Overview

Although the adoption of a democratic system of government based on universal adult franchise has been considered a gamble on the part of the fathers of the Indian constitution, it has undoubtedly paid rich dividends in terms of establishing India as one of the most vibrant democracies in the world. Reconceptualizing Indian Democracy adopts a new prism in analysing the institutional vibrancy and functional dynamism of democratic experiences in India. It suggests that elections are not only mechanisms that change the political guard, but also devices for reconceptualizing the politico-constitutional fabric on which the Indian polity rests. Among the different factors that have made democracy a way of life for Indian people, elections, particularly the Lok Sabha elections, stand out prominently. In the first four general elections, the electorate appeared duty bound to vote for the Congress, but the 5th Lok Sabha elections saw a real churning in the political psyche of the common people. The book, thus, begins with an exploration of the 5th Lok Sabha elections and comprehensively studies each of the general elections from the 5th (1971) to the 17th (2019). By directing attention to the processes changing the texture of Indian democracy, the book highlights the inputs that democratic experiences in India offer to both the literature on democracy and to democratic experiences across the world.

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Bidyut Chakrabarty is Vice-Chancellor of Visva-Bharati, West Bengal. He was a professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, until November 2018. He completed his PhD from London School of Economics and has been associated with teaching and research for more than three decades. He has taught in several prestigious educational institutions, such as the London School of Economics; Indian Institute of Management Calcutta; Monash University, Australia; National University of Singapore; and Hamburg University, Germany. He has authored several textbooks and academic books. Among his publications are Public Administration: From Government to Governance (2017), Winning the Mandate: The Indian Experience (2016, SAGE Publications), Communism in India: Events, Processes and Ideologies (2014), Indian Politics and Society since Independence: Events, Processes and Ideology (2008) and The Governance Discourse: A Reader (2008).   Rajendra Kumar Pandey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Besides earning his Masters, MPhil and Doctorate degrees from the University of Delhi, he also holds the prestigious Postgraduate Diploma (with summa cum laude: excellent grade) in Federalism, Decentralization and Conflict Resolution from the Institute of Federalism, University of Fribourg, Switzerland. In the past, Dr Pandey taught graduate students at the Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (1998– 2003),Hindu College (2003–09) (both University of Delhi), and the UGC-Centre for Federal Studies, Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi. Besides publishing research papers in reputed journals, he has co-authored two books—Indian Government and Politics (SAGE, 2008) and Modern Indian Political Thought: Text and Context (SAGE, 2009). He has also made substantial contribution to develop self-learning materials for students of open and distance learning in different areas of political science and public administration. The current focus areas of his academic pursuits are public policy and governance with special reference to the issues of disaster management and human rights.

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