"It is arguably more sustainable over the long term than in the case of China."

It's also very arguable that China can shore up its weaknesses and enhance its strengths more than India can. For example, India's IT sector is facing a huge challenge from China.

India's problems of red tape, corruption (in some ways worse than in China) and lack of infrastructure due to politicking doesn't auger excessive optimism. Toss in the problems it has on the borders and ethnic/religious tensions threatening to boil over, security issues, and it gets worse.

China has similar problems, for example North Korea (but hey, it's a dog on a leash), Tibet, and the Muslims in Xinjiang, but all to a much lesser extent due to its internal homogeneity. The fact it's NOT a democracy plays in its favor in the short run. In the long run? I would hesitate very much to bet against China, given what they've managed to pull off so far, which is quite beyond what India could have accomplished.

Are Indians ready for democracy at all? Do they understand the importance of the vote and the responsibility they hold? Given what they've attained so far, I guess they've done pretty well, even it took several decades and bad decisions, which aren't really their fault, before it dawned on them that their choice of politicians weren't so good after all.

More important, India's lack of infrastructure and educational policy has meant that its manufacturing, which means employment for the average middle, hasn't really kept up. Regardless of the strength of its service and IT sectors (which employ the elite), India needs to take advantage of its demographics NOW while it can. For various reasons, I don't see it happening to the extent that it needs to.

"It is arguably more sustainable over the long term than in the case of China."

Would you care to name a Country/Empire that has existed for more than two thousand years and is still expanding today. Hint: its name doesn't begin with A, B, D or I.
Also, it's never been a democracy.

Jonathan,

a minor quibble - it's Gandhi and not Ghandi.

The communist parties have had their worst performance ever. The BJP has also fared horribly, and considering what it offered the electorate this time around was the worst sort of Hindu bigotry mixed with awful economic populism (loan waivers, fresh loans at 4%, subsidized rice), this is a reason to celebrate.

Hopefully, the BJP's defeat will lead it to ditch the religious idiots and move to being a right-centrist party (which doesn't exist in India), but I'm not counting on it.

I'm not as optimistic about the Congress' propensity to get a move on with economic reform as you or many talking heads seem to be. Yes, many of their initiatives were stalled by the communist parties in the last five years - pension and financial sector reform, labour law reform, privatisation - but they also gave up reforming even where there was no expressed opposition in things like highway construction (started by the previous BJP government), administrative reforms, especially depoliticising the control of police, and so forth. I'm giving three cheers for the defeat of the scum, only a half hearted cheer for the next five years.

You should probably visit The Acorn (acorn.nationalinterest.in) over the next few days for a perspective on what this means for Indian foreign policy and internal security, especially where China is concerned.

I think India has a better hang of this democracy lark than we Brits do. Indian politicians have incredible talents for venality, corruption and getting criminal records. But we should not worry too much, as the revelations of the past week show that our MPs are catching up rapidly!

Aadisht,

Thanks for the link! Always good to know more about the enigma that is India, and how some regard India's future role in the world.

I wish I could be more optimistic about India, but I don't know why I keep thinking of it as a prime example of the stupidity rather than wisdom of the masses in a democracy.

TWG,

the newspapers published details of actual votes instead of seats today. BJP's vote share has come down a bit nationally. Congress' has shot up a lot. So the masses are being wise enough to not vote for the worse evil - if they aren't voting for a real good, it's because that real good doesn't really exist in India.

Yes NDTV (and presumeable the non English language television and radio in India) made a big point of B.J.P. "hate speech" and thugish actions - such stories have been on every news broadcast for months.

Whether such stories are true or not I do not know - so I leave that to others to judge.

However, I share the joy at the defeat of the CPI M and others.

One Communist on Indian television caught my attention.

He was asked whether he had any regrets about his party turning down the alliance that Congress had offered - considering that rejecting the alliance had meant that the Marxists had ended up with about 25 seats compared to 200 plus of Congress.

This was his reply:

"We are Marxists, we do not have personal regrets or any other personal feelings - we have only collective feelings".

I waited for the line "We are the Borg, you will be assimilated - resistance is futile" - but as resistance had clearly not been futile the line never came.

Oddly enough there are more extreme Marxist groups than the CPI M in India (out in the forests drinking fermented tree sap and planning the deaths of all those who oppose Communism - including the British Raj which many of the "Naxils" and others think still exists).

Still for all the demented nature of the official Communists - and the murders, rapes and "revolutionary taxes", of the mad dogs in so much of India, there is a worse threat.

Congress are wild spenders.

All the talk of economic reform should not be allowed to obscure the reality of pork barrel "development" scheme (which, for example, drive vast numbers of ordinary Indians from their homes so that high rise flats and offices can be built - corporate welfare) and much worse.......

Much worse (although this will make no sense to mainstream people) is the spread of government education and government welfare.

This will bankrupt India in a few years.

Nor is it really compassion - for example the income that the government pays people does not go to the really poor (to the people who face the possibiltiy of death by starvation) it goes to people who have a little power to pull the needed strings to get the income welfare scheme - i.e. people who are not the ones under threat of starvation.

As for education - even slum dwellers have proved again and again that they can club togther and provide much better voluntary schools than the govenrment can provide (no matter how much money it spends).

James Tooley showed this.

But, instead the communities of the poor are going to be bulldozed (in favour of Corporate Welfare projects) and the poor are going to be driven to the margins of society - where such things as the government income scheme will be of no use them (try claiming that without an address).

Still India "only" has a budget deficit of 7% of G.D.P. - compared to about 13% of G.D.P. for Britain and the United States.

So we have nothing to teach India.

As for the B.J.P.

Will they stand against the wild spending central government?

This time I agree they did not - but perhaps they will change.

They need not drop their Hindu religious basis (bigoted or not) - but they need to add something to it in order to be interesting.

A committment to a balanced budget with no increase in taxation would be a good start.

Indian familes balance their budgets (at least) and place their faith in gold (not paper).

So, in their hearts, Indians know the truth.

Paul,

economically, the BJP is as socialist as the Congress - capitalist minded members have been gradually sidelined in the past few years. And the Hindu(tva) basis of the party encourages this. Why free education when retaining government control means you can shove a Hindu syllabus down the throats of everyone, Hindu or not, religious or not?

If you're looking for a true party of freedom - try Lok Satta. They're doing the long hard grind - and after fifteen years of grassroots work, they finally got one seat in the Andhra Pradesh state legislature this time around. More power to them for the next election.

What you say rings true Aadisht.

Although to me grim things normally do ring true - I distrust "happy thought".

Of course decades ago the old Independence party was important (although never in line to the government).

It is such a pity - the people of India have so much potential, but the politicians are spending and spending.

Of course the politicians of Britain and the United States are even worse.

Brown makes Congress look fiscally responsible.

And Obama is a "Third Front" man (in India he would be in the CPI M) - but most Americans are too decieved by the media to see it.

Of course by "Congress" I meant the Indian Congress Party - no one in the known universe could make the American Congress (of Nancy Pelosi and so on) look fiscally responsible.