“A country is not born as a democracy. It evolved and matures into a democracy. We are only in the infant stages of the democracy.”

—  R. Venkataraman

The Rediff Interview/R Venkataraman

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A country is not born as a democracy. It evolved and matures into a democracy. We are only in the infant stages of the …" by R. Venkataraman?
R. Venkataraman photo
R. Venkataraman 24
seventh Vice-President of India and the 8th President of In… 1910–2009

Related quotes

Ilana Mercer photo

“Ours was never a country conceived as a democracy. To arrive at a democracy, we Americans destroyed a republic.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

" Whodunit? Who Meddled With Out Democracy? https://townhall.com/columnists/ilanamercer/2018/02/10/whodunit-who-meddled-with-our-democracy-n2446787" February 10, 2018, Townhall.com
2010s, 2018

Benjamin Creme photo

“Local participation is the number one need. That is democracy. Politicians talk about democracy, but there really is not much democracy. They are the ones who make the decisions, and they are the government. In this way, your democracy is diminished. Democracy is democracy not only through voting but through participation. The more participation there is, the more democracy is a reality. Until that pertains we can only say there is a move towards democracy, no real democracy in the world.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The World Teacher for All Humanity (2007)

“The trouble with liberal democracy is that it takes a long time to mature.”

Mulk Raj Anand book The Private Life of an Indian Prince

The Private Life of an Indian Prince (1969)

Enver Hoxha photo

“I know about your [British] system of democracy, but in that system the workers 'hold keys of straw', as an expression of ours puts it. It is democracy for the capitalists, for the lords, but not for the workers. When we win we shall establish democracy, but not like that democracy of yours. In our country there will be democracy only for the people, while the 'keys of straw' will be in the hands of the beys, aghas and the bajraktars who have always opressed and betrayed the people.”

Enver Hoxha (1908–1985) the Communist leader of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of L…

Writings, The Artful Albanian

Arun Jaitley photo

“The last 60 years have seen collapse of many democracies. For a poor country, it is more difficult to sustain a democracy. From poverty, we have come to being a developing nation. Not only did we survive, we have the distinction of becoming world’s largest democracy.”

Arun Jaitley (1952–2019) Indian politician

On the occasion of the Indian Parliament completing 60 years, as quoted in " Democracy is behind our growing global stature says PM http://www.abplive.in/india-news/democracy-is-behind-our-growing-global-stature-says-pm-153064", ABP Live (13 May 2012)

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq photo

“I genuinely feel that the survival of this country lies in democracy and democracy alone.”

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (1924–1988) 6th President of Pakistan

As quoted in "Mohammad Zia ul-Haq : Unbending Commander for Era of Atom and Islam" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE2D71239F93BA2575BC0A96E948260, The New York Times (18 August 1988).

Yusuf Qaradawi photo

“There are many democracies in our Arab and Islamic countries, but unfortunately, they are all false democracies.”

Yusuf Qaradawi (1926) Egyptian imam

Sheik Youssef Al-Qaradhawi in Favor of Democratic Elections in the Arab World http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/129.htm June 2004.
Democracy

Stanley Baldwin photo

“It may be the communist tyranny; it may be tyranny from the other end. But if you cannot evolve a sound and sane democracy, that will be the fate of the country.”

Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech to the thirtieth anniversary of the Junior Imperial League in Kingsway Hall (19 June 1926), quoted in Our Inheritance (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938), pp. 17-18.
1926
Context: You have to realize that these years in which we are living, the years into which we are entering, are going to be, as no years before have been, the real testing-time of democracy... We in this country may make a fearful mess of it; and if we make a mess of it, we shall get something much worse— we shall get a tyranny of some kind or other. I don't know what form of tyranny it may be. It may be the communist tyranny; it may be tyranny from the other end. But if you cannot evolve a sound and sane democracy, that will be the fate of the country.

“Universal suffrage is one kind of democracy, but it is not the only way of democracy.”

Sonia Chan (1964) Macanese politician

Sonia Chan (2019) cited in " Secretary Sonia Chan Backed into Corner Over Political Reform https://macaudailytimes.com.mo/secretary-sonia-chan-backed-into-corner-over-political-reform.html" on Macau Daily Times, 7 August 2019

Vladimir Lenin photo

“Democracy is of great importance for the working class in its struggle for freedom against the capitalists. But democracy is by no means a boundary that must not be overstepped; it is only one of the stages in the process of development from feudalism to capitalism, and from capitalism to communism.”

Vladimir Lenin book The State and Revolution

5.4, Essential Works of Lenin (1966)
The State and Revolution (1917)

Related topics