The Troubling State of India's Democracy
The Troubling State of India's Democracy
edited by Dinsha Mistree, Šumit Ganguly and Larry Diamond
University of Michigan Press, 2024
ISBNs
Cloth: 978-0-472-07701-4
Paper: 978-0-472-05701-6
eISBN: 978-0-472-90465-5 (OA)
About the Book
As India’s power and prominence rise on the international stage, its longstanding tradition of democracy is under threat. Since establishing a secular and democratic constitution in 1950, India has held elections at the local, state, and national levels with frequent transitions of power between opposing parties. This commitment to democracy has provided political order to a country that is twice the size of Europe and with a stunning array of social and economic divides.
Despite this rich tradition, India’s democracy faces an unprecedented threat with the rise of Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. After decisively winning general elections in 2014, Modi and the BJP have pursued a range of anti-democratic policies in which the state and society are used to undermine the opposition, to stifle free speech, and to harass religious minorities. The Troubling State of India’s Democracy brings together leading scholars from around the world to assess the conditions of India’s democracy across three important dimensions: politics, specifically the state of political parties and the party system; the state, including the condition of federalism and the health of various institutions; and society, including NGOs, ethnic and religious tensions, and control of the media. Even though elements of India’s democracy seem to function—like its commitment to elections—the contributors document a disturbing trajectory, one that not only threatens to undermine India’s own stability, but could also affect the global order.
Despite this rich tradition, India’s democracy faces an unprecedented threat with the rise of Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. After decisively winning general elections in 2014, Modi and the BJP have pursued a range of anti-democratic policies in which the state and society are used to undermine the opposition, to stifle free speech, and to harass religious minorities. The Troubling State of India’s Democracy brings together leading scholars from around the world to assess the conditions of India’s democracy across three important dimensions: politics, specifically the state of political parties and the party system; the state, including the condition of federalism and the health of various institutions; and society, including NGOs, ethnic and religious tensions, and control of the media. Even though elements of India’s democracy seem to function—like its commitment to elections—the contributors document a disturbing trajectory, one that not only threatens to undermine India’s own stability, but could also affect the global order.
About the Author
Šumit Ganguly is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and holds the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Dinsha Mistree is Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Larry Diamond is William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.
Reviews
“The Troubling State of India's Democracy is engaging, thought-provoking, and interrogative as the authors have shown acumen and capacity to weave a range of diverse issues that expeditiously portray the ground realities of India’s democracy. Authors of the chapters shift our gaze, in other words, by trying to change the terms of reference for understanding the political complexities that grip India today.”— Surinder Mohan, University of Jammu
“The Troubling State of India's Democracy, edited by Šumit Ganguly, Dinsha Mistree, and Larry Diamond, is a timely and frank analysis of the decline of Indian democracy over the last decade. While the overall picture the essays in this book paint is deeply worrisome, the essays are reader friendly and engaging. The book also offers hope that growing pockets of resistance could, some day, reverse the decline. The book should be read by anyone interested in India, including in its place in the geopolitics of the coming decades.”— Raghuram Rajan, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Tags
Emerging Democracies, Bharatiya Janata Party, India's Democracy, India, Democracy, Asian, Political Ideologies, World, Politics and government, Political Science
Open Access Information
License: CC BY-NC
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