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E-learning plays a key role in an individual's mental growth and a nation's future in today's competitive world. Traditional learning is teacher-centered, and teaching the same subject well every time is tough. Traditional teaching approaches can't be used everywhere. By mitigating this flaw in traditional learning, E-learning becomes a potent weapon for intellectual progress and contributes to intellectual society. Traditional learning's high prices, set hours, and limited classroom access may be avoided through e-learning. People are India's major strength as the world's first and biggest democracy. E-Learning benefits these countries and plays a crucial role in establishing intellectual think tanks that can be utilised by the entire world for constant growth and an aggressive reaction to other nations' logical cultures. In this regard, a more focused approach has been considered on introducing new e-learning methodologies, priorities set for each methodology for easy e-learning, and upcoming technological trends in the field of elearning such as Mobile learning, Microlearning, Beacon learning, Internet of Things(IoT), Cloud-based e-learning, Gamification, and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the location of the principles of India's Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, in the country's most recent National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and the documents leading up to the policy. It draws on the capability development approach and critical theory that facilitate understanding education as a fundamental right, moving beyond the narrow understanding of education as a mere instrument for the global economy. It also draws on global education policy literature and critical policy analysis lens to examine the assumed policy rationality. Based on a qualitative document analysis the paper argues that the policy does not demonstrate a commitment to the ideas of public-funded elementary education, child-centered democratic learning environment, and bridging the gap between equity and quality. The recommendations signal a further dilution of the RTE mandates. The policy statements and linguistic choices show an allegiance to neoliberal discourses reflecting the influence of global education policy transfer without systematic consideration of the realities of Indian school education. This approach indicates a missing link between the policy aims and social justice, that does not bode well on the educational rights of the marginalised children.

The chairman of the drafting committee of the modern Indian Constitution, Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, emphasized that education cultivates democracy in society, strengthens the roots of democracy, and brings about social transformation. The social transformation includes a way of life that will promote liberty, equality, and fraternity, which are Dr Ambedkar's "key elements of an ideal society". This paper discusses the implications for higher education campuses for achieving an ideal society in light of the emerging evidence on peer group formation around identities and issues of discrimination associated with caste in the context of increasing student diversity. The paper also emphasizes the important role of a civic-learning approach to higher education; meaning an active engagement with values of liberty, equality, and fraternity. There is a shared belief that higher education has a great potential to be a social laboratory for civic learning and to inculcate democratic values and foster peaceful interactions among members of diverse groups.

Well-being is realised through the interaction of the individual's desires and capacities, and external contexts. Contexts in postcolonial societies diverge from the assumptions of functioning liberal democratic states and capitalist economies often assumed in theories of schooling. Instead, these contexts are characterised by poverty and inequality, cultural diversity, and ongoing projects of state and nation-building. Through case studies of two rural communities in India and South Africa, this paper analyses the role of postcolonial contexts in shaping well-being opportunities through schooling in these contexts. It highlights the contested nature of this relationship in cultural, economic, and political spheres.

Dalit (the 'downtrodden') students continue to experience caste-based discrimination, humiliation and dehumanization; illegal practices that are being reproduced in the school system in the state of Odisha, India. Based on a research study organized by the Center for Research and Development Solidarity, an adivasi (original dweller/Scheduled Tribe)-dalit (Scheduled Caste) research organization and 401 dalit students in grades 6-10 attending 16 government schools in a 25-village zone, this paper elaborates on this research initiative. It demonstrates how knowledge democratization, both, as research undertaken "with and for" dalit students as producers of (caste-resistance) knowledge and as knowledge sharing as mobilization, can simultaneously mobilize wider circles of organized collective action with parents, Village Education Committees (VECs) and local dalit NGOs and movements to address casteism and untouchability in state schools. The paper concludes with some brief insights pertaining to academic and funded research as knowledge democracy and mobilization for social action that are emergent from this caste research and related research and social action addressing land-forest-labour assertions in South Odisha.

The aim of this paper is to search for possibilities to change the terms and content of conversations on colonial/decolonial human rights education. The content of conversations consists of what we know about human rights. The terms of conversations are the principles, assumptions, and rules of knowing in human rights education. The terms and content are interrelated and continually sustain each other. Decoloniality resists global coloniality of power, ontologies and epistemologies which are consequences of colonisation. It also questions the Eurocentric assumptions and principles which serve as a premise for human rights and human rights education. There is an urgent need to explore pluriversal knowledges of human rights and to problematise the Human of human rights. This is explored through data from Roux's research project "Human rights literacy: quest for meaning." Some thoughts on decolonising human rights education are provided in the conclusion.

It is argued that educational spaces often maintain certain forms of hierarchical cultural patterns to reproduce an unequal civil society. The history and contemporary nature of Indian civil society, ridden with relations of caste and class, often interpellates its agenda of hierarchical order in the cultures of schooling. Children from marginalized communities, particularly from the Adivasi (tribal) cultures, are more vulnerable to these undercurrents, and this often results in their dispirited autonomous participation in schooling. The content and nature of the curriculum and modes of pedagogical interactions are the focal channels of its operationalization. In recent times and earlier, various forms of contestations had emerged against this dominant agenda, particularly from subaltern contexts. These took the form of democratic resistances seeking to establish democratic cultures in classrooms and schools (Apple C James, 2007; Darder et.al, 2009). Creating a sphere of this order would promise to enable children to become transformative human beings and autonomous intellectuals. Viewing the regime of education as both liberatory and oppressive (McLaren, 2009), this paper is an attempt to engage with democratic concerns in the realm of schooling in India within the relations of culture, knowledge and its politics.

While right-wing attacks on the ideas of democracy and socialism in academia are a worldwide trend, in the remainder of the paper, I will focus on India, considered to be the largest democracy in the world. India has become a hotbed of right-wing politics, led by an authoritarian Hindu-nationalist government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). There are various reasons why this has happened which this paper will not discuss (Das, 2020a; Jaffrelot, 2021; Vanaik, 2017). Suffice to say that the BJP is the political wing of the fascistic paramilitary organization called RSS (or, National Volunteer Corps) which, in part inspired by European fascism, aims to build a Hindu nation where religious minorities can live only as second-class citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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How do people in the world's largest democracy consume news online? In this paper, I aim to answer this question by conducting a quantitative assessment of the online news consumption behavior of a large sample of Indian internet users (N≈50,000) over a period of 45 months. In doing so, I contribute to theoretical debates about global news media use, by systematically appraising the prominence and trends in audience share of different types of news sources, thereby shedding light on the digital news consumption landscape of a crucial, but understudied context. Theoretically, I engage with the displacement-complementarity hypothesis and find no evidence that digital-born media have contested the hegemony of legacy media in India online. Next, I investigate the regional-national media divide and find that regional, vernacular media have suffered significant declines in their audience shares over time. This begs the question whether the notion of 'polycentrism' – the idea that the Indian media environment is comprised of national and regional media of equivalent weight – is at all applicable online as it is offline. These findings also run counter to claims of 'internet vernacularization' that have been touted in the past. Finally, I propose the concept of audience mobility, and use it to identify qualitatively distinct dynamics in how vernacular audiences in India have migrated to national vis-à-vis international outlets. The findings and their implications are discussed in light of contemporary changes in Indian society that is characterized by rapid digitization and increasing literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"This research paper investigates the profound claim of India as nation having cooperative federalism. The most striking feature of Indian federalism is the concentration of power at the central level as well as the decentralization of certain powers to provincial units. Nehru envisioned a cooperative federalism for India's government structure, which postulates a multifaceted mechanism to maintain its territorial integrity as well as its democratic and plural character. The federal arrangement is constitutionally protected, and certain subjects, areas, and residuary powers are predominated by the union. The contentious issue of present discourse is whether India's cooperative federalism exists or lost its distinctiveness. The main task of this research paper is to examine how the politics has endangered the core tenets of Indian federalism thereby pushed the nation into totalitarian or majoritarian state. The massive abuse of the authorities, institutions and repeated dents to fiscal federalism are the area of concern. The main political battle is not about who is supreme-central government or regional government but whether Nehruvian model of cooperative federalism will survive or not. The regional government have been struggling to have equitable share in the resources, finance, and legislations. Many regional governments have steadily outspoken on the subject of undermining their power and central government authoritarianism. The tribulation journey of Indian federalism from cooperative to confrontationist poses serious questions about the future of Indian federalism and what would be the future of many territories, states, and centrally administered regions in India if this confrontationist approach continues. The primary base of the present research is to critically examine the political development of last few years and how these events have undermined the constitutional ethos apart from crisis of federalism". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Mahatma Gandhi said that "the greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated", he clearly implied that equality must exist between the evolved animals, i.e. Humans and the rest of the animal clan. Humans have always adamantly self-proclaimed themselves as the 'superior' species, granting to themselves an authority to govern the rest, backed by a well-drafted constitution. While it is undeniable that a democratic society ensures fundamental rights to its citizens, a more civilized and sensitive one does not shy away from extending the same to its animals, too. The Apex Court of India in 2011 broke all barriers and differences in the famous Jallikattu case, whereby it brought animals under the ambit of the right to life guaranteed under Art. 21 of the Indian Constitution. While now this fundamental right has been constitutionally guaranteed to animals to live with dignity, a pertinent question to be asked is, does the right also encompass the right to die. The Supreme Court, in the case of Aruna Shanbaug, did declare that passive euthanasia is legal in India, thus bestowing the scope of passively ending the life of a terminally ill patient. Considering that animals may also very much be under the same circumstances, is this right of passive euthanasia applicable to them as well. This paper will thus dwell into analyzing the current scenario in India pertaining to euthanasia of ailing and terminally ill animals, the legal provision & judicial precedents worldwide on the issue and the moral rationale behind the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan and India are the two oldest and largest democracies in Asia. Since the inception of their diplomatic relations in 1952, the two countries have maintained a cordial relationship. They remain aloof during the Cold War period due to their ideological differences. After that, India following the economic liberalization followed by the "Look East" policy in the post-Cold War period had a positive impact on bilateral relations. This took a sudden gap due to India's second Pokhran nuclear test in 1998 followed by Japanese economic sanctions. However, the relations normalized soon when Mori visited India along with other South Asian nations in 2000. The bilateral relations further improved when the two countries signed the "strategic orientation of Japan-India global partnership" during Koizumi's visit in 2005. Since then, the two countries have been engaging in different aspects of strategic partnership, and a peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific along with the "rule-based order" has always been their priority. Thus, different scholars and statesmen from both countries started the discussion on building a new architecture of 'rule-based order' in the Indo-Pacific. To that end, Japan and India have continuously engaged themselves in bilateral and multilateral dialogue such as G4, Shangri-La Dialogue and Quad. Thus, this paper will try to see how far the two countries can persuade the international community to push the concept of "rule-based order" in the Indo-Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decades, several grassroots movement organisations across the world have tackled the issue of corruption with the aim of mobilising knowledge on this widespread problem. In our paper, we look at three bottom-up civil society organisations and collective actors fighting for greater transparency and curbing of corruption in Indian society, highlighting how they employ visuals to debate on these issues and to communicate their mission to their audiences. The focus is on how the initiatives employed visuals to discuss a particular anti-corruption policy of the central government. In particular, our paper sheds light on the dynamics between the three initiatives and the government especially at a time when democratic credentials of the country are in decline. Inspired by Rodriguez and Dimitrova's four levels of visual framing, we propose a revised schema for visual framing analysis, taking into account contextual dimensions, in our study of visuals as tools enhancing public debates on corruption and anti-corruption practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper attempts to understand the necessity of intertwining Democracy and e-Democracy for the success of institutionalization of e-Democracy. In this respect, it proposes the "Four-Forces Framework of Democracy" and their Drivers. The paper also explores the challenges that e-Democracy may face in its growth and evolution, highlights the risks involved in ignoring the challenges, and suggests the future direction. In the present scenario, there is a considerable push for Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The paper discusses whether this will lead to the strengthening of people's voice and empowerment of the individual and collective aspirations. Societies in their evolution develop cultural contexts, social and ethnic values. It is a challenge for any e-Democracy to integrate them into its mechanisms. In the Indian context, it is essential to develop foresight on how e-Democracy gears-up to also address various contradictions and conflicts, which are possible due to the digital-divide, multitude of people's aspirations, socio-cultural diversity, space for democratic thinking, etc. Keeping many aspects of Democracy and governance into consideration, the paper focuses on how ICT and e-Democracy will honour people's aspirations in the coming years, to keep the public, individual, and society, vibrant and democratically functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online digital media has become a lifeline for humankind. But it has also become a major source of disruptions just like climate change. During the global pandemic, COVID-19, while the whole world is trying their best to blunt the spread of coronavirus, there is a vile trend of circulation of disinformation, fake news and sharing false data related to the virus on social media platforms creating panic among people. The review paper found that the present online information ecosystem matrix is driven by exploiters with the objective to demean democratic bodies, inflame societal divides, manipulate public opinion and influence citizens' voting choice to distort the democracy. Examination of the current trend led to disturbing reality as the content, discourse, tone and intent of social media interactions have undergone an evolution that threatens not only free speech, privacy, data protection, national security but democracy as a whole. The study also highlighted about the rise of new-age technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Algorithm, Robotics, and Machine Learning (ML) have exacerbated the problem to new heights as these technologies play a disproportionately impactful role in disseminating disinformation by amplifying it to distort democracy and free speech. The research work resonated with the growing clamour for greater legal regulation to control the menace of social media misuse among democracies around the globe. It addressed the concerns of internet companies and rights activists who fear tight measures would imperil free speech. The paper tried to examine the challenge how to regulate that doesn't stifle the freedom of expression and speech vis-à-vis keeping online content safe and protected. The fact-finding review paper is based on existing laws, regulations, policies, research papers, media reports, articles on instances of disinformation and fake news to find solutions and future developments keeping India in focus. The subject of study assumes significance in a democracy like India which has recently notified a new regulatory regime - 'The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021,' to strengthen the regulatory architecture to tackle misuse of social media to deal with the fast- growing new communication challenges. The study critically examines these new guidelines and also highlights the patchy policy syndrome of internet content governance in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the multi-layered nature of electoral violence in India. At one level, the violence behaves like a barrier by excluding certain actors from political participation. At another level the violence functions like a filter - recognising, accentuating, or by creating social meanings that have electoral implications. Hence, instead of looking exclusively at its strategic, structural, or cultural dimensions, this paper looks at the simultaneous performance of electoral violence as a social process, a political strategy, and an institutional behaviour. To demonstrate the non-autonomous character of each of these levels, this article explores the limitations of using communal violence as an electoral strategy, highlights the unintended effects of securitization on voter turnout and political competition, and probes into the various unequal social structures that reproduce violent elections in India. It also offers an alternative perspective to studying electoral violence by looking at its historical development vis-à-vis the radicalisation of a society's political culture. On the basis of this multidimensional analysis, the paper concludes that electoral violence can be structurally induced by even well-consolidated electoral institutions and thus, cannot be regarded as simply a breakdown of democratic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With back to back electoral mandates to govern the country in national election to elect 16th and 17th Lok Sabha(lower house of Indian Parliament), in 2014 and 2019, Bharatiya Janata Party(B.J.P) bagging 282 seats and 303 seats out of total 545 seats respectively, seems unstoppable with main opposition political party Indian National Congress in doldrums due to organizational leadership issues. As such contemporary Indian politics presents a uni-multiparty period with narrative of B.J.P domination (from electoral to social space having a tinge of Hindutva[monolithic narrative on path of religion and community) and singularities of resistances to it. In this time of structural domination, political parties in India are grappling to find a balanced practical political position to correct this skewed power distribution scenario. In this context 'Dange-line' of united front tactics against right reactionary fascist political force propagated by Sripad Amrit Dange, yesteryear stalwart of Communist Party of India, in early 1970s, can be reinterpreted to nurture liberal-left-secular space which is under considerable strain in contemporary Indian democracy. Going beyond mainstream analysis of Dange-line within leftist framework of revisionism, this paper argues that it offers an indigenous eclectic political line of practical politics, soaked in ideas of nationalism, socialism and secularism. This paper tries to question the marginalistion of discussion on Dange-line in Indian left and non-left political historiography discourse and views it as a 'other' voice (disensus) of Indian left which is more open-ended, context specific and based on nationalism-socialism-secularism triad. The paper concludes by arguing that in contemporary opposition space of Indian democracy, Dange-line is an open choice for any political party (left or non-left) committed to ideals of justice, plurality, dialogue, rights, socialism, nationalism and secularism and before 2024 national election commitment to Dange-line (universal / mass) or to Party line (specific identity-oriented) will direct the tone and texture of Indian politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chairman of the drafting committee of the modern Indian Constitution, Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, emphasized that education cultivates democracy in society, strengthens the roots of democracy, and brings about social transformation. The social transformation includes a way of life that will promote liberty, equality, and fraternity, which are Dr Ambedkar's "key elements of an ideal society". This paper discusses the implications for higher education campuses for achieving an ideal society in light of the emerging evidence on peer group formation around identities and issues of discrimination associated with caste in the context of increasing student diversity. The paper also emphasizes the important role of a civic-learning approach to higher education; meaning an active engagement with values of liberty, equality, and fraternity. There is a shared belief that higher education has a great potential to be a social laboratory for civic learning and to inculcate democratic values and foster peaceful interactions among members of diverse groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, the world's largest democracy, the right to express dissenting opinions has come under increasing pressure due to governmental reactions to violent and non-violent activities and opposition. As well as direct suppression, a concerning trend has arisen whereby individuals and groups may choose to self-censor rather than risk the consequences of speaking out. These outcomes are related in this paper to the treatment of social media, where official policies and laws regulate and censor content on social media on the dubious basis that it is 'offensive' or 'objectionable'. These restraints often lack clear guidelines and are applied arbitrarily, leading to a chilling effect on free speech and the expression of dissenting views. Furthermore, India lacks a comprehensive legal framework to address hate speech, resulting in a patchwork of provisions within the Indian Penal Code that inadequately define and circumscribe hate speech. This article contends that the 'freedom to criticise' should be legally better protected to ensure that diverse opinions can be safely held and expressed in order to maintain and reflect the pluralistic nature of Indian democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper examines the evolution, impact, and potential trajectory of regional political parties within India's dynamic political landscape. Through an exploration of their historical origins, electoral significance, and policy priorities, the paper sheds light on the substantial role these parties have played in shaping both state and national governance. By delving into their historical roots, electoral strategies, and evolving policy agendas, this study illuminates the intricate interplay between regional and national politics, highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities these parties face in the context of India's diverse political fabric. Ultimately, this research underscores the importance of regional parties as pivotal actors in India's democratic journey, with implications that extend into the future of governance in the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed a significant inner transformation among political parties in both developed and developing democracies of the world. Different factors, such as changes in the structure of the media environment owing to the technological boom in the last two decades and changes in voting behavior, led to the transformation of the political parties in different democracies worldwide. Therefore, studying the patterns of this transformation has become an integral part of the current political science research. Early studies have demonstrated the indexes based on professionalization. However, limited studies have tried to examine the process of transformation relating to professionalization and are almost missing from the studies based on non-western democracies like India. Therefore, against this backdrop, this study tries to expand the literature by providing a theoretical framework consisting of causal mechanisms which would explain the process of professionalization of campaigns with special reference to Indian elections through the theory testing method of process tracing. The framework has been provided in a series of causal mechanisms to answer how the considered individual variables react when they come in contact. This paper concludes by justifying the conceptual framework of professionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'doctrine of pleasure,' as enshrined in the Indian Constitution, has its roots in the unfettered feudal system. In a feudal setup, the crown has absolute power; on the other hand, in a democratic setup, there cannot be anything unfettered, arbitrary, and irrational. The pleasure doctrine and its interpretation are alien to a democratic society as it grants power to the holder to act whimsically. This paper focuses on the precarious interpretation of the doctrine of pleasure in India with reference to gubernatorial power. In recent times, various political parties in power at the center have misused the office of Governor for political gains, which negates the very spirit of the Indian Constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the associations between democratic performance, secular--traditional value orientation, and satisfaction with democracy in India and Pakistan through the lens of democratic performance and modernization theory. In an analysis of data from the 2012 World Values Survey, respect for human rights (one of two measures of democratic performance) has a stronger effect on satisfaction with democracy in India than in Pakistan. Freedom of choice influenced satisfaction with democracy only in India. Rather than having a direct effect, secular--traditional value orientation moderates the relationship between freedom of choice and satisfaction with democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Freedom of the press is a precious privilege that no country can forego. But if there is, as there should be, no legislative check save that of the mildest character, an internal, check such as I have suggested should not be impossible and ought not to be resented."-M. K. Gandhi. In a vibrant democracy like India, the media is considered as fourth pillar of democracy. The primary objective of media is to make the people aware about the society and the issue prevalent in it. Therefore, it becomes extremely important that media should conduct their activities in a more responsible manner and they should avoid presenting biased opinions. It is also the responsibility of media to avoid the practice of yellow journalism. In order to make media as an independent body, the concept of self-regulation is being adopted in India. However, present scenario clearly shows that the self-regulation has failed to make any significant mark and to avoid the misuse of media. With the emergence of technology, the face of media has changed significantly with the time. Today is an era of technology and media being not untouched from the impact of technological advancement that led to the new vertical of media i.e. Digital Media Platforms. Digital Media Platforms has enormous power to influence the mind of millions of people as these platforms can share the content instantly. Instances of fake news inciting communal violence are very common. Hence, there is a demand for controlling the media. However, the advocates of free media feel that an independent media is a sine qua non for a sustainable democracy whereas others feels that any institution with unbridled freedom will lead to the creation of a Frankenstein monster. Thus, a combination of statutory and self-regulating bodies is the best way to protect the freedom of the content across all media, where India has made a start and still has a long way to go. This paper attempts to examine the existing legal framework that applies to various broadcast technologies that are currently in use in India and presents a critique of existing legal framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The various lines of resistance against the Indian government's Unique Identification Number project since its inception in 2009 form a national and publicly accessible narrative. But less is known about Aadhaar's reception among civil society actors, non-profits who partnered with the state to implement this scheme among their constituencies. Drawing upon eighteen months of fieldwork in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Delhi, this paper traces the nature of state and civil society engagement with Aadhaar. It demonstrates how this e-governance initiative encountered the politics and agendas of intermediary organisations long engaged in providing identity documents to the poor in the absence of state recognition of certain groups. The state sought a condition of disintermediation via biometric technology and collaborated with non-state actors to aid implementation. The failed encounter with a few non-profits working with the migrant poor demonstrates that a technocratic notion of identity and citizenship clashed with the materiality of local practices serving to maintain existing intermediations and resulting in exclusions from the Aadhaar scheme for certain groups. The paper argues that this encounter demonstrates the durability of the mediated state at a time when new technologies are deployed to remove intermediations, with consequences for the most marginalised populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian democracy has been plagued by a long history of ‘rules’ and ‘acts’, defined broadly as assigning to the state the power to impose order, but without clear guidelines as to their use. Understanding agitations against these rules and acts is helpful in seeing a line of challenge to state authority from the position of democracy. This paper will describe the agitations by the All India Newspaper Editors’ Conference (AINEC) against Article 41 of the Defence of India Rules (1939), which focused on the government's ability to censor, ban and fine newspapers. AINEC's fight made visible the effect of capricious and unpredictable government actions on actors outside the elite. In addition, the shifts in censorship brought about by the Defence of India Rules highlighted how groups, ideas or writing could shift from being regarded as ‘responsible’ and credible to ‘irresponsible’ and dangerous on the basis of state decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades, universities in India have witnessed the joining of a record number of students from marginalized communities and oftentimes struggle. This expansion of access has brought about changes within classrooms and college campuses, sometimes giving rise to contention and causing numerous conflicts as well. Centered around my experiences of teaching in a working-class college in Bangalore, a metropolitan city in Southern India, this paper offers reflections on education in challenging circumstances. Further, the essay explores the possibilities of democratic pedagogic practices through the theoretical framework of Maitri. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to theorise the labour and corporeal carcerability of the non-citizen non-subjects in contemporary democracies of the United States and India. I reappropriate Joy James' framework of 'Captive Maternals' to understand the relationality between the undocumented, racialised, or incarcerated with the neo-liberal states that they inhabit and serve but where they do not belong. James describes Captive Maternals as those bodies subject to consumption by the democratic order in the tradition of slavery. I expand upon her framework to argue that the dehumanisation of illegal 'aliens' and racially policed bodies not only challenges the notion of freedom in the modern democratic social organisation but rather manifests the fundamental correlation between democratic sovereignty and its exclusionary violence. This phenomenon internal to the workings of democracies challenges Hegel's idealisation of the modern rational state as the most advanced form of government characterised primarily by freedom. Democracy also constitutes the exercise of necropolitical sovereignty which I interpret not as the right to kill but as the right to police and incarcerate. Against the Hegelian struggle for recognition (Anerkennung), I deliberate on the possibility of transcending to a less than fully-determined Sittlichkeit that does not rely upon reciprocal recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains and corroborates the mechanisms by which civic and political spaces opposed to Hindu nationalism have been attacked, especially after the arrival of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in 2014. Three mechanisms are discerned for replacing pluralistic values with Hindu majoritarian ones. Sometimes institutions are just allowed to drift by interpreting old rules in new ways. For example, no formal rules for media control have changed but the government's control over media has increased substantially. At other times, incremental legal and policy changes are executed to make the change explicit, often building on a new moral purpose. To give another example, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) was amended and weaponized against NGOs in a layered way in 2020. Finally, when political opposition is weak, institutions that have provided guarantees for protecting diversity have simply been displaced by new and radically different ones. This was the case with abrogating Article 370, which converted the special status of the subnational state of Jammu and Kashmir to the status of two federally administered union territories--Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. These mechanisms place India in a competitive authoritarian frame, where those in power deploy electoral majorities to systematically attack the political opposition, making it more di(cult for it to rise. Despite these propensities, opposition parties have won elections in some of India's subnational states. The challenges facing the world's most populous democracy are significant, even though competitive elements co-exist. These elements in a competitive authoritarian regime, however, are under severe stress. India's democratic credentials can be revived only if the competitive elements of India's democracy stand united against ethno-nationalist Hindu majoritarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1991 India embarked on far-reaching economic, financial and regulatory reforms, which led to not only a surge in economic growth, but also spurred scholarly interest in Indian firms, their strategies, and their business environment. As it has been almost three decades since the reforms were initiated, we believe that it is an appropriate time to take stock of the research on strategic management in the Indian setting. Our scoping review finds three dominant themes in extant research: impact of environment (specifically liberalization) on firms, strategies of firms, and the different ownership structures of firms. We discuss the key findings within these domains and identify the theories and methods that scholars have used to address their research questions. We assert that the unique Indian context — a mix of public and private economy operating within a democratic system — provides a rich environment for not only testing existing theories in strategic management but also generating new theories. We conclude by identifying several important areas of research and urging strategy scholars to engage with the opportunities offered by the evolving Indian business environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper traces the story of revival of the monastic order of the Buddhist nuns (bhikkhunisangha) in India in the larger socio-political domain of identification and assertion of a 'new identity' of the female Dalits through a socio-cultural revolution, i.e. the 'Navayana Buddhism' locating it in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The resurgence of Buddhism in India, strengthened by B.R. Ambedkar with his conversion in 1956 is taken as the point of advent and an attempt is made to trace this religion's development as a cultural revolution in the larger political sphere of establishing 'social democracy' with the assistance of the Buddhist sangha. Nagpur, the site of the historic conversion is studied in a historical context through oral history to understand how a space of socio-political assertion was already available for the Dalits, prior to Ambedkar's conversion. The second section of the paper is based on the interviews of Indian bhikkhunis (ordained nuns), samaneris (novice nuns) and the upasikas (female lay disciples) to understand how these politically conscious women with their roles as 'social servants' are reclaiming their space of assertion within the 'democratic' sangha and in the society. The story of the three generations of bhikkhunis in India that began in 1967, will unfold amidst the twin issues of 'identity' and 'religion'. How the bhikkhunis' quest for dignity and democracy is obstructed with the non-cooperation and non-recognition of their cohorts will be studied conjointly with the challenges faced by the movement of socio-political liberation of young Dalits, launched by the politically prudent bhikkhunis of the sangha. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Present era is the Digital era in which things are converting in technological tools and products. Even human beings' identity is existing in the form of some information like SIM card, ATM/debit card, PAN number, etc. These transformations are the result of the technological advancement of the Country through Information technology revolutions. Administration, the implementing machinery of government, is now also well equipped with this electronic development in e-governance, which is the outcome of the IT boom in India. Technological advancement of various nations of rest of world is propelling our governance system towards - e-government, e-administration. However, it is excellent and effective to maintain effectiveness, easiness, and transparency in the administration's day-to-day functioning up to some extent. But unfortunately, it is assumed that e-governance is the solution to all problems related to administrative functions which are not true in the present environment. The government and media are propagating it as the key to all success, but it is quite different from above. This form of governance is also facing various such challenges, which might create problems if not dealt with within time. Simply deciding to implement new technology because it makes our life easier may not be the best choice. My life may be easier but how does this affect my neighbors or the environment or even my grandchildren's lives. We have both an ethical and moral responsibility to ourselves, society, and the environment. When we are faced with technical decisions we need to learn all we can about the issue, analyze the issue from both a technical and ethical viewpoint, and then choose a course of action that best satisfies both even if that means not using the available technology. We must always remember that our choices will create change and we need to consider that possibility in all we do. Ethics and technology are becoming different aspects of the same function. One cannot consider one without considering the effects of the other. This paper focuses on the limitations of e-governance in the context of ethics in India. The paper aims to identify ethical challenges before the e-governance which might be disturbing for the intention and motive of e-governance and provide some solutions in form of suggestions for developing technology(egovernance) for human welfare in an ethical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A journey of biocultural diversity begins with monocultural mindset and it moves slowly towards intercultural interaction. Biocultural diversity with thousands of human cultures and languages lead us to fertile interaction among the people from all races, classes, creeds and ethnicities. There are several worlds, visible and invisible, inside and outside us. Our entire life is a struggle for fitting into those worlds. A lively society always accepts change and her citizens try to adapt themselves in the changing environment. Diversity, equality and democracy are common goals of all nations who have emerged as transnational, cross cultural and multicultural entities in the twenty first century. The modern societies are trying to increase intercultural competence and then adapt multicultural competence. If we share and learn to respect our differences the world will be a better place to live in. Preserving our indigenous culture and adapting new global multicultural phenomenon is a huge challenge especially to the marginalized sections of all societies. These people struggle to come into the main stream and then to adapt the culture of the dominant. The Caribbean today are the former slaves and indentured labourers from almost all continents of the world who strive to stick up to their roots and to practice emerging multicultural way of living. The similar case is with the Indian Dalits, who are the low caste people in India. They are desperate to come into mainstream but do not want to lose their cultural heritage. The present paper deals with two authors with Indian origin but with different social ethos. It investigates the Caribbean mindset through V. S. Naipaul's The Mimic Men (1963) and the Dalit mindset of the Indians by Baby Kamble's The Prison We Broke (2008). The paper will be divided into four parts. The origin of the Caribbean and the Dalits in brief, the identity issues, their encounters with foreign cultures and finally development of multicultural competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Indian democracy, reservation policy is one of the major tools to reaffirm and develop right to equality as guaranteed, by the Constitution, to all the citizens of India and, in a way, to uplift the weaker and deprived sections of the society. But, due to its wrong interpretation and implementation in the present scenario, it is continuously creating a new type of disadvantaged and disheartened group in Indian society. Hence, the research paper tries to explore poetic expressions of a few contemporary Hindi poets for understanding the present form of reservation policy and its resultant effects on nation-building and nation-branding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Swedish policy institute V-Dem, India, the world's largest democracy, has 'turned into an electoral autocracy'. This paper illuminates the links between human rights and democracy. It outlines the evolution of constitutionally guaranteed rights in India from 1947 to the present, identifying and analysing the various ways in they are violated. The author argues that violation of human rights is anti-democratic, and calls for adherence to, and provision of, constitutionally guaranteed rights to prevent the ongoing erosion of Indian democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the Indian media, delving into the making and maintenance of the laws, practices, freedoms, and regulations that govern it. Focusing specifically on the Emergency and its aftermath, it demonstrates how the Indian media is often made to accommodate political agendas and commercial interests. The author argues that present-day Indian media is worse off than it was during the Emergency, providing an overview of the various reasons because of which it is facing a crisis of credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to explain the concept of majoritarianism that is currently commonly used in the context of Indian politics. It also attempts to make sense of available empirical data that suggests a considerable presence of majoritarianism in India and, on that basis, discusses the implications of the diffuse nature of the majoritarian tendency. The paper argues that the diffuse nature of majoritarianism portends the possibility of democratic distortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a symposium of three ethnographic papers on the relational work of policy implementation in the context of international development. Relational work is usually unrecognized in the policy process, creating misunderstandings and barriers as well as promoting improvisation and innovation. Implementers in the cases presented – democracy promotion in Angola, rural livelihoods in India, and birth registration in Tanzania – use interpretive labor and sometimes deceit in order to carry out the creative and interpersonal work of development. Implementers often further local development goals, but ignore and subvert the disciplinary aims of development governance that seek to remake their economic, political, and social habits. These articles identify that it is the social work of forging and managing interpersonal relationships that allows development workers and intended beneficiaries to make policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, we have seen a rise in digital technology. In response to the tempestuous nature of technology and its manifold "threats", the State has adopted fresh armoury. It has inducted mass surveillance programmes, which collect information on every citizen. In India, these measures were adopted in 2007. India's bulk phone metadata collection programme, equivalent to the National Security Agency is called the Central Monitoring System. Additionally, India has created the Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network System, a nation-wide reposity of criminal data. This paper delves into a constitutional analysis of the validity of these programmes by identifying the key constitutional concerns and reviewing whether these programmes satisfy the test of proportionality. Finally, this paper critiques the ramifications of these measures on democracy. It argues that these measures stifle the exchange of information in the public sphere and reduce public space for reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The initiation of economic reforms in the 1990s led to major recastings in the media-state-market relationship in India. Looking specifically at the television news media space, the age-old monopoly of the state broadcaster Doordarshan was challenged by the mushrooming of a host of private television news media. Private participation in the television news sector was in sync with the logic of market capitalism. Market-based news model radically altered the nature of production, representation and consumption of news. This paper makes an inquiry into one such predominant aspect of news production, the ascendancy of views/opinion based prime time programming in television news media, in contemporary India. Through a series of semi-structured interviews with journalists, the paper attempts to make sense of the reasons, the nature and significance and the likely impact of such programming on the nature of public discourse in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is often credited for its success as the world's largest democracy, but variation in subnational democracy across its states has not been systematically incorporated into scholarship on subnational regimes. This paper develops a conceptualization of subnational democracy based on four constitutive dimensions – turnover, contestation, autonomy and clean elections – and introduces a comprehensive dataset to measure each of the dimensions between 1985 and 2013. The inclusion of India – an older parliamentary democracy with a centralized federal system – broadens the universe of cases for the study of subnational regimes, and reveals variation across constitutive dimensions that has not yet been theorized. The paper shows that threats to subnational democracy come from multiple directions, including the central government and non-state armed actors, that subnational variation persists even decades after a transition at the national-level, and that subnational democracy declines in some states in spite of the national democratic track record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Civility is generally lost in translation in non-Western contexts, and tends to be limited to its liberal form in the social sciences. To address this impasse of West versus East, individual versus community, and political versus civil society, we seek to recover the idea of civility. In this special section, we understand civility as socio-cultural processes and politics that challenge the lack of publicness and commitment to public life, equality and justice in society. We suggest that civility provides insights into the social life of democracy and the lived challenges to social democracy. The essays in this special section critically explore and engage with the paradox of high democracy and low civility that plagues India, where democratic consolidation translates into limited justice and minimal equality, along with increased exclusion and performative violence against marginal groups. The papers in this special section offer fine-grained and detailed analyses of social interactions across India. In doing so, they make a strong case for shifting from analyses of formal democracy and civil society toward the question of civility. Such a move enables us to explore justice, equality and emancipation as social processes, struggles and experiences rather than as preconditions for democratic societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2009 and 2014, Thirumavalavan, the leader of the largest Dalit party in Tamil Nadu, served as an MP in Delhi. This paper draws on research with the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK or Liberation Panther Party) to raise a number of key questions about representation and democracy in a multi-level federal system. Although they are a minor party, their experience of national politics offers insights into the workings of party systems in India. The paper considers the extent to which they are constrained by alliance partners and political rules-of-the-game. It then considers the question of representation, and asks what the VCK managed to achieve in Thirumavalavan's constituency of Chidambaram and the extent to which they could raise issues at the national level both through formal and disruptive means. Finally, the paper reflects on the advantages and disadvantages for a small party of having a foothold in the Centre and draws out the lessons of the VCK's experience for our understanding of Indian politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how a marginalized community in North Kerala uses football and football fandom in order to create a vibrant space for active citizenry. We examine how the categories of football fan and citizen foster each other and provide alternatives to the imagination of a nation that in its discursive homogeneity fosters divisiveness. At the same time, this paper is also interested in the constitution of the football fan community as resolutely local and in dynamic, and negotiated relationship with state machinery. While literature on sports in India has been overwhelmingly centered on the themes of nation and nationalism, this ethnographic study attempts to critically look at the making of a regional identity, from the margins of a nation, through the region’s popular sport, football. In this paper, we explore the ways in which Nainamvalappu football fans Association, an organization based in the coastal region of Nainamvalappu in Kozhikode, converted an open place into a football ground overnight to resist the setting up of a slaughterhouse in the same place by the city corporation, as a form of active resistance but also place making. We argue that this football fans’ association allows for new understandings of popular sovereignty and democracy through a revitalization of sporting spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the political developments around the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement that escalated in India through most of 2011. Although the overtone of the movement was primarily about corruption, my aim in this paper is to explore the debates regarding democracy that the movement unleashed. The accounts that this paper draws on focus on the tension and competition that arose during the anti-corruption movement amongst two civil society groups – ‘Team Anna’ and the National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information – regarding the meaning and practice of democracy. I argue that this conflict reflects a broader tension deeply rooted in democratic debates in India, traceable to the early nationalist debates during the anti-colonial Independence movement. These findings suggest that conflict and competition are crucial ingredients of democratic debate, contributing to the sustenance and enrichment of the idea of democracy. This argument is particularly timely, for it helps us to understand the rise to power of the Aam Aadmi Party. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper generally explores the role of legislative counsel within the lawmaking process. It considers different ways that legislative counsel work to strengthen the democratic principle within that process. It also considers how the context of a small maturing government may impact this role. The case of underdeveloped instructions is explored throughout this paper as a means to investigate how legislative counsel can ensure that, in working with clients, their actions strengthen the democratic principle as oppose to weaken it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Election Commission of India (henceforth, the EC), an institution created by the Constitution of India in 1950, manages and conducts parliamentary and state assembly (provincial level) elections. In recent elections, it has made tremendous efforts to make the electoral process more participatory. More than 900 million people were eligible to vote in the Indian parliamentary elections of 2019. In addition to the conventional ways of spreading voter awareness, the EC tried to reach out to voters through previously untried means to persuade them to come to the polling booths and vote – reflecting an institutional enthusiasm for popular mobilisation. However, there are also a significant number of missing names from the electoral rolls, and the EC faces accusations of being apathetic towards this anomaly. Is this eagerness on one hand and anomaly on the other symptomatic of 'democracy at crossroads', with India transiting to a more efficacious and involved institutional functioning, or is this an instance of strained institutional performance in the face of rising popular aspirations and tighter executive controls? The paper tries to explore this theme by looking at the functioning of the EC and its efforts towards voter participation in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]