No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Indian National Congress: a hundred-year perspective*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
India, it is often pointed out both by Indians and by others, is the world's largest democracy, not simply in terms of the sheer number of people who participate in elections but also because of the continuous stream of open political activity. Democracy is not just a label that has been applied to the country at the whim of an individual or clique but is manifestly something that is alive and well. In the last decade alone, there have been two changes of government at the national level, and the government in New Delhi currently coexists, more or less willingly, with non-Congress ministries in several major states. There have indeed been voices to suggest that India in its present economic circumstances cannot afford the luxury of uncontrolled political activity. One of the arguments, for example, put forward for a presidential system has been that the level of “unproductive” political activity would be reduced. It could certainly be argued that the relatively sluggish rate of economic growth that has been maintained over the past four decades is linked to political constraints. That question, however, is not the theme of this article. For better or worse, India's democracy is here to stay, and one of the most important tasks for the historian or the political scientist, is to try to identify the factors that have given it its apparent staying power.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1987
References
* Revised version of a lecture to the Society on 10 April 1986. I am grateful to Peter Robb for some incisive and stimulating comments on the original text. I have deliberately avoided footnotes as it would have been impossible to have acknowledged all the scholars whose ideas and information I have relied on. Extensive bibliographies can be found in the two works referred to in the body of the article by Judith Brown and Sumit Sarkar.