India:Diversity is the Unity

A country whose two-thirds population is illiterate, has more than five hundred languages, twenty seven states, most having a different ethnicity, different cultures from N-to-S and from E-to-W, different food habits, and most importantly, more than eight religions got its independence in 1947.Yes, I am talking about India, the world’s largest democracy.

After India got independence from Britain, it was believed by many that it would soon disintegrate into different sections. For example, the foreign policy of Eisenhower’s government in US reflected this notion; for a while they were waiting for the disintegration to happen, before finally acknowledging India as a nation.

Last month, India held general elections for its 15^th parliament, 62 years after its independence. Again, the diversity of the nation was being considered to be an obstacle in its unity. India is a multiparty democracy, where Congress leads the UPA and BJP leads the NDA. The UPA is considered to be a secular coalition, where NDA is a Hindu right wing coalition, though it is alienating itself away from that sticker.

For the last 10 years, it has been observed that small regional parties in both the coalitions are getting more bargaining power. Earlier, their demands were only local, so the government at the center had to succumb to their demands for local issues for the sake of their support at the center. However, in the last 4 years they were threatening the coalition on some foreign issues and big reforms, which they were cautions of for no big reason. Nonetheless, Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister of the UPA, led the nation to a 9 percent growth rate during the first 4 years of his governance. In contrast, some argue that the more share of regional parties in the government is need to represent the diversity of the nation.

But recent elections results showed that history has repeated itself but in different context. The congress party received more than 37% of the seats and it needs just 29% to form a government. This big share of the congress in the government means that all the hopes of the regional parties are thrashed by the people of India, thus clearing the way for big reforms without much hullabaloo in the parliament. The impact of this victory can be understood by the fact that the National Stock Exchange jumped 15% in 30 seconds when this news broke out. The trading had to be halted for next 2 hours.

Some experts say that what India would have achieved in next fifteen years is equivalent to what it now would achieve in the next five years. A nation where nearly half of the people can’t speak the national language properly has shown that there is something common that binds every person from North to South and from East to West. India has shown the world again that its diversity is its unity.