India has completed more than six-decades as a democratic republic. The issue today is not the survival of democracy but are the challenges before it. Over the years India has, undeniably, acquired the institutional capacity to sustain democracy into the foreseeable future. However, in this 21st Century, democracy in India is facing a number of problems, some of which have been of longstanding endurance, while others are of more recent origin. Obstacles in the path of democracy include widespread corruption, criminalisation of politics, role of money power in politics, rise of political dynasties, poverty, unemployment, massive inequalities in income and wealth, terrorism and Maoist insurgency. Discontentment with the functioning of democracy in India is due to anti-people policies, crony capitalism and feudal loyalties. The volume seeks to encompass several dimensions of contemporary politics in India in five partsa??the system and its functioning; challenges to Indian state; corruption and criminalization; decentralisation and empowerment; parliamentary democracy in the era of coalition. Contributors include eminent scholars who have chartered new terrain and added fresh perspective to the understanding of democratic politics in India.
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