Equally vexed is the question of India’s burgeoning middle class, particularly its political tastes. Some commentators have praised them to the hilt. But during the past couple of decades, political efforts from within this class to paste India’s banyan democracy with turmeric — to use democracy to weaken democracy in the name of Hindu majority rule — have understandably sent shivers down many people’s spines, and not only within India. Middle classes are never ‘naturally’ democratic, which makes especially worrying the possible long-term growth of a dominant bloc of voters for whom living well simply means making money and piling up assets, including the peace of mind that comes from knowing that one’s children marry well up the social scale. There are presently millions of such voters. They bemoan how India now suffers from ‘too much democracy’. They sometimes gush with nationalist enthusiasm for politicians who promise to turn the country into a more confident, market-driven and ‘shining’ India — an India defined, using the latest ‘spin’ and ‘click of the mouse’ and ‘brand management’ tactics, as ‘essentially’ a Hindu nation.

The combined effect of these several weaknesses may prove fatal for the banyan democracy, though for the moment the odds are heavily against that outcome. A reminder of the remarkable internal strengths of banyan democracy came with the surprise poke in the eye given to the Vajpayee government, in the summer of 2004. The vote tossed out the first non-Congress government to have completed a full term. The rough ‘n tumble result saw a huge turnout of India’s poor. Their millions of votes not only guaranteed the formation of the country’s first-ever coalition government made up of a number of small regional parties in alliance with the Congress. Something far more important happened. The poor and their allies demonstrated that unity within a highly diverse country could be built by respecting differences, that despite everything it could live what B.R. Ambedkar once called ‘a life of contradictions’, if necessary by giving a democratic kiss of life to an ailing democracy. Through the ballot box, Indian citizens set an example for their offspring, and for the rest of the world. They proved that hubris could be defeated by dignity, using democratic means.

... contd.