> The Indian state has always been authoritarian
Unless you mean something different than what authoritarian usually means, you are overlooking decades of democracy.
Unless you mean something different than what authoritarian usually means, you are overlooking decades of democracy.
Sure, India is not a fully authoritarian state, but the folks elected have always had such tendencies. The current government still has to contest elections (and still loses them at state level), but you wouldn’t deny they are authoritarian. And many state governments (controlled by different parties of different political persuasions, as I have listed above) display the same tendencies: authority exercised via coercion and arbitrary rules.
Democracy and authoritarianism are not opposites. They occupy a spectrum - democracies can display authoritarian characteristics and vice versa.
When dealing with those supporting authoritarian governments, you need less bigthink and more simplethink.
Worlds like "spectrum" are bad-think-party-no-nos that lead to job-ouchies.