ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

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'The Near and the Far'

Why Is India’s Liberal-Political Democracy Rotten?

The roots of the rottenness of India's liberal-political democratic order are unearthed in the process of capitalist development since 1793. The latter has essentially been a conservative modernisation from above which has failed to complete the tasks of the "bourgeois-democratic revolution". Moreover, the caste system and discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, nationality and religion have inhibited any stable, long-lasting unity of the oppressed and the exploited aimed at progressive modernisation from below.

This text is a revised version of the Rajesh Memorial Lecture I delivered in Thiruvananthapuram on 15 March 2013. I am grateful to my friend, P A Sebastian, the well-known lawyer and democratic rights activist, for the many discussions we have had over the years, concerning some of what has been dealt with over here, conversations from which I have learnt a lot.

Once again they are coming to our village –

the eagles talking like parrots,

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