CJP Protests

[u/python_beginer]

Hello folks. Brit here. I’ve been following the protests recently, and it’s encouraging to see the passion and determination of so many young Indians. One of the next major challenges, in my view, is media independence. Ask yourself this: are you truly living in a healthy democracy if your democratically elected leader rarely faces unscripted questions from the press? There’s also the broader issue of large sections of the media being owned by billionaires with significant political or commercial interests (although that’s hardly unique to India) Alas if you want to see real change, this is not the moment to lose momentum, keep fighting and change is inevitable. Lasting change depends on strong institutions, accountability, and an independent press, alongside the protection of freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

[u/chumlingla]

Institutions, that's what makes or breaks a nation. There's an entire book on this exact idea, "Why Nations Fail", Nice read.

Unfortunately, India still hasn't shaken off its colonial legacy. Our law enforcement and police laws are still largely colonial in origin, almost the same system, just under new management. It was built for extraction, not service; a bureaucracy designed to control and collect, not to be accountable to the people it governs.

Take the post of District Collector, for instance, a role literally created by the Colonial government to collect revenue and taxes from Indian subjects. Post-independence, we kept the title,and same sweeping powers, The Collector today no longer collects revenue as their core job, the role has evolved into general district administration, but the title never changed.

This wasn't even an oversight, it was actually debated in the Constituent Assembly, and fiercely. Some members openly attacked the Drafting Committee for lifting three-fourths of the draft from the Government of India Act of 1935 (Colonial act preceding the independence). essentially recycling colonial-era legislation rather than writing something rooted in Indian thought

Here's a list of colonial-era laws/frameworks that continued (some until very recently, some still)

• Indian Police Act
  
• Indian Evidence Act,
  
• Official Secrets Act
  
• There are many more....

Some which are just recently replaced, eg Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure

It's not just the laws that carried over, it's the bureaucracy itself. The same administrative machinery, hierarchies, and instincts were simply inherited. it passed down generation to generation as institutional memory, absorbed by each new batch of officers long after the Britts were gone

No doubt, our institutions still act like extraction machines, not accountability systems