Contemporary Indian Political Theory: A Critical Analysis

Democracy is an important milestone marking people's history and present. Quintessentially, people's democracy or hoi polloi democracy has two components. The first component informs us that people's participation in institution is sine qua non of democracy. The second component depicst the realisation of being participants. Thus people's participation in institutions and the realisation of being participants together constitute democracy. The celebration and adoption of first component and ignorance or omission of second component pave the way for a fragmented (non-inclusive) democracy. Liberal democracy is essentially a fragmented democracy due to the adoption of first component and negation of the second. Therefore, liberal democracy becomes fragmented and hoi oligoi democracy. In this backdrop, it becomes crucial to examine the Indian democracy not only from the celebrated liberal formula of 'one person, one vote' byt also by exhibiting the real components of democracy, which may reflect people's realisation of being participants. For this purpose, five such issues like freedom, familial politics, globalisation, knowledge and neighbourhood relations have been identified.