What do you conclude after reading the conversation about democracy between Mary
(student) and Madam Lyngdoh
Answers
You have aly about different forms of government. On basis of your understanding of democracy so far, mentioning a few examples write down some common features of: Democratic governments Non-democratic governments Why define democracy? Before we proceed furr, let us first take note of an objection by Merry. She does not like this way of defining democracy and wants to ask some basic questions. Her teacher Matilda Lyngdoh responds to her questions, as or classmates join discussion: Merry: Ma am, I don t like this idea. First we spend time discussing democracy and n we want to find out meaning of democracy. I mean logically shouldn t we have approached it or way round? Shouldn t meaning have come first and n example? Lyngdoh Madam: I can see your point. But that is not how we reason in everyday life. We use words like pen, rain or love. Do we wait to have a definition of se words before we use m? Come to think of it, do we have clear definition of se words? It is only by using a word that we understand its meaning. Merry: But n why do we need definitions at all? Lyngdoh Madam: We need a definition only when we come across a difficulty in use of a word. We need a definition of rain only when we wish to distinguish it from, say, drizzle or cloudburst. The same is true for democracy. We need a clear definition only because people use it for different purposes, because very different kinds of governments call mselves democracy. Ribiang: But why do we need to work on a definition? The or day you quoted Abraham Lincoln to us: Democracy is government of people, by people and for people. We in Meghalaya always ruled ourselves. That is accepted by everyone. Why do we need to change that? Lyngdoh Madam: I am not saying we need to change it. I too find this definition very beautiful. But we don t know if this is best way of defining unless we think about it ourselves. We must not accept something just because it is famous, just because everyone accepts it. Yolanda: Ma am, can I suggest something? We don t need to look for any definition. I somewhere that word democracy comes from a Greek word Demokratia. In Greek demos means people and kratia means rule. So democracy is rule by people. This is correct meaning. Where is need to debate? Lyngdoh Madam: That is also a very helpful way of thinking about this matter. I would just say that this does not always work. A word does not remain tied to its origin. Just think of computers. Originally y were used for computing, that is to say calculating, very difficult mamatical sums. These were very powerful calculators. But nowadays very few people use computers for computing sums. They use it for writing, for designing, for listening to music and for watching films. Words remain same but ir meaning can change with time. In that case it is not very useful to look at origins of a word. Merry: Ma am, so basically what you are saying is that re is no shortcut to our thinking about matter ourselves. We have to think about its meaning and evolve a definition. Lyngdoh Madam: You got me right. Let us get on with it now. A C T I V I T Y Let us take Lyngdoh Madam seriously and try to write down exact definition of some of simple words that we use all time: pen, rain and love. For example, is re a way of defining a pen that distinguishes it clearly from a pencil, a brush, a chalk or crayon. What have you learnt from this attempt? What does it teach us about understanding meaning of democracy? A simple definition Let us get back to our discussion on similarities and differences among governments that are called I have heard a different version. Democracy is off people, far (from) people and (where y) buy people. Why don t we accept that?