DBWI: India as the world's largest democracy

I just don't see India as a democracy, at least all of India. Certainly not if Pakistan and/or Bangladesh stays part of India. For one thing, Hinduism lends itself to a class structure that would effectively disenfranchise a huge portion of the population. For another, it's just too damn big and too damn multiethnic. It really couldn't work except as a confederation.

Alternatively, if India ends up split, one or more parts of it could be democratic. Say, if the Cold War splits India by allegiance to Britain, the USA, the USSR, China, or all of the above, different parts of India could be democratic while others go authoritarian.
 

Rhad

Banned
I just don't see India as a democracy, at least all of India. Certainly not if Pakistan and/or Bangladesh stays part of India. For one thing, Hinduism lends itself to a class structure that would effectively disenfranchise a huge portion of the population. For another, it's just too damn big and too damn multiethnic. It really couldn't work except as a confederation.

Alternatively, if India ends up split, one or more parts of it could be democratic. Say, if the Cold War splits India by allegiance to Britain, the USA, the USSR, China, or all of the above, different parts of India could be democratic while others go authoritarian.
If Hyderabad had survived, it might have democratized eventually too, though that could be difficult. Still, they weren't that far off.
 
So, do you think Indonesia would still be China's main friend in Southeast Asia without a Hindu Nationalist India constantly supporting rebels in Bali?
I have my doubts about that. If what my parents told me is correct then the ethnic Chinese weren't overly popular at one time with the indigenous population, being thought of as nearly as exploitative as the colonial administrations that brought them there.
 
The big problem in Indonesia right now are the India-backed rebels in parts of Sumatra. It's such a persistent problem that the Shi'a Islam communities in western Sumatra and Sunni Islam communities in eastern Sumatra have put aside their religious differences and decided to take down these rebels together--and it may not be a fair fight, since just about nobody besides the Indian government supports these rebels (Malaysia and Singapore used to have sizable Indian populations, but most left because of a fear of a de facto pogrom against them by the local population after terrorists of indian descent committed acts of terror with bombings in Penang and Kuala Lumpur, including the bombing of a supermarket in Penang that caters specifically to Muslims).
 
Yea, the mini-cold war between China and India in Southeast Asia is probably one of the major hotspots of our world ever since the USSR reformed itself in the 1980s.
 
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