Politics of India

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Politics of India
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India
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Republic of India

• A federal republic with a parliamentary system of
  government
• capital New Delhi

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2nd most populous nation

• Population over 1.3 billion
• Growing at 1.1 a year
• versus 0.3 in China
• More than a quarter aged 14 or younger
• Most Indians aged 28 or younger

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A nation of diversity languages

• Constitution lists 22 official languages
• English
• Hindi (44)

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A nation of diversity religions

• Religions
• Hindu (about 80)
• Muslim (about 14)
• Christian, Sikh, etc.
• all major religions in the world are present
• one of the major causes of conflict
• religion can become a political vehicle for
  social movement

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Brief history

• One of the worlds oldest civilizations
• 5,000 years
• foreign incursions
• Aryans, Arabs, Turks, Portugal, France, and
  Britain
• from 1,500 B.C. to 19th Century A.D.

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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

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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)

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Independence partition

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

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Republic of India

• Prime Minister Nehru (1947-1964)
• His daughter (Indira Gandhi) as Prime Minister
  (1966-1977, 1980-1984)

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Nehrus legacies

• His grandson
• Rajiv Gandhi
• Prime Minister (1984-1989)
• His granddaughter-in-law
• Sonja Gandhi
• Congress party president (1999 - )

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Worlds 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

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A federal system

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

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Federal system

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

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The legislature

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

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The legislature

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

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Elections to Lok Sabha

• Vote share of 3 major political parties

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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

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Prime Ministers of India

• 1947-1989
• 3 prime ministers from the Nehru-Gandhi family
  served a total of 38 years during the first 42
  years of the republic
• 1989-1998
• 7 rapid turnovers in 9 years
• Since 1998
• 3 prime ministers have had longer tenures

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Economic development

• Under Prime Minister Nehru (1947-1964)
• 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

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Economic development

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

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Economic development

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

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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

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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