Dr Maya Tudor writes on the 60th anniversary of Indian democracy

On 11 September The Hindu published an article by Maya Tudor (by arrangement with the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania) entitled The foundations of our democracy.

In it she writes, This year, India celebrates the 60th anniversary of its first national elections. Before that election and every election for decades to come, naysayers prophesied the imminent demise of Indias democracy.

Instead, that democracy considerably deepened along formal and substantive dimensions: the dominance of a single party has given way to party alternation and a crucial amendment to Indias constitution has helped attenuate discriminatory distinctions of caste and gender. Sixty years after democratisation then, at a time when myriad corruption scandals highlight the dark underbelly of Indias electoral politics, it is worth remembering that political parties were central to the creation of Indian democracy.

The full article can be read here.