On August 15, 1947, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his immortal “Tryst with Destiny” speech to inaugurate a free India – a nation then grappling with a deeply fractured economy, mass poverty and abysmally low literacy rates. He recognised that his task was not merely to govern but to forge a democratic republic and drive a massive economic transformation. When India became a republic in 1950, preparations for the first general elections had already been underway since November 1947. In a very real sense, Indians became empowered voters even before they officially became citizens.
Seventy-nine years ago, Nehru promised that India would eradicate poverty, ignorance and disease. Dedicating himself to both, the nation and humanity, he envisioned a prosperous, inclusive India. Although some of his contemporaries lacked a firm commitment to secular values and harboured majoritarian biases, Nehru took a principled and an audacious stand, strictly maintaining a distance between state and religion. He successfully secured India’s foreign policy interests, while on the political front, he nurtured what political scientist Rajni Kothari famously termed the ‘Congress system’ – a broad, consensus-based coalition that accommodated diverse regional, caste, religious and linguistic interests.
Now, as we celebrate our 80th year of independence, it is time to take stock of how well we have fulfilled those “Tryst with Destiny” assurances. In 1947, the developed world enjoyed democracies and civil liberties built upon the wealth of their prior industrialisation. In India, however, Nehru envisioned a simultaneous realisation of democracy, civil liberties and industrialisation. Rejecting both, the Soviet-style command economy and the US-style free-market system, he championed a mixed economic model. The state controlled key sectors like steel, coal and heavy industry, while leaving other goods and services to private enterprise. This unique brand of a mixed economy grew at about 4% annually from 1950 to 1964 – a marked improvement over colonial stagnation.
However, this growth was undeniably slow, eventually culminating in the balance of payments crisis of 1991. In response, the country opened its markets through liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. This unleashed private enterprise, triggered rapid GDP growth and transformed India into the world’s fourth-largest economy, lifting millions out of absolute poverty and vastly expanding the middle class.
Yet, since the 1990s, income and wealth inequality have surged, rendering India one of the most unequal countries globally, with the top 1% holding a disproportionate share of the nation’s wealth. Such persistent inequality stifles societal progress by locking marginalised populations out of economic, educational and political opportunities, ultimately undermining social cohesion and risking political instability.
On this 80th Independence Day, we can justifiably take pride in India’s remarkable ascent to becoming a nearly four-trillion-dollar, fourth-largest global economy. We are a food-surplus exporter with forex reserves exceeding $650 billion. However, our social development indicators remain stubbornly low, keeping us classified as a lower-middle-income nation on a per capita basis. On critical metrics such as health, water and sanitation, personal safety, access to opportunity, tolerance, inclusion, personal freedom and choice, India ranks a dismal 101st globally. On tolerance and inclusion specifically, we sit at 128th. These rankings stand in stark, uncomfortable contrast to our macroeconomic might.
Today, however, the country is navigating a democratic recession. International monitors such as Freedom House and the V-Dem Institute, have downgraded India from an “electoral democracy” to an “electoral autocracy,” citing aggressive power centralisation, the stifling of dissent and the intimidation of journalists and civil society. Independent institutions that were a source of national pride just 30 years ago have come under intense executive pressure. Furthermore, organisations like V-Dem have highlighted concerns over the manipulation of electoral processes, even amidst high voter turnout and widespread citizen participation.
While recent youth movements have injected a renewed sense of hope and democratic revival, the consensus-driven approach of the Nehruvian era has long been eroding. The fracture began in 1969 when Indira Gandhi split the party, dismantling grassroots infrastructure in a bid to centralise power. More recently, critics argue that since 2014, the current ruling dispensation has reduced India to a land of mere elections rather than a substantive democracy. Parliament rarely serves as a forum for genuine debate and discussion. The highest court faces accusations of executive alignment, and broader institutional adherence to the rule of law has faltered. The Election Commission is no longer seen as fair, impartial and independent.
Both, Pandit Nehru and B R Ambedkar harboured deep fears about the slow erosion of democratic culture. Ambedkar famously warned that hero worship inevitably paves the way to dictatorship. Similarly, Nehru wrote, “For it is not through Caesarism that India will attain freedom, and though she may prosper a little under a benevolent and efficient despotism, she will remain stunted and the day of the emancipation of her people will be delayed.” It is as though Nehru had a premonition of the modern-day personality cult.
Nehru understood that institutions must outlast personalities, and that those in power must be held accountable. It was with this conviction that foundational pillars like Parliament, the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India, the Reserve Bank of India, the UGC and the CAG were built – institutions that once placed Indian democracy on a high global pedestal. In 2003, a departing US ambassador observed, “India is a pluralist society that creates magic with democracy, rule of law, individual freedom, community relations and cultural diversity. What a place to be an intellectual…I wouldn’t mind being born ten times to rediscover India.” That is the India Pandit Nehru set out to build in 1947.
(Cleofato Almeida Coutinho is a designated Sr. Advocate who taught constitutional laws for three decades.)
