The support of a number of individuals has been crucial in the making of this volume. The book would have been inconceivable without the warm encouragement and whole-hearted assistance of Professor A. D. Pant, the former Director of GB Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad. Professor S. P. Nagendra, the present Director of the Institute has offered suggestions and other help to bring out the book despite the odds. I am grateful to the members of the Institute for the cooperation during the preparation of the book. My gratitude goes to the contributors who took pains to write papers for the present volume despite their busy schedule. The book would have taken longer to see the daylight without the personal involvement of Mr. K. K. Bagchi and Mr. Juran Chakraborty of the K. P. Bagchi & Co. I am thankful to them.
Democracy has struck deep roots in India. Though the poverty level is alarmingly high Indian citizens exercise their suffrage probably more judiciously than elsewhere. The Congress system seems to have continued so long primarily because of the effective role the party played in the anti-British offensive. Since 1967 the situation has however changed drastically and what seems to have shaped the popular mood is the performance of the party in governance. Whatever the propelling factors, the transition from a Congress to a non-Congress system indicates the extent to which political democracy has entrenched in Indian body polity. What has emerged as democracy or otherwise is the result of a long drawn process in which both the Congress leadership and the British had significant roles.
Democracy is not merely a guarantee of adult franchise, it also ensures constant mass participation in the political process. Has India been successful in this regard? The answer seems no because popular zeal which reaches the level of hysteria at times during the elections almost evaporates once the politicians take over political authority and thus hardly functions as the custodian of both the democratic process and its value system. What is probably more alarming is the gradual erosion of the institutions, supposed to have held the ideals of democracy in true spirit in the west. The perversion of the electoral system which fails to neutralise the forces challenging its very existence highlights a major lacuna in the political arrangement, forced on India drawing on feudal instincts and primordial loyalities. So, democracy, a western concept has failed to evolve in India in its true form. Or, democracy in India is passing through a transition which seems possible given its short history and will triumph eventually. Or, since the form of democracy is linked largely to the socio-economic compulsions of the day, India is likely to put forward a new concept since her socio-economic environment is entirely dissimilar to that of the west. The paper, keeping these questions in view, draws out the implications of an ongoing search for an alternative model to grasp the complex interplay of factors involving India's historical experience, the emerging social and political institutions and the people, in the context of the rising tide of communalism and other divisive tendencies.
India's experience with democracy is a successful story. In the context of South Asia where forces challenging the democratic forms of government have generally triumphed, India's ability to continue as a democratic state indicates the extent to which democracy has struck deep roots over here. There have been no military bids for power, and even the dictatorial regime of Indira Gandhi, emerged during the 1975-77 emergency, ended by the popular verdict in 1977. Again in 1930, the ruling party which was brought into power enthusiastically following Indira Gandhi's defeat, was thrown out of power by the elections. Indira Gandhi's brutal assassination in 1984 and after, signalled several new tendencies which became gradually decisive in shaping India's democracy: bullet and ballot seemed complementary. The Ninth Lok Sabha elections, held in 1989, is another signpost showing the continuity of democratic forms of politics. Mass participation in the 1991 national elections in the context of insensate bloodletting merely confirms the degree to which the desire to elect a government through ballot has penetrated deep into popular mind. What-ever the outcome of this election which needs to be analysed in the light of a peculiar situation that emerged following the dastardly killing of Rajiv Gandhi, the fact that election deter-mines India's political future draws our attention to the vibrant nature of her democracy.
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