Democracy originated as a reaction to the unbridled monarchy in the countries of Europe. The individual was then a mere serf, devoid of all initiative and freedom, just as a toy in the hands of the ‘divine’ kings. People rose in revolt, overthrew the ‘divine right of kingship’ and smashed the power of monarchy for all time. The inspiring slogan of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ was on the lips of everybody. It was loudly trumpeted from housetops that the long dark night of slavery and tyranny had finally ended and a new era of ‘individual freedom’, ‘sanctity of the individual rights’ and ‘equality of opportunity for all’ had dawned.

Under the slogan of ‘equality of opportunity’, persons with greater intelligence and wealth monopolized all those new avenues of production of wealth and became the unchallenged financial overlords. On the strength of their overwhelming power of money, they even captured the political machinery. And the common people were left high and dry except for a solitary political right to vote which too they were not free to use under the oppressive economic conditions.

Thus the high-sounding concept of ‘individual freedom’ only meant the freedom of those talented few to exploit the rest of the common people and reduce them to abject serfdom. The horrible conditions of the laborers – men, women and even children – working in those factories defied all description. They were now groaning under the heels of the new tyrants in place of the old.