Democracy is a form of government that gives power to its people essentially through a systematic representation of their interests. As famously quoted by Abraham Lincoln, Democracy is “The government of the people, by the people, for the people”. Democracy particularly involves collective decision making representing different kinds of groups while giving voice to their opinions. Various democratic theorists have argued that it is a way of treating people equally “when there is a good reason to impose some kind of imposition on their shared lives” (Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy).
Democracy can be understood as Political democracy that gives political rights such as right to vote in order to ensure the representation of collective public opinion and imposes ‘the rule of law’ on both the government and its citizens to guarantee justice; and Social democracy that works on the trinity of liberty, equality and fraternity. Even if there’s a sense of divorce of one from the other, it defeats the precise purpose of democracy (Editor, Pragati). Without equality and fraternity, liberty would lead to hegemony of a few, while equality without liberty defeats individual initiative and without fraternity, liberty and equality would “require a constable to enforce them” (Editor, Pragati).
However for all these features of democracy to work, there must be a sense of unity within the nation. When people are divided by ‘several thousands of castes’, religious beliefs, demographic identities and what not; how can they be one nation (Editor, Pragati). In fact, for a country like ours which has a completely different language every few kilometers strongly needs to realize the urgency to be at least tolerant of one another’s beliefs and practices. For the matter of fact, separatism or anti-nationalism could only destroy a nation, and “fraternity can be a fact when there is a nation, without fraternity, equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint” (Editor, Pragati).
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In a situation, when a democracy is facing failure to fulfill its prime promises, it is through the command of language; we can give voice to the unsaid fears and unspoken words. As put rightly in the article “The ghosts of Mrs Gandhi”, “The world is written first- The Holy book says that it was created in words and all that happens in it happens in language first” (Ghosh). It is through the powerful words, we can serve civic good and influence people; hence rhetoric is not essentially just persuasive but strikes a balance between persuasion and an independent thought process (Irani). Rhetorical literature essentially succeeds in influencing the view of people if it particularly serve the interests of people at large, “the value of rhetoric lies in its ability to gratify and enlarge human appetites and impulses” (Irani). However, it must be noted that rhetoric affects ‘the human psychology’, and hence rhetoricians must be mindful of using powerful words, for it may instigate violence and bloodshed as well.
