Category Archives: Background

A Brief History

India’s Entire Pre-Independence History In A Few Words

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One could trace India’s history as far back as the Indus civilization between 2600 and 2000 BCE where prominent religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism were born. A few thousand years later, the subcontinent experienced invasions by Muslim rulers who began to integrate and reside in the region by the 13th century.1

The last 500 years of history began with the Mughal Empire rising between the 16th and 18th centuries as an expanding civilization. This was also a time when European powers began to establish trading posts there.2 Eventually, the Mughal Empire itself declined and lead to the rise of various states based on ethnic groups.3

Although European powers such as France and Portugal had trading missions to the subcontinent (with their remnants still present in Goa and Puducherry), it was the British who rose throughout the Mughal decline. First, Britain’s East India Company began ventures to India for spices and cotton in 1600.4 Then, the Company began to hold dominion over the region which eventually underwent direct British control in 1858.5 1

The formation of the British Raj introduced an imperial bureaucracy, railroads, and colonial modes of production to extract raw materials to Britain. The subcontinent also experienced an increasing nationalist movement.6 By 1947, independence was achieved, but with a partition between a Hindu India and a Muslim Pakistan. The British systems of governance in India remained along with the usage of English, with Hindi becoming an official language as well.1

Footnotes

1.  India. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica online.

2. India. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica online. (The Mughal Empire section)

3.  India. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica online. (The Regional States section)

4. India. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica online. (The British section)

5. India. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica online. (Revolution in Bengal section)

6. India. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica online. (Government of India Act of 1858 section)

A Diverse Society

The Diversity Of India On Many Fronts

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One must realize that India simply cannot be generalized as Apu from The Simpsons. In fact, there is so much diversity in the country that it is a miracle it functions cohesively at all.

First, with ethnicities, the People of India Project (beginning in 1985) identified 4635 different ethnic groups or communities.1 In relation to ethnicity, the 2011 Indian census seems to suggest that there are 4.6 million castes and sub-castes. But even the methodology of identifying castes becomes debatable, and one scholar claims that there are multiple caste systems with different understandings of positioning.2

Going beyond caste, religion is also a diverse arena in India. Although nearly 80% of Indians adhere to Hinduism, 14.2% are Muslims, 2.3% are Christians, and 1.7% are Sikhs.3 Considering the fact that India’s population has over a billion people, these seemingly small percentages of other religions add up substantially in absolute terms (e.g. Muslims would make up 100 million people in India).

Another diverse factor is India’s languages. According to Ethnologue, there are 462 listed languages in the country where 448 of them are still living.4 Even when you observe the states, it is found that many of them have their own separate languages (e.g. Kannada for Karnataka and Tamil for Tamil Nadu). Contrary to initial belief, Hindi is spoken only by 41% of the population while 14 other official languages exist.2

With various languages, ethnic groups, and religions, India proves itself to be incredibly diverse in its demographic composition.

Footnotes

1. Singh, K. S. (1992). People of India: an introduction.

2. Iwanek, Krzysztof. (2016, August). Counting Castes in India. The Diplomat.

3.  The World Factbook: INDIA. (2018).

4. Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. (2017). India. In Ethnologue. Dallas: SIL International.

Indian Politics

The Political Governance of India

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It is no surprise that given previous British rule, India would retain much of its governmental structures left by colonial administration.

Much like the Westminister system of bicameral legislatures, the Indian Parliament contains the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People). Of course, as a republic, India does not observe a monarch but rather a president. The actual maintenance of government is done by a bureaucracy with various ministries and agencies. Unfortunately, there is the issue of too much bureaucracy that has hampered India’s administration.1

The central government aside, India, like many federal countries, have states (with their own governments) and these states are further divided into districts. Even districts can be divided into smaller units containing their own local governance structures.1

As for the kinds of political parties dominating the Indian scene, two parties are worth mentioning. The first party, the Indian National Congress (or the Congress party), has existed since 1885, even before Indian independence (but with later divisions). The second party is the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), a more right-wing party appealing to Hindu nationalism.1 The former party ruled India under Singh’s leadership before the present administration, which is run by the BJP under Narendra Modi.

Footnotes

1.  India. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica online. (Government and Society section)

The Economy

India’s Economy (Post-Independence)

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Initially, after independence in 1947, India promoted self-sufficiency by focusing on rapid industrialization and shrugging off its dependence on foreign exchange. To achieve this, the country enacted import-substitution measures which also restricted trade. Furthermore, there was an emphasis on having a large public sector involved in producing capital goods while controlling the private sector; however, small enterprises were still encouraged to produce manufactured goods. 1

By the 1980s, and accelerating in the 1990s, India began to relax its restrictions on the private sector due to a shift in the political and economic climate. 1980s policies included liberalizing imports (especially capital goods), increased access to foreign credit, and the easing of licensing requirements in some industries. In the 1990s, India liberalized its international trade and finance structures even further while leaving the labour market as is.1

To summarize sector trends since the 1980s, India’s manufacturing remained unchanged or declined, the service sector soared via the boom of the IT industry, and agriculture appeared to have declined. Of course, these sectors and general economic progress varied by state, and it is suggested that the policies enacted at the state level mattered in the 1990s, creating a divergence of development. Greater human capital and entrepreneurship would contribute to a state’s higher economic growth. However, a shift towards services by nearly all states is witnessed. 1

Moving forward, the decentralization of states in their economic progress created a divergence where faster-growing states are looking more like developed countries while slower states are falling behind via high births and low education. These latter states are expected to follow a traditional growth path via manufacturing, but they require further reforms and restructuring to do so. Indeed, India’s economic growth is evident, but inequalities remain.1

Footnotes

1.  Kochhar, K., Kumar, U., Rajan, R., Subramanian, A., & Tokatlidis, I. (2006). India’s pattern of development: What happened, what follows?. Journal of Monetary Economics, 53(5), 981-1019.