On July 4, the United States celebrated its semiquincentennial, 250 years of its independence. America today appears more politically polarised than at any time in recent decades. Its big brother authority has diminished, its politics have become deeply divisive, and even the citizens don't believe its public institutions.

And yet, after two and a half centuries, the American Republic endures.
India, by contrast, is a much younger republic. In less than eight decades, it has emerged as the world's fourth-largest economy and an increasingly influential voice in global affairs. Our democratic credentials are often pushed as the triumph of the world's largest democracy.

But democracies are measured by the strength of institutions that restrain power, protect dissent and preserve constitutional morality.

America's democratic journey has been anything but smooth. The nation fought a devastating Civil War, tolerated slavery for generations, institutionalised racial segregation, suffered the excesses of McCarthyism, endured the trauma of Vietnam, witnessed the constitutional crisis of Watergate and, more recently, experienced the unprecedented assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Each crisis tested the Republic. Yet the remarkable feature of the American experiment has been its capacity for self-correction. Presidents have faced judicial restraint. Congress has investigated executive misconduct. Courts have repeatedly overturned government actions. Journalists have exposed wrongdoing without fear of being branded enemies of the nation. Universities have remained spaces of intellectual contestation. Federalism has ensured that power never becomes entirely concentrated in Washington.

America has stumbled often. But it has rarely stopped arguing with itself.
India's democratic story has likewise known moments of darkness. The Emergency of 1975 remains the most direct assault on constitutional liberties in independent India. Civil liberties were suspended. Political opponents were jailed. The press was censored. Yet the Emergency ended. Elections were held. The people spoke. Indira Gandhi accepted defeat. The Constitution survived because democratic institutions ultimately reasserted themselves.

The challenge confronting India today is of a vastly different order.
There is no formal proclamation of an emergency. Elections continue. Parliament meets. Courts function. Newspapers publish. The outward architecture of democracy has remained intact.

The crisis faced, and voiced by constitutional scholars, retired judges, civil society organisations and opposition leaders, is that institutions have lost the independence that gives democracy its substance. Questions surrounding the autonomy of investigative agencies, the Election Commission, universities, public broadcasters, civil society organisations, and the media have become recurring.

Dr BR Ambedkar repeatedly warned that constitutional morality does not arise naturally; it must be cultivated. Jawaharlal Nehru reminded us that democracy demands a scientific temper and the freedom to question. Mahatma Gandhi believed that the test of democracy lay in its treatment of its weakest citizen.

Economic success, impressive infrastructure and technological progress are achievements, no doubt. But prosperity alone cannot sustain a republic.

India's greatest inheritance is no less profound than America's. It is not merely an ancient civilisation or a rapidly growing economy. It is a Constitution that promises liberty, equality, fraternity and justice to every citizen without distinction.

As America enters its third century of constitutional life, and India approaches the eighth decade of its Republic, the challenge before both democracies is the same: not merely to celebrate freedom, but to preserve the institutions that make freedom possible.