A billion people vote. But what happens after?
You see the footage every five years—grandmothers walking barefoot to polling booths, ink-stained fingers held up like medals, victory parades with dhols and flower petals. India, we’re told, is the world’s largest democracy.
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| “All falling, none failing—yet. While India remains a democracy on paper, global indices reveal a clear pattern of democratic erosion since 2015.” |
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And it is. Technically.
But if you listen closely, the phrase has started to wear thin. Not because it’s false—but because it hides something truer. The West still calls India a democracy, but what it means is: "You vote. You help us contain China. Good enough."
Maybe that’s the story behind the story.
Voting Is Real. So Is the Violence of Silence.
India’s democratic rituals are spectacular.
Electronic voting machines trucked into jungles. Remote booths set up for a single monk or shepherd. A non-partisan Election Commission (mostly). These aren’t just logistical feats—they’re democratic miracles.
But here’s the tension: democratic form doesn’t always equal democratic spirit.
Ask the Kashmiri student jailed for cheering Pakistan in a cricket match. Ask the Muslim journalist who lands in prison for reporting a hate crime. Ask Dalit activists why “freedom of expression” stops short of caste.
In Western capitals, India still gets glowing praise. Washington calls it a “natural ally.” London hosts Modi like royalty. Yet, groups like Freedom House and V-Dem now classify India as an “electoral autocracy.”
So which version is true?
Maybe both. Maybe neither.
Democracy by Numbers. Not by Norms.
You ever notice how the West’s praise for India rarely includes the word “liberal”?
They’ll say “democracy.” But they don’t always mean freedom of the press. Or independent courts. Or protection of minorities. Or protest without police batons. They mean: elections happen, and the results stick.
It’s a democracy by turnout, not by tolerance.
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In 2021, Freedom House downgraded India from “Free” to “Partly Free.”
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Reporters Without Borders ranks India 159th out of 180 in press freedom.
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The Economist Intelligence Unit’s democracy index places India in the “flawed democracy” category.
And yet, Joe Biden hosts Modi at the White House. Emmanuel Macron invites him to the Bastille Day parade. No sanctions. No icy handshakes. Just smiles and strategic handshakes.
Why? Because “shared values” is often just code for “shared enemies.”
But Don’t Western Democracies Do the Same?
Let’s be honest—no democracy is perfect. The U.S. had January 6. France bans abayas but defends free speech. Britain detains climate protesters and bans migrants from Rwanda.
So maybe India’s defenders are right to say: the West has no moral high ground. But that argument only works if we admit what’s happening in India is troubling.
You can’t wave away internet shutdowns, bulldozer justice, or lynchings with “What about America?”
The question isn’t whether India is worse—it’s whether India is still moving toward democracy, or away from it.
A Mirror the West Likes to Look Into
So why does the West still insist India is a democracy?
Because it needs to.
India is the counterweight to China, the buyer of Western arms, the rising market that must be courted. Calling India “authoritarian” would mean changing foreign policy—and few are ready to do that.
So the story gets told the way it always has:
Big country. Big vote. Big promise.
Never mind the shrinking space for dissent. Never mind that some citizens live in fear of their own state. Never mind that democracy, as Orwell once put it, has become a word “of praise rather than description.”
India is a democracy. But we should ask: for whom? And until when?
Then again, maybe silence says enough.
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