The Patriarch Become the King

The old patriarch has taken up a lot of our time, has he not? We shall finish with him soon, or rather he will change his name. I started by promising to tell you how kings came and what they were. And in order to understand kings one has to go right back to the patriarchs. You must have guessed that these patriarchs became later on kings or raja and maharaja. The word patriarch comes from the Latin 'Pater' or father. He was the leader and father of his tribe or people. 'Patria', which means fatherland or one's own country, comes from the same Latin word. You know that in French it is 'Patrie'. In Sanskrit and Hindi, we think of our country as the mother or motherland-Matribhumi, the motherland. Which do you prefer?

When thS patriarch's office became hereditary, that is son succeeded father, there was little difference between him and a king. He developed into a king and the king got the strange notion that everything in the country belonged to him. He thought he was the country. A famous French king once said L' etat c' est moi- 'The State, it is I' or 'I am the state'. Kings forgot that they were really chosen by the people in order to organize and distribute the food and other things of the country among the people. They forgot that they were chosen because they were supposed to be the cleverest and the most experienced persons in the tribe or country. They imagined that they were the masters and all the other people in the country their servants. As a matter of fact, they were the servants of the country.

Later on, you will see when you read history that kings became so conceited that they thought that the people had nothing to do with choosing them. It was God himself, they said, that had made them kings. They called this the 'divine right of kings'. For long years, they misbehaved like this and lived in great pomp and luxury while their people starved. But, at last, the common people could not bear it any longer and in some countries they drove out their kings. You will read all about this later, how the people of England rose against their King Charles I and defeated him and even put him to death; how the people of France had a great revolution and decided to have no more kings. You will remember that we visited the Conciergerie prison in Paris. Were you with us then? In this prison were kept the members of the king's family, his wife Marie Antoinette and others. You will also read about the great Russian revolution when the people of Russia, only a few years ago, drove out their king, who was called the Tsar.

So kings have had their day and most countries have no kings. France and Germany and Russia and Switzerland and the countries of America and China and many other countries have no kings. They are republics; that is, the common people choose their governors and leaders from time to time. These governors and leaders are not hereditary.

In England, as you know, there is still a king, but he has no power. He can do very little. All the power belongs to the Parliament, where the chosen leaders of the people sit. You will remember seeing the Parliament in London.

In India, we have still many rajas and maharajas and nawabs. You see them going about with fine clothes, in expensive motor cars and spending a lot of money on themselves. Where do they get all this money from? They get it in taxes from the people. The taxes are given so that the money may be used to help all the people in the country-by making schools and hospitals and libraries and museums and good roads and many other things for the good of the people. But our rajas and maharajas still think as the French king did of old: L'etat c'est moi-The State, it is I. And they spend the money of the people on their own pleasures. While they live in luxury, their people, who work hard and give them the money, starve and their children have no schools to go to.

Source: http://indiragandhi.in/en/philosophy/letters/3