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A platform of, by and for the connected-Rahul Verma and Pradeep Chhibber
-The Indian Express

Increasing frequency and intensity of protests reflect a deeper crisis in Indian democracy: the failure of civil society

In the last five years, citizens have poured out in large numbers at Jantar Mantar and India Gate (and in many other parts of the country) to ask the state to hear their demands. In 2006, marches and sit-ins forced the state to re-examine the Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo cases. In 2007, the OBC reservation bill in higher education became the rallying point for students to protest on the streets. Anna Hazare’s hunger strikes demanding a Lokpal bill and massive public support for his protest in 2011 seemed like India’s “Arab Spring” moment. The jal satyagraha by villagers in Harda district of Madhya Pradesh to lower the height of the Omkareshwar dam, and the demonstrations against the nuclear power plant in Koodankulam in 2012, suggested both the possibility of a vibrant alternative politics outside the theatre of electoral politics and the hope that such activities would deepen the roots of democratic politics in India.

The brutal assault on a 23-year-old student last month outraged the nation and led to massive demonstrations in Delhi asking for immediate action. The dominant commentary surrounding these demonstrations is that the case demonstrates the failure of our political class and its reluctance to mend its ways. There is no doubt that poor political judgements made by the establishment worsened the crisis. In our opinion, the increasing frequency and intensity of such protests in the past few years (often on similar issues) reflect a far deeper crisis in Indian democracy — the failure of civil society.

Civil society in other parts of the world seeks to make political authority more accountable, especially if the state is overextended and ineffectual. In many democracies, citizens are linked to their elected representatives not only through political parties, but also by various other institutions of civil society like NGOs, interest groups, media organisations, etc. A vibrant civil society is seen as the keeper of the democratic conscience.

A central element of civil society is its ability to regenerate grassroots organisations that help build trust between citizens. To be sure, there is robust associational life in India, but it does not take place in organised associations. India has approximately 3.3 million non-profit organisations (Government of India estimates), or one for every 400 citizens. Census 2011 estimates that the number of such organisations in India exceeds the total number of schools and hospitals (2.7 million). The United States, with only 40,000 such organisations, has much more vibrant civil society and interest group politics. Despite these large numbers, civil society organisations in India have failed to provide citizens the resources they need to meaningfully engage in democratic politics. Civil society organisations rarely, if ever, engage the citizens in a sustained conversation with their political representatives to change state policies — the Right to Information Act is the exception that proves the rule. Generally speaking, there is no doubt that civil society has failed in developing a broader set of sympathetic ties between citizens and their representatives. When was the last time an aam aadmi interacted with the state through civil society?

The impact of civil society organisations is limited because many of the listed non-profit organisations are not active and often exist as handmaidens to the personal ambitions of their leaders. Survey evidence shows that few citizens have ever interacted with an NGO, despite their numbers. Barring a few notable exceptions, most organisations seem content in their role as the “favoured child” of official development agencies, preferably international.

The National Election Study of 2009 conducted by CSDS estimates that only about one in five Indian citizens belongs to a formal association. Most of these associations are either caste or religious associations, or trade unions and student organisations tied to political parties. Membership in formal associations that are not linked to political parties, or are caste and religious in nature (and therefore exclusionary), is too low, and the sphere of influence of these organisations is too limited to generate a robust civil society that might be able to exercise a positive influence on the political process.

More importantly, however, civil society in India is constituted of associations that are networks, which rely on “who one knows”. A paper presented by Pradeep Chhibber and Irfan Nooruddin at Brown University provided evidence that most Indians participate in these associations to enhance their personal influence. Participation in the activities of associations does not necessarily provide citizens with equal standing. It merely provides easier access to the state and its resources for those who are already privileged. That is, instead of levelling the playing field, civic associations in India amplify inequalities in access to power by providing a channel through which social elites can exercise political influence.

These civil society organisations, when not altogether absent, tend to support existing social hierarchies. Jean Dreze reported that the share of the upper castes is around 80 per cent among NGO and trade union leaders, close to 90 per cent in the executive committee of the bar association, and a full 100 per cent among office-bearers of the press club. Dreze mentions that “the dominance of the upper castes seems to be, if anything, even stronger in institutions of ‘civil society’ than in state institutions”. Civil society, far from bridging gaps between social segments in India, has become a domain that fosters social inequality.

Affirmative action policies democratised state institutions and public sector undertakings, and the “democratic upsurge” of the marginalised sections “vernacularised” the electoral landscape of India. Civil society associations in India, on the other hand, remain untouched by the weight of democratic competition. Instead of ameliorating the pernicious effects of influence and inequality, civil society associations appear to amplify those effects and are arguably the conduit through which influence is exercised. Civil society in India is thus limited as a platform of the connected, by the connected, and for the connected.

Civil society associations are not supporting but undermining democratic governance in India. Civil society can improve the quality of democracy in India only when they prepare themselves to become mass organisations, internally democratic, and can generate the ability to connect citizens across the spectrum with the institutions of the state. What is ironic, however, is that despite its failure to produce this sympathetic alignment between the actions of political representatives and the interests of the citizenry, civil society associations are lauded for “doing good”, while the political class is demonised for everything that is wrong with our system.

The writers are at the Travers Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley