Democracy: Its Meaning and Dimensions

Dr. Keshab Chandra Mandal

E-mail: mandalkeshab2013@gmail.com

India, the largest democracy of the world, with over 1.21 billion people (1,210,193,422) and 2.4 per cent of the world’s landmass, is the home of more than a sixth of the world's population. It symbolizes for peace and co-operation in the international relations. It maintains friendly relations with its neighbors and others in the world. This largest democracy is the second largest populated country in the world with 17.5% of the world's population. India is projected to be the world’s most populous country by 2025, surpassing the most populous country in the world i.e., China, and its population is estimated to reach 1.6 billion by 2050.

India is the land of most young people. It is noticed from the census data of 2011 that 31.1% (male - 190,075,426 and female - 172,799,553) (2009 est.) population are in the category of 0-14 years, while this rate if 63.6% (males - 381,446,079 and females - 359,802,209) (2009 est.) in the 15-64 years category. On the contrary, only 5.3% (males 29,364,920 and females 32,591,030 - 2009 est.) people are above 65 years of age. Thus it is observed that it has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan; by 2030. India has more than two thousand ethnic groups and every major religion is represented, as are four major families of languages (Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, and Tibeto-Burman languages) as well as two languages (the Nihali language spoken in parts of Maharastra and the Burushaski language spoken in parts of Jammu and Kashmir).

The latest census of India shows that it has population and the growth rate is 1.41% (2009 est.) which is 102^nd in the world in 2010. According to an estimate the birth rate is 22.22 per 1,000 population, while the death rate is 6.4 deaths per 1,000 population (2009 est.). Average life expectancy of people is 69.46 years including 67.46 years for males and 72.61 years for females. This means women outlive men in India, as is seen almost everywhere in the world. Fertility rate is 2.5 children per woman (SRS 2010) and infant mortality rate is 30.15 per 1,000 live births (2009 est.).  

India occupies 2.4% of the world's land area and supports over 17.5% of the world's population. As per the 2001 census, 72.2% of the population lives in about 638,000 villages and the remaining 27.8% lives in more than 5,100 towns and over 380 urban agglomerations. India's population exceeds that of the entire continent of Africa by 200 million people. India is an agricultural country with 742,490,639 number of people live in rural areas and 286,119,689 people live in urban areas. There are total 640 districts in India. Total area of this country is 3,287,240 square kilometer (1,269,210.5 miles) and density of population per square kilometer 382 and sex ratio is 940 females per 1000 males.

India is a multi-religious and multi-cultural country. It is evident from the Census of 2001 that there are 80.5% Hindus, 13.4% Muslims, 2.3% Christians, 1.9% Sikhs, 0.8% Buddhists, 0.4% Jains and 0.6% other community population in India. In terms of literacy rate, it is observed that 75.5% Hindus are literate. But this rate is a little lower for the Muslims i.e., 60%, while the Jains (95.0%) and Christians (90.3%) are more educated and the literacy rate for the Buddhists is 73.0% and 50.0% for people of other religious community. In total there are 74.04% people are literate in India including 82.14% men and 65.46% women. In terms of workforce participation it is seen that 40.4% Hindus, 31.3% Muslims, 39.7% Sikhs, 40.6% Buddhists, 32.9% Jains and 48.4% others are engaged in economic activities.  

India is a multi-lingual country. In total there are 1,652 languages and dialects spoken in India. The largest of these is Hindi with 337 million people speak in Hindi i.e.,  43% of the Hindus speak in Hindi while 83,369,769 (8.11%) number of people speak in Bengali (the second largest language with some 207 million people), 74,002,856 (7.19%) people speak in Telugu, and 71,936,894 (6.99%) people speak in Marathi. Almost 45% of the Muslims speak in Urdu and about one third of the Christians speak in Malayalam (3.21%). Similarly, one-sixth people (60,793,814) speak in Tamil (5.91%) language, 46,091.617 (4.48%) people speak in Gujarati, while the rest people speak in Kannada (3.69%), Oriya (3.21%), Punjabi (2.83%), Assamese (1.28%) and a variety of other languages. In India 22 languages are recognized as official languages. Total Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are 16.2% and 8.2% respectively. It is observed from a 2010 Report that crude birth rate is 22.1 (per 1000) and crude death rate is 7.2. Hence the natural change is 14.9 per 1000 population. 

India Government

Federal Republic of India is based on separation of powers into Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Central government is known as Union Government. The Constitution of India came in force in 1950; power is concentrated in Parliament with upper house - Rajya Sabha (Council of States) - appointed by President and elected by state and State Legislative Assemblies and lower house - The Lok Sabha (House of the People) - popularly elected. The Supreme Court is the highest court of land and so also the High Courts in states.

India Government Administrative Divisions

There are twenty-eight states with 476 districts, one National Capital Territory and Six Union Territories. State Governors are appointed by the President, while the Chief Minister and Members of Legislative Assembly are elected by popular vote. Central Government agencies are prevalent at local levels. The Constitution allows central control of state government (President's Rule) during time of emergency on recommendation of Governor. Districts are subdivided into taluqs or tehsils, townships that contain from 200 to 600 villages. Small, centrally controlled union territories with lieutenant governor or Chief Commissioner appointed by President.

Party and Electoral Politics

 With 354 million voters, some 14,700 candidates, more than 500 parties, and nearly 595,000 polling stations in April-May 1996 elections, India often called "world's largest democ-racy." Since independence, dominated by Indian National Congress and its factions; occasional rule by minority-party and coalition governments; Janata Party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Parties, and several regional parties are also important.

Democracy and its different dimensions

Since the last six decades the world has been witnessing extraordinary and unprecedented political changes. People have experienced and tasted different kinds of regimes like hereditary aristocracy, monarchy, communist, oligarchy, fasism, Nazism and military dictatorship. (Bangladesh, Pakistan have experienced military coup; Italy, Germany, France, have seen fasism, and Nazism, and some Latin Amarican countries have seen military dictatorship). People have been exhausted and tired with their rulers and the style of functioning. At last people choose democracy as the best possible alternative.