Why I’m a Burkean conservative from the developing world.
Runnymede, England is
a sacred place, it’s where liberty /democracy began, and that’s why we pay tribute to it. Without the English idea
of liberty, it’s probable India would not have liberty viz. through the
3 separate branches of govt, checks and balances and an independent
judiciary, because Indians as author, Pavan Verma4 said, by
temperament are deferential to power and also because historically monarchy was
the mode of government. Deference to
power is inimical to liberty. Hindus generally did not revolt against
excessive taxes. As late as the 1970’s top rate of tax was 85 %.1
This was unlike the English Barons who
revolted against excessive taxation in the 12th century, and made King John at
Runnymede sign the Magna Carta to limit
his powers and bring the sovereign under the rule of law.
Tax is the expropriation of private property, and that's why it’s vital to
limit powers of those who impose tax or have authority, which the Barons did at
the time of the Magna Carta. Here are the extraordinarily moving words
inscribed on the pier at the Runnymeade memorial [photograph] - "In
these meads on 15th June 1215 King John at the instance of deputies from the
whole community of the realm granted the Great Charter, the earliest of
constitutional documents whereunder ancient and cherished customs were
confirmed, abuses redressed, the administration of justice facilitated, new
provisions formulated for the preservation of peace, and every individual
perpetually secured in the free enjoyment of his life and property."
This leftist movement which seeks to tear down the inheritance of white
Europeans, does not realize that they have the luxury to do so, precisely
because of the prosperity and liberty engendered by those very white Europeans.
It is due to what conservative, liberty- minded thinkers like John Stuart Mill,
John Locke, Montesquieu, Adam Smith [ Economics] etc, have bequeathed to their
succeeding generations that they enjoy these privileges. If it weren’t for
them, the west might just be China, Venezuela, erstwhile USSR or the Islamic
world. Europe/ West succeeded mainly because of its own resourcefulness be it
in political, governance and economic arrangements as stated above , finance or
even architecture -The first insurance system was initiated by Swiss farmers2 for their cows, about 300
years back. The Dutch initiated raising finance for companies with joint
shareholding. Or in architecture, to shield people from extreme climatic
elements of rain and sun, Italian architects like Palladio devised the Portici
[an extended colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by
columns] which is extremely useful in a Mediterranean climate. To deprecate the
sublime architecture of Palladio/ Schinkel, the transcendent music of Bach/
Mozart or the political and economic liberties / rule of law of Mill /
Locke / Smith which perpetuate themselves in the West across generations with
some leftist utopian vision, is complete madness. This leftist vision has fructified
into the totalitarian nations of the erstwhile USSR /east Europe and currently
in the form of Venezuela /Cuba .
As far as wrongdoing is concerned which the left harps on, it may be
instructive for them to learn that other civilizations also have committed
misdemeanours. For eg: Turkey does not accept the genocide it committed
against the Armenians or the invasion of European Cyprus etc3. Or, that there has been no
apology for historical Islamic aggression against India. Or that whilst Britain
has apologized for slave trade, no Muslim nation has apologized for the same
and within India, there has been historical oppression by the upper castes on
the lower castes. Further, wrongdoings continue till today, be it China’s
curtailing of liberties in Hong Kong and its Uighur minorities, or the
persecution of Christian minorities in Sudan and in other Islamic nations etc.
It’s not clear what Alexandria Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Meghan Markle and her
fellow leftists want to replace the
European inheritance with? Is it Islamic / Sinic / Indic / campus- Hippie
culture or a mish-mash of all these- some deracinated Zuckerbergian
globalism and leave a world a rootless homogenized wonder. Perhaps, a clone of
Silicon Valley's culturally uber-leftist ethos. That way we will have lost a
cherished transcendental inheritance which
also affords resilience, to some fad of the leftists, and left with an insipid world, and
perhaps with fewer liberties .
