The Essence of Democracy was authored by Indian Parliamentarian and liberal thinker, Minoo Masani. It was originally published by the Harold Laski Institute of Political Science, Ahmedabad in March 1989. In the essay, Masani discusses several necessary conditions of a liberal democracy. In the Indian context, he discusses ideas of majority rule, limited government, sharing of power, reservation, proportional representation, separation of powers, rule of law, individual liberty, press freedom and polyglot societies. He lays emphasis on the idea that the “state is made for the individual and not the individual for the state.”