Over the past few days, there have been some very good analyzes of karnataka assembly election 2023, We are told how different regions voted; How Ahinda Manch (Muslim, Backward and Dalit) has re-emerged; how caste groups like Lingayat and Vokkaling have consolidated; What a proud tradition the anti-incumbency movement of the state of Karnataka is; How is the charge 40% corruption government Stuck; how regional pride was stirred up by the Nandini vs Amul milk controversy; how the BJP’s communal card met with limited success; How did the farmer’s agony get a voice; how people vote differently in state and national elections; How the power of local Congress leaders and their welfare manifesto resonated better with voters and how the Bharat Jodo Yatra had a significant impact than the double engine slogan of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supremo. This is all important information. They help us to understand the peculiarity of assembly elections in an Indian state – Karnataka.
a comprehensive story
But, they tell only half the story. Comments are very much state specific. They underestimate the result as if it is only a Karnataka story. However, there is another story that can also be drawn from anecdotes, quantitative data from opinion polls, Election Commission of India percentages, field reports and editorial comments.
This other story also needs to be told simultaneously. It contains lessons from our global and national discourse on democracy. The Karnataka vote is about the fragility of a democracy. And about its flexibility. At the risk of reading too much into this, therefore, let me attempt to say this otherwise.
Some analysts have described the Karnataka elections as the quarter-finals for the general election in 2024, with the semi-finals being the next round of state elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. This is both right and wrong. This is correct in temporal sense because in calendar terms May 2023 comes before November 2023 and both come before 2024. In this sequence the election was definitely a quarterfinal and 2024 will be the final. But it is also wrong that it only looks at electoral politics and not democratic politics. Democratic politics is more layered. Electoral politics is only a subset.
As our society responds to the inevitable dynamism of modernity in the long relentless march of history, democratic politics in India also seeks to respond to this dynamism. In a democracy, voters speak as citizens and not just as voters. Therefore, their vote is a political aggregation of historical memory and social imagination. It is a consolidated result of many factors. This is the story of Karnataka which should also be recovered. In that sense it is not a quarter-final, but paradoxically it can be said to be the post-2024 election that predicts the future of democracy in India. Thus voting in Karnataka is an occasion for a wild democratic celebration. Let’s look at five futuristic messages.
future messages
However, before listing them, let me briefly describe the unique political personalities of Karnataka that have made these two tales of electoral politics and democratic politics so believable. Karnataka has a lot in common with other states in India, such as unacceptable inequality, persistent poverty, farmer distress, climate stress, cultural diversity, a developing regional identity, marginalized communities, widespread corruption, and so on. Thus, the talk of Karnataka’s electoral blueprint is largely correct.
But Karnataka also has important distinguishing features that set it apart from most other states in South India, except Maharashtra. They also run politics. In short, Karnataka has Lingayat maths, which provides spiritual discourse, but also community education societies such as the Karnataka Lingayat Education Society which offers courses in law, commerce, medicine and engineering. There are Shakas, madrassas and evangelical movements, but also pubs, fusion restaurants and unicorns. It has one MTR for each cell. It supports a large diaspora both internally, Biharis and Tamils, and externally, Kannadigas in the United States, both sending images of what the future may look like. They’ve seen it and they want it. This is the reason why Shri Ram Sena’s Pramod Muthalik, who was involved in the incidents of intimidation on Valentine’s Day, got 4508 votes. Hindutva lost to modernity in Karnataka in 2023. This makes 2023 an election after 2024. Now lesson five.
A: A few months back there was a debate that India has turned from an electoral democracy to an electoral autocracy. Democratic backsliding was happening. The 2023 Karnataka elections tell us that democracy is back, especially in its federal form. The past week was, indeed, a good week for democracy in India, from two landmark Supreme Court judgments that restored the power of the Delhi government and where biased governors were guarded, to the Karnataka result . Both the incidents showed that democracy is back. If only other institutions would stand their ground. Also, the vote percentage tells us that while there is a loyal vote for the BJP and the Congress, there is more importantly a large swing vote. It decides the election results. It wants good governance. It has the aspiration of modernity.
Two: Civil society organizations (CSOs) are vital to the health of democracy. The Delhi decrees, over the years, sought to undermine and undermine civil society across India, in 2023, faced a naturally hostile response in Karnataka. The work of organizations like Addelu Karnataka and Bahutva Karnataka and many more are testimony to the fact that you cannot downplay the activities of CSOs and then expect them to be docile. They will retaliate. He did this in Karnataka. CSOs are fundamental to the health of a democracy like India. Don’t mess with the CSO. we need them.
Three: Karisma has a short shelf-life. It soon becomes routine. Weber, the theorist who put forth the idea of charismatic authority, argued that it moves towards regularization in either a legal, rational or traditional direction. Karnataka showed that it has moved on. Charisma and money power did not impress people in Karnataka. Its ‘use-by’ date has passed.
comment | Karnataka elections, ideological contest
Four: A competitive party system is the lifeblood of a successful democracy. So the talk of Congress-mukt Bharat is of no help as voters want a real alternative between parties. The Karnataka elections have warned all parties that religion may be the opium of the people north of the Vindhyas, but here in the south it is good governance. Karnataka has restored the power of a vibrant and competitive party system.
accommodation at dissonance
Five: Social and cultural adjustments, through a philosophy of peaceful co-residence, are more beneficial than communal disharmony. The divide and rule strategy had little effect in Karnataka. Such visions may have come from the words of Basavanna, or from Nehruvian secularism, but Karnataka has shown that it is part of the new democracy for India. Democracy is back as is secularism and scientific temper. Maybe I am reading too much into the election results, but I think the great UR Ananthamurthy saw this trend long ago. It was his choice in a way. So the 2024 election has to be brought at par with Karnataka 2023.
Peter Ronald D’Souza is an independent scholar. He was the director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 2007–2013. Views expressed are personal