Interests and Identities: The Changing Politics of Representation

Abstract

Indian democracy entered a rather long and turbulent phase of politics in the mid-1970s, when the challenges which emerged from the ground, produced by the very processes of democratic politics, were sought to be met by the ruling elite in the form of declaration of Emergency (With the distance of time, it is more useful to see Emergency not merely as a capricious action of one individual politician to survive in power, but a systemic response of a larger section of the ruling elite which supported and collaborated with the Emergency regime, either openly or in a concealed manner. These included not only the Congress party politicians but politicians from other parties, sections of journalists, intellectuals, judiciary, bureaucrats and businessmen, some of whom, spanning across parties and governments, have shown a remarkable sense or political survival. The point will become clearer if one conducts a survey of the supporters of Emergency and the public positions they have occupied since.). This response to problems created in the society by changes at the base of politics has been widely repudiated but the tendency of the ruling elite not to process institutionally the pressures generated by democratic politics has nevertheless persisted (There indeed was, and has been, a powerful counter-response in politics represented by what are now described as the grass-roots movements addressing a host of issues concerning the populations marginalized by elite parties and normally not fielded by the political parties. (Refer to Chap.6 on grassroots politics.)