The Theoretical Intersection of Religion and Democracy: Analyzing Gandhi, Nehru and Ambedkar

This book delves into the intersection of water, religion, and environmental stewardship in the context of the Middle East, particularly Lebanon. It stems from a conference held at Haigazian University on March 2, 2018, titled "The Symbolism of Water in Religion," which aimed to explore not only the pragmatic contributions of religious groups to water conservation but also the deeper symbolic meanings of water within various faiths, notably Christianity and Islam. The volume is structured to reflect the conference’s agenda, beginning with an urgent exploration of the water crisis in the Middle East. This is followed by analyses of water symbolism in sacred texts and rituals, a presentation of faith-based conservation projects, and a panel discussion on the role of faith-based organizations in addressing water issues. Additionally, the book includes a chapter on the biblical symbolism of water, added post-conference to complement the discussions on the Quran. Aimed at providing fresh perspectives on the relevance of religion in education and contemporary concerns such as environmental care, peacebuilding, and relief efforts, this book is the first in a series addressing these pressing issues. It acknowledges the significant contributions of various individuals to the conference and this publication, while also paying tribute to the late Chris and Susanna Naylor, whose impactful work in Lebanon exemplifies the potential of faith-based conservation efforts.

This article explores how the first general election after the independence held with expectations, and fears. The vital concerns were the spread of the constituencies, division of the population in caste system and faith and beliefs. On the other hand, positive signs were willingness of political parties, and availability of the constitution as the guiding principle, and structured election commission. It shows that how election paved the way for sensitization of minority groups, and twisted linguist aspects in reshaping the states as well as India as democratic country. The elections held in amidst of the mingling of hope and fears. However, the election’s immediate outcome came with emergence of state parties, as well national parties. Using the historical method, the major concern was the exploration that how the first Indian Election influenced the limits and delimits of the Indian states and even constituencies, and it creates a room for further exploration regarding the learning of Indian democracy, and politics. Key Words: Elections, Election Commission, India, democracy

This volume, and the discussions out of which it developed, has aimed to expand upon and redirect work on the intersections of religion and development through examinations — on both conceptual and ethnographic levels — of the changing configurations of these categories within and across particular political contexts. In the late 1990s, a number of major development donors “re-discovered” religion, and against a long history of neglect and omission, began a remarkable new phase of proactive engagement (Jones and Petersen 2011; Marshall and Keough 2004; Rees 2011). Following on from this, the topic of religion and development has received increasing attention in international development circles, as scholars, practitioners, and policymakers sought to understand religious actors and the relevance of religion to their work. This has generated a significant number of reports, conferences, policy statements, and academic commentary.

Media is known as the fourth pillar of Democracy because it acts as a watchdog for the other pillars. It is known to provide credibility and maintain a check on the work and responsibilities of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. Additionally, the Media questions their authority from time to time and ensures the work is in favour of the public interest. Therefore, as aware citizens of a democratic country, Media is our closest window into the work of our Government structures. Moreover, citizens of India can maintain transparency with the system and also make their choices in public participation activities like elections

Democracy is rule (the Greek ‘cracy’) by the ‘demos’ or the people.1 India is the largest democratic country in the world.The preamble of the Indian Constitution states that one of the main goals of the state is to assure to all its citizens equality. One can conclude that democracy in India would be a mockery if there was no equality amongst its citizens. When one talks about equality here it must be kept in mind that equality can be achieved only amongst equals. Equality amongst unequals would amount to inequality .There are persistent differences over whether an ‘equal society’ is one with equality of outcome or equality of opportunity.2In a country like India we cannot really say that all citizens can be placed on the same footing. The various political, social and economic conditions in which we grow up ultimately make us the individual we are. As defined in article 14 of the Indian Constitution equality is our fundamental right.

India is currently undergoing an authoritarian revolution. During the 10 years of Narendra Modi’s rule, liberal aspects of India’s democracy were attacked by malpractices and the institutionalization of illiberal laws under his government. Additionally, the freedom of the media has been seriously damaged by the arrests of journalists who have criticized Modi’s government, which was, in particular, enabled by the amendment of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in 2019. The nation-wide anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was crushed by the sudden declaration of the All-India Lockdown under the guise of an anti-COVID-19 measure, which I have termed the practice of “Disaster Authoritarianism”. After the crackdown on the anti-CAA movement, its participants were arrested under the provisions of a renewed UAPA. These are representative examples of Modi’s authoritarian revolution. Before this authoritarian revolution, India had been a democratic country for 70 years, a rarity among the countries of the so-called Global South. Why and how is this authoritarian revolution happening? Indian democracy underwent democratization that empowered the lower sections of society in the 1990s in what has been called the “Silent Revolution”. I hypothesize that this “Silent Revolution” invited Modi’s Authoritarian Revolution, which would constitute the paradox of Indian democracy. In this article, I seek to analyze the political process that led to the current Authoritarian Revolution and how it could occur without formal regime change.

For more the two decades Elections in India are carried out by electronic voting (EVM) devices designed by two government-owned companies during the last two decades. These, recognised as EVMs in India, they are known for their simple architecture, ease of usage, and reliability, at the same time they have also been criticised for vulnerable and exploitative nature and repeated reporting of violations in elections. Despite this criticism, some elements design of the device were never officially disclosed and were not subject to a thorough objective protection review. In this paper we will discussed how EVM as machine base, are ease to serious attacks that might affect the result of the election and compromise the secrecy of the vote. We try to highlight the security reviews of EVM in this paper and its possibilities of violation which causes a great treat to any democratic country of the world.

India has always been the largest democratic country all over the world, and voting is prominent in Indian democracy. Election plays an important role in a modern democracy, and electronic voting machine (EVM) is a medium of conducting elections. EVM is the combination of software- and hardware-based program, which is controlled by an organization. Security issues, vote manipulation and voter integrity are some major issues in the current EVM-based system. It is difficult to rely on such programs when voting is concerned. Through this paper, a secure voting system is being made blockchain technology. This paper starts with the traditional voting system and then moves forward to understand the advanced system with blockchain technology in a real-case scenario with its features such as security and peer-to-peer network. The implementation of blockchain-enabled voting application with existing frameworks such as Ethereum, which improves the security of votes, makes elections transparent and maintains the integrity of voters.

Political parties are major foundation of parliamentary and liberal democratic system. India, being a largest democratic country and has a plural social multi- ethnic structure it is natural for the regional parties to play important role in Indian democratic system. Rise and decline of regional parties’ role in Indian politics is closely linked to the deepening of democracy and federalism. While in the early period of independence due to the dominance of Indian National Congress party, regional parties role and states’ participation in decision making at national level was negligible. But the decline of the one party hegemony during 1980s and rise of the coalition politics provided more space for regional parties to play important role in decision making at the national level. But the end of the coalition politics after 15th Lok Sabha election and emergence of the Bhartiya Janata Party as dominant party, are putting the limit on the roles of regional parties and space for state in power sharing. While the coalition era provided more voices and space for regional parties and opportunities for power sharing to states with center, the rise of one party dominance again in fifteenth lok Sabha election is putting threat to the autonomy of states and regional parties’ role in decision- making at national level. The paper is based on the assumption that regional parties serve as catalyst to check the centralisation of power and encourage inclusive democracy. It tries to understand the transformation of Indian politics along with the communal nationalistic line and experience of voiceless opposition. It also makes efforts to examine the rise and decline of regional parties’ role and its consequences for Indian democracy and federalism.

Nepo is a prefix appellation of Nepal. This study is a review that connects with disputed Kalapani area. And it interacts with the concerned actors/institutions motivating for change professed through fundamental transformation by dialogical means. Its objectives are three-fold: (i) to examine the Nepo-India territorial dispute; (ii) to analyse the voices of all Tracks; and (iii) to find-out ways of dispute transformation through Dialogue Track. The lessons-learned centric approach inspired the author to undertake this study. The paper is prepared based on archival research with author’s over 100 international publications tracking snow-ball techniques. Dialogue shares possible transformative ways for negotiation. Any dispute leaves the most significant impact – victimizes the people at the local levels (Dialogue Track 3) the most. Grassroots people are honestly guided by ‘social service is the best philanthropic work of life’ and voluntarily participate in resolving the local dispute. Dialogue Track 2 is an unarmed peacekeeping or watchdog body which belongs to the leaders of professionals at the provincial levels. It connects between Track 1 and Track 3 dimensions. Dialogue Track 1 is the ambitious, complex and supreme authoritative body to hold official dialogue and transform the dispute signing negotiation. The dialogue transforms 3ds (difference, denial and divergence) of dispute in the new form ‘just’ by peaceful means. India adopts 4ds (delay, deny, dilute and deceive) strategies for dialogue in the lack of required testimonies. World’s largest democratic country India isolates itself in this region as it has territorial disputes with all the adjoining neighbours in the absence of sincere dialogue. Therefore, it is high time India sorted out the fault lines in its democracy.

India is country of different cultures, economies, religion, social disparities and still India is world's largest democratic country. According to Indian democracy every person has the fundamental right to cast his/her vote to person of his/her choice. Before the use of voting machine people in India use to cast their vote (whether it is centre election or state election) by putting stamp in front of candidate's name and photo of their own choice, and then as per the prescribed format the ballot paper is folded and put into the Ballot box. This method takes lots of time in casting and even in counting of votes and also less secure and lots of errors are there. But introduction of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) changed the whole procedure of casting a vote. EVM completely changed the voting procedure as there was no use of ballot boxes, ballot papers, and stamps, these all things converted to a Ballot unit of EVM. Thus EVM saved cost spend on transportation of large no of ballot boxes, cost spends on papers, cost spends on stamps etc. EVM is easy to store, maintain and transport. Errors of previous voting methods are removed like that of Invalid votes, time taken to casting votes reduced, thus very less problem compared to previous method of voting. Now counting is accurate within much lesser time and no mischief on counting centre. This EVM is also eco-friendly in the sense it requires low voltage to operate and also replaces the tradition system which requires lots of paper work and manual operation. Keil uVision3 and Proteus software are used for this EVM.