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Practical Form of Caste and Religion in Indian Democracy

(भारतीय लोकतंत्र में जाति और धर्म का व्यवहारिक रूप)

 

Dr. Shilpa Jain,

Assistant Professor, Department of History,

Gangasheel College, Faizullapur,

Nawabganj, Bareilly,U.P. India

 

DOI: 10.52984/ijomrc1308

Abstract:

Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and the people exercise this power directly or indirectly through a representation system in free elections held at regular intervals. A governance system can be called authentic and comprehensive democracy or successfully functioning democracy only when true democracy can find its right path only by fulfilling the aspirations of the people of any particular country. Indian democracy has fulfilled many of these essential conditions in the last many years but it is also facing many challenges in which caste, religion, communalism, corruption, religious fundamentalism, etc., which need to be faced even today.

To face the challenges of Indian democracy, there is a need to take some such corrective measures which are universal, that is, for all, but democracy can be successful only when its citizens are equal in their thinking and behavior, freedom, social justice, accountability and To imbibe democratic values ​​like respect for all. Along with this, it is necessary for successful democracy that citizens have to come above religion, caste, communalism, and promote secularism and it is also necessary to play a leading role in realizing the goals of democracy. But in present times Indian democracy is facing serious challenges and casteism, communalism, and religious fundamentalism. These elements undermine the efficiency and stability of the democratic system, it is estimated that the caste system originated in the context of the division of labor in ancient society, which gradually transformed into a rigid-group classification based on birth. Day by day the nature of this system became complex and the truth is that casteism is responsible for maintaining socio-economic inequality. The caste-based inequality of our society remains a serious challenge to Indian democracy. The politicization of castes due to the mixture of caste and politics is a very serious situation and due to casteism in present Indian politics, serious challenges have arisen in our democracy. Despite the present era of liberalization and globalization, caste consciousness has not diminished from our society and castes are mostly being used as vote bank politics.

Religious fundamentalism also encourages communal forces to exploit both religion and politics. In fact, religious fundamentalism works like an ideology that advocates conservatism, this religion is breaking the structure of our co-existence in our multi-religious society and it is a big obstacle in the path of the development of secular culture. Communalism is threatening our democratic political stability and destroying the glorious tradition of human and mixed culture.

Key Words: Democracy, caste-religion, communalism, secularism, corruption, religious fundamentalism, politics.

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