SIPA Magazine

Healing a Broken Society

By Brett Essler
Posted Oct 11 2024
Prakhar Bhartiya MPA ’20
Photo by Ian DiSalvo


A recent report from the Brookings Institution noted that “it is increasingly rare for an authoritarian to come to power via a coup. Instead, democracies in decline usually experience a slow but steady erosion.”

Democratic backsliding is occurring globally, but the Center for American Progress notes that in India, the world’s largest democracy, “several” of the hallmarks of this global trend toward authoritarianism are at play: “the breakdown in political pluralism, a decay in independent state institutions, and a clampdown on political dissent.”

Concerned that established politicians were no longer seen as role models for Indian youth, Prakhar Bhartiya MPA ’20 cofounded the Indian School of Democracy (ISD) with Hemakshi Meghani in 2018. ISD’s mission is to organize short- and long-term programs for young people who are working in politics across the geographical, political, and ideological spectra.

“How do we create a community of people who are wanting to bring political change in the country?” Bhartiya asks about his native India. “It is becoming more and more difficult in the country to work in politics.”

In 2008 Bhartiya founded Youth Alliance, an organization that, in the 10 years he led it, helped launch more than 50 social ventures from young Indians. “That gave me a lot of belief that it is possible to set young people on a trajectory of inner transformation, and on a leadership journey doing something tangible,” he says. “While I was doing that, I was always keenly interested in politics.”

Bhartiya found that the barrier to entry for Indian politics was nearly impossible for young, middle-class citizens lacking family or financial connections. He cofounded ISD on the same principles as Youth Alliance’s to empower young people from a plurality of backgrounds to “create leadership journeys.”

First, Bhartiya embarked on a leadership journey of his own. He arrived at SIPA in 2018 — as the United States was grappling with the Trump administration’s move toward illiberalism— to further his knowledge of how democratic institutions are constructed and nurtured. At SIPA he found a mentor in Dean Emerita Lisa Anderson, an expert on state formation, regime change, and democratization in developing countries.

“She was one person who made me believe that what you’re thinking about principled politics is important,” Bhartiya says. “She literally nudged me, inspired me. And her class was where I would really understand what’s happening in the Middle East, how democracy is shaping across the world.”

While Bhartiya steeped himself in academic discourse at SIPA— tackling courses on a wide variety of subjects, including Gandhi and political philosophy— he was simultaneously working with Meghani back in India to fast-track the work of ISD. The school’s approach is holistic, focusing on the hard skills of politics, like fundraising, understanding the constitution, election management, and networking, while also cultivating “inner transformation”— students learn “hardcore campaign management” and practice daily mindfulness.

“SIPA played a very crucial role in my defining thinking,” Bhartiya says. “Before [attending SIPA], I would say, ‘If you’re a good human being, you can do anything.’ I think being a good human being is the foundation, but you have to have the skills needed. You have to have the intellect to understand, What does the constitution say? You have to have the understanding of, How do we build a team? How do we raise resources to be in politics?”

“Before [attending SIPA], I would say, ‘If you’re a good human being, you can do anything.’ I think being a good human being is the foundation, but you have to have the skills needed.”

By working with young politicians at the local level, ISD hopes to instill “moral courage and imagination” that will inform the next 30 to 50 years in Indian politics, breaking down barriers of ethnicity, religion, and caste to redefine public leadership. With three cohorts of 40 each year, ISD now boasts an alumni network of 300. Some of the school’s initiatives include Democracy Express, a nine-day immersive political-learning journey across four of India’s states, and She Represents, which aims to work with women leaders who want to be in politics.

“We have at least 55 to 60 percent of people who come from disadvantaged communities,” Bhartiya says. “In the last decade, the social fabric of the country has been shaken — this division doesn’t work long term in a country which is as pluralist as India. It will take at least two generations to heal that.”

With India’s democracy at an inflection point (as of this writing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a third straight term but failed to secure a parliamentary majority), Bhartiya returned to SIPA this spring to reconnect with faculty like Anderson and a new pipeline of civic-minded leaders whom he hopes will choose public service over the private sector. ISD does not take funding from outside India, so building a robust knowledge and financial network within India is key to the school’s growth.

“I think India defied a lot of the West, who said, ‘India is not one country; it’s so diverse, it is impossible to hold it together,’” Bhartiya says. “And we survived that. But now I feel that we are at a stage where there’s so much hatred at the ground level. How do we heal a society that’s so broken?”

ISD’s work, he says, “will be completed when India’s democracy will work for all its citizens and not just a few.”

In a country of nearly 1.5 billion people, the Indian School of Democracy’s alumni network of 300 may seem small, but as Gandhi said, “The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without— it has to come from within.”