Thursday, March 26, 2009

Problems of Indian Democracy

CHAPTER 11- PROBLEMS OF INDIAN DEMOCRACY

1) In what ways the following factors obstruct the functioning of democracy in our country?

 Communalism: When India became independent in 1947, she was divided into two countries i.e. Pakistan and India. Pakistan had an advantage i.e. the religion of East Pakistan and the mainland were the same but India had the problem of different religions and that could have turned to be the greatest disadvantage. Though to a certain extent nationalism has played a major role in keeping our country united but the separatist forces do not loose any opportunity to see to it that there is communal flare up. The victory of independence was blackened by the most ghastly Hindu and Muslim riots when the refugees were moving towards either India or Pakistan. Most recently we have had the 1993 Bombay blasts, the Godhra riots, 1983-84 the Hindu Sikh riots where we tend to become butchers and end up forgetting the oneness that had united us in our fight for freedom. If we as Indians tend to rise above this communal divide, we can assure ourselves a truly developed nation like in the west where the west has risen above the religious divides that can hamper the developmental process.

 Casteism: During the Vedic times the caste was divided as per the profession any person held. But down the line the caste system became rigid and a person could not change his caste as he could do during the Vedic times. The rigidity of caste system was such that it bound a person to his caste and there was no freedom and alienated him from other castes. The castes like Shudras were looked down upon and were not even allowed to enter the village except to do menial work etc. This rigidity did exist even till the pre-independence days but after independence the national leaders worked for removing casteism and untouchability and to a certain extent have been successful but casteism does exist where religion has many sub castes and there is no intermarriage allowed between these sub castes and is allowed only in rarest of the rare cases. Untouchability does exist among the rural poor and sometimes in the urban areas though the urban areas are fast forgetting caste system and untouchability.
This is a hindrance to democracy because it bars a person from mixing freely with a person from other castes. This caste system though is not followed in other religions but in India because other religions have come into contact with Hindu religion caste system is followed to a certain extent.

 Inequality of women: Women in olden times were not a suppressed lot and though education was a dream, freedom of movement was allowed to a certain extent. But the various invasions including the Islamic invasion in India has encouraged inequality of women where education was barred for women, they were allowed to go out of the house and they were married off early to protect their honour and sati and infanticide was performed on them. Though during the social and religious reformation of our country upliftment was the agenda of all the reformists, the inequality of women does continue even today when women though are education and can move on equal status with men, still some areas are forbidden to women.
In rural areas compared to urban areas the position of the women is deplorable and she is not educated and does not have any rights and only duties. Girls are still married off at a tender age and widows are treated worst than animals. Female infanticide still exists and a girl child is killed as soon she is born. Dowry is rampant every where be it urban or rural areas and it is one of the reasons for female infanticide. Sati is still practiced in remote areas of Rajasthan and the law sometimes cannot do anything to stop these practices and these have been a hindrance to democracy as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, our first prime minister said “Educate a woman you educate a family”.

 Economic inequality: Today in urban areas inequality does exist but in the area of economy. A poor man has the opportunity to become rich and can do so by the dint of sheer hard work and does not need his family name to fall back on. But in urban areas, the opportunities are less and it is always the rich become richer and the poor poorer. Unemployment is more glaring today in urban areas and a person who is unemployed has to struggle to gain any employment and has not family support because in urban areas usually the families are nuclear.
In rural areas economic inequality is between the zamindar and the peasant. The zamindar has means to get a good profit for his produce but the peasant has to depend mostly on the middle men (though the government is taking steps to stop the monopoly of the middle men). In case of a bad season like failure of monsoon or floods, he usually depends on the money lender and is for life in debt. But in the areas on unemployment it is not as glaring as in urban areas. If in a family a person and his family are superfluous on the land, then it is not as glaring as the family lives in a joint family and is looked after and the person does not feel unemployed as on the land there is always room for more work and help. This is called disguised unemployment.
Economic inequality sometimes leads to lawlessness and social injustice being meted out on the economically backward. It sometimes even divides the family because an economically forward brother may not want to have anything to do with his economically backward brother. Economic backwardness can also be about the poverty our nation suffers. It is because of the problem of poverty, that the government finds it difficult to handle democracy because poverty leads to illiteracy, child labour and abuse, lawlessness and other related things which hamper the success of democracy.

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