its meaning under this regime. Human Rights are getting subverted in the past nine years. (IPA Service)