On 26th January 1950, India came under liberal forces as a sovereign, democratic and republic. Therefore, now, she does not owe allegiance to any rule; she has wiped out the collection of princes and estate-holders that disfigured her till 1947. Despite India being one of the largest democracies in the world, there are some factors due to which it is in danger. Let’s see what these factors are.
Caste
The Indian caste system doesn’t allow for upward mobility in a society. If a person is from a lower place of the Indian caste system, then they have to follow some restrictions, even though India is a democracy and the Indian constitution has banned discrimination based on caste. There is caste discrimination involved in jobs as well. The latest example of caste discrimination in jobs in India is the violent protests by the Jat community in Haryana in 2016. Similar protests happened in Gujarat by the Patel community in 2015. Both of them demanded access to caste quotas in jobs. Even though several models of democracy are based on the Westminster system, several characteristics of democracy are also from her rooted tradition, the dominance of Hinduism being an example of it.
An example of caste discrimination is telling people belonging to ‘lower castes’ to do specific work. Dalits are traditionally seen as people who are at the bottom of the Indian caste system and who will do works like manual scavenging. Another recent example is of Rohith Vemula. He was a PhD student studying in Hyderabad University. In January 2016, he committed suicide. Though the reason for his death is not yet clear, his college friends say that he wasn’t receiving good treatment at the university.
In this way, caste is a danger for democracy in India as people of lower castes cannot exercise their fundamental rights.
Religion
Just like caste, religion is a danger for Indian democracy. A prominent and recent example of discrimination based on religion is that of Muslims in the country. It is said that ever since Narendra Modi took charge as the Prime Minister of India, Muslims have been discriminated against. A recent example is the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or the CAA. Muslims aren’t mentioned among the six religions who’d get citizenship. So, the aftermath is there are nationwide protests happenings against the Act. Another example is of ‘Love Jihad’, where the right of a person to marry any individual is taken away just because he is from a different religion.
Hence, even though India is a democracy on paper, it is in danger, firstly due to the above-mentioned factors and secondly, due to the heavy politicisation of these factors. As mentioned earlier, the enactment of CAA comes under the political realm. Even Love Jihad has been politicized several times.