A Study Of Indian Democratization From The Perspective Of Caste System

With the end of the Second World War,many areas in Asia,Africa and Latin America broke away from the colonial rule of the old empires such as Britain and France.India has become a special case among these countries,and its political practice since its founding has let the world see the vitality of its democracy.Through the analysis,it is not difficult to find that the results of India's democratic transformation are closely related to the deep-rooted caste system of the society.Caste system,as a tool to regulate the social order of India for thousands of years,performs the functions of safeguarding the rights and interests of specific castes,organizing and managing life in traditional society.However,with the arrival of British colonial rule and the establishment of independent countries,traditional norms gradually collapsed in the face of the modernization process.The combination of the caste system and western values and systems reorganized and regenerated the political functions contained in the caste system.After the founding of India,the caste system appeared in many aspects of the political system,from the convergence of interests of caste associations and political parties to the decision-making of caste officials and even the feedback of caste groups on policy output,caste factors all played an important role.This active participation of the caste system in politics is both good and bad for India's democratic transition.In the early period of the founding of India,the traditional organization pattern and mutual opposition in the caste system were conducive to the establishment of a political system of separation of powers and checks and balances by the elite,which laid a foundation for the subsequent development of democracy.In the1970 s and 1980 s,a variety of factors awakened the consciousness of caste members to safeguard their interests independently,which helped India to overcome the authoritarian rule of the Congress Party and prepared the conditions for India to move from elite democracy to mass democracy.But over the past decades,the growing favor of the idea of defending the interests of one's caste,combined with the traditional culture of antagonistic caste relations,has exploded with astonishing destructive power,both in the daily lives of Indians and in the functioning of the political system as a whole.On the whole,the caste system has a great influence on,and it combined with other factors to produce different effects in different stages of time.This provides a space for thinking about how to view the traditions of latecomer modern countries and how to recognize various factors in democratic transition.