Defining Democracy

• Democracy is essentially a form of government, based upon the fundamental assumption of equality of all individuals and of their equal rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
• The literal meaning of the term democracy is rule of the people or the power of the people. It is in fact very comprehensive concept. It is a political ideology to one, a form of government to the other and a way of life to the third. Democracy is a confusing concept, and a debatable doctrine. There is however no system of government more popular and prevalent, and yet the more controversial.
• “In its totality, democracy therefore implies that any democratic structure entrusted with the task of development and administration is expected to be not only democratically constituted according to the principle of election but should also reflect people’s free will and function according to the element of democracy both in their constitution and in their day-to-day functioning.”
• Thus the idea behind democracy is that it involves a large number of people in the decision-making process. It bases political authority on the will of the individuals who by a process of co- operation make decision that are binding on the whole community.

Indian Democracy

Democracy has very deep roots in Indian political history. perhaps it is India where democracy started functioning first. We can rely this fact through the existence of olden institutions of India like Samiti Sabha, and Viditha in the Vedic period. Afterward, the existence of many republics during the time of Gautama Buddha, Shakyamuni’s and Thiruvalluvar advocacy in favor of democracy, his stress upon development of democratic institutions and notable suggestions made by him in this regard strengthens India’s assert to it.

Gandhian notion of democracy

• Gandhi has suggested that decentralized democratic political system is the only means to resolve the worldly problems.
• Political decentralization aims to give citizens or their elected representatives more power in public decision-making. It is often associated with the pluralistic politics and representative Government, but it can also support democratization by giving citizens, or their representatives, more influence in the formulation and implementation of policies.
• Advocates of political decentralization assume that decisions made with greater participation will be better informed and more relevant to diverse interests in society than those made only by national political authorities.
• The concept implies that the selection of representatives from local electoral jurisdictions allows citizens to know better their political representatives and allows elected officials to know better the needs and desires of their constituents.
• Political decentralization often requires constitutional or statutory reforms, the development of pluralistic political parties, the strengthening of legislatures, creation of local political units, and the encouragement of effective public interest groups.
• The rationale of decentralized governance is also derived from the drawback of centralized decision making at the macro governmental levels.
• Being away from the basic spatial units such as hamlets and villages and with power concentrated at the top of the space in a pyramidic power base the state and the union government power structures draw representatives from well endowed sub-regions and sections of the community.
• Gandhiji’s disdain for the institution of parliament was evident when in 1909. With reference to British parliament of the day, he described it “a costly toy of the nation”.
• He believed that the parliamentary form of democracy was ill-suited for India was clearly evident when he wrote in the Hind Swaraj, “I pray to God that India may never be in that plight”.
• The democracy that Gandhi supported wholeheartedly was the direct form of democracy as opposed to the representative one.
• Representative democracy is a product of an idea of a nation state that developed after the French Revolution.
• The idea of a nation state was itself a trap and he feared that once India adopted it, it would forever be forced to run a representative form of government in order to avoid the menace of a possible dictatorship.
• This dislike for representative democracy sprang from his conviction that it would in no time degenerate into an anti-people institution in a multicultural and multi-religious context like India.
• Gandhi envisaged the creation of interrelated self-sufficient non-hierarchical socialist village communities called “swaraj”, with each of them functioning as a direct democracy.
• He believed that “swaraj”, if implemented through the constructive programme, would help people conceive development as freedoms instead of economic advancement.
• Gandhi’s idea of trusteeship, like Marx’s idea of dictatorship of the proletariat believed this was the only way India could escape the threat of becoming a nation state and being forced to choose between the two evils.

Current state of representative democracy of India

• In the democracy index of 2018, India has been categorised as a flawed democracy.
• Money, other incentives and the presence of criminals play a significant role in the elections.
• Democracy is becoming personality driven rather than party or people driven.
• Except for the left parties, all other political groups are either owned by an individual, a family or an institution for all practical purposes.
• Intra party democracy thus stands seriously compromised.
• The ‘Vote Banks’ are exploited by all the political parties.
• The Hindutva movement and its ascendency, is now threatening to convert Indian representative democracy into a majoritarian democracy.

Way Forward- Digital Deliberative Democracy

• Direct democracy needs to be introduced through digital deliberative polling- The disruption is now possible with technology.
• India should simultaneously convert the parliament and the legislative assemblies into institutions of digital deliberative democracy. 
• People need to be made a part of the process "end-to-end."
• "Data" is the necessary oil for future of political legitimisation engine.
• "Ecosystem" will provide the necessary competitive advatage for the State in case of authoritative allocation of values instead of "Rule Of Law"