Battles Half Won by Ashutosh Varshney

India's Improbable Democracy

A concise analysis arguing that India's democracy has been surprisingly resilient yet only partially successful: democratic institutions, civil society networks, and local political dynamics have prevented authoritarian breakdown and managed pluralism, but persistent problems—poverty and inequality, weak state capacity, communal tensions, and governance deficits—mean many struggles remain unfinished and require institutional and policy reforms to realize democracy’s full promise.