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Democracy
- Posted at 3:56 AM on 19/1/2009 by marlll In almost all his books this problem arises in some form: man exists in society divided by class, by nationality, by diversity of culture ¡ª the existence in India of two peoples, the ruling and the ruled, is only a special case of a universal schism ¡ª in what way, and under what social conditions, can men enter upon the valid and satisfying human relationships without which they do not attain the full stature of human dignity? Forster, who all his life has been a champion of freedom and justice, would reply first of all ¡®only in a free and democratic society will this be possible¡¯. Yet it is necessary to go further and to discover what is implied by such a society. In 1939, standing as he believed upon the edge of catastrophe, he wrote in a pamphlet called What I Believe: So two cheers for Democracy; one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism. Two are quite enough: there is no occasion to give three. Only the Beloved Republic deserves that. So that it is really a question of terms. There is formal democracy, the means, the institution, something worth defending and something which Forster has never failed to defend against its open enemies and its false friends. But it is chiefly to be valued because it alone can provide the conditions for the growth of the true democracy, the ¡®Beloved Republic¡¯. Democracy in this sense means to Forster the understanding that other people are as real as oneself. He condemns the English characters in A Passage to India not because they are unjust or oppressive but precisely because they fail so conspicuously to reach this understanding. Ronnie Heaslop is not a bad man. To his fellow countrymen he is capable of generosity and even of nobility, yet he fails and we are left in no doubt as to the cause of his failure; Every day he worked hard in the court, trying to decide which of two untrue accounts was the less untrue, trying to dispense justice fearlessly, to protect the weak against the less weak, the incoherent against the plausible¡. One touch of regret ¡ª not the canny substitute but the true regret from the heart ¡ª would have made him a different man and the British Empire a different institution. Post Comment
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