Politics of India

India

Republic of India

• A federal republic with a parliamentary system of government

• capital: New Delhi

2nd most populous nation

• Population: over one billion

• Growing at 1.5% a year

0

200,000,000

400,000,000

600,000,000

800,000,000

1,000,000,000

1,200,000,000

1,400,000,000

China

Indi

a

Europ

ean

Union

United

Sta

tes

Indo

nesia

Brazil

Pakist

an

Bangl

ades

h

Russia

Nigeria

Japa

n

Mex

ico

Population in 2005

A nation of diversity: languages

• Constitution lists 14 official “principal languages”

• English

• Hindi (30%)

A nation of diversity: religions

• Religions:– Hindu (~81%)– Muslim (~12%)– others (e.g. Buddhist 0.7%)

• all major religions in the world are present

• one of the major causes of conflict

• religion can become a political vehicle for social movement

Brief history

• One of the world’s oldest civilizations– 5,000 years

• foreign incursions – Aryans, Arabs, Turks,

Portugal, France, and Britain

– from 1,500 B.C. to 19th Century A.D.

190 years of British colonial rule

• Informal colonial rule through the British East India Company (1750s-1850s)

• formal colonial rule after the Mutiny rebellion of 1857

Struggle for independence

• Indian National Congress was formed in 1885

• non-violent resistance to colonial rule

• Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)– transformed INC– unity within diversity– non-cooperation movement

• Nehru (1889-1964)

Independence & partition

• Division of the subcontinent (1947)– India– Pakistan

Republic of India

• Prime Minister Nehru (1947-1964)

• His daughter (Indira Gandhi) as Prime Minister (1966-1977, 1980-1984)

Nehru’s legacies

• His grandson– Rajiv Gandhi– Prime Minister (1984-1989)

• His granddaughter-in-law– Sonja Gandhi– Congress party president

(1999 - )

World’s largest democracy

• Resilient democratic institutions, processes, and legitimacy– except 1975-1977– Indira Gandhi declared national emergency

• politics in India is characterized by– governments of precarious coalitions– weakened political institutions– political activism along ethnic lines

Turnout % in General Elections

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1952 1957 1962 1967 1971 1977 1980 1984 1989 1991 1996 1998 1999

Male Female Total

A federal system

• 28 states and 6 centrally administered Union Territories– 2 states are partially claimed by Pakistan and

China

Federal system

• Relatively centralized

• federal government controls the most essential government functions– defense– foreign policy– taxation– public expenditures– economic (industrial) planning

The legislature

• Parliamentary system of government– the executive authority is responsible to the

Parliament

The legislature

• bicameral Parliament– Rajya Sabha (Council of States)– Lok Sabha (House of the People)

Elections to Lok Sabha

• Vote share of 3 major political parties

Prime Minister

• Leader of the majority party leader in Lok Sabha becomes the prime minister

• prime minister nominates a cabinet– members of Parliament in the ruling coalition– Council of Ministers

• effective power is concentrated in the office of the prime minister– where most of the important policies originate

Prime Ministers of India

• 38 years in the Nehru-Gandhi family

• more and more rapid turnover

Economic development

• Under Prime Minister Nehru’s rule– private property and government guidance– powerful planning commission– government rules and regulations

• opportunities and incentives for corruption

– self-sufficiency• domestic sector was protected from foreign

competition• protected industries became inefficient

Economic development

• The “green revolution” in agriculture– new agricultural strategy in late 1960s– seeds, fertilizer, and irrigation– India became self-sufficient in food

Economic development

• state-led economic development– government-planned private economy– substantial industrial base

Economic liberalization

• Dissatisfaction with the relatively slow economic growth– dismantle controls over private sector– further integrate into global economy

• Financial crisis in early 1990s– emergency funds from IMF & World Bank– conditional on economic liberalization

• reduce government budget deficit• selling government shares in public enterprises

Foreign direct investment

-500000000

0

500000000

1000000000

1500000000

2000000000

2500000000

3000000000

3500000000

4000000000

Bangladesh India Pakistan

Economic liberalization

• Economic performance– average growth rate of 6% since 1990– reducing poverty by about 10 percentage

points– purchasing power parity GDP: $3 trillion

Annual Growth Rate of GDP 1961 - 1999

-6

-3

0

3

6

9

12

India Pakistan

Economic liberalization

• India has large numbers of well-educated people skilled in the English language– India is a major exporter of software services

and software workers