Role of the Political Parties in Indian Democracy

Abstract Democracy has been celebrated as one of the best form of government globally. owever, still in many countries this best form of government is not followed; and the struggle of the people is going on, in support of it. In case of our country (India), which is called as the largest democracy in the world, the story of nearby 70 years of our independence is a mixed bag. Of course, when we got independence there are many political pundits who predicted that we'll break up and cannot stay united (the reason being our diversity, in terms of languages, religion, castes etc). However, we prove them wrong and stand as a one of the good example for many countries, which are having more or less same characteristics like us. Here, it's very necessary to say that, still our democracy has to go long way. As rightly said by historian Ramachandra Guha, as a “nation-state, India is 80 per cent successful but as a democracy, perhaps only 50 per cent.” us, this paper was divided into two sections, the first one deal briefly with the global experience of democracy, while the last part deals with Indian democracy. We are proud to be the largest democracy in the world. For more than sixtyfive years we have witnessed the conduct of successful elections, peaceful changes of government at the Centre and in the States, people exercising freedom of expression, movement and religion. India has also been developing and transforming economically and socially. At the same time we, quite often, listen complains about prevalent inequalities, injustice or non-fulfillment of expectations of certain sections of the society. These people do not feel themselves participative in the democratic process. You may ask why it is so. You have already read in earlier unit that democracy means ‘government of the people, for the people, and by the people’. It means democracy is not limited to just a process of election, but also fulfilling social and economic aspirations of the people. In India we keep on debating these various aspects of democracy and its achievements and challenges Keywords: Role, Political Parties, Democracies etc.