Democracy in India

Democracy in India is the largest by population in the world.[1][2] Elections in India started with the 1951–52 Indian general election. India was one of the first few countries in the world which adopted universal adult franchise right from independence, giving women and men equal voting rights.[citation needed]

India is the 19th most electoral democratic country in Asia in 2023 with a score of 0.399 out of 1 according to V-Dem Institute based in Sweden.[3] According to V-Dem Institute, laws on sedition, defamation, and counterterrorism are used to silence critics,[4] and describes India as "one of the worst autocratisers in the last 10 years".[5] Free political speech is limited.[6] Gerrymandering is another challenge to democracy in India.[7][8]

Freedom House was criticized for downgrading India in Freedom in the World to "partially free" by Indian External affair's minister S. Jaishankar, "You used the dichotomy of democracy and autocracy. You want a truthful answer? It is hypocrisy. We have a set of self-appointed custodians of the world who find it very difficult to stomach that somebody in India is not looking for their approval, is not willing to play the game they want to play. So they invent their rules, their parameters, pass their judgments and make it look as if it is some kind of global exercise".[9]

The Economist Democracy Index in 2022 considered India a flawed democracy.[10]

Reservation in India

Further information: Reservation in India

Indian democracy promotes equality and fraternity as India reverses 84 and 47 seats for marginalized sections of society, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes respectively, see Part XVI of the Constitution of India and One Hundred and Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India. In 2023, Indian parliament passed One Hundred and Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India, reserving 33% of Indian legislature for women proposed by Modi Government.

History

See also: History of democracy § Indian subcontinent

Early Shakyas, Koliyas, Mallakas, and Licchavis claim assemblies open to all men, rich and poor,[11] which could be considered a form of direct democracy. Other saṅghas and gaṇas had councils of unelected nobles, which don't meet the standards of democracy. Greek historian Diodorus writes two centuries after the time of Alexander the Great about democratic states in India,[12] but lacks evidence for elections considering the word "democracy" around the 3rd century BCE could mean any autonomous state.[13][14] In the 10th century, the election of local representatives for the village bodies during the Chola Empire is claimed in Vaikunda Perumal Temple's inscriptions.[15][16][17]

See also

References

  1. ^ Richetta, Cécile; Harbers, Imke; van Wingerden, Enrike (2023). "The subnational electoral coercion in India (SECI) data set, 1985–2015" (PDF). Electoral Studies. 85. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2023.102662. ISSN 0261-3794.
  2. ^ Guha, Ramachandra (2008). India after Gandhi : the history of the world's largest democracy (Indian ed.). India: Picador. ISBN 9780330505543.
  3. ^ V-Dem Institute (2023). "The V-Dem Dataset". Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  4. ^ Pillai, Shreeya and Lindberg, Staffan I. (2021) "Democracy Broken Down: India" in Democracy Report 2021: Autocratization Turns Viral pp.20–21. V-Dem Institute
  5. ^ "India Is 'One of the Worst Autocratisers in the Last 10 Years,' Says 2023 V-Dem Report". The Wire. 7 March 2023.
  6. ^ "Democratic Backsliding in India, the World's Largest Democracy". V-Dem Institute. 24 February 2020. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  7. ^ Forbes India Investigation: India's most gerrymandered constituencies, Karthik Shashidhar, 2019
  8. ^ India 'gerrymanders' Kashmir region in redrawn electoral map, 2022
  9. ^ ‘Hypocrisy by Self-appointed Custodians of World’: Jaishankar Trashes US Think Tank’s Report on India, News18
  10. ^ Dutta, Anisha (22 June 2023). "India secretly works to preserve reputation on global Democracy Index". The Guardian.
  11. ^ Robinson, 1997, p. 23[full citation needed]
  12. ^ Diodorus 2.39[full citation needed]
  13. ^ Larsen, 1973, pp. 45–46[full citation needed]
  14. ^ de Sainte, 2006, pp. 321–3
  15. ^ R., Nagaswamy (2003). Uttaramerur. Chennai: Tamil Arts Academy. pp. 12–16.
  16. ^ Padmaja, T. (7 March 2024). Temples of Kr̥ṣṇa in South India: History, Art, and Traditions in Tamilnāḍu. Abhinav Publications. p. 88. ISBN 9788170173984.
  17. ^ Vaikunta perumal temple inscriptions, Uttiramerur, TN and democratic election practices 1000 years ago, Navrang India, September 02, 2022