Anuradha Shankar: Democratic Resilience: Grassroots Experience with Public Services/Institutions

This talk explores India’s unique experiment in participatory democracy, built on universal suffrage and autonomous apolitical national institutions. For over six decades, a parallel network of Gandhian grassroots movements complemented the formal system, thereby nurturing the republic’s roots, protecting the vulnerable, and checking excesses of the colonial-era bureaucracy through mutual respect despite occasional friction. In the last decade, however, this symbiotic relationship has weakened significantly. As the establishment derecognises people’s movements and treats all dissent as rebellion, autonomous institutions lose public trust. This poses an unprecedented challenge to democratic resilience in a nation born from non-violent resistance. The talk argues that the path forward lies in strengthening Gandhian movements of integrity, whose proven non-violent approach remains essential for safeguarding India’s democracy.​

Anuradha Shankar was born in a family active in India’s Freedom Movement. A decorated Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, now superannuated, she is known as a change agent rather than an upholder of bureaucratic perimeters, who mentors youth for responsible, ethical citizenship. She is the Chairperson of CESCI Madurai associated with Ekta Parishad and serves on the Supreme Court of India’s Committee of Experts for Guidelines on Gender Sensitive Lexicon for Judges. She is on the Board of Association Montessori Internationale, Amsterdam. Anuradha travels widely to speak on Kasturba and Mahatma Gandhi’s experiments with Active Non-violence.​