Democracy in India: A historical perspective

Abstract

The idea of democracy in India came from west. Greek has been regarded the originator of the original concept of democracy. India has democratized the idea of democracy in actual practice apart from the diversity and cultural ambiguity being present in this country. In modern India people still believes in democracy which is based on the assumption that every individual should have a part in making decisions, democratic actions lies in the control and direction of everyone and every individual must need democratic atmosphere to manage life with others. Thus, the modern India is a departure from imperialism to sovereign independent India, where dynamic institutional structure is being framed significantly within constitutional supremacy. In modern democratic India, there is a fundamental shift that the nature of democracy could neither be problematic but is moving toward the zone of dictatorship. Thus, it can be said that the democracy is in trouble in some of the most mature democracies of the world. Presently the democracy in India has lost its form. The undemocratic ruler and dictators are trying to interpret the concept of democracy in their own words. They made it most confused theory in India. So, in this paper an attempt has been made to define and discuss the concept of democracy before visualizing the prevailing democracy in the context of India. It also looks at the characteristics and features of democracy. It explores that how India exercised democracy tremendously and how universally democratized the concept of democracy. At the end, it will intend to discuss nature of democracy practicing in contemporary India. This paper is mainly based on secondary sources like News Paper, magazine, journals, books etc.