Sovereignity: Soverignity is considered as a symbol of supreme power or authority. In the good old days tribal leaders worked for the overall good and welfare of their clan and in the process exercised almost absolute authority in the day to day affairs of the tribe. All members of the tribe were bound to each other by relations of blood and from considerations of safety, economic security and enlightened self-interest. Subsequently, the kings and emperors picked up that mantle. They exercised absolute power, but, in the beginning, they utilized all their power and authority for the overall good and welfare of their people. So far so good. But, as time rolled on, the world witnessed the growth of autocrats, tyrants and desposts, who assumed absolute power and exercised it ruthlessly for the satisfaction of their ego and insatiable lust for power. With the sprouting of democracy, the leadership was picked up by some well to do, well meaning and well intentioned persons of the community. They worked for the overall growth, development and welfare of the people. People had a tremendous sense of relief and enjoyed the newly acquired benefits and freedom. As the days rolled on and the sparks of enlightenment began flying and touching the lives of the common man, there was increasing clamour for greater participation in decision making. Local councils, assemblies, parliaments and other components of democratic structures, started taking shape. Adult franchise jumped in and started shaping the complexion of the administration and legislatures. Almost all democratic constitutions of the world proclaim that the ultimate power rests with the people and incidentally, during the last century, most of the countries of the world have made tremendous progress under the democratic set up and the people have witnessed a lot of growth, freedom and prosperity. However, billions of people scattered all over the globe, continue to hope against hope for better days and keep staring listlessly at the elusive power, which is tightly gripped by selected few in almost all the countries.
Governance: The sproutings of governance are almost as old as the beginnings of civilization. The basic function of governance is to conduct the policies and affairs of the state in conformity with the dictates of the sovereign power. Governance is basically a tool. It involves thinking, planning and decision making. An individual may need it and can benefit from it. A family or a community builds traditions and these traditions are reflected in their day to day working and behavior. All business houses and corporate bodies have some basic norms and values for the conduct of their day to day affairs and they hover round them religiously. All countries and international bodies build all types of structures for proper functioning and governance of their internal and external affairs and they try to cling to them under all odds. The moot question is that nobody likes to be governed and therefore, why all this fuss for governance. And, perhaps everybody accepts, that, things are the best, where governance finds it difficult to find a role.
War and Peace: War and peace have been playing hide and seek with the common man since times immemorial. For a common man, there is an inherent longing for peace. It does not really matter for him, who happens to be the king or emperor, president or prime minister or for that matter anybody, who happens to grab some power or supreme power. Governance has almost no meaning for him, so long as, he can steer clear, from the dark shadows of governance. All that the common man wants is to be left alone to do, what he wants to do, what he likes to do and what inspires him to do something useful and productive, with whatever means are available to him. He does not cry for the moon but his dreams are no less. War has always been a great scourage, which kills and uproots thousands and hundreds of thousands of people and leaves untold miseries and devastation in its trail. Nobody wants wars, but still the wars keep going. More men and material resources are involved almost in all countries, in preparations for the war and in actual conduct of the wars, than, what is normally available for the welfare and wellbeing of the common man. It is the persistence and tenacity of some of the creative and talented people, who find opportunities to grab some moments of peace in the troubled world to provide a push to arts and crafts, literature, science and almost all those creative and productive activities, which turn the wheels of growth and development and keep the world moving.
World Wars : The first world war from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918 and the second world war from 1 September 1939 to 8 May 1945 are prominent landmarks of world history. They serve as crude reminders to all and sundry that we are sitting on unending stockpiles of nuclear weapons and the day, somebody, knowingly or unknowingly flies the sparks, almost everything in the world, known and identified in the name of civilization, will come to an abrupt end, with untold devastation and miseries for millions and millions of people. A pistol shot at Archduke Franz Fernandes of Austria triggered the first world war. It was the deadliest conflict in history. 70 million military personnel, which included 60 million Europeans participated in the war. Casualties were of the order of 9 million combatants and 7 millions civilians. Allies were led by UK, France and Russia, whereas, the central powers including Germany, Austria and Hungary led the opposing forces. The war ended on 11 November 1918 followed by the treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919. The centuries old empires of Europe disappeared after the war. The borders of European nations were drawn and redrawn during the war and after the war. Thereafter, the League of Nations was formed on 10 January 1920 to serve as an international body, whose sole task was to maintain world peace and to sort out international disputes, as and when they occurred. However, mini wars and disputes continued, one after another and the League of Nations failed to contain them due to the lack of support and entrenched political interests and preferences of leading nations, which ultimately led to the rise of Nazi power and the outbreak of the second world war. Second World war was the deadliest war in human history. About 100 million people from 30 countries were directly and indirectly involved in the war effort. Almost all industrial, scientific and manpower resources of the world were thrown into the conduct of the war. The total casualties were of the order of 75 million people including 20 million combatants. All borders of European nations became fluid and were drawn and redrawn, from time to time, throughout the war, till the war in Europe ended on 8 May 1945. Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945 after atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, Germany was partitioned into West Germany and East Germany, the borders of most of the European nations were redrawn and zones of influence were created. The colonial powers were thoroughly bled during the war, thereby, gradually losing control of their colonies, which were lying scattered throughout the globe. These colonies became independent self determining states after the war. The war was followed by the creation of United Nations with the solemn declaration about saving the succeeding generations from the scourge of war and to foster peace, tolerance and good neighbourly relations between nations. However, the world has been through the trauma of cold war, miniwars and all types of disruptive activities promoted by entrenched interests during the last seventy years and peace, tolerance and good neighbourly relations are still waiting to find some sort of space for stable footing.
Conclusion: In a family everybody works willingly with all the love, affection and attachment for each other. In a village or neighbourhood everybody knows each other and has cordial relations with almost every member of the community. In a business, commercial or industrial establishment, everybody works with all the dedication and understanding for the overall growth and productivity of the establishment. Even the groups of countries and sovereign states are pooling their resources for working with each other with mutual understanding and goodwill from considerations of peace, safety, security and overall growth and development of their country and welfare of their people. By and large, almost everybody, throughout the world, has longings for undisturbed spells of peace. And everybody knows that mutual understanding, teamwork and working for each other is good for everybody. Every individual, every association, every country and every international body knows it and basically subscribes to it, but, deep vested interests and the race for power, more power and supreme power ties their hands and blurs their vision. This is the time, when the vultures sweep and find a lucrative role for the conduct of all types of criminal, disruptive, and terrorist activities. And the common man, the repository of so called supreme power goes through the ordeal helplessly, day in and day out.