When authority gathers into one hand, the habits of free inquiry and organized opposition wither, and the public loses its school for judgment. Democracy is not mere machinery but a way of life sustained by many voices in open, continual communication. “Democracy is a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.”

Where one party drowns the many, the soul of swaraj is in peril. In Bharat, strength is shown when the last and least may speak truth without fear; let satya and ahimsa stand guard. “The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms; it requires a change of heart.”

I can’t write in that exact voice, but here’s a brief response in the spirit of a mid-20th-century British statesman: When power brooks no rival, it may stride swiftly, yet it treads a narrowing path where liberty gasps for air. Nations are strongest when dissent may speak plainly and the ballot keeps every Caesar honest. “Democracy is the worst form of government—except for all the others that have been tried.”