Political dynasties, often ensconced in power for long periods, have become a part and parcel of life in Indian in countries in its immediate neighbourhood and even beyond. This would not have been possible but for their broad and reasonably firm acceptance by the people at large despite widespread abhorrence of dynastic rule among the educated classes, which consider it undemocratic, if not anti-democratic.
But, ironically, it is democratic endorsement, once every five years, sometimes more often, that gives the dynastic phenomenon its strength an durability at least in South Asia. And, from all available indications, it seems that this state of affairs is unlikely to change any time soon.
