Charles Darwin and Satyapal Singh have at least one thing in common: both evolved from apes. That’s a compliment, not an affront. According to scientists, humans share 98.40 per cent of their DNA with their ancestral primates.
Darwin’s theory of natural selection is so well established that restating it is unnecessary. A brief note though on human evolution is helpful before we move on to the even more interesting theory of political evolution. As allaboutscience.org explains: “Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is the widely held notion that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor. Darwin’s general theory presumes complex creatures evolve from more simplistic ancestors naturally over time.
In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism’s genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival—a process known as ‘natural selection’. These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different organism (not just a variation of the original, but an entirely different creature).”
Singh, the minister of state for HRD, is not alone in dismissing Darwin’s theory. Nearly 80 per cent of the population of the United States, the country with the greatest number of Nobel science laureates, believes that God either created man (40 per cent) or had a “guiding hand” in the development of mankind (39 per cent). The majority, of course, isn’t always right and in this case it certainly isn’t.
But what can we extrapolate from Darwinian evolution to political evolution? A central principle of the theory of natural selection is survival of the fittest. The adaptable dodo became extinct only in the seventeenth century. Dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago by a catastrophic natural event to which they couldn’t adapt. But millions of species (from snails and crocodiles to birds and frogs) survived the natural catastrophe.
Monkeys, the primate ancestors to apes, evolved soon thereafter, some 40 million years ago. Apes evolved from their monkey forebears 15 million years ago. Gorillas and chimpanzees followed. Around 1.8 million years ago, these two species mutated to form our nearest ancestor—Homo erectus (literally “upright man”). Modern man (Homo sapiens) evolved a mere 3,15,000 years ago. A related species, Neanderthals, which too had mutated from apes, became extinct 40,000 years ago. They couldn’t adapt.
Globally, political evolution has occurred in similar fits and starts. There were few nation states before the 1600s. The United Kingdom did not exist.
Nor did the United States. The United Kingdom was created in 1707 by what can loosely be termed a process of natural political selection. After fighting each other for centuries, England (Anglo-Saxons) and Scotland (Celts) decided to form a union which in 1707 mutated to the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Meanwhile, the United States was still known as the United Colonies and ruled by a British monarch. It officially became the United States only in 1776.
Political evolution can be malignant. England and Scotland pooled resources and manpower as the United Kingdom to monopolise the brutal Atlantic slave trade in the 1700s. At one point, 55 per cent of African slaves kidnapped and trafficked for sale in North America were carried aboard British slave ships. England and Scotland colonised and plundered countries across Asia and Africa. Some of the most rapacious colonial officers, viceroys and adventurers in India were Scots: Macaulay, Dalhousie, Linlithgow, Minto and Elphinstone.
In India, political evolution began after Independence in 1947. By a process of natural selection that Darwin would have approved, the monopolistic Indian National Congress mutated into several Congresses: the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and YSR Congress among others. As Darwin theorised, only the fittest survive. The shrinking of the Congress from 206 Lok Sabha seats in 2009 to 44 seats in 2014 took place by a process of natural political selection.
Darwinism threw up Narendra Modi. A humble RSS worker for decades, he was catapulted to the chief ministership of Gujarat in 2001. He had joined the BJP from the RSS only in 1987. Natural selection of the kind Singh does not believe in took Modi from a pracharak to chief minister in 14 years and prime minister in 27 years from the date of origin (1987).
Just as dinosaurs became extinct because they couldn’t adapt to rapidly changing conditions, political parties too become extinct when they don’t adapt. The Swatantra party, which began with great promise in 1959, died an early death. The Janata Party, which assumed office after Indira Gandhi’s post-Emergency electoral defeat in 1977, lasted for an even shorter period—more dodo than dinosaur. The Jan Sangh was more fortunate. It adapted. In December 1980, it mutated into the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP).
In nature, evolution takes millions of years. Apes appeared 15 million years back. They mutated several million years later. One branch created Homo erectus and eventually man 3,15,000 years ago (which, to set Singh’s mind at rest, is why our scriptures don’t mention it since the scriptures didn’t exist then).
The moral for politicians is this: adapt or become extinct. The BJP may be ascendant today. But unlike in nature, political evolution takes place rapidly. Only the fittest survive according to Darwin’s theory of natural selection. In 2019, when the nation votes for the seventeenth Lok Sabha, the BJP would do well to keep the principle of natural selection firmly in mind.
Minhaz Merchant
The author is an editor and publisher
Tweets @MinhazMerchant