From Silent to Authoritarian Revolution: Modi, Hindu Rashtra and the Paradox of Indian Democracy

An analysis of the political participation of women by comparing the turnout of women voters to men in all the state elections from 1962 till 2012 reveals a steady and sharp decline in the gender bias in voting over time. This phenomenon is seen across all the states, including the traditionally backward states of north India.

The contemporary Hindutva does not adhere to the old Hindu nationalist rhetorical ideals such as Dharam Rajya (rule of principles) Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation) or even Akhand Bharta (undivided/unbroken India). On the contrary, it aims to appropriate the Constitution for creating a new Hindu majoritarian common sense. Against this backdrop, this chapter looks at two fundamental questions. First, what is nature of this new form of Hindutva constitutionalism? Second, how does this Hindu constitutionalism contribute to the emerging hegemony of Indian politics? This exploration, it is suggested, might help in making sense of the complexities associated with the contemporary moment of democracy.

Understanding the Rise of India

India is one of the few nations to become independent of European imperialism that has maintained a basically stable postimperial history of electoral politics. Historians in Europe and North America often explain the success of Indian electoral politics as a result of the long period-about 150 years-of British rule. Local elections began being held under the imperial government in the 1870s. Observers point as well to the fact that the leadership of the Indian National Congress contained many men such as Gandhi and Nehru who were trained in British or Anglo-Indian legal traditions and who were deeply attached to electoral processes. There are, however, reasons indigenous to the subcontinent for the survival of democratic government in India; in the long-term perspective of political culture, we can see that electoral processes have a firm rooting. This is not to suggest that electoral democracy in India is as thoroughly integrated into political processes as many critics would like. Elections to village government, for example, tend to be endlessly postponed by state governments, and major political parties also tend to postpone elections to party leadership. However, the attachment of ordinary Indians to their right to vote in general elections of state and national assemblies appears to be deep and profound. In an action admired throughout the world, voters

Several studies have been published about ‘silent (r)evolutions’ in different wings of Dutch Reformed Protestantism, such as synodaal-gereformeerden (Reformed Churches in the Netherlands), vrijgemaakt-gereformeerden (Reformed Churches in the Netherlands [Liberated]) and hervormd-gereformeerden (Reformed Bond within the Protestant Church in the Netherlands). They suggest slow shifts within partly ‘pillarized’ church groups from orthodox Calvinist beliefs to modern religious views. The so-called bevindelijk (pietistic) gereformeerden, reformatorischen (‘refo’s’) or Dutch Bible Belt communities seem to be a special case in point. Scattered among the mainstream Protestant Church in the Netherlands and various small and strict Reformed denominations, they are represented by the Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij. This ‘Political Reformed Party’ was founded by G.H. Kersten in 1918 as mobilization of conservative, pietistic and anti-papist people, rejecting social assurance, vaccination and women suffrage, and developing into a minor pillar or reformatorische zuil in the 1970s. This essay builds upon contemporary observations of the SGP in its starting period and in its recent presentation as well. It argues for a development from a critical or ‘revolutionary’ positioning in the democratic scene during the 1920s to a constructive participation in the political process since the 1990s. However, the ‘silent revolution’ of the staatkundig gereformeerden or the social and cultural emancipation of the bevindelijk gereformeerden is accompanied by signs of ‘anti-government sentiments’ and serious resistances within certain ‘refo’ communities. The artificial word refolutie (refolution) plays on the suggestion of a delayed and specific way of emancipation, integration and ‘depillarization’ of this religious minority. Further research is encouraged in order to understand and explain the complicated and contradictory experience of these compromisers between orthodoxy and modernity.

The post-Cold War project of globalization is changing the established notion of liberal democracy and local governance. The political autonomy of the liberal state is being increasingly compromised in favor of market forces and local governance more and more exposed to direct penetration by global and corporate power structures. This change has far-reaching implications for the future of democracy, particularly in the Third World. Aware of this challenge, new social movements in India, active at the grass roots of politics, are resisting global penetration of local communities, using new political spaces opened up by the retreat of the state from socioeconomic arenas. Through an inventive politics of struggle over issues concerning local communities and their empowerment, they articulate a vision of democracy as a creative political process, operative primarily at the local level. Their politics are addressed to establishing direct access and control of people over their immediate environment—economic, social, and cultural. To ensure that, they seek to transcend old dichotomies between state and society, global and local, political and social—and open up new possibilities for democracy in India.

The following article, focussed on the analysis of the ongoing crisis of Indian democracy in the year 2020, is articulated in two parts. The first, after a synthetic summing up of how the crisis started in 2019, is an overview of the main developments which characterized the struggle against and for democracy in the year under review. The crushing of the anti-CAA/NRC democratic movement, the persecution of minorities, the harassing of NGOs, the attacks on journalists and the continuing repression in Kashmir are summarised. The celebration of the transformation of India from a secular democracy into a Hindu Rashtra through the inauguration of the construction of the Ram mega temple in Ayodhya is remembered. This first part ends by discussing the unexpected rise of the Indian farmers’ anti-government movement in the concluding months of the year. The second part of the article is a case study of the repression of the anti-CAA/NRC movement. It is argued that it was pursued through fascist-like violence on the part of Hindutva thugs, abetted by the police. This culminated in the Delhi riots-turned-pogrom of February. In spite of all, the anti-CAA/NRC movement continued up to the explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which made the continuation of street manifestations and sit-ins impossible. The analysis continues through the examination of the veritable witch-hunt carried by the police, on the basis of fabricated evidence, against representative members of the anti-CAA/NRC movement and intellectuals known for their criticism of the Modi government. In the conclusion it is argued that the political set-up prevailing in India is not a full-fledged democracy any more. Rather, it is a hybrid system which, below an outwardly democratic appearance, badly conceals its highly authoritarian nature.

In a comparative and historical study of the interplay between democratic politics and authoritarian states in South Asia, Ayesha Jalal explains how a shared colonial legacy led to apparently contrasting patterns of political development - democracy in India and authoritarianism in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The analysis shows how, despite differences in form, central political authority in each state came to confront similar threats from regional and linguistic dissidence, religious and sectarian strife, as well as class and caste conflicts. By comparing state structures and political processes, the author evaluates and redefines democracy, citizenship, sovereignty and the nation-state, arguing for a more decentralized governmental structure. This original and provocative study will challenge students and scholars in the field to rethink traditional concepts of democracy and authoritarianism in South Asia.

Since 2014, India has witnessed substantial change under the Modi administration. As India's prime minister and a former RSS member, Modi has advocated the Hindutva agenda, which entails converting the country from a secular to a Hindu State. India is the second-most populous country in the world and has the largest democracy. India is a very ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse country. A democratic country with such a sizable population must maintain a pluralistic society, which India has for a very long time, even before partition. However, the current resurgence of Hindu nationalism has raised concerns about minorities' futures. Indian secularism is having a difficult time adjusting to the issue of growing Hindu nationalism. By using the Psychocultural theory to explain the relationships between ethnic groups inside India and how it constitutes a threat to the future of secularism in India. In this research article, secondary data will be employed. Keywords: Secularism, BJP, Hindu Nationalism. Content Analysis, Hindu Rashtra, Psychocultural Theory.

Abstract: The recent revolutions or near-revolutions in Serbia, Georgia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine share the following characteristics: stolen elections triggered them, there were massive, nonviolent demonstrations, and the opposition united behind a single, often charismatic, leader. This article combines two theoretical perspectives on the recent revolutions in southeast Europe and Central Asia: a state failure perspective that focuses on the domestic characteristics that helps explain these events, and a diffusion perspective that focuses on the interrelatedness between these events by means of the interchange of financial resources, activists, and knowledge. It concludes that foreign interventions aimed at the democratization of unstable states might facilitate regime change by democratic or undemocratic means, but it is never a sufficient condition for regime change. Keywords: democratization, policy diffusion, revolutions, state failure Introduction The latest wave of revolutions in southeast Europe and Central Asia illustrates the vulnerability of oppressive, authoritarian, and nondemocratic regimes. This wave started in Serbia in 2000, and ended in Kyrgyzstan in early 2005. (1) Almost all of these revolutions share the following characteristics: stolen elections triggered them, there were massive, nonviolent demonstrations, and the opposition united behind a single, often charismatic, leader. Revolutions are often linked to the concept of failing states. However, various sources cite the role of foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that help build and sustain a coalition of opposition parties, train volunteers in campaigning and monitoring election results, and even formulate and implement strategies to overthrow the regime. (2) Singh even speaks of franchised revolutions. (3) This article combines two theoretical perspectives on the recent revolutions in southeast Europe and Central Asia: a state failure perspective that focuses on the domestic characteristics that helps explain these events and a diffusion perspective that focuses on the interrelatedness between these events by means of the interchange of financial resources, activists, and knowledge. This article contributes to the explanatory and--perhaps more important--predictive power of the state failure approach by taking into account the deliberate strategies of foreign actors to overthrow regimes. This analysis is based on a review of existing literature and databases, except for the Moldovan case, which is based on a series of interviews from March 2005. The literature on revolutions is elaborate and does not provide a consensus on how to define a revolution. I follow Goodwin, (4) who defines a revolution as any and all instances in which a state or government is overthrown and thereby transformed by a popular movement in an irregular, extraconstitutional, or violent manner. However, whether an event is labeled a revolution is not a matter of a simple dichotomy. Following Yinger and Katz, (5) one could argue that there is a potential variety in the amount of revolutioness in a revolution. So while using Goodwin's broad definition, I emphasize the variety within individual revolutions. The next section gives a brief overview of the state of the art of both state failure and policy diffusion literature and integrates them in an analytical framework. The following section has a description and analyses of Serbia's October Revolution, Georgia's Rose Revolution, Ukraine's Orange Revolution, Moldova's Silent Revolution, and Kyrgyzstan's Tulip Revolution. (6) Conclusions are then drawn from a comparative analysis of these five revolutions. The final section discusses the lessons that might be drawn regarding nonviolent action against nondemocratic regimes beyond the cases that are analyzed in this article. Theoretical Approaches: State Failure and Policy Diffusion The analytical framework that is used for analyzing the revolutions (and their interrelatedness) in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Kyrgyzstan is described here. …

Political parties regulate politics in every modern democratic country. Since the 1980s, smaller parties based on caste have appeared in numerous states in India. They serve as a reflection of representational and recognition of politics. In Uttar Pradesh, people from the Most Backward Caste (MBCs) have been forming single caste-based political parties in large numbers over the last two decades to gain social, cultural, and political recognition. The BJP and Samajwadi Party formed a rainbow alliance of single caste parties ahead of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2022. In parallel, the BJP significantly contributed to the state's growth of single caste parties. In the 2022 UP assembly election, single caste parties felt their presence in electoral and non-electoral politics. References Banerjee, Mukulika (2014), Why India Votes?, Routledge, New Delhi. Baxter, Craig (1975), ( The Rise and Fall of Bhartiya Kranti Dal), in Myron Weiner and John Osgoodfied, Electoral politics in Indian states: party system and cleavages volume-4 New Delhi. Beg, Mirza Asmer (2012), (The Muslim Parties in Uttar Pradesh and Assam), Economic and Political Weekly No 43, Volume,47 Oct, 27. Brass, Paul(1966), Caste, Faction and Party in Indian politics “ Election study, Volume 2 (Chanakya publication Delhi). Chandra, Kanchan (2004),Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Head Counts in India, Cambridge University Press. Duncan, Ian, (1997), (New political equation in North India: Mayawati, Mulayam andgovernment instability in UP), Asian Survey Volume,37. Fickett Lewis, JR (1993), (The Rise and Fall of Jantadal),, Asian Survey Volume-33 No.12,December. G,S (1999), ( Rise of smaller parties: Uttar Pradesh), Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.34,No,41. Kumar, D. S. (2022). Election of State Assembly Held during February and March 2022: Study with Reference to Uttar Pradesh. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 3831–3843. Retrieved from https://journalppw.com/index.php/jpsp/article/view/6861 Hasan, Zoya (1997), Quest for Power: Oppositional Movements and Post Congress Politics in Uttar Pradesh, OUP Publisher, India. Hasan, Zoya (2004). Parties and party politics in India. New Delhi; Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jaffrelot, Christophe (2003), India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes, C Hurst &Co Publishers Ltd. Kothari, Rajni (1964), Politics In India, Orient BlackSwan, New Delhi. Pai, Sudha (2002), Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution: The Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd.Delhi. ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE OTHER BACKWARD CLASSES IN INDIA: thought. (2021). S.L.: Routledge India. Singh, Jagpal (1992), Capitalism and Dependence: Agrarian Politics in Western Uttar Pradesh, 1951-1991, Manohar Publishers and Distributors, Delhi. Singh, Jagpal (2021). Caste, state and society: degrees of democracy in North India. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge. Wiener, Myron (1968), State Politics in India, (Princeton Legacy Library), Paperback, Delhi.

Greetings to all readers! A silent revolution is sweeping the globe. Be it demands for regime change in the Middle East or nature’s fury in the far east. My heart goes out to the victims of the devastating Tsunami and earthquake in Japan. I wish all our colleagues in Japan and their family courage during these trying times. In our own backyard, the winds of change are blowing. Medical education in India seems to be undergoing a major transformation. Whether it is in the right direction or not, only time will tell. The presence of eminent academicians at the helm does make a difference in policy making. The Information from the media suggests a popular demand for social health care. Family and community medicine, with stress on preventive health, has been a long felt need for medical care in India. The geographic vastness of our country has created inequity in health delivery. There is also a necessity to balance urban and rural health care. On the one hand we have lifestyle diseases that afflict the urban population, with effects of mechanization and pollution thrown in for good measure. The rural landscape still remains affected by poor maternal and child health. Balancing health policy to be inclusive is therefore a humungous challenge. We need to examine where we stand as maxillofacial surgeons. All the changes in health education and implementation must not leave us on the wayside. Our curriculum needs major revamping with earnest efforts from our statutory body. Postgraduate selection and training years need to be carefully structured. The long-standing debate of dual qualification has once again come to the fore. We have arguments in favor and against this training pattern. However, much depends on the position taken by the Medical Council in facilitating a combined programme for maxillofacial Surgeons. In the meantime quality healthcare in head and neck surgery training has to improve both qualitatively and quantitatively. The need of the hour is to spend some thoughts on curriculum building. Will our statutory body sit up and take notice? We are in an unenviable position of being ignored both by the medical and dental council. The responsibility therefore lies with our association. Let us, under the leadership of the AOMSI, consolidate the future of maxillofacial surgery—lest the winds of change blow past us without causing even a flutter.

This lecture discusses the ‘idea of crime’ as it was understood by the colonial establishment and also as understood by the present government. In 1871, Lord Mayo introduced the bill leading to the infamous Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) which led to the segregation of a certain set of professions and lifestyles from the rest of society. The segregation was given a concrete form with the creation of penal settlements by the colonial government. The communities brought under the provisions of the CTA are now known as Denotified and Nomadic Tribes, not to be mistaken with adivasis. Mostly nomadic in habit, these tribes have suffered the worst humiliation in the history of modern India. In recent decades, the idea of crime has also been associated with non-state actors in order to deal with terrorism. However, the provisions of laws made towards this objective, such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, are being used speciously to restrain social activists and thinkers. This has raised many questions in recent years. The theme of this lecture outlines the gap between the idea of crime and the idea of justice that needs to be bridged in the interests of deepening democracy in India.

Both Pakistan and India chose parliamentary democracy as their system of government when they gained independence in August 1947. However, for more than 50 years after independence, Pakistan has not been able to establish a stable parliamentary democratic system of government. The constitution has been abrogated or discontinued several times, and the system of government has been unpredictable, with a cabinet system at times, a presidential system at others, and a military regime for almost half of the time. But since its beginning, India's parliamentary democracy has not evolved. The experience of India's 50 years of nation-building shows that parliamentary democracy has been accepted by the people and politicians of India. The international community generally agrees that the implementation of parliamentary democracy in India has been a success and that its development has been healthy. Why, then, are there such contrasts in the establishment and implementation of the system of government in two countries that share the same historical background and declared independence at the same time? One had a functioning parliamentary democracy, while the other had frequent regime changes and successive military regimes. This article attempts a preliminary examination and comparison of this issue.

In this research paper we examine the endemic problem of political exclusion because of gender and marginalization of women in the democratic structure of India. Although Indian society entails constitutional equalization and universal right to vote, women remain exposed to systemic obstacles towards complete political participation. The paper discusses the complexity of women marginalization by looking at the historical, socio-cultural, economic and institutional aspects that render women uninclusive in political processes. It points out the irony of the democracy in India, wherein women have done remarkably well in the grassroots sphere with the Panchayati Raj system, but are grossly under-represented in the national and state Assembly. This research brings into focus patriarchal practices, party systems, election processes and socio-economic disparities that continue to enforce gender marginalization. This research paper by combining both feminist political theory and empirical evidence highlights how the political exclusion compromises the principles of equality, justice, and participatory democracy. It finds that the democratization of political spaces needs not only the legal changes in the form of reservation policies but also the cultural one that would break the gender prejudice that is gained over centuries. To enhance democracy legitimacy and substantive gender equality in the India political arena, women leadership and inclusive governance should be encouraged.