13 - India

Summary

INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT

As the world's second most populous country after China, India is, at the same time, the world's largest democracy. Where China and other developing countries sought economic progress through the imposition of one-party, authoritarian rule, since gaining independence in 1947, modern India has pursued the three strands of a “seamless web:” national unity and integrity, the institutions and spirit of democracy, and socioeconomic revolution to better the material lot of the masses. The framers of India's Constitution were motivated by the belief that these three strands were “mutually dependent and inextricably intertwined,” no one strand should be advanced at the expense of another. Granville Austin, Working A Democratic Constitution: A History of the Indian Experience 6 (1999).

The reality at present is quite far from achievement of these noble goals. National unity is precariously maintained in the face of border conflict with India's neighbors, Pakistan and China, and frequent police actions to quell separatist movements and interreligious conflicts. Political power is centralized in the prime minister, the Cabinet, and the top echelons of the administrative bureaucracy. Prime ministers insulate – and isolate – themselves by relying on an inner circle of loyal advisers. Although more representative of the population at large than at Independence, Parliament occupies a diminished role as the power of the executive branch has grown. The civil service, once the favored destination of the best and the brightest, is widely regarded as impersonal, inflexible, and corrupt.