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Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
The emergence of democracy as a historical form of government is stemmed from the idea of a nation-state. The Constituent Assembly desired the democracy to ensure the liberty of opinion through fraternity of the individuals, castes and communities to accomplish the equality and justice to make India a nation. India made gigantic developments in the fields of economic growth and in building the institutions and integrating various sections of people into the democratic polity.
This work establishes the transformation of dominant castes into political organs and the nucleus of parties. The caste hierarchy thus turns out to be the foundation and, even, a reason for the success of the electoral democracy. The constitutional objectives set for the governments have however been infringed, thus democracy turned to promote capitalism and authoritarian regimes causing mass unrest. That necessitated the bygone Hindutva to come back and take forward the agendas of caste, capitalism and authoritarianism. Democracy has been passing through a crisis of conflicts – caste and community – at various stages of its evolution. The ordinary people at different stages had taken democratic stands turning the democracy to the right path through protests and voting.
Of late the caste movements for empowerment set terms for democracy to move on. The caste movements, however with sub-caste interests, ignored the conscientiously arrived concept of ‘justice’. The constitution specified that might have brought the people, parties and governments together for achieving the set objectives of democracy and the nation-state.
Inukonda Thirumali
Thirumali’s major publications include five books – three authored and two edited apart from publishing articles in leading academic journals – 1. Against Dora and Nizam: People’s Movement in Telangana 1939-1940 (Delhi, 2003); 2. Marriage, Love and Caste: Perceptions on Telugu Women during the Colonial Period (New Delhi, 2005); 3. Telangna-Andhra: Castes, Regions and Politics in Andhra Pradesh (New Delhi 2013). He, as a coordinator of the Centre for South Indian Studies, has edited a seminar volume, South India: Regions, Cultures and Sagas (New Delhi, 2004). The contributions from literature to sociology enabled him to explore new fields and bring out the richness of South India’s unique regional cultures and peoples’ lives. He also co-edited Repressed Discourses: Essays in Honour of Prof. S. Bhattacharya (New Delhi, 2004). He lives in Hyderabad after superannuation in 2016.
