Notes-Class 10-Political Science-Chapter-5-Challenges Faced by Indian Democracy-Maharashtra Board

Introduction : Today every nation in the world claims to be democratic. But in reality very few nations in the world have democracy that protects the rights and freedom of people and gives priority to the welfare of people.

Democracy :

• Democracy is a continuous and living process.
• Citizens should remain vigilant, alert and make conscious efforts to sustain democracy.
• It is necessary to identity the threats to democracy and take timely measures to resolve them.

Challenges faced by Democracy at international level :

• Very few nations practice right democracy.
• Democracy which grants rights to people, ensures freedom and gives importance to people's welfare, should be preferred and propagated.
• Democratic values and adoption of true democracy is a challenge at the global level.
• Many democratic countries are facing the challenge of military takeover.

Challenges before Indian Democracy :

Communalism and terrorism : Religious conflict and the resultant terrorism is one of the major challenges before Indian democracy. Communalism harms the nation to a great extent.

• Increase in communalism leads to religious conflict in the country.
• Increasing conflicts in turn create frictions in society and destroy social unity. It creates division in society resulting in terrorist activities.
• People's participation also reduces in the democratic process. This ultimately creates instability in society and democracy comes in danger.

• Resulting terrorism makes the society unstable.
• People take less interest in the democratic process due to terrorism

Left extremists – Naxalism : Naxalism is a major problem in India.

• This movement was started against injustice done to the landless farmers and tribals.
• But later it lost its focus and became violent.
• The Naxalite groups adopted violent ways like attacking the army, police and opposing the government in violent manner.

Criminalisation of politics : Increased participation of criminals in political process is another serious problem for Indian democratic systems.

Due to increase in criminalisation of politics :

• Money and muscle power gets undue importance.
• Violence increases during elections.
• Political parties give candidature to people with criminal background and to those having various criminal charges levelled against them.
• Terror seizes the mind of people and their participation becomes less in administration.
• People lose their tolerance and the development of democracy does not take place.

Measures adopted by India to strengthen democracy :

In order to strengthen democracy following measures are adopted by India :

• Decentralisation of power.
• Reservation for minorities and women so that they get a share in power.
• 50% seats are kept reserved for women in local self-governing institutions.
•  The values of liberty, equality, secularism and social justice adopted by our Constitution.
• At administrative level various projects like Education for all, Clean Bharat campaign. Gram Samruddhi Yojana, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme are undertaken.