Across the world, democratic nations are facing challenges posed by increasing social and economic inequality. These manifest as polarisation of society along identity divides and a rise in reactionary politics, preventing people from participating in dialogue and democratic decision-making. India, the world’s largest democracy, is no exception, its people gripped in an environment of hate, fear, and rising communal violence.

The success of parliamentary democracy lies in the transfer of power to the people. This does not happen naturally; concentrated efforts need to be put towards it. Unless the people of a nation understand their rights and their own responsibility of ensuring these rights, democracy will remain symbolic in nature. To realise a democratic society, there is a need to create social consciousness with core values of rationality, justice, fearlessness, and acceptance and appreciation of diversity. For this we need to cultivate an active citizenry which sees itself not as subjects (praja), but as citizens (nagarik). India needs a movement which moulds its youth as active citizens who believe in, and promote the values of justice, equity, freedom, and most importantly, fraternity (‘metta‘ in Pali, and ‘maitri‘ in Sanskrit). The importance of fraternity for Indian society, rid with social and economic inequality, was emphasised by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. He said:

“Without fraternity, liberty and equality could not become a natural course of things.”

Center for Promoting Democracy (CPD) is dedicated to achieving these goals through constructive engagement with Indian society (samaaj), state (sarkaar) and market (bazaar)