Thread by @Aabhas24

1/n #SadarPranam to Ishvara within you @dhume

Once, it was considered that Greece was "mother of democracy". But recent discoveries have contested

If not all, "Democracy" seems to have certainly originated first in India as/ latest researches.

Read

https://twitter.com/dhume/status/1441801450301149186?s=20

2/n We came across the Rakhigarhi Excavations.

It took the whole world by shock for the revelations it brought.

It happened to be a civilization (6.5+2.0) KY BP*

*Thousand years before present

3/n Here as stated by Dr Shinde, the Panchayat found on the site is around 5.5 KYBP.

We do not find any evidence of Monarchical Set-Up across any Indus Saraswati Civilization belt. tribuneindia.com/news/archive/f…

4/n Now, it becomes very interesting to observe that even though it was a notion that Greeks gave democracy to world.

Diodorus who is said to have visited India, around 2 centuries after Alexander talks that high level democracy of Indians was peculiar to Greeks (Diodorus 2.39)

5/n It was peculiar as Diodorous noted "No Slavery."

Slavery was very much predominant in West. In fact, Plato defines Mathematics with notion of "Slave's Soul." @dhume aware of it?

So how can a society with Slaves be considered "DEMOCRATIC"?

6/n Ok @dhume , now what did democracy meant to Greeks, rather Athens?

Is it not the common notion that it originated in Athens around 2.5 KYBP?

Of course, we have no clue that how exactly the discovered "Panchayat" of Rakhigarhi was operating 5.5 KYBP, but we know of Athens.

7/n In the Athenian democracy around 70% of adult population (foreign origin, slaves and women) didn't had right to participate in Legislation & Executive Bills.

Did you know this @dhume ?

Look at this source: Athenian Democracy by John Thorle, I have put pg 74

8/n In case if one is getting confused with status of women as mentioned by Plato in Republic, one need to know that Plato's ideal state wasn't a democracy.

And in Athenian Democracy, men believed women's intelligence to be same as that of animals & barbarians.

9/n Well @dhume ji, there are various reasons why with current researches, India certainly needs to be seen as place to have seen "Democracy" much earlier than West.

I showed you above how discriminatory was Athenian Democracy for Slavery unlike India.

https://twitter.com/ConstantinoX/status/1441772567598014476?s=20

10/n Now let me let you know a bit about proto-democracies which have in place in records.

We have evidences of "Governing by assembly" in ancient Phoenicians. One such evidence is the story an Egyptian trader who traveled north to the Phoenician around 3.1 kybp.

Source below

11/n Now we also hear about "Primitive Democracy" pre-Babylonian Mesopotamia. One person to strongly vouch for it was Thorkild Jacobsen.

So what was primitive democracy?

According to Jacobsen, it was as below:

12/n "A government wherein ultimate power rests with the mass of non-slave male citizens. Although the various functions of government are as yet little specialized & the power structure is loose."

Jacobsen explains in his book, "Primitive Democracy in Ancient Mesopotamia" that

13/n The kings like Gilgamesh were devoid of autocratic power like how Mesopotamian rulers wielded in later period. Major city-states functioned with councils of non-slave men bearing arm. They were consulted on all major issues such as war.

14/n But is Mesopotamia really fit enough to be considered as “democracy” ~4kybp?

Many scholars are against calling it"democracy".

According to Bailkey this Gilgamesh & other situations, reflect a power struggle between primitive monarchy and Noblemen.

15/n Scholars see case of Mesopotamia as a struggle where common men appear more like pawn than sovereign authority.

& the Jacobsen too accepts that the peculiar evidence let us see Mesopotamian democracy = primitive oligarchy.

16/n It all has began after @narendramodi ji, spoke of India being "Mother of Democracy," let me focus completely on "Bharat" exclusively from here.

In the quoted tweet, I proved of Panchayat in India 5.5kybp & in above tweets spoke of Proto Democracies.

https://twitter.com/Aabhas24/status/1441994775620558849?s=20

17/n Before I move onto how our democracy worked, I wish to pick two terms "gana" & "Sangha".

Gana=The representative members of clans

It finds mention in RigVeda 3.26.6
It reads:
"...Vrātam Vrātam gaṇam gaṇam..."

18/n Then we find, Pāṇini talking about it:

"Sanghoddhau gaṇa praśansayo..."
The Nāradasmṛti talks about the rule of "Ganatantra".

Bhishma explains about "Ganas" and their policies in Shanti Parva.

19/n We are informed about Ganas from great Sangam Literature.

Silappatikaram by Ilango Adigal talks about the offering for eighteen kind of Ganas.

You may read here
books.google.co.in/books?id=STbMz…

20/n Mahabagga, a Buddha Dharma text tells us:

"Gaṇa pūrkovā bhavissāmīti"

Hence we know that an office bearer used to see the number of ganas and their koram in the Rajasabha.

Pali-pitaka’, Majjhamnikaya, mahabagga, Avadana shataka talk about ganas and sanghas extensively.

21/n We must be informed that Gaṇas during Buddha's period were assemblies of the Sanghas.

The democratic republics Gaṇa-rājyas=rule of the assembly.

It is identical to demo-kratia .

Bhārata Gaṇarājya = The Republic of India

22/n As per the Kalchakra tradition Buddha would have lived around 2.9 kybp.

And even the most conservative, Marxist Historians place him 2.6 kybp, and that is when demo-kratia to came.

23/n So yes, these terms exists in our texts from ages.

But we will do a great disservice the stream of research if we don't look for empirical evidences too for the existence of Democracy in Ancient India a lot before the Western World.

24/n Now, let me summarize, what I have established so far:

a)Athenian Democracy(2.6 kybp)is considered the origin by conservative thought just based on Textual Evidences,even though Slavery existed & Slaves+Female were not part of System.Term too comes from here.

25/n b)Mesopotamia gives very crude idea which people call as "Democracy" (around 4 kybp)

c)India has ideas about Democracy in texts in lot earlier ages than both Greece & Mesopotamia (refer Rig Veda, Gana & Sangha).

26/n d)The existence of Panchayat in Rakhigarhi (5.5Kybp) is an empirical evidence that Democracy existed in Indus Saraswati Civilization.

Now from 27/n onward I'll deal with Janapads & Mahajanpads with empirical evidences too.