This essay argues that a number of the policies that the current, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government in India is pursuing threaten to rend the very fabric of India’s democracy. Its policies toward press freedoms, civil liberties, and judicial independence are all profoundly inimical to the functioning of a democratic state. Unless these policies are checked or reversed the future of India’s democracy may well be imperiled.
About the Author
Šumit Gangulyis Distinguished Professor of Political Science and holds the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University, Bloomington, and is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is the author (with William Thompson) of Ascending India and Its State Capacity (2017).
The ruling BJP and the prime minister who leads it are now even stronger in the wake of their sweeping 2019 election victory. Voting puts the strength of Indian democracy…
To say that Indian democracy is backsliding misunderstands the country’s history and the challenges its faces: A certain authoritarianism is embedded in India’s constitution and political structures.
