ABSTRACT
With a population of over a billion, and an electorate of just over 671 million in the last election in 2009, India is the largest democracy in the world. It is also one of the most diverse countries in the world, encompassing a greater range of social and linguistic groups than the whole of the European Union. Poverty cohabits with inequality, high levels of illiteracy and religious and ethnic heterogeneity.1 Conventional theories of democratization which emphasize modernity,2 homogeneity3 and civil society4 would thus consider India a difficult environment for democracy to succeed in. However, despite these apparent challenges to democracy, since the first election in 1952, India has witnessed uninterrupted democratic rule (with the exception of a brief period in 1975-77 when a national state of emergency was called) in a genuine competitive multiparty system in which power has been peacefully transferred from one party to another on a regular basis. Hence, ‘Indian democracy’ carries on working despite the poverty, illiteracy, corruption, religious nationalism, casteism, political violence and disregard for law and order. In such a socio-economic environment, the commitment to the ‘idea of democracy’ among the poor leaves political analysts with an intriguing puzzle.5
