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Cargo Cult and Democracy

There is an interesting anthropological curiosity which arose amongst the islands in the South Pacific after the Second World War. It is known as the Cargo Cult.

The islanders had noticed that Europeans had some sort of powerful magic which allowed them to receive stuff from the heavens. The islanders decided that they too must make arrangements to receive stuff. So they faithfully reproduced the artifacts that they saw the Europeans use in magically making cargo appear out of the skies. They cleared a large area in the forest, lit bonfires around this, built a hut close by in which they put a box with antennae sticking out of it, made 'headphones' out of coconut shells, and spoke earnestly into a 'microphone'. Then they waited for cargo to drop out of the skies, just as they had seen the Europeans receive during the war.

It is a fascinating tale and has wide-ranging implications. The islanders were not stupid, merely ignorant. They figured out what we could call the 'front end' of the whole enterprise. They did not know that there was a very deep backend to the deal. In their ignorance, they expected a facsimilie to work and when it didn't, they attempted to modify the front end to more accurately reflect the bits they had observed the Europeans use.

To know this applies to India read @ Deeshaa: May 17, 2004 Archives