India, as a democratic nation is a successful nation. Explain your views in brief.
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Answer:
I shall suggest that the sense in which democracy in a given country is successful depends upon the absence or presence of its citizens’ autonomy. The extent to which this autonomy is realized depends upon the effectiveness of citizenship rights. Social indicators can help us determine the extent to which citizens have equal access to these rights. I shall argue that in this sense Indian democracy is both successful and unsuccessful. Moving beyond the analytical framework of the nation-state, a comparison between the states of Kerala and Bihar shall help to illustrate this apparent paradox. While disadvantaged groups in Kerala have made the transition from clients to citizens, the example of Bihar shows us that widespread clientelism under the guise of formal democracy can make citizenship rights ineffective and any notion of autonomy illusory.