India's Democracy Index: Alternative to Western Think Tanks or Political Move?

The Centre has reportedly asked think tank ORF to prepare a democracy ratings index to counter western indices.

While there is no clarity on when the India-sponsored democracy ratings index will be made public, speculation is rife that it may be released just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections – the first phase of which is due to be held on 19 April.

(Photo: Deeksha Malhotra/The Quint)

Is it a case of "rejecting a uniform standard set by the west – and applied to all countries across the world" or "a politically savvy move with a nationalistic boast"?

The jury is out on the Indian government purportedly approaching Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) to develop a homegrown democracy ratings index, presumably in a bid to counter the findings of think tanks in the west.

While there is no clarity on when the India-sponsored index will be made public, speculation is rife that it may be released just ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections – the first phase of which is due to be held on 19 April.

What is also unknown is the methodology and parameters which are being considered to create the index, and how it will differ from its western counterparts. The Quint reached out to ORF media-incharge Nisha Verma who said the think tank will "respond to queries on the subject in due course".

What Sparked India's Decision to Develop a Homegrown Index?

The move comes amid criticism by western rights bodies and think tanks of India's democratic standards under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The idea to create the index was floated after Freedom House, a US-based non-profit, downgraded India from a "free democracy" to "partially free" in 2021, Al Jazeera reported.

Most recently, in one of the sharpest rebukes against the Modi government, the ‘Democracy Report 2024’ released by Sweden-based think tank V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) in March stated that India is "one of the worst autocratisers" and is among the top 10 countries in the world heading in an autocratic direction.

V-Dem's findings came in the backdrop of several noteworthy events, such as the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the state's excise policy case, the notification of rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the Supreme Court's landmark judgment striking down the electoral bonds scheme.

India's alleged falling democratic standards had also been highlighted by the 2023 World Press Freedom Index, which ranked India at an abysmal position of 161 out of 180 countries – down from 150 in the previous year. Similarly, India's position in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Democracy Index had also fallen sharply between 2016 and 2020 but saw marginal improvements in 2023 – climbing to the 41st position from 46 in 2022.

Michael Kugelman, Director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington DC, told The Quint, "There’s no reason why India would develop its own rating system other than to counter the existing one, which essentially means a system that will present India in a positive light."

Elaborating further, Kugelman said:

"If the global ratings ranked India well, India wouldn’t be making its own rankings. It’s a politically savvy move, as it comes across as a nationalistic boast: In effect, let’s counter this western propaganda by showing the real story about democracy in India."

The Indian government has, however, constantly cast aspersions on the validity of western indices. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said on various platforms that India did not "need sermons" on democratic standards and accused the institutions making the indices of "hypocrisy".

Despite the incessant rebuttals, high-ranking officials from different union ministries were tasked by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba in 2021 to monitor the country's performance in these indices and identify areas in which India's reputation had taken a beating, Al Jazeera reported.

The report further stated that the Centre began tracking its performance in as many as 30 international indices – with different ministries being made responsible for individual rating standards.

Can India's Index Present an Alternative to Western Indices?

However, not everybody thinks that indices developed in the west are necessarily the best indicators to gauge the strength of India's democracy.

"There cannot be a uniform standard, as evolved in the west, that can be applied to all countries across the world. Democratic standards need to be seen in a contextual way," AK Mohapatra, Professor of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told The Quint.

"Creating a homegrown index is a very good initiative because we also need to put forward an alternative to west-centric models of measuring democratic standards. A democracy index needs to be contextual and culture-specific," Mohapatra added.

Similarly, Deepanshu Mohan, Associate Professor and Director at the Centre for New Economics Studies at the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, said that the development of an index which is outside the scope of the 'western liberal democratic order' is necessary.

However, he questioned the intention behind the development of the Indian index, saying that it might be coming as a reaction to India's performance in western indices rather than a genuine attempt at presenting an alternative point of view.

"If the intention of creating an index is to really look at the data, and not fit the data into a given pre-established hypothesis, you can expect the index to do justice to its intent. If the intention is to do the opposite, no matter how eloquently an index may be designed, it will be questioned," he told The Quint.

Backing up his note of caution, Mohan said that data released by the Indian government in the past has attempted to present a certain picture which is consistent with the government's rhetoric.

"I would see the decision (to prepare an index) in the same light as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's claim in her interim budget speech that 250 million Indians had been lifted out of poverty in the last 10 years. So, finding data to fit a hypothesis which has political or electoral dividends is hardly an academic exercise," he said.

Will the Indian Index Receive Legitimacy Outside India? 

Further, there is also a question of legitimacy: whether India's homegrown index will be regarded as genuine by a section of people domestically only or whether it will be taken seriously by other countries and global bodies like the United Nations.

According to experts, for the index to be taken seriously it must consider parameters pertaining to substantive democracy (such as freedom of expression, freedom of press, assertion of democratic rights at the grassroots level etc.) instead of merely procedural democracy, which focuses on factors such as the holding of elections and voter turnout.

"Elections cannot be seen as the only way to understand what democracy means. Unfortunately, that's also the limited meaning of democracy that the current government in India understands," Mohan said, citing the examples of countries like Russia, Cambodia, China, etc. which have "authoritarian" regimes in power but still hold elections.

"There needs to be corelative mapping of social, economic and political factors which goes beyond the ability of countries to conduct elections," he added.

Mohan also stated that for the world to respect an honest effort by India at creating a new tool for measuring democratic standards, the Indian government also must show that it is willing to accept all forms of measurement tools. However, according to him, the current government's track record in that regard has been "far from promising".

Similarly, Kugelman said that other countries will probably not consider India's index as legitimate, and that it will only "embolden" critics of India that believe the country is unwilling to accept that its democracy is struggling.

"Another key consideration is if independent scholars and analysts, and not government officials or those close to them, lead this effort. On both counts, I’m not terribly optimistic," he added.

Timing of the Index

What is also a matter of debate is the timing of the development of the index – seeing as it may be released at the fag end of the Modi government's second term and just before the Lok Sabha elections.

According to Mohan, the move is "absolutely political".

"There were 10 years for the government to think of a non-western or decolonial project of measuring democratic performance outside the industrially developed west. They could have done it at any time," he said.

Speaking in a similar vein, Kugelman said that the move will tap into public grievances of India's internal issues by resorting to a "nationalistic" response by the Modi government.

"Just like New Delhi implemented the new citizenship law and consecrated the new Ram temple just weeks before elections, it is now announcing the new democracy ratings system," he said.

Others, however, feel that there is nothing questionable about the timing of the index.

"The progress India has made over the last 10 years or so shows that the country is on the march, and other countries are not able to digest it. The west's efforts to undervalue all that India has achieved or to show that India's achievements have been at the cost of its democracy is absurd," Mohapatra said.