Page 23 - Leap of Faith inside pages with cover (1)

Long Road to Democracy Chapter 1

Modern democracy in India however, differed strikingly
in at least three major respects. First, it was not about
direct democracy but representative government
through the application of secret ballot. Secondly, it was
about democracy from the top i.e. councils rather than
from the below i.e. village assemblies. This was because
under the colonial administration, it was the councils that
provided the semblance of chance to influence or combat
the imperial policies. Thirdly, since this pro-democracy
movement was pan-Indian in character, the top down
approach found favour with the new Indian leadership.

The demand for elections to the legislatures antedated
The Assembly Hall in Fort St. George in 1911
the demand for independence in India. Whereas the
official resolution for “Purna Swaraj ” or independence and provincial councils. The effective criterion for
was adopted at Lahore Congress, 1929 thereby nomination was loyalty towards the government.
designating January 26 (now Republic Day) as the Therefore, the Indian members that the councils
“Independence Day”; resolution to the effect of the admitted hardly represented Indian aspirations. This
expansion and reform of the Council of the Governor manner of filling the seats in the councils was resented by
General and local (provincial) legislative councils by the political activists.
admission of considerable proportion of elected
members, in addition to creation of similar councils in Rajendralala Mitra (1822-1891), the famous Indologist
and political activist, described the bulk of nominated
North-Western Provinces and Oudh, and the Punjab was
adopted in the first session of the Congress at Bombay members as aap ke wasteys (voting with the chairman),
dummies and heaps of millinery who were just not
(1885). It was, thereafter, confirmed in the sessions of
1886, 1887, 1888, 1892, 1893 and 1894. wanted. While Mitra made these remarks from the
platform of Calcutta Congress (1886), Surendra ath N
The elective principle proposed was not universal adult Banerjea (1848-1925) criticised the very councils during
suffrage. It was not until after World War I that equal and his lecture tour of England in 1890.
universal adult suffrage became a feature in the new
Governor General Lord Dufferin was of the opinion that
constitutions in the West. A resolution of Calcutta
“India is not a country in which the machinery of
Congress (1886) explains what it was- “The right to elect
European democratic agitation can be applied with
members to the Provincial Councils to be conferred only
to those classes and members of the community, prima impunity” (1886). Yet, he was in favour of “the
experiment of liberalising, if not supreme, at least the
facie capable of exercising it wisely and independently”.
subordinate Legislative Councils” to meet the legitimate
The Indian Councils Act, 1861 allowed Indian subjects to aspiration of the educated section of Indian people to
be nominated into the Governor General's Council take a larger part in their own domestic affairs.”

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