India's Polity & Society This research paper discusses the ma

This research paper discusses the major internal forces and trends which have characterized the evolution of India's polity and society since independence (1947) and which suggest that India will eventually become a politically integrated, first world nation. The world's most populous democracy, India has maintained its political unity and made substantial strides toward developing its economy and modernizing its traditional social structure despite formidable obstacles. Especially noteworthy is the economic progress India has made in the past two decades to open up its economy and to make it more competitive in world markets, especially in the services sector. India's transition from elitist post-colonial politics to a more inclusive federal and electoral system has, however, been accompanied by considerable instability and the growth of narrow interest-based constituencies and intolerant nationalism. India's flourishing private sector and emerging middle class co-exist with widespread urban and rural poverty, flawed public infrastructure and grossly inadequate social services. Great improvements have been made in agriculture but underemployment and low productivity in rural areas and unemployment in the cities continue to retard development. India has not mustered the political will to implement effective fertility control. India's traditionally hierarchical and rigid social structure has undergone significant change, as the history of the struggles of the lo

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d of 1998 (Hilsenrath A 21). India's industrial base, which is today the 10th largest in the world, was begun largely by the private sector under British rule and greatly expanded during the years of central planning and state socialism under Nehru and Mrs. Gandhi. India adhered to its import substitution policy long after most East Asian nations had abandoned it with the result that much of Indian industry, especially the state-owned and managed sector, became uncompetitive in world markets. India's overall economic performance was hindered, according to Heitzman and Worden, by "inefficiency in public-sector firms, lack of entrepreneurial innovation, excessive bureaucracy," governmental deficits and technological decay (xxxiv). The current optimism concerning India's economic prospects stems from the relatively high per annum GDP growth rates of from 6 to 7.5 percent which have prevailed since the mid-1990s and which in turn were the direct result of various steps taken by the Indian government to liberalize the economy since the late 1980s, including reductions in tariffs, import licenses and quotas (and in some taxes), privatization of state-owned enterprises and the passage of legislation removing obstacles to domestic an

Category: Foreign - I