Rahul Verma on the Debate on Democratic Backsliding in India

In recent years, international indices and rankings such as the Democracy Index and the V-Dem Index have downgraded India’s democracy. Although there are significant differences in the degrees of downgrading, most major indices suggest that Indian democracy is backsliding.

Meanwhile, India is witnessing an increase in voter turnout, and people continue to participate actively and vociferously in politics. What is the reason for this disconnect between scholarly understandings of Indian democracy and ground realities?

To help us make sense of this dichotomy, Rahul Verma joins Suyash Rai to discuss his recent essay titled “The Exaggerated Death of Indian Democracy.” In the essay, Dr. Verma argues that the claims of democratic backsliding in India are somewhat exaggerated.

Episode Contributors

Rahul Verma is a fellow at the Center for Policy Research and a visiting assistant professor at Ashoka University. His research interests include voting behavior, party politics, political violence, and the media. Dr. Verma has published papers in Asian Survey, Economic & Political Weekly, and Studies in Indian Politics. His book, co-authored with Professor Pradeep Chhibber, Ideology and Identity: The Changing Party Systems of India, develops a new approach to defining the contours of what constitutes an ideology in multiethnic countries such as India. He has a PhD in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Suyash Rai is a deputy director and fellow at Carnegie India. His research focuses on the political economy of economic reforms and the performance of public institutions in India. His current research looks at the financial sector, the fiscal system, and the infrastructure sector.

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Additional Readings

The Exaggerated Death of Indian Democracy by Rahul Verma

“Symposium: Is India Still a Democracy?” Journal of Democracy, July 2023

The Possibilities of Indian Electoral Politics by Suyash Rai

Understanding the Debate on Democratic Backsliding Through Two Papers by Suyash Rai

Ideology and Identity: The Changing Party Systems of India by Pradeep K. Chhibber and Rahul Verma

The Rise of the Second Dominant Party System in India: BJP’s New Social Coalition in 2019 by Pradeep K. Chhibber and Rahul Verma

Dalits in the New Millennium, edited by Sudha Pai, D. Shyam Babu, and Rahul Verma

How India’s Ruling Party Erodes Democracy by Ashutosh Varshney

The Expanding Role of Majoritarianism in India by Suhas Palshikar

Understanding the Nature of Party Competition and Politics of Majoritarianism by Suhas Palshikar

For India, ‘Middle’ Democracy Works by Subrata K. Mitra

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Key Moments

(00:00); Intro

(4:24); Chapter 1: Why Rahul Wrote the Essay

(9:53); Chapter 2: Paradoxes in Indian Polity 

(12:14); Chapter 3: Biases in Ranking Measures

(18:53); Chapter 4: Comparing the Present with the Past

(21:22); Chapter 5: Conflating Other Phenomena for Backsliding

(29:20); Chapter 6: Party Dominance and Partisanship

(35:03); Chapter 7: Unpacking Mass Polarization

(41:00); Chapter 8: The Frequency of Protests in Past Years

(49:22); Chapter 9: The Pew Survey on Religion in India

(50:53); Chapter 10: Scholarly Discourse vs. Public Opinion

(55:38); Chapter 11: The Current State of Indian Democracy

(1:04:47); Chapter 12: Remaining Hopeful About Indian Democracy

(1:08:18); Chapter 13: Closing Remarks by Suyash

(1:11:52); Outro

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