My life roughly corresponds to the period for which India has been independent. Born 20 days after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi—arguably the most independent man the world has seen for centuries, who lived life unconstrained by social mores, expressed his views fearlessly, could never be coerced and was worshipped by crores despite being markedly different—my journey has mirrored the democratic evolution of our Republic.
The foundations of Indian democracy were laid during the independence movement. The Indian National Congress, the mother of most political parties and movements in India, was deeply democratic in its architecture. It evolved from a party seeking concessions from British rulers in the 19th century to one asserting complete sovereignty in the 20th. It rotated its annual sessions across the nation—from Calcutta in the east to Lahore, Bombay, Madras and even Faizpur, a village in present-day Maharashtra. At the historic Nagpur session of 1920, provincial Congress committees were created, and a tiered structure extending to district, taluka and village levels was established. Lowering the delegates' fee to four annas dramatically expanded mass attendance and opened party rolls to common citizens.
Congress sessions routinely accommodated sharp divergence of opinions. At the 1939 Tripuri session, Subhas Chandra Bose, advocating a militant approach in the struggle for independence, defeated Gandhi's candidate, Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Although the subsequent session passed the Pant Resolution signalling unwavering faith in Gandhian leadership—prompting Bose to form the Forward Bloc—the existence of internal democracy under the broad Congress umbrella was undeniable. The Forward Bloc was far from an isolated instance; it followed the Swaraj Party in 1922, the Independence for India League in 1928, the Congress Nationalist Party and the Congress Socialist Party in 1934, all espousing differing causes and enriching the national debate.
Democracy, however, has inherent vulnerabilities. Its greatest weakness is that leaders with dictatorial mindsets can exploit it to gain power and subsequently crush dissent through executive means. History reminds us that figures like Hitler and Mussolini were initially elected through democratic processes. In India, however, democracy has struck deeper roots and continues to evolve, although it faces challenges spasmodically. The Constitution masterfully integrated myriad social, regional, and linguistic differences under one framework, establishing a republic built on universal adult franchise.
Our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, firmly believed in this democratic ethos, although he considered that democracy was by itself not sufficient to solve all the problems that India faced. Speaking to a foreign newspaper correspondent, he said, “Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse. So we are forced to accept democracy. It has good points and also bad. But merely saying that democracy will solve all problems is utterly wrong. Problems are solved by intelligence and hard work.”
Growing up entirely under democratic regimes, I witnessed how the public gradually absorbed these concepts. While the populace maintained unbroken faith in the Congress at the central level during Nehru's tenure, the green shoots of federal democracy began to sprout across the states.
This decentralised awakening started with the linguistic reorganisation of states in 1956. A historic milestone arrived in 1957 with the election of the Communist Party of India to power in Kerala, the first democratically elected communist government in a subnational state globally. Later, the language agitations in Tamil Nadu in 1965 led to the complete electoral eclipse of the Congress in that state. The 1967 general elections represented a true political earthquake, sweeping non-Congress governments into power across multiple states, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Punjab, proving that subnational electorates possessed independent political agency.
The most severe challenge to our democratic fabric materialised in 1975 with the imposition of the Emergency. Unable to withstand a strident opposition banded together under Jayaprakash Narayan, Indira Gandhi suspended democratic norms. Absolute power was seized and frequently misused by politicians and officials alike. Ironically, this authoritarian turn occurred just four years after her historic triumph in the 1971 Bangladesh war and national elections.
The resulting excesses led to her decisive ouster in 1977 and the formation of India’s first non-Congress coalition government at the Centre. That administration proved short-lived due to internal bickering, returning the Congress to power within three years. Subsequent instability brought down the next non-Congress government in 1989, and it took the stable governance of the Vajpayee-led coalitions and, subsequently, the decisive majorities of the Modi-led governments to permanently alter the single-party dominance of the twentieth century.
Political ideologies have likewise adapted over time. The Jana Sangh and the early Bharatiya Janata Party initially displayed an ambivalent stance as they wrestled with reconciling modern democracy with civilisational philosophy. M S Golwalkar had written in Bunch of Thoughts: "Instead of generating harmony, the system of competing political parties carves up the collective consciousness of the society into permanent, warring factions driven by narrow self-interest and vote-bank calculations."
Yet the crucible of the Emergency forced a profound rethinking. Post-Emergency, M D ‘Balasaheb’ Deoras explicitly stated: “A country as vast and diverse as India cannot be run through a single centre or dictatorial fiat. Democracy, with all its debates and frictions, is the only system capable of keeping a pluralistic society together.”
Today, as I watch democracy mature through successive decades of trials, triumphs and institutional resilience, I discern the emergence of new, non-political forces concerned more with tangible socioeconomic issues than rigid party loyalties. Political parties have yet to fully gauge the depth of this shifting mindset, where issues like unemployment, inflation and civic governance increasingly eclipse traditional manifestos. Furthermore, as mainstream media houses frequently display vulnerability to ruling-power coercion, citizens are migrating toward digital platforms and independent outlets for reliable news.
We stand at a fascinating juncture in our national history. As India steps further into its eighth decade of freedom, our democracy continues to strike deeper, more resilient roots, proving that the collective wisdom of an awakened citizenry remains our ultimate safeguard and our brightest hope for the future.
K M Chandrasekhar | Vice-Chairperson, Kerala State Planning Board and former Cabinet Secretary of India
(Views are personal)
(kmchandrasekhar@gmail.com)
