Liberalism in India

The recent incident near Delhi where a Muslim man was lynched to death on suspicion of eating and storing beef has once again underlined the lack of liberal values in our country. It is likely that the mob that carried this vigilante action was confident of escaping punishment for its actions. After all, perpetrators of many communal riots have not been punished till date in the country.

Such facts stand in sharp contrast to the fact that India is among a handful of developing countries that has maintained its track record of having free and fair elections since Independence. There can be one possible answer and it’s between two kinds of democracies. Electoral democracies can guarantee the first two sets of rights, but only a liberal democracy would ensure that civil rights are honored as well.

Chances of emergence of a liberal democracy in a country depend on the nature of dominant cleavages in the social mobilization that ushered in democracy whether it was class based or identity based. While the majority would like to transition to electoral democracy as it gives them control over policies such as taxation and provision of public goods, it might not always be interested in liberalism. This is because the majority stands to increase its gain by denying civil rights to the minority once it has captured political power through universal suffrage in an electoral democracy.

The reason why countries of Western Europe have liberal democracies is because liberalism, a product of events such as Protestant reformation and resultant acceptance of ideas of tolerance and equality despite religion, preceded a democratic transition. In contrast to this, democratic transition in most developing countries was achieved after an anti-colonial struggle in which identity rather than class occupied center stage. Liberalism must have political legs in addition to normative appeal.