Page 190 - SST Class 07

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Democracy
You must know that India is the largest democ-
racy in the world. But, what does that mean for
us and for its citizens? How do the concepts of
democracy and equality affect our daily lives and
livelihood? Let us learn about Equality and
Inequality in Indian Democracy.
What is Equality in Indian Democracy?
We live in India, the largest democracy in the
world. This means that in India, there is a rule of
the people, by the people and for the people.
There are many important requirements for a
country to truly be democratic and the most
important is Equality for its citizens. This means
that everybody is equal in the eyes of law,
without any discrimination on grounds of race,
religion, gender, caste, class or birth.
Equality is so important because it preserves the
“dignity” of an individual. Dignity means self- head of the country (President) is also elected by
respect and the respect of an individual deserves
from others for being a fellow human being. It is
an essential and basic human right. However,
this ideal case doesn’t exist. Even today, many
forms of Inequality exist in India.
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FORMS OF GOVERNMENT
To understand what democracy is, we first need
to have an idea about other forms of govern-
ment. For instance, an absolute monarchy means
the rule by a king or queen; and a dictatorship
means the rule by an unelected and powerful
dictator. As heads of state, both the monarch and
the dictator hold absolute powers and are above
the law. They are not accountable to the people.
As a form of government, democracy is very
different from the rule of a king or a dictator. It
stands for people’s rule. People ae involved in the
formation of government, directly or indirectly,
through the means of elections. If the govern-
ment is elected and run directly by the people, it
is called direct democracy. This, however, may
not be practical today, especially in countries with
a large population. In most countries, including
India, people elect their representatives for a
fixed term, who in turn form and run the govern-
ment on behalf of the people. This is called
indirect or representative democracy.
On their visit to the Museum of World History,
which type of democracy — direct or indirect —
did the students find in ancient Greece? Discuss
why it is not so practical today.
Unlike the monarchies, in most democracies the
the people. Such countries are called republics.
Thus, India is a ‘democratic republic’ because we
have both the government and the head of the
state or President elected by the people.
The constitution of India, as the primary source
of all laws, is the guiding framework for the