Indian Democracy: Contradictions and Reconciliations ;provides a vivid presentation of major facets of democracy in India. It aims to explore how Indian democracy has functioned, with reference to its theoretical foundations, institutional mechanisms and procedures, and political practices.
The book starts with a close analysis of the Constitution of India, which provides the theoretical validation for democratic politics and serves as a reflective and regulative ideal. It highlights the way adherence to democratic principles and nurturing of strong institutions have helped India negotiate and often reconcile contradictions such as caste inequalities, linguistic and ethnic identities, majority–minority divide, gender bias and divergences in the conception of democracy itself. Furthermore, the book delineates significant improvements in the maintenance of accurate electoral registers, enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct and use of electronic voting machines, considerable reductions in violence and intimidation in the recent decades, which have together contributed to strengthening the Indian voter’s confidence in democratic processes. This edited book will prove indispensable for all those who are interested in a close understanding of democracy in India.
Padmanabhan, Sudarsan: -
Sudarsan Padmanabhan is Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. He specializes in social and political philosophy, Indian philosophy and culture, and his research focus is on the confluence of law, democracy, and ethics in the public sphere. Sudarsan is the Co-coordinator of an Erasmus+ grant, funded by the European Union (EU) and coordinated by Aarhus University, Denmark. Sudarsan was also the Co-coordinator of Interdisciplinary Bridges for Indo-European Studies (IBIES), a consortium of 19 EU and Indian Higher Education institutions funded by Erasmus Mundus, coordinated by Aarhus University. He was Principal Investigator of the EU-funded Contemporary European Study Centres Project in India during 2010-2011; this research group works on Democracy and Development and Contemporary Global Politics. With Jyotirmaya Tripathy, Sudarsan coedited The Democratic Predicament: Cultural Diversity in Europe and India (2013) and Becoming Minority (2015); with Sonika Gupta, he coedited Politics in the Global Age: Critical Reflections on Sovereignty, Citizenship, Territory and Nationalism (2015).
Sivaramakrishnan, Arvind: - Arvind Sivaramakrishnan is a former Visiting Professor and currently a member of the Guest Faculty, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. From 2008 to 2014, he was the Senior Deputy Editor on The Hindu, writing editorials, specialist articles, and book reviews on international politics, public policy, and political theory; he combined his duties with teaching and research as an Associate Professor at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. He took his degree, a postgraduate diploma in social administration, and doctorate as well as a professional teaching qualification at the University of Southampton, where he also taught politics. Since then, he has taught at Suffolk College, Ipswich, the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, Southampton Institute of Higher Education (now Southampton Solent University), and Taunton's College (now Richard Taunton College), Southampton. He has published a range of academic papers in politics, political philosophy, public policy, and related fields, and has conducted research seminars and research training sessions at universities in the European Union and India. His books include Introduction to Political Ideologies (2017), Public Interest Journalism (2014), Public Policy and Citizenship (2012), Short on Democracy (2007), and Through a Glass Wall (2007).
