Can India witness a real Coup?

Palace Coup in A.P.

Many political coups have been successfully, and often peacefully, organised in India. A good example of a regional political coup is when in August 1995, N T Ramarao was removed as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and as the president of the TDP, by his son-in-law N Chandrababu Naidu who led an internal coup against his own father-in-law! If we examine the possibility of a comprehensive violent coup at the national level like the ones regularly seen in many African nations, yes, then we have not witnessed one so far.

I would love to give a detailed treatment. Here's my take -

A. Coup versus Revolution versus Rebellion

Washinton, ahoy!

• First, let us understand the difference between these. A coup (more commonlyCoup d'etat) is a quick and decisive (and generally illegal) overthrow of an existing government by a small group that is in the position to do so, with or without the armed forces or military or the leading militia. Example - what is seen across African nations regularly
• Then comes the term revolution, which is used to denote a large-scale uprising of people from all walks of life, with the common aim to overthrow the existing regime, and replace it with a more acceptable one. Example - the American revolution 1776 that ousted the British Raj from what was to be the USA or the 1857 Indian Revolution against the British Raj
• A rebellion happens when there's a lot of opposition (armed, violent or otherwise) to the central authority. India has witnessed many of these post 1947, like the Naxalite rebellion (post 1979 till date), the Khalistan Andolan (rebellion) in 1980s etc.

B. What are the reasons for such uprisings?

Egypt's Hosni Mubarak

• Seemingly unjustified concentration of power in one family or person - Just recall what happened in the Arab Spring from Dec 2010 onwards. Most of the Arab regimes faced tremendous revolt from civilian populations as for decades, an ossified political structure had offered little devolution of power across the society. Examples - Egypt (Hosni Mubarak). An old example - the American Revolution that happened in the 13 original north American British colonies (against UK - on the primary issue of no taxation without representation - considered gross injustice by the Monarch i.e. the Parliament)