Democracy has been defined differently by different people. According to the great Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle , democracy is mobocracy or rule of the crowd. In Greek language ‘Demos’ means crowd. ‘Cracy’ is derived from the Greek word ‘Kratos’or ‘Kratis’ which means power. However, in modern age, democracy has come to be regarded as the best possible from the government. Different writers have defined it differently. The most comprehensive definition of democracy was given by Abraham Lincoln. According to him, it is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Thus, in a democratic system of government , it is the people who are supreme and sovereign.
The experiment of democracy has met with success in some countries like U.S.A., U.K., France, Canada, Switzerland etc. In U.K. democracy has achieved tremendous success. In fact, U.K.is the mother of parliamentary democracy. India is the largest democracy in the world. Fortunately, the experiment of democracy has been going on in our country for last 70 years and the results achieved so far have been encouraging. It is under the democratic form of Government that India has been able to become one of the ten highly industrialised and scientifically advanced countries of the world. It has achieved self-sufficiency in food grains as a result of the green revolution. Anti-poverty programmes have also started making some head way.
Democracy without discipline is body without soul. It is true that democracy is based on the free will of the people who are supreme and sovereign. But this does not mean that democracy grants absolute liberty to the people to do anything. Everything is fair in love and war but it not so in a democracy. Democracy calls for a high degree of discipline , respect for the views of others and unflinching faith in equality , fair play and justice. In India, we have rightly adopted a democratic form of Government. It is now up to us , the people of India, to imbibe the spirit of discipline and make democracy a grand success . Therefore, it is the foremost duty of all citizens of India to remain united and disciplined to defeat the designs of foreign powers to destroy the unity of India and the democratic set up of our country. By discipline and unity alone democracy can prosper in our country.
