Democracy and Violence in India

Democracy is usually seen as an antidote to violence: terrorism should have no place where the ballot box is freely and fairly used. In practice, however, minorities reject majority verdicts, and democratic governments, faced with violent opposition, are tempted to introduce non-democratic measures to restore order, as well as exploiting violence for political ends. The study asks whether India's democratic institutions will be critically damaged by violence. At the end of 1992 the elected governments under the control of the Bharatiya Janata Party in four northern states of India were suspended by the central government. Was this a victory for violence over democracy or for democracy over violence? Indeed, can violence and democracy co-exist, or will India's democracy be eroded, smothered from above, undermined from below?.