THE 'MASSES' ?

DEMOCRACY is defined as a system by which a country is governed by the whole population, by those who are elected by the whole population. The word comes in part from the Greek work "demos", means the people. That is what the great oxford English dictionary, that infallible oracle of the English speaking world, says. It also says that "mass"  in the plural, that is "the masses",  means "the ordinary people". Kindly note the difference between "the people" and "the ordinary people". You can make out the difference.

The masses can be persuaded, mollified, inflamed, soothed, pushed around, restrained, barred from certain places and made to go to others, all because of these traits and or more correctly, assumption of traits.
These assumptions are that "the masses " are basically simple minded, that their powers of comprehension are limited, they are credulous and naive and can be pushed around with impunity and be persuaded tp believe that it is for their own good or some good that those in power consider important.

Politicians will deny this but they are the ones who firmly believe that the masses can be swayed by thundering promises of a better tomorrow or they can be told to remain calm and not let issues agitate them. A comic example of tis assumption- made , obviously, by some bureaucrat convinced of his own shrewdness-, was the publication in  major newspapers and journals of an appeal in the name of PM Manmohan Singh that the people stay calm when the High Court pronounces its judgement in the Ayodhya title suit.

"The masses " did indeed stay calm there was no violent reaction from any community or group, although all those who proclaim they speak for some part of the masses have declared they will challenge the judgment in SC. it would be foolish to think that the masses stayed calm because of the appeal. But the fact that such an appeal was made indicates that the age-old assumptions about "The Masses" still hold good.