The words “state” or “government” instantly conjure up images of a distant secretariat in the capital, sprawling bureaucratic buildings, or the face of a remote policymaker. For the average person, the government exists at a psychological distance—a persistent sense of “them” versus “us”. But is that really the case?
I took the initiative to start this series, titled “Sorkare Doarkar Series”, because we desperately need to understand, in the simplest terms, precisely where and how the state intertwines with our daily lives, and just how deeply it impacts us.
Many of us assume our interaction with the government is limited to casting a vote, paying taxes, or occasionally visiting a major public office. Yet, from the moment we wake up in the morning until we go to sleep at night, the state silently accompanies our every step. Recognising and understanding this connection is, above all, in our own best interest as citizens.
Table of Contents
Why this series?
Today, I had a rather peculiar experience. While conversing with a highly qualified, well-educated individual from our society, I realised he had absolutely no inkling of the duties or authority of the village police (Gram Police). Yet, for millions of people across rural communities, these officers are the first visible face of the state and their primary recourse.
Intrigued, I began discussing various organs of the government with him: how they link to one another, how they ought to function versus how they operate in reality, why they fail to perform as they should, and the stark contrast between academic textbooks and actual reality on the ground.
As I listened, it became painfully clear that he possessed virtually no practical understanding of the system. All he had was blind, unbridled rage. Yet, he was entirely oblivious to the root causes of that anger, or where the actual accountability lay.
It came as a profound shock. If a highly educated professional is this bewildered, what must be the plight of the rest of society? This very question kept spinning in my mind, and it is precisely what compelled me to write this series.
What will we learn from this series?
“Need for Government” is neither a dense political treatise nor a tedious dissection of legal jargon. It is essentially an attempt to demystify the system around us in a thoroughly accessible manner. In this series, we will primarily explore:
- Our relationship with the national budget: How the country’s budget directly affects the money in our pockets, the price of groceries at the market, or the cost of our children’s education.
- The actual machinery of governance: Precisely what each government institution does, and from whom we must demand accountability for specific tasks.
- The nexus between politics and government: Where exactly the deep-seated relationship between our nation’s politics and its administrative system lies, and how it drives the state.
- Citizen rights and their boundaries: The fundamental rights guaranteed to us by the constitution and how to exercise them. Crucially, it is not just about enjoying rights; as conscious citizens, we must know where our rights end so we do not infringe upon others.
- Navigating everyday laws: A straightforward guide to the laws that impact our daily routines—such as traffic regulations, consumer protection rights, digital security and internet safety laws, and various family protection rules.
- Legal safeguards and regulations in professional life: Whether you are an employee, a business owner, a freelancer, or an entrepreneur, you need to know the laws governing your profession. We will demystify how to navigate taxes, what labour laws say in your favour, and what to keep in mind regarding business licences and contracts—because a lack of knowledge leaves you vulnerable to exploitation and legal trouble.
To complain constructively, you must first locate the glitch!
It is part of our nature to lose our temper and vent our frustration on social media or at tea stalls whenever we dislike the system. The furious resentment of the highly educated gentleman I mentioned earlier is a prime example. But if you pause to think rationally, even to be rightfully angry or to criticise constructively, you must first pinpoint the exact problem.
Shouting solves nothing if you do not know which desk is stalling your file, which legal loophole is compromising your rights, or which institution’s negligence is bottlenecking your business. Just as treating a patient without a proper diagnosis is fatal, a crisis can never be resolved without identifying its root cause.
The objective of this series is neither to blindly vilify the government nor to flatter it sycophantically. Its true purpose is to look at government up close, to actively understand our rights and boundaries, and to learn how to navigate and utilise this entire system to our advantage when life demands it. Only when we replace blind rage with genuine understanding can we begin to ask the right questions at the right place. Hopefully, this record of our shared everyday experiences will shift the perspective through which we view the state, society, and ourselves.
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