Indian Democracy at the Crossroads

Indian Democracy at the Crossroads PDF

Author: Anwarul Haque Haqqi

Publisher: Mittal Publications

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13:

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Selected papers presented at a panel discussion organized by the Indian Political Science Association on the functioning of Indian parliamentary system.

The Politics of Social Exclusion in India

The Politics of Social Exclusion in India PDF

Author: Harihar Bhattacharyya

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-12-16

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1135192723

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Social exclusion and inclusion remain issues of fundamental importance to democracy. Both exclusion and inclusion relate to the access to participation in the public realm, public goods and services for certain groups of people who are minorities, marginalized and deprived. Democratization has led to the inclusion of the previously excluded in the political process. While the problems of exclusion remain even in advanced Western countries in respect of the minorities of sorts, and the underprivileged, the problem of deep-rooted social and cultural exclusions is acute in post-colonial countries, including India. This book analyses social exclusions in India, which remain the most solid challenges to Indian democracy and development. Communal clashes, ethnic riots, political secessionist movements and extremist violence take place almost routinely, and are the outward manifestations of the entrenched culture of social exclusion in India. With its interdisciplinary approach, the book looks at the multidimensional problems of social exclusion and inclusion, providing a critical, comprehensive analysis of the problem and of potential solutions. The authors are experts in the fields of historical sociology, anthropology, political theory, social philosophy, economics and indigenous vernacular literature. Overall, the book offers an innovative theoretical perspective of the long-term issues facing contemporary Indian democracy.

The 2019 Parliamentary Elections in India

The 2019 Parliamentary Elections in India PDF

Author: Subrata K. Mitra

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-06-16

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 1000591050

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This book presents a comprehensive overview of India’s electoral democracy and political system. It provides an in-depth analysis of the 2019 parliamentary elections to explore three crucial facts of India’s political life: the legitimacy of political competition as the only basis of power; elections as the only legitimate basis of political competition; and political parties as the only legitimate agency to conduct political competition. The book argues that the vitality and resilience of India’s electoral democracy remain high owing to large mass participation in elections that are competitive and relatively free and fair. The volume includes key theoretical, empirical, and comparative perspectives on parties and elections from experts, and covers all major political parties of India, along with the performance of many representative regional parties. It discusses themes such as elections and party competition in India; ideology, interest, religion, and gender as they affect social mobilisation and political transaction; economic and politial change, and multiparty democracy; the dynamics of the Muslim vote; fluctuating electoral fortunes; and electoral campaigns and role of social media. This book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of political science, political sociology, election studies, Indian politics, South Asian politics, and South Asian studies. It will also interest those in politics, public policy and governance, civil society organisations, media and journalism, and the general reader.

Indian Democracy

Indian Democracy PDF

Author: Alf Gunvald Nilsen

Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780745338927

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More than seventy years after its founding, with Narendra Modi's authoritarian Hindu nationalists in government, is the dream of Indian democracy still alive and well? India's pluralism has always posed a formidable challenge to its democracy, with many believing that a clash of identities based on region, language, caste, religion, ethnicity, and tribe would bring about its demise. With the meteoric rise to power of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the nation's solidity is once again called into question: is Modi's Hindu majoritarianism an anti-democratic attempt to transform India into a monolithic Hindu nation from which minorities and dissidents are forcibly excluded? With examinations of the way that class and caste power shaped the making of India's postcolonial democracy, the role of feminism, the media, and the public sphere in sustaining and challenging democracy, this book interrogates the contradictions at the heart of the Indian democratic project, examining its origins, trajectories, and contestations.

To Kill A Democracy

To Kill A Democracy PDF

Author: Debasish Roy Chowdhury

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-06-24

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 0192588273

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India is heralded as the world's largest democracy. Yet, there is now growing alarm about its democratic health. To Kill a Democracy gets to the heart of the matter. Combining poignant life stories with sharp scholarly insight, it rejects the belief that India was once a beacon of democracy but is now being ruined by the destructive forces of Modi-style populism. The book details the much deeper historical roots of the present-day assaults on civil liberties and democratic institutions. Democracy, the authors also argue, is much more than elections and the separation of powers. It is a whole way of life lived in dignity, and that is why they pay special attention to the decaying social foundations of Indian democracy. In compelling fashion, the book describes daily struggles for survival and explains how lived social injustices and unfreedoms rob Indian elections of their meaning, while at the same time feeding the decadence and iron-fisted rule of its governing institutions. Much more than a book about India, To Kill A Democracy argues that what is happening in the country is globally important, and not just because every third person living in a democracy is an Indian. It shows that when democracies rack and ruin their social foundations, they don't just kill off the spirit and substance of democracy. They lay the foundations for despotism.

Secularism

Secularism PDF

Author: Madhav Godbole

Publisher: Rupa Publications

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 429

ISBN-13: 9788129137623

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The first time since Independence, India is at a crossroads of secular and Hindu Rashtra (nation) ideologies. The Constitution of India is ambivalent about secularism, pandering to the demands of both the majority and minority communities. The founding fathers could not even agree on calling the Constitution 'secular'. The word 'secular' became a part of the Preamble only during the 'Emergency'. There is no consensus yet on its definition. In the process, secularism, though declared by the Supreme Court as a part of the 'basic structure' of the Constitution, has lost all credibility. Godbole's thoughtful and comprehensive agenda for strengthening secularism includes setting up a constitutional commission on secularism, the separation of religion from politics, defining the words 'secular' and 'minorities', doing away with the freedom to propagate religion, an amendment of Article 48 by deleting the provision prohibiting cow slaughter and increasing the role and responsibilities of the central government. The implementation of this will require national consensus, statesmanship, maturity and far-sightedness. Secularism should be a must-read for the youth of this country, political parties, legislators, professionals, academia, media, social thinkers and opinion-makers. For, no other issue will decide the future of India as decisively.

Pakistan at the Crossroads

Pakistan at the Crossroads PDF

Author: Christophe Jaffrelot

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2016-04-12

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 0231540256

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In Pakistan at the Crossroads, top international scholars assess Pakistan's politics and economics and the challenges faced by its civil and military leaders domestically and diplomatically. Contributors examine the state's handling of internal threats, tensions between civilians and the military, strategies of political parties, police and law enforcement reform, trends in judicial activism, the rise of border conflicts, economic challenges, financial entanglements with foreign powers, and diplomatic relations with India, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and the United States. In addition to ethnic strife in Baluchistan and Karachi, terrorist violence in Pakistan in response to the American-led military intervention in Afghanistan and in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas by means of drones, as well as to Pakistani army operations in the Pashtun area, has reached an unprecedented level. There is a growing consensus among state leaders that the nation's main security threats may come not from India but from its spiraling internal conflicts, though this realization may not sufficiently dissuade the Pakistani army from targeting the country's largest neighbor. This volume is therefore critical to grasping the sophisticated interplay of internal and external forces complicating the country's recent trajectory.

Law and the Economy in a Young Democracy

Law and the Economy in a Young Democracy PDF

Author: Tirthankar Roy

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2022-02-08

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 022679914X

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An essential history of India's economic growth since 1947, including the legal reforms that have shaped the country in the shadow of colonial rule. Economists have long lamented how the inefficiency of India's legal system undermines the country’s economic capacity. How has this come to be? The prevailing explanation is that the postcolonial legal system is understaffed and under-resourced, making adjudication and contract enforcement slow and costly. Taking this as given, Law and the Economy in a Young Democracy examines the contents and historical antecedents of these laws, including how they have stifled economic development. Economists Roy and Swamy argue that legal evolution in independent India has been shaped by three factors: the desire to reduce inequality and poverty; the suspicion that market activity, both domestic and international, can be detrimental to these goals; and the strengthening of Indian democracy over time, giving voice to a growing fraction of society, including the poor. Weaving the story of India's heralded economic transformation with its social and political history, Roy and Swamy show how inadequate legal infrastructure has been a key impediment to the country's economic growth during the last century. A stirring and authoritative history of a nation rife with contradictions, Law and the Economy in a Young Democracy is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand India's current crossroads—and the factors that may keep its dreams unrealized.

America at the Crossroads

America at the Crossroads PDF

Author: Francis Fukuyama

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 0300113994

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Presents a critique of the Bush Administration's Iraq policy, arguing that it stemmed from misconceptions about the realities of the situation in Iraq and a squandering of the goodwill of American allies following September 11th.