The Idea of Democracy in the Political Thought of Deendayal Upadhyaya: A Critical Study of Integral Humanism and Democratic Governance

Uday Shankar Vidyarthi

Assistant Professor

Post Graduate Department of Political Science

R.B. College, Dalsinghsarai (Samastipur)

Abstract
This article presents a critical appraisal of the concept of democracy in the political philosophy of Deendayal Upadhyaya from the perspective of integral humanism. Upadhyaya does not understand democracy as an electoral arrangement or a transplanted Western doctrine.  He instead situates it in a wider ethical, cultural, and social philosophy in which the individual, society, state, and nation are mutually related.

 The approach used in the study was mixed. The qualitative part does documentary and conceptual analysis of Upadhyaya’s various 1965 lectures on Integral Humanism, selected writings on politics and public life and on secondary scholarship on Indian democracy and Hindu nationalism. The quantitative component employs a clearly labelled illustrative survey dataset of 132 respondents to illustrate the manner in which perception-based data on Integral Humanism, democratic governance, decentralization, welfare, cultural identity and plural-democratic safeguards may be analysed. The study used descriptive statistics, construct means, cross-tabulation, chi-square testing, Pearson correlation, ANOVA, and reliability testing for the data analysis. The results are illustrative moderate to high agreement that integral humanism which is about ethical governance, welfare orientation, decentralization of public authority and the recognition of need to interpret dharma and the cultural rootedness within constitutional pluralism. The paper argues that Upadhyaya's democratic thought provides a unique vocabulary for democratic governance that is rooted in Indian culture and that is welfare-sensitive. However, application of his thought in contemporary times would need institutional accountability, constitutional safeguards and responsibility towards India's plural social order.

Keywords: Deendayal Upadhyaya; Integral Humanism; democracy; democratic governance; Indian political thought; decentralization; political ethics