Political Discourse

Every political system is surrounded by an informal social order. There is a core relation between formal and informal order. The formal political system has its roots in the constitutional setup, but the informal order has its roots in the socio-cultural background of the nation. The formal political order gains both strength and challenges from the informal socio-cultural system. Politicization of the socio-cultural arena from a specific majoritarian perspective in India is giving rise to a parallel system-the Sangh System. The efforts to institutionalize the socio- cultural order from a specific political motive and its dictation to existing constitutional institutions are clearly visible. This specific motive has survival impacts on the existing legitimate political system. The article tries to understand the democratic resilience of the existing Indian political system, which is facing a challenge of democratic regression from the evolving parallel system (Sangh System). The article is divided into three parts. The first section examines the role of the Congress System and its impacts on the existing constitutional order. The second section focuses on the evolution of the Sangh system and its impact on the existing political order in India. The third section tries to understand Indian diversified values and plural socio-cultural fabric and their relationship with the existing political order and whether they have a mitigating effect on the democratic decay of the Indian political system.