Being named the world’s largest democracy with over 1.4 billion people in population size, its democratic nature is seemingly dying a slow death. The gradual decline of India’s democracy through increased censorship, intimidation of opposition parties and leaders, and greater centralization of authority all exemplify India as a perfect example of democratic erosion. With the definition of democratic erosion being the slow, step by step undermining of democracy by elected leaders from within, the rise of authoritative action conducted by the nation’s own prime minister, Narendra Modi, proves the ways in which those from within the government are able to manipulate the political system to their own benefit and gain.

With a part of the definition of democratic erosion being the gradual depreciation of the levels of democracy present in a nation, this is clearly evident with India’s slow democratic decline. After initially being elected as Prime Minister in 2014, Narendra Modi, India has seen a decrease in levels of anti-democratic practices over the last eleven years with this regime. This is clearly evident in India’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index dropping from 150 to 161 out of 180 countries. This critical decline signifies the inability of political institutions within the country to uphold sufficient levels of accountability and credibility, which ultimately leaves space for the traditional party system to slowly breakdown and collapse, enabling populist demagogues to take advantage of this disintegration and assume power. Furthermore, multiple reports published in 2023 classified India as an electoral autocracy and flawed democracy, emphasizing how dysfunctional political institutions within the nation have become over time.

Similarly, a third reason that would explain the death of India’s democracy is the premiership of elected but authoritative politicians with the ability to erode democracy from within, which seems to be the case with the Indian government. In ‘How Democracies Die’, Levitsky and Ziblatt describe one theory of democratic erosion as being a result of the actions of populist outsiders and elites as gatekeepers. After being elected in 2014, Modi, India’s current prime minister has been in office for just over a decade. For context, Modi is a member of the BJP, which is known to be a conservative leaning party with a strong commitment to nationalist principles. Due to their elite positions, the actions of political leaders tend to relatively unrestricted and unconstrained in the decisions they make. These choices can be made due to varying reasons including personal disposition and temperament, meaning that these leaders are able to endanger the democratic state of nation by rejecting the legitimacy of their opponents and diminish civil liberties. Roughly two months prior to the 2024 general election, multiple raids against rights activists took place, including a former Administrative Service Officer who resigned after riots against Muslims in 2022. Additionally, during this same election period, leaders of opposition parties fell victim to accusations of corruption and raids by federal agencies with some ministers also ending up in jail. The disregard for members of the opposition allows for the democratic values of the nation to be broken down as a result of excessive power and authority by populist elites.

Finally, a third explanation of why India’s democracy seems to be in crisis is due to the media and press which, in virtually every form, is under censorship and the control of Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party. On the 19th of August 2023, a leading News outlet based in the north of India had been blocked by the country’s government, making their website and social media pages inaccessible to the public. Additionally, the office in which the journalists worked in had been served with an eviction notice without any justification. Citing the 2000 Information Technology Act, the news agency was informed that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had blocked public access to the news site. Through cracking down on media access, which should be freely available to the public, the government is able to skew the electoral stance and field towards the favor of the incumbent leader and party. This ultimately results in a lack of freedom for the press as well as the public in regards to voting information and information asymmetry.

To conclude, the decline of democracy in India perfectly exemplifies the ways in which various tools can be employed to undermine the function and efficacy of India’s democracy. Through gradual decline, threatening opposition, authoritative leaders, and finally harassment of the media, especially present in the recent 2024 general election, India has clearly undergone the process of democratic erosion.

Sources:
https://www.fairplanet.org/editors-pick/indias-slow-democratic-decline/
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/why-indias-democracy-is-dying/
https://rsf.org/en/modi-ramps-online-censorship-india
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56393944
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/2/whos-next-indias-modi-government-raids-arrests-opponents-before-vote
How Democracies Die by Levitsky and Ziblatt