Jaipur, Jan. 17 -- Social historian and cultural anthropologist, Badri Narayan, on Friday, said that democracy has no standard global form as its nature keeps varying based on different culture and region. "There are multiple forms of democracy which has two key aspects of value. While one aspects of value are coming from the top line of the politics, the another is about the understanding of the grassroots people. There is no global form of democracy. India is the biggest democracy where different regions shape democracy in their own way," Narayan said during a session in 19th Jaipur Literature Festival. Narayan was joined by former Rajya Sabha MP Ashwani Kumar, journalist and author Manu Joseph, and another journalist Ruhi Tewari in a session 'Two cheers for democracy?" moderated by Georgina Godwin. Narayan added: "At the ground level, democracy also means equality, 'ijjat' (respect) to many people. Everybody has their own understanding. Politics shapes democracy is a half story. Rather, the politics need to transform to align with grassroots understanding of democracy." He maintained that no democracy in the world is perfect but it creates a "hope". "But Indian politics is majorly influenced by opinion makers that never allows our democracy to be authoritarian. This is the success key of our democracy but we also need to focus on the unsuccessful stories of our democracy to focus on further success," he said, emphasizing that democracy is the only alternative to establish equality. Meanwhile, Ashwini Kumar highlighted the failure of ensuring basic human rights in many parts of our democracy. "Democracy, everywhere, is anchored to some basic human rights inherited through Constitution. Different countries might have different living experience but it doesn't make much difference. Indian democracy is deeply rooted in the aspirations of the freedom movement. We have progressed enough but it is unfortunate how we still deny basic human dignity in many parts." He stated that a state exists for the individual. "Individuals do not exist for the state. Hence, the democratic leadership must be transformed with time." Meanwhile, Joseph also highlighted how inequality fails to create a revolution in a democracy. "We must notice that it's a poor who hates the poor. You won't hate (Mukesh) Ambani unless you are a billionaire. It's a slow process in democracy to make a change. But it has always been noticed as inevitable," Joseph said. Ruhi Tewari also discussed the women's participation, identity, and position in a democracy. "Women are nowhere a homogenous monolith. They have multiple identities. But, in every identity, women feel that they are second to men. We must see the political representation of women is also very poor. However, they are increasingly voting in the election as gender is a disadvantage for them." She added that the democractic system has an in-built nature with which the level playing field will soon come....