Yet the diversity of religious faiths and language, the multiplicity of land systems and property relations, and the sheer magnitude of the task involved in making democracy meaningful to the millions of our people set India apart in a class by itself. In a country where the constituent States are larger in area and population than sovereign nations in other regions of the World, we have to evolve a suitable form of participatory democracy. It is essential for people to have a genuine sense of involvement in the making of modern India.
The Panchayati Raj* set-up or some other suitable form of democratic decentralisation can provide the necessary institutional framework for such participation. Even the process of planning and implementation of development projects needs to be carried to well-defined units below the State level. This raises the related question of transforming a colonial bureaucracy into development administration. It also calls for a reorientation of our educational system.
(* Administration of rural areas by five-member village committees.)
Commitment to Socialism
In India we cannot be satisfied with mere political democracy. It can be meaningful to the larger mass of our people only if it serves as an effective instrument for ushering in economic democracy.
Faith in socialism, a natural path for a nation which desires to ensure social justice for its poor people and weaker sections of society, goes back to 1936. It was then that Nehru, as President of the Indian National Congress, had declared:
"I am convinced that the only key to the solution of the, world's problems and of India's problems lies in socialism. And when I use these words I do so not in a vague humanitarian way but in the scientific economic sense. Socialism is, however, something even more than an economic doctrine: it is philosophy of life. And as such also it appeals to me. I see no way of ending the poverty, the unemployment. The degradation and the subjection of the Indian people, except through socialism. Socialism is thus for me not merely an economic doctrine which I favour; it is a vital creed which I hold with all my head and heart. I work for Indian independence because the nationalist in me cannot tolerate alien domination. I work for it even more because for me it is an inevitable step to social and economic changes."
To translate the commitment to socialism, we have to consciously redirect our policies and programmes so that they benefit the masses. This is necessary because -developing nations start off with an unequal distribution of wealth and income which tends to influence the economic activity towards further concentration.