Democracy and the Social Question: A Stuffed Parantha

"To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman."

Jawaharlal Nehru (A Vision for India)

Introduction

The second lecture in the series on 'Democracy and the Social Question III' was given by H.E. Gurjit Singh, Ambassador of India, on Tuesday, 11 December 2007. In his speech the Ambassador stresses the importance of well functioning state-institutions at the side of democratic institutions. Only both together can guarantee a well function society. As he underlined in the discussion: The end is happiness of the citizens, here democracy is only a means - however an important one.
The series of lectures, organized by Addis Ababa University, Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation and Goethe-Institute, with speakers from both the Ethiopian and international community in Addis Ababa, provides a podium for open dialogue on democracy issues. Capital is the media partner of this series.

Democracy among all political systems is considered the best because it allows the opportunity for all people to participate in decision making. Thus it provides for opportunity, participation and responsibility. Unless all three of these taken together are implemented well a real democracy does not function.
In traditional democratic terms there were three estates of democracy. In a more modern sense I would say the five pillars of democracy are parliament, judiciary, media, the universities and civil society. Underlying all these is an independent civil service, military, regional and local institutions and the like. In short the institutions of State besides the five pillars of democracy need to be strong and independent.
Among the five pillars there is an evolving social question which means that changes in society based on political or economic evolution, empowerment and marginalization all play a role and I would like to look at some of these crosscutting issues of the social impact of change on the five pillars of democracy. When you consider a vast and diverse country like India it is difficult to restrict our discussion or to say that one view is right. In fact it is often said about India that everything one may say about is the reality, the opposite could be equally true!
Thus I would like to look at a few issues from a socioeconomic and political view point and look at their impact on the institutions of democracy. These issues are: growth of population; the resurgence of social and regional groupings; emergence of civil society particularly local governance institutions; enhanced role of youth and women.
Population
Where population is concerned, India is the second largest country in the world and would in the next generation perhaps overtake China. This huge population was earlier considered only a liability but due to the economic transformation and growth in India large segments of the population, particularly the middle class of nearly 400 million is considered an asset as a huge market and consumption base. The challenge of the nearly 200 million people in and around the poverty line is a different one and thus has a tremendous impact on political developments in India. For instance, the growth of a middle class has sustained and strengthened Indian democracy as well as the Indian economy. Countries in our neighborhood which did not have a large middle class have been less than successful in maintaining democracy. On the other hand, the growing challenge of a large number of poor people coexisting with a greatly progressive India provides a political challenge to the democratic institutions and in an election the anti-incumbency syndrome fuelled by the unfulfilled hopes of the people plays a significant role in creating changes of government. These population shifts have contributed to make India transform from a single dominant political party system in the first 20 years of our independence to an era of political coalitions which continues even today.
Another impact that population has is on the constituencies and their numbers. As per our population policy of 1971, the seats in the Lower House of Parliament were frozen at 540 and the constituencies were also frozen. The original idea of the Constitution and the Peoples Representation Act, 1951 was that each constituency for Parliament should have about 150,000 voters but today we have some constituencies with more than 2.3 million to 150,000 because no fresh delimitation has been done in the last 35 years. Now the interesting social fact is that some of the states in India particularly in the South have vigorously implemented the population policy and are expecting lower rates of growth of population in the present generation. On the other hand some of the North Indian states have not been so circumspect and have higher rates of growth of population. In view of this if a fresh delimitation of constituencies was to be undertaken by looking at current population levels, the regional balance which has been maintained since 1971 about representation in Parliament from each state would indicate a lot of change because of the varied population growth patterns in the country. The largest Indian state at present has a population of about 120 million and 80 seats in parliament. This state has always been critical to government formation in New Delhi. If a larger population in that State was to lead to a larger number of seats its role would go up even further whereas some of the Southern Indian States may actually have proportionately lesser seats in Parliament. We also have to remember that some of our States which have been given statehood for ethnic and linguistic reasons do not have large populations and have only one seat in Parliament.
Thus this is an example of two varied impacts of the growth of population on the political institutions of democracy in India.
Social and Regional Groups
"I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another."
Mahatma Gandhi
Democracy in India was always based on the village council system. This was slowly wrecked by invasion and loot which continued through the colonial period but the basic unit of village administration did not change and remained a part of Indian administration even under the Mughal dynasty and the British. However the numbers participating in elections changed ever since modern democratic elections were introduced for the Legislative Assemblies in 1937.
It was significant that the Indian national movement for independence had regional contributions in 1857 due to differing grievances against the East India Company and its administration. This was matched with the social repulsiveness felt by the Hindus and Muslims alike due to a series of administrative measures undertaken by the Company. From 1857 to 1885 when the Indian National Congress was formed, the Indian national movement became a drawing room lawyers' movement and it was only the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa that took the movement into the streets and involved the common people into a mass struggle for freedom. The movement for independence, therefore, was a greater leveler in social terms since social caste and class differentiation often came to nought when a common endeavour on the streets in movements and in jail came forth. Similarly, the introduction of modern elements like the railways also broke down social barriers as during rail travel it was difficult, for instance, to keep kitchens separate or to eat separately from other fellow travelers. Mahatma Gandhi in fact was a great social leveler treating each individual as important and equal and these ideals were enshrined in the Indian Constitution as Fundamental Rights which guarantee the equality of opportunity, equality before the law and freedom of religion among others. Other socioeconomic ideals were enshrined in the Directive Principles of State Policy. Gandhiji looked at the lowest segments of Indian society and provided them with political empowerment through raising them to the same level as everybody else.
The impact of democratic elections, however, was different on these social equations. The traditional social leaders did not have large numbers all over the country whereas the socially lower classes were numerically very strong in a larger number of constituencies and soon realized that the value of their vote was actually very high if they worked together in groups. Initially, this lead to formation of interest and pressure groups but as the single dominant party system in India eroded and more varied democratic opportunities emerged, minority groups in terms of religion and socially backward groups from the traditional Indian stratified society acquired more clear political overtones often leading to the creation of smaller regional parties. The growing clout of these parties at the State level including the formation of State governments by some of them and the growing era of coalition politics at the Centre have now brought what were traditionally socially depressed classes in the mainstream of political life. Similarly, some of the regional parties draw political sustenance from the resurgent efforts of what are called other backward classes who are seeking to obtain greater representation in government services, etc. through positive discrimination by emulating the success achieved by those classes which were already mentioned in the Constitutional list which govern positive discrimination in India. This has had its own political dynamic as well as the social impact.

Regionalism
Naturally this has not been even all over the country and in different States regional movements have taken different views.
In this analysis we must remember what Mahatma Gandhi said:
"There is no human institution but has its dangers. The greater the institution, the greater the chances of abuse. Democracy is a great institution and therefore it is liable to be greatly abused. The remedy therefore is not avoidance of democracy but reduction of the possibility of abuse to a minimum."
India being a Union of States and functioning on a federal model has adequate space for regional diversity to be respected. There is no doubt, however, that some regional entities more aggressively promote their identity than others. Stronger regional movements leading to such movements becoming political parties is also a reality and we have strong regional parties in several states. One aspect of this is that the old banyan tree of the Congress which led India to independence and was the single dominant party for the first twenty years thereof assimilated all political views. When regional movements emerged and led to political institutionalization they became challengers to local domination by the major parties. The Election Commission of India recognizes political parties at the national level and separately at the regional level.

Universities
"If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause."
Mahatma Gandhi
Let us look at another pillar of democracy i.e. the universities. Universities though centrally governed through the University Grants Commission are largely autonomous and often reflect regional realities by promoting regional influence and cultures besides a regional focus. At the same time the universities have managed to retain strong national views and specialization which attracts students from all over the country to the important ones. Thus at the level of universities we find that the federal divide between the Union and the States is also visible.

Media
"Public opinion alone can keep a society pure and healthy."
Mahatma Gandhi
If we look at another pillar of democracy, the media, we find that the strengthening of regional entities in the political spectrum has also led to the emergence of a more vibrant and stronger regional press, both in the print media and in television. The regional language channels on television are often owned by political families or institutions. At the same time national dailies, even in English, are more and more creating regional editions of their newspapers and national TV channels are creating regional language channels as part of their overall bouquet. Thus the regional impact on the institutions of democracy is very evident.

Civil Society
Civil society organizations and local government institutions have always been a part and parcel of India's sociopolitical milieu. The village councils were always powerful. However, constitutional recognition of them was only given through the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act 1972. Since then local elections in India have been held on party less basis with 1/3rd of the seats reserved for women. Both these important aspects are absent from the elections to the State or National legislatures. There has been some decentralization of power and financing arrangements and the Panchayati Raj institutions which were a part of the Directive Principles of the State Policy of the Indian Constitution have been a major empowerment for local communities particularly in rural areas.
Decision making has thus come to the community level and it is found that decisions on developmental issues e.g. should there be street lighting or a public park, biogas for cooking or a road, are often taken by the village councils in consultation with communities.
This empowerment and non-party character of elections at the local level has its own significance for the anti-incumbency syndrome in elections fought by political parties for regional and national assemblies. This empowerment is to be seen along with the allocation of local area development funds directly to Members of Parliament for working with district administrations for developmental works in their own areas. Misuse of these funds is challenged by local NGOs and panchayats and MPs have also to directly deal with the district administration, consult communities, allocate some funds and show some direct achievement in their constituency during their term in Parliament. There is similarly a greater emphasis on using NGOs, particularly Indian NGOs, to break the long administrative bottlenecks and channels and reduce the cost and time of delivery of developmental projects. There was a time when NGOs were considered the enemies of the administration but there is more and more realization that the local administration can often work closely with NGOs to take the right decisions, obtain the right opinion and use these as inputs for allocation of developmental funds. The Indian Diaspora which is often successful abroad often comes back to India and sets up NGOs to deal with specific issues in their home areas. Their level of education and functional success makes them important allies in the fight against poverty.
Women & Youth
"Women is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacities, She has the right to participate in the minutest details in the activities of man, and she has an equal right of freedom and liberty with him."
Mahatma Gandhi
The reservation of 33 per cent seats in local bodies for women and the decision by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the mid-80s to reduce the voting age to 18 were two significant events in involving women and youth in the developmental process in India. A volunteer system has not really taken off in India as every youth who is educated is expected to undertake a career soon after his university days are over.
Rural youth who do not go in for higher education often enter the farming community directly. But we know that this aberration and lack of opportunities for youth often lead to political turmoil and thus the involvement of youth in constructive activity is extremely important and recognized. The youth brigade is always considered an asset in a political system where gerontocracy is a time honoured tradition. It is also to be noted that India is a very young country with more than half of its population of 1.2 billion being under the age of 45. This has its own significance for the functioning of democracy and the social impact of it. Where modern educated youth and their political chances are concerned, women are not left out of the main stream. At the rural level the involvement of women through village councils has made them decision makers and brought the realities of the requirement of home and hearth into the local political domain. India today has, for the first time since its independence, a lady President and presently we have 3 lady Chief Ministers two of whom belong to mainstream political parties and one who is herself the leader of a party representing the underprivileged in India's largest State.
"Democracy must in essence, therefore, mean the art and science of mobilizing the entire physical, economic and spiritual resources of all the various sections of the people in the service of the common good of all."
Mahatma Gandhi