The strongholds of irresponsible power and reaction in any country are maintained not only by the threatened exercise of physical coercion but also to a very large, if not actually greater, extent by the acquiscent support of the very victims of oppression. This silent submission of the people at large to the yoke of autocracy is mainly due to the hypnotic influence of organised power and prestige on the mentality of the masses, who unconscious of their collective might, feel themselves helpless against the serried ranks of exalted officialdom and military power. It is this deceptive vision and self-enslaving cowardice, born of the ignorance and inertia enveloping the mass mind, that is sedulously sought to be cultivated by the demonstration of costly functions in the name of the public and cleverly exploited by the self-styled guardians of ‘Law and order’ to sustain their sway over the people. By a peculiar process of political alchemy in the Governmental laboratory, the involuntary share of the masses in these demonstrations as idle spectators and ignorant admirers is transmuted into a manifestation of loyalty and love and loudly proclaimed to the world as a symbol of peace and plenty in the land.
