When I first heard about the amount of mourning, my immediate reaction is "Why so much hysteria" for the people who professed "Democracy" as a "civilizing" people for centuries. I can understand the "stability" factor that gets stronger as more time passes( in this case many centuries) even if it meant a ceremonial position. But, I can relate it to the Indian situation.
I felt this type of grief the day
Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984. Noisy-crazy-busy streets became empty and silent (As if there is a curfew) and few people walked were crying as if they lost in their family ,
fear of what will happen next is on the air. In theory, it is a democracy.
No body has any good impression of Indira- particularly about her "demockery" ( Ruling what is good for her is good for her party and the nation, imposing the emergency to stay in power( 1975-77), her crucial role in splitting the opposition to miniscule pieces (1979)) of the governance.
The nation was young after painful process of fighting against British Raj and piecing together of 500+ little princely states with broader land. No body has faith in opposition that got
once in lifetime chance in 1977 and squabbled to become invisible little pieces with in 2 years. And suddenly no body (who majority of people can agree - at least in theory) exist to rule?
But all this went "poof", when her son Rajiv Gandhi was announced as the leader with in a day or two. This taught me one thing - how ever symbolic or real the position is, people needs some reliable head to trust on. After all the life itself is painful with all sorts of surprises and this trust ( god or king or ruler) is a sort of psychological anchor to walk through the challenges.
About the Royalty as Privilege: It may be privilege for some for few years and all powerful universe always teaches them their place (or lessons). This is obvious in every celebrity's life you can find every where. This Nehru-Gandhi family is one example. To day, the show still continues with Indian Bojo Rahul Gandhi still the reluctant contender, goofing up the basic facts to become the entertaining material of BJP's simple and effective campaign material.
Some times, you feel sorry for the family- family who can't live simple peaceful life they crave for despite all the money/power/fame one can have, running around giving political speeches which they themselves detest (from their body language). If they go out of politics, they will end up in Jail, because their own lackies who used their power will make sure that. This
quote is appropriate.
How did a Democracy became reliance on Dynasty?
With destruction of opposition party in 1979, every Indian at that time know that Indira's younger son Sanjay Gandhi (considered as ambitious rogue) is in the line. But he died in air plane crash in 1980 ( rumors exist that she is responsible for the death). There were enough rumors' that Indira arm twisted her dis-interested -elder-pilot-son Rahul Gandhi( and her Italian born wife) to come into politics.
In fact, Rajeev Gandhi down to earth( or call it middle class approach) showed sense of hope for few years (1984-1986) started removing the barriers of "License Raj" his mother created. Inexperience caught up with him to discredit him and the mess he created the left vs right paradigm still exist. If he had survived his assassination in 1991, probably he would have done corrected it. But, that is not meant to be and as he was assassinated to gave a rare chance to family outsider to run the country for 5 years and open the economy ( which was unthinkable at that time).
The Family ( Italian born widow Sonia Gandhi and Family) could have gone out of country ( in 90's), but they know better ( family sins will come back in the form of corruption charges). She stayed back, raised the children to be next PM's, kept the puppet prime minister ( Manmohan Singh who ruled for 2004-2014) until they are ready. Sonia couldn't become PM because of label of "Italian Born" is acceptable for her coalition partners.
Even after literal no body named Modi became PM with consistent 90% approval ratings for 8 years ( ridiculously high for diverse nation), there is some desperation in his slogan "Congress Free India". He can give REAL protection to judiciary to prosecute the family and hear the voices "How can you prosecute Gandhi Family". That is the extent one can go. People can fall back to Congress if he does any mistake and people are scared of politicians that pull the fabric of nation like dogs for petty instant gains. That is nature of reality.
The diverse nations need to have some thing to hold on to keep it united. It is that name "Gandhi" that came out of no where 100 years back (1917) when M.K Gandhi came to India from South Africa and became trusted name in 2 years with his first stint against British in India in 1917. It is hard to shake off. Is this trust of a people is a privileges' or Curse? It depends.
Why can't people move on instead of holding on to these names?
For some reason, Caesar's comment on "People are selfish and fickle" resonates with me w.r.t masses. No one leader can solve every citizen's need. So the democracy and periodic elections exist. Politics became so corrupt all across the world. Even if politicians are not corrupt, people always compete for one thing or other, fair or unfair making the political selfish groupings inevitable.
Often, I wondered why people who look at their family with best intention they can have and see the complexities of the situation, but fail to see what is good for the nation (or polity). May be people are not mature enough and I wonder whether it is related to 50% of the world population belong to OP's.