Question

8. Here are different opinions about what made India a democracy. How much importance would you give to each of these factors?

a. Democracy in India is a gift of the British rulers. We received training to work with representative legislative institutions under the British rule.
b. Freedom Struggle challenged the colonial exploitation and denial of different freedoms to Indians. Free India could not be anything but democratic.
c. We were lucky to have leaders who had democratic convictions. The denial of democracy in several other newly independent countries shows the important role of these leaders.

Answer 1

a.  Democracy was chosen as the prime value of our nation during the freedom struggle that we fought against the British. Yes, with the Indian Councils Act, Indians started participating in the councils and hence, their experiences paved the way for legislative institutions in independent India.

b.  Freedom struggle did challenge the colonial exploitation but it worked for democracy by making laws with consensus and not imposing anything on anyone.

c.  Our freedom struggle fought a bloodless struggle with tools like ‘Satyagraha’ and ‘Ahimsa.’ These struggles were undertaken to free India from the clutches of Britishers and give Indian the freedom they deserve.

Answer 2

$\huge\mathbb\red{Answer:-}$ Hello Dear Savita Siso

(a) Though I would acknowledge many good things were learned from the British rulers and democracy being one of them,I wouldn’t say that democracy was a gift given by them. Indians had to struggle a lot and make many sacrifices to attain freedom from British rule. These circumstances helped people to gain experience and training in the working of the legislative institutions.

(b) Yes, Free India could not be anything but democratic because the people had already suffered a lot under British rule. This made them realise that for people to have a say in ruling the country, it was necessary to make India a democratic country.

(c) It is indeed true that we were lucky to have leaders who had deep democratic values. It is because of these ideals that India’s freedom struggle can be considered as the only example of a bloodless freedom struggle in contemporary history. Therefore, absence of such ideals has made many countries undemocratic.