Revisiting Indian party system: New directions and trends (part-1)
- Bihar Journal of Public Administration
- 21(1), Jan-Jun, 2024: p.28-39
Indian democracy refutes many theoretical formulations which otherwise appear to be very close to explaining the political reality in other countries. Understanding of the Party system in India is one of them. It deserves not just a rereading and renewed attention but a newer classification in light of birth of new sets of parties and changing nature of existing parties which overall have significant impacts on the party system in India. Secondly, it also needs to be looked at from Indian lenses rather than forcibly fitting them into classifications that emerged from experiences of Westerners of their home political systems or their understanding of Indian Party System. It is needed because parties are realities of the modern democracies and governments but how they unfold themselves in each system depends largely on socio-cultural, political and economic milieu in which they originate and function. Understating the party and party system, therefore, becomes key to understand the matrix of politics and government in a country. The present paper indicates that emergence of parties in India can be classified six fold – parties during freedom struggle, Anti-congress parties, parties owing to Congress splits, parties owing to Janta Party, parties owing to regional movements and community parties. Reproduced