Political Inequality in India: Nature, Challenges, and Solutions

The existence, nature, and development of democratic politics in any country depend on the amount of equality, balance, harmony and effective participation among the various components of the political system. Where all these conditions exist, democracy and democratic politics are strong, where there is a lack of them; not only the entire democratic political system but democracy itself faces a consistent danger. Among the factors that have played a dominant role in shaping the political system in India, political inequality is a major factor. In simple terms, political inequality is a situation in which theoretically the democratic politics is governed by universal suffrage in elections, but in practice, it is dominated by certain groups, classes or individuals, who influence the whole political system and public policy in their favour. In India, political inequality is the combined result of various social, economic and political factors. Along with the caste factor, the tremendous increase in the influence of money, mafia, and (biassed) media has endangered the core value of democracy as well as the entire political system. The political inequality in India is also responsible for promoting non-inclusive policies in the country, which outcome could be seen in the form of uneven development, farmers’ distress, youth discontent and communal division. Although India has made some efforts to deal with this situation in the past, this problem is not only intact but has become more gigantic. This paper attempts to explore and analyze these diverse dimensions of political inequality, dangers involved with them, the reformatory efforts made so far in this direction and the future strategy to reverse this phenomenon in India.