Table Of ContentIndia, Pakistan, and Democracy
The question of why some countries have democratic regimes and others
do not is a significant issue in comparative politics. This book looks at
India and Pakistan, two countries with clearly contrasting political regime
histories, and presents an argument on why India is a democracy and
Pakistan is not. Focusing on the specificities and the nuances of each state
system, the author examines in detail the balance of authority and power
between popular or elected politicians and the state apparatus through sub-
stantial historical analysis.
India and Pakistan are both large, multi-religious and multi-lingual coun-
tries sharing a geographic and historical space that in 1947, when they became
independent from British rule, gave them a virtually indistinguishable level
of both extreme poverty and inequality. All of those factors militate against
democracy, according to most theories, and in Pakistan democracy did
indeed fail very quickly after independence. It has only been restored as
a façade for military–bureaucratic rule for brief periods since then. In
comparison, after almost thirty years of democracy, India had a brush with
authoritarian rule, in the 1975–6 Emergency, and some analysts were
perversely reassured that the India exception had been erased. But instead,
after a momentous election in 1977, democracy has become stronger over
the last thirty years.
Providing a comparative analysis of the political systems of India and
Pakistan as well as a historical overview of the two countries, this book
constitutes essential reading for students of South Asian History and
Politics. It is a useful and balanced introduction to the politics of India
and Pakistan.
Philip Oldenburg is a Research Scholar at the South Asia Institute of
Columbia University where he has taught political science since 1977. He has
done field research in India on local self-government, and on national elections,
and has been editor or co-editor of ten books in the India Briefing series.
“This book deals with a most interesting and rather unexplored problem:
why has India become a robust democracy and Pakistan ended up by being
a military-ruled country while both of them share similar cultural features
and emerged from the same history (including the colonial experience)?
Philip Oldenburg has not only chosen an excellent topic, he is also very
well informed and gets his facts right. To present such an ambitious com-
parison in this format is a tour de force.”
Christophe Jaffrelot Senior Research Fellow CNRS
“This fine book, full of insight and wisdom, reflects Philip Oldenburg’s long
scholarly engagement with the study of South Asian politics, and offers a
magisterial synthesis of a wide literature in developing what will surely
stand as the definitive comparative analysis of the political systems of India
and Pakistan.”
John Harris School for International Studies,
Simon Fraser University
“This is the first major attempt to solve the puzzle of democratic divergence
by looking at two countries with near-identical cultural, political, and social
origins. Dr. Oldenburg’s book is uniquely informed by deep familiarity
with both India and Pakistan, and by a solid grasp of the relevant scholarly
literature. It is a landmark in both regional studies and comparative
political analysis, and will inform all future work on the democratization
process.”
Stephen P. Cohen Brookings Institution
India, Pakistan, and
Democracy
Solving the puzzle of divergent paths
Philip Oldenburg
First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
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© 2010 Philip Oldenburg
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Oldenburg, Philip.
India, Pakistan, and democracy : solving the puzzle of
divergent paths / Philip Oldenburg.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Democracy––India. 2. Democracy––Pakistan.
3. Democratization––India. 4. Democratization––Pakistan.
5. India––Politics and government––1947–
6. Pakistan––Politics and government.
7. India––Colonial influence.
8. Pakistan––Colonial influence. I. Title.
JQ281.O43 2010
320.954—dc22
2010002537
ISBN 0-203-84715-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN: 978-0-415-78018-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-78019-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-84715-2 (ebk)
Contents
Tables vii
Figures viii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction: Why India is a democracy and Pakistan
is not (yet?) a democracy 1
Defining democracy and autocracy 4
The balance of authority between bureaucratic and
political wings of the state 8
PART I
The first thirty years of independence 15
2 Inheritances of colonial rule 17
The strength of the state apparatus 18
The strength of the nationalist movements 21
Nationalisms 28
3 Politicians and bureaucrats in the first years of independence 36
Controlling the military 45
Jinnah and Nehru 53
Secular state, Islamic state 62
4 Institutionalizing democracy 73
Representation and contested federalism 73
Elections 77
Freedom of association 82
Press freedom 83
The rule of law 87
vi Contents
5 Who (really) governs? 102
Ruling classes in the country and at the provincial level 103
Ruling classes in local arenas 113
PART II
From 1977 to the present 129
6 1977 as a turning point? 131
Pakistan 132
India 136
7 Religion as an explanation 145
Islamization, Hindu nationalism 146
Hinduism and Islam as systems of belief,
and the effect on politics 152
8 External influences 162
Pakistan 163
India 170
9 Clearly diverging paths 175
Entrenching military rule in Pakistan 176
Deepening democracy in India 182
10 Prospects for path convergence in the next decades 200
Pakistan 200
India 216
11 Conclusion 224
Bibliography 236
Index 263
Tables
4.1 Voter turnout in Pakistan elections post-1971 79
9.1 Hindu–Muslim communal incidents in India 188
9.2 Naxalite violence in India, 2004–8 191
9.3 Naxalite violence 2003–7, by number of police-station
areas affected: selected states 191
10.1 Pakistan national assembly results, 2002 and
2008: major parties 205
10.2 Support of PPP and PML-N, in Pakistan and Punjab 206
10.3 Support for democracy, by economic class and education 214
10.4 Centre for Media Studies/Transparency International
India Survey 2005: percentage of respondents who paid
a bribe directly for public services, twenty states 221
Figures
1.1 Chart of Polity IV scores for India and Pakistan, 1950–78 3
1.2 Freedom in India and Pakistan in the Freedom House
Assessment, 1972–2008 3
1.3 Freedom in India and Pakistan in the Freedom House
Assessment, 1972–2008: average of “political rights”
and “civil liberties” scores 3
1.4 Support for democracy in India and Pakistan, from
the State of Democracy in South Asia: A Report 5
Acknowledgments
I have for many years taught my introductory course on “South Asian
Government and Politics” by starting with Pakistan’s political history,
followed by India’s (in turn followed, in shamefully brief accounts, by the
remaining South Asian countries). I used the contrast of their regime types
as a way of introducing the dynamics of the politics of each, in a way that
I hoped was stimulating for students who knew little about South Asia.
There were a series of opportunities I chanced upon that ultimately
initiated this project. First, I was asked to serve as an academic advisor on
the South Asia countries for Freedom House’s Freedom in the World series,
starting with the 2004 volume, which forced me to concentrate as never before
on the measurement of factors contributing to democracy. I am very grate-
ful to Freedom House for giving me the opportunity to be a small part of
a very impressive team effort. Then, in the summer and fall of 2005, I was
fortunate to be included in weekly discussions at the Centre for the Study
of Developing Societies (CSDS) on the emerging draft of the State of
Democracy in South Asia report, which greatly enriched my understanding
of what democracy means in India and Pakistan. In September 2005, I attended
the launch of Meghnad Desai’s and Aitzaz Ahsan’s book on the issue of why
India is a democracy and Pakistan is not, Divided by Democracy.
The combination of their presentations and the CSDS discussions moved
me to put my long-gestating thoughts on that topic into a lengthy email
message to Meghnad Desai. That email text in turn provided an outline for
a seminar course I have taught four times in the past two years, to advanced
undergraduates in Political Science at Baruch College of CUNY and
Columbia University; and to graduate students at the School of Advanced
International Studies (of the Johns Hopkins University). The lively intellec-
tual engagement many of those students gave me has shaped the content and
presentation of this study. The core outline of this book began as my lecture
notes for those courses.
In writing out what were lectures I have preserved to some extent the lack
of strict chronological sequence and thematic overlap that the lectures had,
and I have felt free to keep my speculative opinions explicitly in place. Although
there is a broad chronological organization to the book, there are certain
