Indian Electoral Democracy: Only Game in Town

India's Democracies, 2016

2014

Professor Valerian Rodrigues takes part in the exchange program A new passage to India and visited the Institute for Political Science and Sociology (IPS) this summer for the second time. He held a class on "Politics in India" and, furthermore, co-chaired the class "Problems of the Constitutional Democracy" with PD Dr Michael Becker. Moreover he held various lectures, including speeches in a series of lectures on "Diversity" and, at the conference "Exploring Emerging India". The article "Elections and Civil Society in India" published in this volume combines the scripts of both events. We are grateful to Lukas Lemm for editing work on the text.

India is the largest Democracy in the World but we feel that due to certain reasons, Democracy is not working properly. So, now the researchers feel that why this largest Democracy is not working properly? There is some thing wrong in the Electoral process. Here I have indicated the total happenings in the present days Electoral exercise and also suggested some remedies for the betterment of the Electoral system.: This has been amongst the most widely discussed electoral reforms in India. Multi-cornered contests have become a norm in India rather than an exception due to the increase in the number of smaller and regional parties. There have been cases in the state assembly elections where a candidate has been declared winner with the victory margin of less than 100 votes. Apart from this anomaly, in most cases, a candidate wins the election by securing just 30-35 per cent of the total number of votes polled. Hence he or she cannot be deemed to be a choice of majority of the electorate. To overcome this limitation, the first-past-the-post system should be replaced with a two-stage electoral process. In this, a second round of election will be held if none of the candidates in the fray is able to get 50 per cent of the total number of votes polled in the first round. The two candidates who have obtained the maximum number of votes in the first round will fight in the second round. Whoever between the two gets more than 51 per cent of the total votes polled in the second round is declared the winner.

IIC Quarterly, 2021

I will, in this overview, look into the process of the emergence of democracy in India, how the democratic idea was spread by the Indian national movement, and how it was sought to be implemented by the independent Indian nation state. I will end by highlighting the current challenges to this process, which has reached alarming proportions today. At the outset one must set aside the oft-repeated notion that democracy was a gift of British colonialism in India. Colonialism by definition represents the very opposite of democracy. It is the denial of political, economic and cultural freedom to the colonised people. THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT AND DEMOCRACY Democracy in India was a product of it being a critical element in the imagination of the nation by the anti-imperialist national movement that emerged in India in the second half of the 19th century. The nation that was imagined by Indian nationalists was to be independent, democratic, secular, inclusive of all kinds of diversity and pro-poor-a vision that Rabindranath Tagore, Jawaharlal Nehru and others termed 'the idea of India'. As Mahatma Gandhi said, such an independent democratic nation or 'Swaraj … will not be a free gift of the British…. It will be a declaration of India' s full self-expression…. It is a treasure to be purchased with a nation' s best blood'. 1 At almost the same time as the early Indian nationalists had started the process of nation formation, or what they called the process of 'the Indian nation-in-the-making' with this vision or 'idea of India', British colonial rulers campaigned for the exact opposite.

This entry offers a critical overview of scholarship on democracy and elections in Northeast India. It variously links democracy and elections to the politics of resistance and refusal, to state violence and militarization, and to expressions of identity and rights. Throughout, this entry reveals how democratic institutions and elections across Northeast India have become variously and deeply entangled in purely local histories, cultural contexts, and political value systems.

2017

The electorates are the key players in the true functioning of the democracy, destined to exercise their will with their sovereignty to elect the members of the Parliament and assemblies. In this way, they play an effective role in the indirect mode of political participation, called the elections, and by their right to vote called the franchise or suffrage. The evolution of the idea of electorates in United India is an interesting episode of South Asian History in terms of the British legacy. How this idea evolved and flourished here is the core theme of article in hand which highlights the efforts of Indians in securing their constitutional rights through peaceful struggle which is a great lesson for today’s terrorism-stricken world.

2020

Abstract: Into 62 years of long journey of the largest democracy of the world, India and we still retrospect how better it has performed to the expectation set by the makers of Indian constitution. "Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people" As 16 th American president Abraham Lincoln quoted in appraisal of a political structure which derives its power and authority from the subjects of governance. A structure of governance different from imperial autocracy where people are made aware and responsible through equal participation and representation in the process of governance and development. Thus, this paper analyzes in true sense the essence of Indian Democracy and the status of development in India, even after 60 years of Independence.

2007

India as the largest democracy in the world enjoys free and fair elections. But the blemish of corrupt practices eclipses the lunar rays of our electoral process. Today, the question of electoral reforms arises due to the growing deterioration in electoral politics. There is a dire need to strengthen the electoral system of our country in order to realize the true potential of a well functioning democracy. Keeping in view of the importance of the subject I conducted a qualitative study on the by using both primary and secondary sources. In this paper an attempt has been made to analyse some of the major issues which are to be resolved and also tried to put forward certain suggestions in respect of electoral reform in India.

Asia Maior, 2020

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.

South Asia Research, 2019

while Uk and Us electoral processes presently suffer visible deficits of democratic credibility, exhibit worrying lack of focus on responsible governance and have become acrid contests manipulated by elite claimants for power, who put their egos above commitment to public service, it is deeply instructive to study how india votes. This book about india, not Hindu india, written just before india's Parliamentary elections of 2019, confirms convincingly that there is much more to the recent surge in electoral support for Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) than a shift to the Right or growing support for Hindu nationalist rhetoric or symbolisms. This set of studies also helps to explain why the 'sense of amazement' (p. 1) about how india votes and stays credibly democratic could then be reflected in the widely unexpected results of the 2019 Lok sabha elections, providing an even larger majority for PM Modi and the BJP. The study brings out much semi-hidden evidence that indians have slowly, and often painfully, been learning to become experts in understanding their own place and role as voters in a highly pluralistic democracy. Most notably, throughout this book, especially at pp. 61-8, there is evidence from different parts of india that many Muslims remain negative about Modi and the BJP (p. 70), but more Muslims are now voting for regional parties rather than Congress (p. 71) and even for the BJP in national elections. such evidence includes 38 per cent Muslim support for the BJP in Rajasthan (p. 238) and even 17 per cent of Muslims voting in 2014 for the BJP in Gujarat (p. 294). kashmir (pp. 125-43), where 'the mainstream electoral politics exists parallel with the autonomist/separatist politics' (p. 11), shows intriguing conflicting trends. More detailed studies are needed on such developments. Clearly, as vote holders, flocking to polling booths in record numbers on any count, diverse indians seem to be much more conscious and well-informed than outsiders assume about how they assess and relate to those that seek to represent and govern them. indians, too, use their votes to engage in protest, but more often they focus constructively on electing leaders that offer hope for making their huge, extremely diverse nation work together to develop a sustainable future, rather than serving some leader's ego or chasing some soUTH AsiA ReseARCH vol. 39(3): 353-361 Reprints and permissions: in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india

India is one of the oldest civilizations and one of the largest countries of the world both in terms of territory and population. After going through several phases of wars and colonization by foreign invaders like the Mughals and the European powers for centuries, India was able to make its democracy only after independence in 1947 which was considered to be the largest democracy by electorate under the leadership of its nationalist movement The Indian National Congress. Since its creation in 1947 India has proved and sustained itself as one of the strongest and successful democratic state in the world. It has become a role model for many countries of the third world. Its a fact that even the developed countries of the world are much interested and surprised with the sustainability of the Indian democratic system. The essay is about the indian political system, its emergence, its infrastructure, the frame and strategies for managing the greatest democratic system. I have also mention the system of political parties their fall and rise and the emergence of new parties and the merging or renaming of certain political parties. I have also thrown light on the ups and downs of the voting percentage, their reasons behind and their maintenance of vote bank. i have made a closer look at five trends that have unfolded over the last six decades illustrates why the election will likely hinge on a confluence of local factors. The most striking trend in Indian electoral politics is the explosion in political competition in recent years. In the 1952 general election , the first held after India won Independence, 55 parties took part; in 2009, 370 parties entered the fray. The surge in political competition began in the 1980s -the number of parties contesting elections jumped from 38 in 1984 to 117 in 1989, a watershed year in Indian politics. It was only the second time since Independence that the Congress Party was ousted from power. The dramatic surge in 1989 is explained by the proliferation of regional parties, which formed in direct response to popular disenchantment with Congress rule and the lack of representation for lower and backward castes, minorities, and regional or sub regional interests. With the 1989 election there was end to the single party rule and brought into practice the new governments formed under multi party coalition. This further gave way to many regional parties whose leader found that they can bring about considerable influence in the government making with even a small number of seats in the parliament. However putting light on such incidents in the party mechanism of india i will throw light on the current status of the indian political system ,the ups and downs in the government formation by differnet political parties . however my focus will be on the elections held in the past two decades and the volatilities and the factors of volatilities in the different election faced by several political parties.