India is a democracy until you criticise it?

 India was a miracle democracy, in my opinion. It's time, though, to reduce its credentials.

A nation forged from the ashes of many others

Even the most daring venture capitalists would not have invested in the country if it had been founded in 1947. “The Sikhs may try to build up a separate regime,” wrote Gen. Claude Auchinleck, the final British commander in chief of the Indian Army, shortly after India gained independence. I believe they will, and that this will be only the beginning of a widespread decentralisation and dismantling of the idea that India is a country, rather than a diverse subcontinent like Europe. A Punjabi and a Madrassi are as different as a Scot and an Italian. The British attempted to consolidate it but were unsuccessful.No one can construct a nation out of a continent full of them.”

Predictions like these were common in the early years of independence. According to the wisest Western observers, India could not exist as a single entity, and it could never become a democracy. It did, however. “A future and more enlightened age would observe with astonishment the ludicrous farce of registering the votes of millions of illiterate people,” remarked another former British official who was in India for the first parliamentary elections in 1952.

However, India defied its critics by remaining cohesive and democratic in certain ways. To be sure, there was violence at its inception, as well as subsequent rebellions in Kashmir, Nagaland, and elsewhere, which were violently suppressed. However, when one considers how much blood was spilled in the formation of the British, American, French, and Chinese nations, I believe Indians have gotten off lightly. Even more remarkable is the fact that an impoverished, divided, and illiterate country can call itself a democracy. Each general election is the greatest exercise of human free choice in history — and with several states larger than certain European countries, holding hundreds of province elections is even more amazing.

A third accomplishment that Indians should be proud of is our ability to maintain linguistic diversity. Americans are afraid of people who don't speak English, but the rupee bill in my pocket has not just 17 languages printed on it, but also 17 scripts. The founders of India wisely rejected the common belief that a single language would strengthen national unity and refused to impose Hindi throughout the country. Linguistic differences, on the other hand, have aided in the escalation of bloodshed and even secession in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Indeed, as a large, diverse multilingual political unit with a single market and free movement of people, India anticipated the European Union by many decades.

How Democracies Die, by Harvard University political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, is a 2018 comparative politics book examining how elected leaders can progressively corrupt the democratic process to strengthen their power.

In this book, Levitsky and Ziblatt talk about how democracies die and what are their causes? Some economist call this book as the most important book of the Trump era. 

This book shows us that how an authoritarian leader and his steps start the dying process of democracies. 

Levitsky and ziblatt give some major reasons of how democracies die? They explain this as a game. If you are playing a game and you want to win the game then, you can win the game by doing  3 things 

1. Weakening or buying the opposition. ( Opposition) 

2. Buying the umpires or referee ( Media and Judiciary ) 

3. Changing the rules of the game ( Passing bills ) 

And in India first two boxes are ticked , which is a big reason to worry . 

Plss read : Why do democracies die.