Revolution OR Democracy

There is nowadays much hue and cry about blood soaked revolution as the only and only resort available to bring about political change.

To say “revolution is the only solution to bring about political change” is factually a wrong notion since with passage of  time, human civilization has developed other means and history has witnessed a number of peaceful political movements achieving their political goals as evident in the near past of our history in the form of creation of our country Pakistan which is the best example of peaceful political movement.

So considering “revolution as the only solution” does not justify its application to bring about certain desired political change.

For intellectual understanding, if we look back at history ,revolutions were mostly raised against tyrant rulers/form of governments, be it the French revolution against louis xvi or the red revolution against the czars of Russia where there was no democratic way to oust the ruler off power.

As a principle of bringing about political change, there is no space for any revolution in a democratic society where the government is elected by public representation since the public can and should overthrow a failing government by applying democratic means only I.e. making peaceful protest, raising the intellectual level of fellow countrymen to help them understand the dynamics of  political matters, persuading them to take keen interest in the welfare of the whole society by fighting against poverty, illiteracy and other social evils.

To conclude, it is and should be people’s prerogative to opt the best solution as per their understanding I.e. “revolution”(a destructive approach) or “democratic means”(a constructive approach).No group of any nature is principally authoritative to declare revolution without the consent of people of the land particularly in a democratic society.

By A.R.naqsh