[centrist]

I am taking a note of how some privileged individuals possibly from rich western countries or elite Indians conforming to a political ideology here are mocking and judging a country which has been looted, enslaved and intentionally left illiterate for centuries.

India is not perfect. But just to bring things into perspective, the cited "beacon" of liberal democracy, USA, didn't allow women to vote until as recent as a hundred years ago. The civil rights movement is not even a century old. Compared to that India has been independent for less than 72 years. Democracy takes time but results are permanent.

Now please take a note all the naysayers: Indians will strive and they will excel without any "great leaps" or "gulags" like they have in last 70 odd years. "Jantantra" or democracy is an integral part of India, and it will not falter in face of systemic racism by the west (and far east) or bullying by likes of China. There was a time when a whole bunch of people thought that democracy will never work in India or even worse, India as country will not exist because of its extreme diversity. The British even believed Indians are incapable to "govern themselves". But fast forward to present - they all have been proved wrong.

Democracy is slow, but that is the only and the universally accepted way forward for a diverse country like India.

[centrist]

It's almost funny how an apparent Chinese (sympathizer?) (check the activity) user below calls India a "semi Slavery society" with zero context about the country and even tries to hijack the present BLM in almost propaganda like move.

Now, facts. Upon independence, India's constitution was written by the constituent assembly presided over by an "untouchable". This constitution abolished discrimination on basis of caste, and as an affirmative action reserved seats in educational institutions and jobs in all state sponsored educational and public institutions.

This reservation system has rapidly been increasing over the years and now a staggering 60 - 70% of all positions are reserved today. What's more, the current Prime Minister of India and the President of India are from backward castes and scheduled caste respectively, and a majority of political parties and multiple Chief Ministers presently belong to traditionally backward castes. Even election constituencies are reserved, so that there is fixed amount of representation in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha (lower and upper houses) no matter which government is in power.

The best any authoritarian regime can do right now is portray as propaganda that India is a "semi slavery society" which has no "liberal" shared values with the democracies in the West so everyone should shun it.

It's a standard divide and rule strategy.

[selimthegrim]

This “untouchable” had to get elected to Constituent Assembly from reserved seat from East Bengal thanks to Jogendranath Mandal because the one-Anna Congresspeople were still mad about Poona Pact. To a neutral observer does that sound like someone who was about to be put in charge of drafting?

[iliekcomputers]

If you read the history books, people in the West have been predicting the death of India's democracy ever since Independence.

It hasn't happened, our democracy is as strong as it's ever been, with a much higher voter turnout than most western nations. We also have a myriad of political parties in power in different states, from communism in Kerala to right wing governance for years in Gujarat.

The US, in comparison, has very low voter turnout even for their presidential elections and extremely popular candidates like Bernie Sanders can't even fight the election, because apparently, a true democracy doesn't allow you to choose from more than 2 choices.

India has its flaws, but all countries do. Doomsayers will keep predicting death, while the people working towards betterment know the flaws and will try to fix stuff instead.

I'd have expected HN to have more of the second view, and I'm pretty disappointed to see that that's not the case.