India and Pakistan: The First Fifty Years

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India and Pakistan: The First Fifty Years

Part I: Political Development

India: Democratic progress and problems

One of the strengths of India politically over Pakistan is said to be

the fact that it has elected to take on a democratic system of

government. There are several issues, however, with India as a

democracy due to several factors including numerous cases of

malpractice and corruption in electoral systems, which greatly

undermine the soundness of the democratic institution. Another major

factor that leaves one questioning the functioning of the Indian

democracy is the political hegemony of Congress initially, which took

time to change, and more so the dynamism which resulted in the chain

of inherited leaderships with a power transfer from Nehru to Indira

Gandhi, to her sons eventually and even later Sonja Gandhi, the

daughter-in-law of Indira. Despite this ostensible threat for the

over-centralization of power, the Indian democracy incorporates

various other features that help decentralize the government. This

includes the separation of the judiciary from the executive, a

multi-party system with several coalitions formed to assure that more

than one dominating party competes, the religious and segregated

castes are also free to rally support to make necessary appeals, and

then there’s also minimum military involvement in political affairs.

The only real lapse was the Emergency period of Indira Gandhi.

Throughout the fifty years it has been this transition or competition

between the regionalization and centralization of power that has

defined the political nature of India. A lot of what the

centralization of po...

... middle of paper ...

...ed that they were receiving aid from the U.S. as well in order

to remain as a buffer nation to control China. The shift in policy

resulted in the Ayub-Chou alliance where U.S. military assistance

continued but a greater interest existed in relationships with

neighboring Islamic states. There would always be certain disputes

with some of these neighbors as a result of the Afghan conflict.

Pakistan remained stagnant however with the Kashmir issue, gaining no

real ground over India. The resolution was to become non-aligned

similar to the position held by India. Currently Pakistan is deep

trouble in foreign affairs due to the adverse demands of the U.S. and

the rest of the Islamic community over such issues as involvement Iraq

etc. This has been the primary cause of the rise of Islamic terrorist

associations in the nation.

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