Democracy in India

The assembly elections results of UP, Punjab, Uttrakhand, Manipur and Goa have given victory to BJP in 4 states and AAP has come to power in Punjab. In Punjab AAP seems have won as there was a serious in fighting in Congress and the SAD's poor record of the past. In Goa BJP was greatly helped in overcoming incumbency by the opposition disunity as apart from Congress and AAP; Mamta's Trinmul threw their hat into the ring. In Uttrakhand and Manipur the massive electoral machine put up by BJP had no competition from the Congress, despite incumbency going against BJP.

This paper explores the development of multiple conceptions of citizenship in India in an attempt to understand how, despite profound social divisions, India's nationhood holds together. The paper advances the proposition that the Indian polity incorporated a deeply divided and conflict-ridden population by offering multiple notions of citizenship upon which a sense of membership in the nation, and a share in the enterprise of the state, could be sought. By negotiating and balancing distinct overlapping conceptions for competing membership claims in the nation, diverse social groups could find a viable place in the nation, without entirely resigning their various group identities. The analysis focuses as a lens on the Muslim citizens who are amongst the most excluded members in the whole body of Indian citizenry. It provides perspectives into how even some of the most marginalised members in Indian society found sufficient prospects for a meaningful participation within the nation. Multiple conceptions of citizenship enabled the state to manage its diverse social groups and contain many of their underlying conflicts.

The CAB is actually a trap by BJP, set to win West Bengal in the upcoming assembly election in the state. The National Register for Citizenship (NRC) exercise in Assam was disastrous for the ruling Party. It has taken away communal issues from the Party for future politics and grossly backfired its interests because its vote bastion – Bengali Hindu immigrants are major victims of the Assam NRC. Much politicised target of the NRC exercise in Assam – Bengali Muslims, are missed from the line of fire this time.

The cry for an abnormal Muslim population growth in Assam is a hoax. It is factually busted time and again but the political forces which find it suitable as polarization tool keep propping this issue as campaign material. An Army General should have avoided any public rhetoric on such politically heated issue.

The electoral outcome in Haryana and Delhi (2019) was a microscopic reflection of the national trend. However, the sweeping victory of BJP in Haryana and in the national capital has its own nuances and implications. This article specifically focuses on certain determinants which shaped the nature of verdict in these two cases. The article attempts to make separate studies of the electoral strategies of main parties in these two cases and examines how party-face, alliance arithmetic and campaign rhetoric resulted in the massive victory for the BJP. The article further attempts to exhibit correlation between the result and its implications for the polity and party politics in Haryana and Delhi.

In recent times, we have witnessed an escalation of discrimination against Indian Muslims. What are some of the political, social, and historical factors that have contributed to this present moment and how much of this hate is ‘manufactured’ versus deeply embedded in Indian society? How has this sharp spike of hate impacted Muslims and how they get perceived by others? And, perhaps most importantly, how might one imagine a more inclusive India for all religious identities?

Panelists: Annie Zaidi, S Irfan Habib, Khalid Anis Ansari

Moderator:  Pamela Philipose

The Belongg Online Literature Festival or BOLF is an initiative of Belongg, a social venture that seeks to bring discrimination-free services and experiences to people who face identity-based discrimination.

The main purpose of this article is to highlight the fact that, contesting and winning elections in India is becoming a distant dream for the common man, if you don’t have money power; or in other words, money plays an important role in politics in India. To justify the aforementioned statement, the press release report dated (24/12/2012 and 29/1/2013) of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) have been analysed. The report has documented for all the 182 elected MLAs in the 2012 Gujarat Assembly election.

This article examines Gandhi’s legacy in the shaping of citizenship in India and its implications for the resilience of Indian nationhood. I contend that a conception of citizenship that can be extrapolated from Gandhi, and that persisted as a practice, as well as a political language, instilled in the dynamics of Indian citizenship attributes that played an important role in securing the resilience of Indian unity and its democratic viability. The Gandhian conception of citizenship was developed after independence in conjunction with three other primary concomitant notions of citizenship. The ongoing multifaceted interplay between the four competing conceptions of citizenship,
and the tensions and shifting balance of power between them became part of the mechanism that enabled the sustainability of some conflicts within the Indian polity to the detriment of other more threatening divisions. In the effect of this process Indian citizenship has been able to inhibit the tensions that had the potential to break the country apart.