Our Democracy has become an Empty Shell

Democracy is a feature of an industrial society, not a feudal society. When India became independent in 1947 India was largely feudal,because the British policy was to keep India largely unindustrialized (because if it industrialized it would become a strong rival to British industry). After independence, Pandit Nehru and his colleagues, who were modern minded persons,were determined to set up a heavy industrial base in India. They enacted a modern democratic Constitution, borrowing from Western models, with freedoms of speech and religion, liberty, equality, etc., which was transplanted from above on our largely feudal society.The Founding Fathers thought that this modern Constitution would pull our feudal society into the modern age. The Constitution did help India to some extent, we did partially industrialize and made some progress, e.g. women were educated, we produced a large pool of engineers, technicians, doctors, scientists, etc. However mid way after Independence the feudals hijacked our democracy, and caste and religious vote banks became the normal feature in most parts of India. Most people vote on caste and religious lines, instead of seeing the merit of the candidate. This has blocked our progress. Democracy is not meant to be run in this manner.

source - http://justicekatju.blogspot.in/2013/01/our-democracy-has-become-empty-shell.html