Democracy in India

Abstract

Scholarly interest in India’s democratic politics has shifted from curiosity and skepticism to robust comparisons and possibilities of reimagining democracy. Citizen assessments of democracy are positive yet critical, as formal democracy in India completes seven decades of existence. The richness and the complex journey of Indian democracy can be appreciated only if one remembers that even before the formal inauguration of democracy in post-independence India, democratic politics had already begun to take shape, going back as far as the 19th century itself. In post-independence India, the arenas of competitive politics and popular mobilizations were the most richly democratized fields. Between 1951 and 2014, the national legislature has been elected on the basis of adult suffrage sixteen times, with an average turnout of 60 percent. This is in addition to the hundreds of state legislative elections in which the turnout is often greater. Electoral politics in India has not only gained its own rhythm, it has also thrown up a large number of political players in the form of parties, many of whom share power. This wide sharing of power among parties has happened despite the “first-past-the-post” (FPTP) system, which is otherwise expected to throw up a two-party system. Broadly speaking, there are four distinct arenas of contestations around which democratic mobilizations take shape in contemporary India: (1) regions, states, subregions, center-state relations, and internal developmental imbalance within states; (2) development policies, planning, industry versus agriculture, the issue of land acquisition and priority to be accorded to poverty eradication, welfare or growth-oriented models of development; (3) the caste question, power sharing by castes located lower in the traditional hierarchy, formation of caste blocs and strategies to ensure social justice; and (4) inter-religion relations, communalism, nature of nationalism, and the majoritarian tendency. These contestations take place at three levels. First, the institutional framework is a key terrain of contestations. The question of interpreting the constitution, the relationship among the three organs of government, and the search for new institutions of democratic governance are all instances of this politics of institutions. Electoral politics is the second terrain. Elections bring in not only competitiveness, but also a wide variety of configurations of interests. Third, India’s democracy has a rich component of social movements, which are aligned along party lines and also function autonomously from party politics. The literature on Indian democracy can be approached from a variety of standpoints. In presenting this bibliography, we have grouped academic writings on Indian democracy under the following eight themes: (1) The Pre-independence Churning of Ideas and Social Forces, (2) Constitution and Public Institutions, (3) Parties and Elections, (4) Politics of Hindutva, (5) Movements and Mobilizations, (6) Political Economy and Public Policy, (7) India and the World, and (8) Assessments and Overviews.