The famous German philosopher Hegel ( 1770-1831 ) made an oft quoted statement :
"All that is real is rational, and all that is rational is real."
Taking it literally, to some that statement appeared to be a justification and sanctification of things that exist, a philosophical benediction bestowed upon despotism, police government, Star Chamber proceedings and censorship. Military dictatorship in some countries is real, so it is also rational. Hitler was real, and so he was also rational.
However, that is only a superficial, crude and vulgar understanding of the statement, and that was certainly not what Hegel meant.
For Hegel the attribute of reality belongs only to that which is historically necessary, that is, whatever aids and promotes the historical progress of society
According to Hegel, reality is, in no way an attribute predictable of a given state of affairs, social or political, in all circumstances and at all times.
To give an example, in 1789, the French monarchy and aristocracy had become so irrational, that is to say, so anachronistic and robbed of all historical necessity, that they had become unreal, and had to be destroyed by the French Revolution, of which Hegel always speaks with the greatest enthusiasm. In 1789 the monarchy and aristocracy were the unreal and the French Revolution which destroyed them the real.
And so, in the course of development, all that was previously real becomes unreal, loses it necessity, its right of existence, its rationality. And in the place of moribund reality comes a new, viable reality — peacefully if the old has enough intelligence to go to its death without a struggle; forcibly if it resists this necessity.
We may apply this statement to India too. After Independence in 1947, a Constitution was enacted in 1950, which was real. This Constitution created state organs like Parliament, an independent judiciary, etc, and borrowed organs from British rule like a bureaucracy, police and army. These were all real at that time, as they were historical necessities.
Today, however, they have all largely become irrational, and therefore unreal. Our Parliament hardly functions since the members disrupt it most of the time. A large number of the members have criminal backgrounds. Politicians are mostly rogues and rascals who have no genuine love for the country, and have instead looted it. Elections are mostly on caste and religious lines. The judiciary usually takes decades to decide cases, and a large proportion of its members have become corrupt. The bureaucracy and police is largely corrupt.
So all our state organs and institutions have become rotten, hollow and empty shells. They are therefore unreal, like the French monarchy and aristocracy in 1789, and are bound to perish.
What is real in India is a society still in its womb, and is yet struggling and battling to be born. This society of the future will have a just social order in which the Indian masses, who are today living in terrible poverty and facing other massive socio-economic ills, get decent lives
