As Churchill put it, Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others. It is a tried and tested path to ensure rights of the people and accountability of the people. But all over the world, the rise of far-right parties and demagogues is a worrying trend and a threat to democracy. The road from democracy to tyranny is an oft travelled and familiar path. This article attempts to identify the recurring symptoms of a failing democracy and the tactics pursued by an aspiring autocrat to seize power. Thereafter, it also suggests the role of vigilant citizens in preventing the rise of tyranny.

“When one with honeyed words but evil mind
persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.” - Euripides, Orestes

Democracy. The greatest political invention of mankind. It enables for the people to control their leaders and to oust them without the need for a revolution [i]. There is something thrilling about casting a vote at the ballot, discussing the latest policies and scandals, trying to convert our friends to our political faction and getting into political rage matches with random strangers on the internet. We take Democracy for granted in India. We proudly call our country the largest Democracy in the world. But it is a luxury that hasn’t been available for most of human history. Holding on to democracy is a much more delicate task than winning it. We only won it in 1950 and almost lost it 25 years later. 

The Day Democracy Stood Still
Forced sterilizations
Arrest of dissidents
Torture and abuse of detainees
Use of public and private media for government propaganda 
Suspension of human rights

This may sound like a plot to a horror movie or a distant dictatorship. But this was the state of India in its darkest period, which lasted 21 months.

At the stroke of midnight of 25th of June 1975, India as a democracy ceased to exist as the behest of a presidential proclamation by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. A state of internal emergency was declared and India lost its freedom to authoritarianism. The dreaded emergency period was imposed by Gandhi after she was found guilty of corrupt electoral practices. In an effort to hold on to her power, she attempted to snuff out democracy. The various institutions that preserve the power of the people got diluted. Fundamental rights were strangled. Anybody speaking against the government was arrested and detained without warrant. India was left in a limbo, uncertain about her future.

“During the Emergency the Constitution was mutilated, Parliament was reduced to a rubber stamp and the media was gagged. Even the judiciary struggled to stand up to the tyrannical regime. As a result, the people of India lost their basic freedoms and came face-to-face with fascism.” [ii]

This truly was a crossroad in Indian history. If the Judiciary hadn’t come to the rescue of the Constitution, we would have been in a vastly different future. Never has a bench of judges had more impact on our country than in Kesavananda Bharati v State of Kerala[iii]. By a narrow majority of 7-6, this bench formulated the “Basic Structure” doctrine, whereby the essence of the Constitution cannot be altered by any Government.
This doctrine was applied in the subsequent case of Indira Nehru Gandhi v. Raj Narain[iv], by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court to strike down the 39th amendment and pave the way for restoration of Indian democracy.

It is only because of this doctrine that India is still a democracy. The judgment in Kesavananda Bharati v State of Kerala was crucial in safeguarding the fundamental rights of the citizens and supremacy of the Constitution and preventing authoritarian rule by a single party. It is the reason India is still a Secular Democratic Republic and not, for instance a Theocratic Dictatorship.

Democracy
It is first necessary to understand what Democracy stands for. Democracy is derived from the Greek words “Demos” meaning People and “Kratia” meaning Rule. But, it is not merely a “Rule of the Majority”. If the majority of a country can vote to deprive the minority of their rights, then this is no true democracy.

According to political scientist Larry Diamond, a healthy democracy consists of four key elements: 
(a) Free and fair elections for choosing and replacing the government.
(b) The active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life; 
(c) Protection of the human rights of all citizens
(d) A rule of law [v], in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens. [vi]

Ambedkar on Tyranny
on 26th January 1950, the world’s largest democracy was born when its birth certificate came into force. Many of the makers of the constitution witnessed the effects of British tyranny during their participation in the freedom struggle. Hence, they understood the importance of creating an impregnable Democracy, that is self-perpetuating and enduring. They took great care in creating a constitution that centers on autonomy, accountability, fundamental rights , secularism and democratic ideals.

The Father of the Constitution, Dr Ambedkar believed that in a democracy, revolutionary changes in the economic and social life of the people are brought about without bloodshed. He laid down the conditions of a thriving democracy:
(1) No Glaring Inequalities
(2) Opposition Parties
(3)Equality in law and administration
(4) Constitutional morality
(5) Absence of tyranny of the majority
(6) Moral order of society
(7) Public conscience [vii].

Dr.Ambedkar wondered about the status and future of democracy in our country. Democracy as an institution was never before tested on Indian soil. He had wondered if India would lose the democratic system. “It is quite possible for this new borne democracy to retain its form but give place to dictatorship in fact. If there is a landslide (in elections), the danger of the second possibility becoming actuality is much greater”(Dr.B.R.Ambedkar)

He clearly seemed to recognise the fragility of democracy half a century back. The late 20th century saw quite a few democratic countries slip into tyranny. Now that we have an understanding of democracy, it is now necessary to see how democracy slowly devolves into despotism and the warning signs to prevent this from happening.

The Tyrants Bag of Tricks
Before we move on to the method of tyranny, it is essential to understand what one means by “totalitarianism”, “despotism”, “autocracy”: or “tyranny”.

"Totalitarianism is a political system in which the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life." [viii]

The political powers who seek to enforce totalitarianism are termed as “dictators”, “despots” or “tyrants”, “autocrats” among other names.

Throughout history, there has been a recurrence of the same tactics used by authoritarian strongmen in their ascent to power. These tactics don’t snuff out democracy in a fortnight, but rather a methodical chipping away of democratic ideals. And a dictator usually doesn’t force his way into power. He gradually persuades and manipulates the masses to relinquish their rights and lay them at his feet. As history can testify, this mass brainwashing has led to some of the worst crimes against humanity in modern history.

Nazi Germany didn’t start right away with the gas chambers for murdering the Jews. It started with politicians playing with the prejudices of the Christian majority in Germany. It started with a message of Us versus Them. It started with intolerance and hate speech. It started with denying basic rights and burning houses of worship. It started with ordinary citizens turning a blind eye to their neighbour’s suffering. [ix]

Tyranny is as much facilitated by the evil of the leader as the indifference of the citizens. The average German with good intentions, who lived in Nazi Germany was paralysed with inaction, partly due to the fear of standing alone against the regime. Self preservation overrides human compassion and heroism. Here is an interesting firsthand account of a German in Nazi Germany.

“Each act, each occasion (of the Nazi Government), is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.” [x]

The descent to Despotism can be slow and scary. The citizens ignore the symptoms when they have the power to protest. They are then left wondering where it all went wrong when they are staring down a barrel of a gun.

Hence it is extremely important to identify the first signs of despotism. Below are some classic tools a tyrant wields to seize and maintain power.

1. The People's Champion
“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People."[xi] 

The Totalitarian leader usually disguises himself as the people’s champion. “I am one of you” he says. He governs in the name of the people, his party’s name on similar lines. Think of Hitler’s tendency to add the word “Volk” (German word for people) wherever possible: Volksempfänger (people’s radio set), Volksgericht (people’s law court) or the now famous Volkswagen (people’s car).( Erik Kuehnelt-Leddihn)

Or Mao Zedong's People's Republic of China (a communist dictatorship that resulted in the death of 45 million people during the Great Leap Forward)
A more modern example would be the “Democratic People's Republic of Korea”. That’s what happens to language in countries like North Korea[xii]. A totalitarian dictatorship is a “democratic republic.” A democracy only in its name.

A democratic tyrant slips into power by dint of deception: He is usually rich, but he carries himself as a commoner. He is a gifted con-man. “In the early days of his power,” Plato writes, “he is full of smiles, and he salutes every one whom he meets … making promises in public and also in private, liberating debtors, and distributing land to the people and his followers, and wanting to be so kind and good to everyone.”11

But the honeymoon is brief. The populist begins as the people’s champion; later, having tasted power, he becomes their tyrant.

It is always prudent to stop and think of the motives and intentions of a Leader or a Party that tries to govern in the name of the people.

2. Fostering A Collective Identity
“People want to be part of a team. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be in a situation where they feel like they are doing something for the greater good”- Mike Krzyzewski
Commonality of all dictators (Kim Il Sung, Hitler, Mao, Stalin) is that they all stressed the importance of the collective over the value of the individual. They gave people a greater ideal to work towards and lead them into oblivion. They put the country before the people and encourage all their subjects to do the same. Indoctrinating more people with the collective identity of the nation state allows the tyrant to have more minds under his control.

The North Korean Bubble
We need not time travel to centuries past to see an extreme version of this tactic.

In present day North Korea, the official calendar year is 107(as of 2018). Their calendar is counted by the number of years from the birth year of their dictator leader Kim-Il-Sung. The current North Korean dictator with a bowl-cut, Kim Jong-Un is the grandson of Kim-Il-Sung. He is revered as a divine gift from the gods to save them from turmoil and bring them to paradise. Citizens are mandated to place the portraits of Kim Jong-Un and his ancestors in their homes, offices, and even schools and clean them regularly. (Big Brother is Watching you). 

The citizens are fed propaganda which elevates his godlike status, starting with his miraculous birth which heralded a falling star, instantly turning winter to spring. What’s even more amazing was the fact that Kim Jong-Un learned how to drive by the age of three and has a perfect highly evolved body which absorbs all the nutrients and has no need for urinating or defecating. An electoral vote showed Kim Jong-Un winning 99.9% of the vote... which seems legit.

This conditioning of citizens to worship their Dear Leader starts in schools. Children are brainwashed to devote their lives to glorify Kim Jong-Un and his father, as well as his grandfather. Songs are sung about their lives and the mythology that envelops it. A cult of personality and mythology surrounds their leaders.

Cut off from the outside world or the internet, the citizens of North Korea do not have a reference to compare their standard of life with other countries. Thousands starve to death each year and many more are executed or sent to concentration camps. The situation is so dire that people eat weeds, dogs, tree bark to survive. Some even resort to cannibalism. But the people of North Korea accept their living conditions as necessary in hopes that their leader will someday fulfill the promise of paradise. In the pursuit of this collective ideal, they blindly worship their God-Senpai and devote their entire lives to his service.

North Korea is just an extreme example of the collective identity prevailing over the Individual’s interests. Not all dictatorships are this isolated or brainwashed as North Korea.

Many other Dictators promise to take their nation back to the “glory days”, painting a dismal picture of the current state of the country.

Hitler repeatedly used “Make Germany Great Again” in his speeches, vowing to take Germany to its greatness immediately before the First World War. Older voters, who love to reminisce about “back in my day” fall prey to this pitch, undoing all the moral progress of the country.

Surely people are smart enough not to fall for such rallying cries in the 21st century. ;)

3. Fake News
“Attempting to define reality is a core feature of authoritarianism. This is what happens in George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, when a torturer holds up four fingers and delivers electric shocks until his prisoner sees five fingers as ordered..” - What Happened, Hillary Rodham Clinton 

Recently “Fake news” was named the word of the year in 2017. This catchy mantra popularized by Donald Trump is a critical part of success of any dictatorship. Hitler called it lügenpresse- German for “lying press”. Leaders of Syria, Russia, far-right Poland, Japan and other authoritarian states have all used the term "fake news" to dismiss credible reports that criticize them. Demonising the media is the first order of business for any aspiring autocrat. The media is portrayed as the enemy of the state. Just look at this tweet by Trump[xiii]: 

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
Trump's use of the term has given dictators around the world license to paralyze the press.

The phrase ‘fake news’ – granted legitimacy by an American president – is being used by autocrats to silence reporters, undermine political opponents, stave off media scrutiny and mislead citizens. Recently, the Genocide and ethnic cleansing carried out on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar was swept under the rug of “fake news”. 

While it is important to consume news from credible sources, it is equally important not to block out legitimate news as “fake”. 

4. Propaganda
once he has delegimitized the press, the Dictator is free to weave his own web of lies by repeated incantation. The fascist style depends upon “endless repetition,” designed to make the fictional plausible and the criminal desirable. Repetition is a prevalent propaganda technique used to solidify falsehoods and perpetuate fear in the public consciousness.

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” - Adolf Hitler

Former American President George W. Bush, accidentally acknowledged his role in spreading propaganda.

“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.” - George W. Bush

Tyrannical Governments first blur the lines between fact and fiction, by delegitimizing the press and media. This is followed by a heavy dose of propaganda filled with lies cloaked in half-truths. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights. [xiv]

Hence it is important to frame our political opinions and thoughts differently from what is chanted by politicians and others around us. We should not fall prey to catchy slogans and mantras used to lure the public. The actual subject matter of the policies and their implications must be analysed and not it’s marketing.

5. Refutation of Science Or Experts
“Knowledge is Power” – Francis Bacon (and Littlefinger from Game of Thrones)

A good litmus test to distinguish democratic and tyrannical countries is to survey the scientific literacy of its citizens. More often than not, countries whose leaders deny scientific facts like climate change and Evolution tend to be autocratic. A Despot cultivates hostility towards rational and scientific thinking. Critical thinking is the greatest threat to tyranny as citizens who can think for themselves quickly snap out of the trance of state propaganda. Hence logic and reason are impaired in school children and the education revolves around rote-learning and memory.

This does not mean, however that the tyrannical governments themselves will not utilise the powers of science. Even an Islamic country that gets all its truth and laws from the Quran needs Nuclear Physics and chemistry to make weapons of mass destruction.

Hitler used the Darwinian Theory of Evolution to justify genocide against Jews, reduce women to baby making machines and eugenics to create the perfect blond-haired blue eyed Aryan race. 

But the scientists in such regimes have no knowledge of other disciplines outside their area of expertise. They are reduced to hamsters in a wheel. They just perform their highly specialized task without any reference to how it connects to the big picture. 

In addition to fostering unscientific thinking, the Despot also fosters a disdain for expert opinions on policies. He tells his followers that their version of reality is the only one that matters. This effect was seen in the Brexit vote of 2016 where an ignorant 51.9% majority of British citizens voted to leave the European Union. The citizens were told to pay no attention to the experts who warned them of the dangers of leaving the EU. This led to the economic and political isolation of the UK in Europe and it lost all its influence in international politics.

This constant “dumbing down” of the population is combined with celebration of hyper-masculinity and religious extremism. The Russian propaganda is carefully curated to always show Putin in positions of strength and manly pursuits. The State released photos show him fishing shirtless, hunting shirtless and riding a horse shirtless…all in an effort to portray him as a strong leader. 

While his citizens chase after the latest hashtags and memes, the despot slowly rolls back their rights in the background.

This idea is explored in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury[xv] in which the author imagines a dystopian future where a tyrannical government outlaws reading, burning all books, destroying knowledge. Members of society lose their appetite for science and facts and start tofocus only on entertainment, immediate gratification and blind compliance. This leaves the public vulnerable to whatever lies the despot feeds them.

6. Fear Factor
“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty” - Thomas Jefferson
Despots cultivate an air of fear psychosis. Fear keeps people from speaking out. Fear makes people distrust their neighbours. Fear evokes complete submission to the government. Tyrants like to create a sense of urgency and panic. Hitler vastly increased his public support by creating fearsome spectacles. Many times, he created acts of terrorism behind the scenes and then pretended to solve it. In doing so, he was able to exploit the fears of the people to push his agenda.

Autocrats can either over-react to acts of terrorism or use them to justify horrible crimes.

Most of the time, the state response to terrorism does more harm than the actual act. American over-reaction to 9/11 Terrorist attacks led to the war in Iraq and ultimately the formation of ISIS. This kind of knee-jerk reaction to terrorism plays into the hands of the terrorists.

Take this analogy of a bull and a fly.

“In a way, a terrorist is like a fly that tries to destroy a china shop. The fly is so small and weak. It cannot move even a single teacup. So how does a fly destroy a china shop? The fly finds a bull, gets into the ear of the bull and starts buzzing. The bull becomes so enraged that it loses its temper and destroys the china shop[xvi].”

It is important to realise, as citizens that acts of terrorism are very rare. You are more likely to die by falling down the stairs than from terrorism. Sugar kills more people than gun powder. This does not mean that we shouldn’t take measures to counter terrorism. But our reaction to it must not be excessive or disproportionate, as that can be exploited by the government.

The citizens are asked to give up their liberties so that the government can protect them. When a government tries to train its citizens to surrender freedom in the name of safety, they should be on our guard. There is no quid pro quo between the two.

People who assure you that you can only gain security at the price of liberty usually want to deny you both. [xvii]

7. Rally Around The Flag
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.” - Mark Twain 
one of the most efficient tools of any nationalistic tyrannical government is the conflating of criticism of the Government with being an anti national or enemy of the state. [xviii]
Complete loyalty to the flag and state is infused into the veins of the citizens and any attack against the policies of the government is treated as an affront to the country.

Here, we have to distinguish between two words: “Nationalism” and “Patriotism”

The Difference Between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; The first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility while the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to a war. (Sydney J Harris)

A Patriot is proud of her country’s virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; Patriotism actively seeks to improve the country. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country’s virtues and denies its deficiencies. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, “the greatest,” but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is. Patriotism is based on affection and nationalism is rooted in rivalry and resentment.

Nationalism is patriotism transformed into a sentiment of superiority and aggression toward other countries. Nationalism is the poisonous idea that one’s country is superior to somebody else.

A Patriot values the essence of the country like Freedom, Fundamental Rights, and Secularism. The Nationalist values images/symbols of the country like the National Anthem or Flag over the Constitution. This is why Tyrannical Governments preach jingoistic nationalism. A country full of nationalists will not speak out against the Despot no matter what he does, as long as he says it’s for the benefit of the nation. 

8. Attack on Minorities
“The true measure of a society’s freedom is how it treats its dissidents and other marginalized groups, not how it treats good loyalists.” - Glenn Greenwald, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State.

No recipe for a Tyrant is complete without stirring up of hatred towards minorities and political dissidents. Minorities are used as scapegoats for all the government’s failures and to unite the masses against a common enemy. Usually these minorities are of a different race or religion than the majority. Tyrannical governments often paint them as the “bogeyman” who is coming to destroy the majority. The words “extremism” and “terrorism” are inculcated into the state propaganda. Recently, the Rohingya Muslim genocide was justified by the Myanmar Governrnent in the name of war against “extremist terrorism”. 
By fanning the flames of bigotry, the State turns ordinarily decent people into monsters.

In his book, Mein Kampf (Mein Struggle), Hitler explained how he believed that the German people were the true Aryan race and that their purity and superiority had to be maintained at all costs by prohibiting intermarriage and expelling or exterminating those who had no place in the master race. This led to mass killing of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, disabled persons, communists and Poles, who were reduced to death statistics in History textbooks.

It is also crucial to understand that Hitler’s followers thought themselves, not as evil people, but as highly virtuous citizens. A Nazi man working in the gas chambers flicks the switch to kill hundreds of Jews every day, then goes back to his home, kisses his daughter and then has dinner with his family, without any remorse or guilt on his conscience. Why? Because, according to him, he didn’t kill any real people that day, he just killed the “Jews”. This stripping away of the victim’s humanity is called dehumanization.

Humanisation helps us empathise with the pain and suffering of people with vastly different lives and experiences. It helps us see other people as human beings capable of feeling the same emotions and suffering as ourselves. Humanisation is the reason seafood lovers are cheering when Nemo and the other fish swim downwards to escape the fishing net in the climax of ‘Finding Nemo’.

But, Tyrannical governments are very good at stripping away the humanity of its opponents and scapegoats. Dehumanization is the first step towards genocide. Many of the most horrific rapes, slavery, mutilations and infanticides in human history occurred not because of hatred but due to cold indifference.

But, minorities need not always be on racial or religious lines. Political minorities are also persecuted in order to silence all opposition. A democracy thrives when there is free flow of ideas and an open discussion among people with differing political opinions. Each side adds their support or grievances to the free market of political opinions. When a Politician tries to silence his critics, it means he wants to keep his followers in the dark and deny them the freedom of thought. A leader who has nothing to hide would not try to silence his critics.

So, it is prudent to be distrusting of a Government demonizing Minorities and employing ‘Divide and Rule’ politics. A democracy thrives on diversity, both in ethnicity and opinions. Tyranny oppresses it (Sam Brownback)

9. Complete Control
“This work is strictly voluntary, but any animal who absents himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.”  - George Orwell, Animal Farm 
This is the ultimate goal of every Dictator and Hollywood Super-villain. A Despot seeks to attain godlike status of omnipotence and omniscience. He wants to micromanage the individual in every aspect of his/her life from the cradle to the crypt. Privacy is often the first right to die at the hands of a Despot. 

The great political thinker Hannah Arendt defines totalitarianism not as an all-powerful state, but the erasure of the difference between private and public life.

“Big Brother is Watching you”- The haunting words of George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘1984’, is one extreme example, where a Totalitarian Government monitors every word, gesture and activity of its subjects through ‘telescreens’. 

Though it is not this techno-savvy, the North Korean Government exerts the same kind of control into its citizen’s lives. It controls its people’s food (or lack thereof), education, profession, haircut, attire, sexuality, population, religion, access to media and even emotions.

A quick search on YouTube spawns a video in which thousands of North Korean citizens, men and women of all ages are seen crying hysterically over the demise of their dear leader, in an act of staged obedience. Mourners who didn’t cry enough were punished with a one-way ticket to concentration camps, where most of them died within the first year.

The Winter Olympics of 2018 was crucial in the relations between the two Koreas. The North Korean Government sent its athletes to compete in South Korea, its developed and prosperous twin. The difference between the two Koreas is stark and jarring. Both countries started out the same after the Korean War in the 1970s. But today South Korea is the 11th largest economy in the world while North Korea ranks 125th on the world stage. But the more important point I was trying to make is that the North Korean athletes who were sent to the Winter Olympics were kept at strict surveillance at all times. Their families were held hostage under the threat of execution if any of the athletes tried to escape.

For people interested in learning more about the lives of ordinary people in North Korea, I recommend “A River in Darkness” by Masaji Ishikawa. It is a tragic memoir about one man’s life and subsequent escape from North Korea. It depicts the iron grip that the regime has over its citizens. It keeps its citizens ignorant, afraid and starving. They neither have the resources nor the perspective to revolt. 

Conclusion
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”- Ronald Reagan

Democracy is the best form of Government but it is not without its flaws. A Democracy is only as effective as its “Demos”(people).
A successful Democracy has vigilant and educated citizens with diverse opinions. A population of passive and gullible citizens are no more than sheep bending to the shepherd‘s will. And it’s only a matter of time till the Shepherd’s staff is replaced by the butcher’s knife.
Below are some of our duties as citizens in a democracy
· As responsible citizens of our country, it is our duty to stay active and stay informed about our government, its policies and their implications. 
· Politicians shouldn’t be elevated to a Cult-like status, where they are immune from all criticism. 
· News must be consumed from various sources to accommodate difference of opinions.
· Minority rights must be cherished as they form an integral part of a working democracy.
· We have to actively defend our institutions like the Independent Judiciary, the Free Press and Multi-party system.
· In matters of Fundamental Rights, it is extremely important to be uncompromising and take to the streets to defend them.

If despite all our efforts, we find ourselves living under a dictatorship, all is not lost. No one is powerful enough to rule over a nation of unwilling subjects. Attaining democracy is much harder than keeping it. But, if none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny[xix]. The idea of taking on a Tyrannical Government all on your own seems daunting, but it only takes one Mockingjay to start a revolution. 

References
[i] Karl Popper Jarvie, 2006, pp.218–19.
[ii] . (1975: A Haunting Tyranny Sunday, 25 June 2017 | A SURYA PRAKASH | in Agenda).
[iii] Kesavananda Bharati vs State of Kerala ,(1973) 4 SCC 225.
[iv] Indira Nehru Gandhi vs Shri Raj Narain & Anr, Appeal (civil) 887 of 1975.
[v] A.V.Dicey.
6. 4. Diamond, L., Lecture at Hilla University for Humanistic Studies January 21, 2004: "What is Democracy"; Diamond, L. and Morlino, L., The quality of democracy (2016). In Diamond, L., In Search of Democracy. London: Routledge.
[vii] Shyam Chand, “Dr Ambedkar on Democracy”, Mainstream, Vol XLV, No 51, 11 December 2007. 
[viii] Hannah Arendt, “The Origins of Totalitarianism”, Schocken Books. 
[ix] www.brainyquote.com.
[x] Milton Mayer ,“They Thought they were free” ,1955.
[xi] Eugene V. Debs, Voices of a People's History of the United States, (Canton, OH, Anti-War Speech, June 16, 1918)” .
[xii] Masaji Ishikawa , A River in Darkness: one Man's Escape from North Korea, 2017.
[xiii]Donald Trump, Twitter, Posted on Feb 18,2017.
[xiv] Timothy Snyder, on Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century , 28 February 2017.
[xv] Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 October 1953.
[xvi] Yuval Noah Harari , Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, Harvill Secker,2015.
[xvii] ibid
[xviii] Brian Klaas , The Despot's Accomplice: How the West Is Aiding and Abetting the Decline of Democracy,2016.
19 ibid