Community Development Journal Advance Access published online on June 16, 2009
Community Development Journal, doi:10.1093/cdj/bsp021
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Democracy in India and the quest for equality
Address for correspondence: Javeed Alam, 102, Sai Saraswati Residency, Ravindernagar, Sitafalmandi, Hyderabad – 500061, India; email: javeed88{at}gmail.com.
During the course of the last two decades, there has been a pronounced expansion of democracy, seen as the enfranchisement of dalits, the empowerment of oppressed castes, and the assertion of women. This process has also witnessed the deepening of popular commitments for ideas and potentialities of democracy. However, at the same time, various infirmities have also crept into it, such as the denial of rights of individual persons who disregard community injunctions, retaliatory politics in relation to those lower in ritual status, the humiliation of dalits, and of women who defy community norms. Instead of looking at the evolution of Indian democracy, the paper would reveal more the manner in which the democratic universals are getting transcribed in their engagement with the Indian particularities. This paper argues a need to engage in a sustained democratic struggle within communities. While respecting the identity of the oppressed communities, one must remain suspect of the congealing of these identities. Deepening of democracy, apart from substantive content, requires that dalits and women have to become bearers of entrenched rights.