For many marginal groups in India, the state is expected to recognize lower-caste Indians with respect while decreasing corruption. Members of the lower caste have long felt that the caste system reinforces elite dominance where many rights such as freedom of speech, assembly, and vote are overlooked for them. Lower-caste Indians feel disempowered through their marginalization. In Bihar, this led to the rise of the RJD government with its lower-caste empowerment appeal and challenge to upper-caste elites. The RJD adopted a slogan translated to “we need dignity, not development” (Witsoe, 318). Lower-caste Indians seek recognition from the Indian state and were thus mobilized to achieve recognition through their vote. As a result, “less …show more content…
Marginalized groups had little access to voting, as “access to ‘muscle’ was a precondition for voting at all … the right to vote often had to be secured through recourse to violence.” (Witsoe, 324). Disenfranchisement in India conflicts with the liberal democratic model for modern states. A ‘free and fair’ election is widely considered to be a basic but essential requirement to the backbone of a democracy. But India’s path to democracy involved violence leading Witsoe to ask, “Was it more ‘democratic when lower-castes were simply excluded from voting without violence?” (Witsoe, 324). Contrasting India’s disenfranchisement with other democratic states, violence is rarely prominent while voting - though many commit violence as a result of their disagreement with the ultimate …show more content…
This corruption stemmed from the fact that leaders in the Indian state were “from a single caste … [serving] as brokers for the entire village, reinforcing patronage links between landlords and their tenants and labourers.” (Witsoe, 322). Upper-caste members were in cahoots with the Indian state. As Witsoe notes, “while upper-caste control of state institutions facilitated the dominance of upper-caste landlords, the votes that these landlords delivered elected members of their own castes to office, enabling upper-caste control of the state and the village in a mutually reinforcing pattern (Witsoe, 316). This justified a vicious cycle making it difficult for lower-caste groups to break into the political
Thousands of years ago, Indian society developed into a complex system based on different classes. This system was known as the Caste System. It separated Indians into different castes based on what class were born into. As thousands of years went by, this system grew larger and became further complex (Wadley 189). This system caused frustration for the Indian citizens because they were receiving inequality. Not only did the inequality and separation of the Indian society frustrate the citizens of India, but the imperialism Britain had upon them as well. In the early 20th century, Indian nationalists wanted to take a stand against the British rule and make India independent. The British created unfair laws that created a nationalist movement
In conclusion, it can clearly be seen that, because of the inequality to vote, gender, religious and race exclusions were pronounced side effects. Gender exclusions were shown through the inequality to vote due to the views of women in society. Religious exclusions were expressed through the uneven opportunities to vote through the prejudice set against the religions. And, racial exclusions were shown through the lack of the ability to vote be the intentional discrimination that these races were victims of. While others may say that these exclusions of groups can be seen through other actions, voting inequalities straightforwardly shows this. This is because when only specific groups can vote, it can be seen that the other groups are unfairly treated to their franchise.
Recently, in India the more powerful people have been depriving the poor of their mere wealth. According to the author, " million living below the poverty line is that the public exchequer is being looted, and that the money earmarked for development is going into the pockets of the rich and the powerful."(2 Bunker). This portrays that the donated and tax money that has been put forth for the poor is going into the high authority pockets. This leads to a greater gap between the rich and poor. The ones that deserve more are being deprived and tormented of their rights. Only 17% of the development money is reaching the poor the rest is taken by the corrupt officials. This is also shown when the article states, "Thousands of schools, dispensaries, roads, small dams, community centres and residential quarters have been shown to be complete on paper, but in reality are incomplete, inhospitably unutilized and abandoned."(1 Bunker). It is evident that the government is showing these facilities have been provided to seem diligent on paper. However, the basic necessities which is a citizens right have been taken away from the poor. Many rights including the voting rights of the poor village people are snatched by the officials. The poor do not have the right to true information of where the money for the poor from the government is being spent. It is because false receipts and vouchers
The result of Gandhi’s nonviolent political action movements was that an exploitative class structure cannot be broken without violence somewhere along the way. Property rights, defended by state violence, have never yielded to the peaceful pressure of the exploited class. Therefore, no exploiting class has ever left the stage of history without being pushed.
Social corruption and inequality are obvious within the deepest parts of India where the rich are fat and uncaring, compared with the lesser castes where “the story of a poor man’s life is written on his back” (Adiga 27). The pressure to escape the difficulty of peasant life can be compared to a zoo, where when Britain left, India became
We are lucky, today, that the majority of the world’s nations are democracies. This has only been the case in very recent times. For the greater part of human history, society has subscribed to the belief that birth is the most important determinant of one’s future. In Elizabethan England, this was especially true. Those born into the nobility enjoyed a lifetime of privilege, while those born outside of their ranks mainly existed to serve them. A century later, the British encountered an even stricter form of this belief when they conquered India. The Hindu caste system, which dictated one’s future based on birth just as British society did, was deemed even by the English to be excessively restrictive. After gaining control of the Subcontinent, the conquerors attempted to supplant the caste system with the semblance of a meritocracy. The new subjects of the Empire, instead of embracing this imposition of a foreign culture’s values, responded with general unrest and discontent, showing that no society, no matter how unfair or prejudiced, tolerates interference well. Shakespeare’s King Lear demonstrates the same concept: that any violation of society’s conception of the natural order brings chaos, and that the only way to restore harmony is to conform to the expectations of that society.
Owing to India’s diversity, these identities are determined by caste, ancestry, socioeconomic class, religion, sexual orientation and geographic location, and play an important role in determining the social position of an individual (Anne, Callahan & Kang, 2011). Within this diversity, certain identities are privileged over others, due to social hierarchies and inequalities, whose roots are more than a thousand years old. These inequalities have marginalized groups and communities which is evident from their meagre participation in politics, access to health and education services and
The word ‘Dalit’ encompasses communities known as untouchables, usually refers to that portion of the population falling outside the pale of ‘Indian caste society’. The term is an ancient Marathi words that may be define as ‘ground’ or ‘broken to pieces’. It has been said that the word was use in nineteen century by revolutionist thinker ‘Mahatma JyotibaPhule’, who used it to describe the appalling condition of the untouchables at the same time, it has been argued that Dr. Ambedkar first used the term ‘Broken men’ in his ‘The Untouchables’ published in 1948, to refer the original anceslaters of the untouchables for reasons which must have been self-evident. The concept ‘Dalit Identity’ has emerged as an avoidable phenomenon in intellectual and political sphere of this country due to the emergence of movement of the oppressed people. Walter Fernandes in his edited work understands the emergence of Dalit identity. His Contributions analyze the struggle of Dalit in different parts of India. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar chooses the term ‘broken men’ an English translation of ‘Dalit’, to refer to the original ancestors of the untouchables. The Dalit panthers revived the term and in their 1973 manifesto expanded its referents to include the schedule castes, schedule tribes, neo Budhists , the working people , the
Moreover, we need to examine the weakest sections of the Indian society. People in these desolate regions or “Old India” need to be given job opportunities and a minimum wage act should be prescribed. Nonetheless, these economic programs will not be of much use if social reform in education and community organizations affirmed both by the government and social organizations are not present. Increasing awareness among the women and developing constructive skills in other areas is probably the most active way to battle the current devadasi system.
In On Democracy, Robert Dahl presents five criteria that states are required to meet in order to satisfy the primary aim of democracy, which is to provide political equality to all of its citizens (1998, 37). The criteria include effective participation, equal voting, enlightened understanding, open agenda setting and inclusion. (Dahl, 1998, 38). Above these criteria, this paper will only focus on effective participation and enlightened understanding to apply them to India; this is because its citizens are going through a tough time with the two criteria to become a state with effective democracy. Therefore, this paper will demonstrate that India is in the process of achieving effective participation, but significantly lacks enlightened understanding.
India is well known to be one of the countries where gender equity is far from being reached. For specific constraints like cultural, social, economic and legal factors that will be explained later on, women are seen as secondary in the society. If one takes a look at the Declaration of Human Rights , one can see that women in India don’t fully have all their legitimate human rights: A few example we could give would be the right to safety, the right to marriage and family (and therefore, no forced marriage) and the right of a fair trial where one is innocent until proven guilty. Women’s oppression in India is deeply rooted in the cultural values and everyday actions. As one could guess, these tenacious values are an obstacle to all the multi-dimensions
Two of these massacres, one in Delhi, followed by another a few days later in Sarhupurreceived widespread publicity. The killers, who were Thakur Rajputs, had just one message to send through murder — the untouchable Jatav cobblers had to learn their place in society and the caste hierarchy. This is also the message that Mistry’s Thakur Dharamsi wished to send to the Untouchable Chamar families who had sought democratic equality in defiance of caste hierarchy. What is evident here is a conflict between the terms of nationhood and those of caste stratification, which have their roots in Hinduism. The casualty in the conflict is the principle of democracy upon which equality of citizenship depends. Mistry’s fictional and Akbar’s documentary accounts of caste violence may be usefully situated within the broader context of “caste wars” that have dominated parts of Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Bihar. Most of the violence against the Dalits comes from landowning caste Hindus, who are equipped with militias and private armies that have been recruited and trained with government assistance and cooperation, initially for the purpose of combating Maoist-style uprisings from tenants and landless
Vasco da Gama landed at Calicut, sailing via the Cape of Good Hope in 1498. This marked the beginning of
There has been much debate about the legalisation of compulsory voting throughout political history and more importantly its place in a democratic society. Compulsory voting at a Commonwealth level was recognised in Australia in 1924 under section 245(1) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act as stated: “It shall be the duty of every elector to vote at each election” (Australian Electoral Commission, 2011). Since the introduction of compulsory voting there has been both strong advocacy and opposition in terms of its legitimacy in society, which this essay will highlight through the concept of its consistency with representative democracy and its ability to ensure parties reflect the will of all people. On the contrary, opponents argue that it increases the number of safe seat electorates as well as forcing the ill informed to vote.
In simple terms Public Corruption can be defined as the misuse of public office for private gain.Corruption is an outcome and reflection of a country’s economic,legal,cultural and political institutions. Transparency International(2005,2008) found that more than 65% of Indians had a first hand experience of paying bribes and nearly 45% used contacts to get job done.Institutionalised Corruption has long been prevalent in India.Big Business and individuals dictate bureaucratic norms by breaking law,paying off public servants just to gain access to elements of governance.