INDIA since independence
India was a British
colony. It earned its independence from the British on
15/08/1947. Day before that Pakistan which was created as a
result of partition of British India was established and flanked
on two sides of India: West Pakistan which is called today
Pakistan, and east Pakistan, now an independent state called
Bangladesh. After its independence, the political leaders of
India adopted the liberal democratic system for the country.
Since
its independence, India has transformed a lot. When India attained independence
in 1947, its population was around 400 million people. Now there are billion people in India.
India is the largest democracy in the world. It has the
biggest number of people with franchise rights and the largest
number of political parties, which take part in election
campaign.
Before its independence, India was never a single
country but a bunch of different entities. Many predicted that
India, because of diversities in its cultures, religion, languages, castes, manners, local histories, nationalities and identities,
would not survive as a single democratic country, but would break
up into smaller countries.
Since independence, India had many political problems. During
independence the most burning issues were the riots between the Hindus and Muslims while the Sikhs were siding with Hindus.
Another issue was convincing the Princely states not to declare
independence or join Pakistan but to join the Indian Union. India
also had a few wars with its neighbors on border issues.
India also has many internal problems.
Different communities with different identities - regional,
language, caste, religion - demanded different rights for their
communities. Some communities demanded more autonomy for their
cultures within the Indian states. Others demanded autonomous
states within the Indian Union, while the others demanded to be
independent from India.
With all its problems India survives as a single state with
democratic character.
1999-2004