India’s journey from Monarchy to Democracy to "Pseudo Monarchy"...

I am an avid reader of Soutik Biswas’s articles on bbc.com. In his most recent article he is talking about a new book India: A Portrait, by historian Patrick French. Patrick presents some startling data on the stranglehold of family and lineage on Indian politics. Following are some startling revelations from the book:

• Third of India's parliamentarians have a hereditary connection.
• More than two thirds of the 66 MP’s aged 40 or under are hereditary MPs.
• Nearly 70% of the women MPs have family connections.
• Every MP in the Lok Sabha (Lower House) under the age of 30 had inherited a seat.
• 37% of the MPs – 78 of 208, in Congress party are hereditary compared to 19% hereditary MPs – 22 of 116, in the main opposition party, BJP.

      
Is this a trend? I hope not. I think India as a democratic nation is still in her infancy and hence, still growing. If you look at a bigger picture, hereditary runs in most of the other fields. Take for instance, Indian film industry, how many present day actors had a family member in the industry? Take the big corporations, the control passes on from father to son/daughter (main and ONLY exception being the Tata Empire).

One of the most important things to remember after reading the above post is that all the hereditary MP’s still have to be voted in. So to all the critics of India’s hereditary politics, lineage remains a key factor in politics, but it can only give a head start and nothing more.