Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CourseI
India’s Experiment With Democracy:
19472020
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
Suggested Reading Materials
1. The Success of Indian Democracy Atul Kohli (2001)
2. Political Economy of India Francine R Frankle (2005)
3. The Indian Pardox Myron Weiner (1989)
4. India After Gandhi Ramachandra Guha (2007)
5. Working A Democratic ConstitutionGranville Austin (1999)
6. Democracy in India Niraja Gopal Jayal (2001)
7. Oxford Handbook on Politics Pratap Bhanu Mehta (ed.) (2010)
Some Facts...
123 countries out of 192 are democratic societies
More are likely to join in the democratic process
Is there an alternative to democracy?
The End of History and the Last Man
Francis Fukuyama(1992)
“ What we may be witnessing is not just the end
of cold war, or the passing of a particular
period of postwar history, but the end of
history as such; that is, the end of mankind's
ideological evolution and the universalisation
of Western liberal democracy as the final form
of human government”.
Freedom House Research Study (2005)
Principles of Liberal Democracy
Government by Consent
Public Accountability
Majority Rule
Recognition of Minority Rights
Constitutional Government
Mechanisms of Liberal Democracy
More than one political party
Political Offices not confined to any privileged class
Periodic elections based on universal adult franchise
Protection of Civil Liberties
Independence of the judiciary
Indian Democracy and Political History
Analysis of Indian Democratic System
Phases of Political Structure
19471967: Democratic Regime with Command Politics
19681974: Democratic Regime with Demand Politics
19751977: Authoritarian Regime with Command Politics
19782020: Democratic Regime with Demand and
Accommodative/Polarisation Politics
19471967: Democratic Regime with Command Politics
* Consolidation of institutions
* Nation Building Process
* Emphasis on democratic socialism principles
Process Followed
* Command PoliticsOne Party System
* Strong State
* Dialogue and Persuasion also continued
Challenges
Leftwing and Rightwing groups
Conservative Congressmen
Judiciary
19681974: Democratic Regime with Demand Politics
* End of One Party Rule
* Rise of Regional Parties (Autonomy and Resource)
* Domination to Competition
Challenges
Judiciary
Privy Purse Case
I C Golaknath Case
Bank Nationalisation Case
Congress Split1969
General Election 1971
Amendments were made
Kesavananda Bharati Case (1973)
19751977: Authoritarian Regime with Command
Politics
Contd...
* Judicial power was restricted
* Tribunals were created (323 (A) & (B))
* Committeed Bureaucracy and Judiciary
* Centre was made powerful through amendments
* President's rule was imposed in 12 States
19782020: Democratic Regime with Demand Politics
* Emergence of NonCongress Parties (Janata Party)
* Right to Property was taken away
* Institution images were restored (44th Amendment)
Coalition Politics
19521989: Nine Elections
19911999: Four Elections
20042014: Three Elections
Total Number of Political Parties by 24th July 2014: 1866
(239 new parties MarchMay 2014) Source: Election
Commission of India
Contd...
* However, this phase (19782018) also witnessed....
* Increasing violence against Women, Scheduled Castes and
Tribes, Minority Community, Farmers (NCRB Data)
* Regional Chauvnism, Fundamentalism and Etremism
* Myron Weiner (1989): The Indian Paradox
“How can a society survive with increasing violence?”
How and Why Indian Democracy Survived?
2. The interests of the powerful in society have been
served without fully excluding the weaker groups.
Myron Weiner (1989): The Indian Paradox
Barrington Moore (1966)
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy:
Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern
World
Indian state survived because of the role of the Indian
bourgeois in the freedom struggle that helped clear
the path for democracy.
Asuthosh Varshney (1998)
India and the Politics of Developing Countries
Sustaining democratic values in India:
* Federal structure
* Universal Adult Franchise
* Secularism
* Political institutions
Possible ReasonsHow Democracy Survived?
2. India's Constitutional Designthough mainly centralist but was
also flexible to accommodate regional interests
3. Spread of democratic politics (Elite and Mass Relationship)
Contd...
5. No separatist movement so far has arisen in a sizable Indian
State (Except Punjab, J & K and Northeast) Here again the
demand is more for autonomy and special status)
6. Not million mutinies to facilitate any significant redistribution
of wealth or income but prevented further skewing of India's
distributional patterns.
Contd..
7. Institutions (Judiciary, Election Commission, NHRC)
These institutions have mitigated and moderated the potential
damage that coalition instability within national governments
may have caused
(Right to Education, Health, Water, Food, Maintenance, Land,
Freedom of Speech)
Future Of Democracy
Mechanisms to check majoritarianism
Protect democratic institutions
Political orientation of citizens (Pluralism or fanaticism)
Access to resource and distribution is made
Address rights of weaker and minority sections
Thank You