Word: indianism
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...streak that culminated in 1975, when democracy was suspended and a state of emergency declared. The ensuing period of authoritarian rule, and resistance to it, led by figures like Narayan, is the crux of Guha's book. In 1977 new elections were called, Gandhi's party was thrashed, and Indian democracy, written off as dead, was reborn...
...Guha intertwines biographies of political leaders with anecdotes that show how ordinary Indians have helped to sustain their extraordinary body politic. During the Emergency, he notes, when public dissent was curbed and newspapers were censored, an article published in an economic magazine under the innocuous title "Livestock Problems in India" began with the line: "There are at present 580 million sheep in the country." It was a premature judgment, for those same sheep, ultimately, did not relinquish their freedoms, nor have they limited their democratic aspirations to simply voting at the polls. They have been behind a whole host...
...economy (at least one-quarter of the population is extremely poor, and many social services are in an appalling state). Most disturbingly, he warns that there has been a rotting away of the institutions that allowed democracy to thrive in the decades after 1947-political dynasties now dominate most Indian states, corruption has grown and criminals regularly contest (and win) polls...
...Guha's conclusions are sobering. Today's weakened institutions, he says, mean that Indian democracy is best described as a partial success. India is mostly democratic "when it comes to holding elections and permitting freedom of movement and expression." But it mostly isn't "when it comes to the functioning of politicians and political institutions." The survival of Indian democracy is magnificent, but as its preeminent chronicler points out, more must be done before the all of India's citizens can fully enjoy its fruits...
...hard to say. Unlike similar sites elsewhere in this fortress-strewn western Indian state, Chittorgarh offers few popular tourist diversions. There are no elephant rides through its stone portals, no village girls dancing in traditional garb, no French bistros or souvenir shops beckoning from refurbished seraglios. Nor does Chittorgarh boast the renovated opulence of Rajasthan's other great forts. Abandoned over 400 years ago, parts of it lie overgrown and in disrepair-quite the exception in a state chockablock with glitzy heritage hotels...