Why India Matters

After the fall of the Soviet Union, India was on the ropes, desperately poor, beset by frequent rioting, assassinations, ethnic violence, domestic insurgencies, and seen by the world as “an irredentist, potentially unfriendly country,” unable to project power abroad. Few would have predicted the state’s transformation into one of the world’s fastest growing economies, a nuclear-armed multiparty democracy with a vibrant free press, and a dominant regional hegemon with aspirations of a permanent seat on the Security Council. William Patterson University political scientist Chadda (Building Democracy in South Asia) assesses India’s recent success by studying data from industry, elections, the military, and other areas. Countering the notion that the country was ill-suited to democracy, she writes: “India owes much of the political stability in the 2000s, and the resulting explosion of the country’s economic growth, to the restoration of political flexibility that accompanied the advent of multiparty rule.” Throughout, she relates the data to political scientist Eric Ringmar’s theories of national empowerment as a means of measuring India’s strength. Much of the book is a dry, precise recitation of political and economic developments, but chapters on India’s international relations hold greater appeal, with Chadda arguing that India’s growing soft power is “especially appealing to India’s foreign policy community.” Ultimately, as Chadda notes, the example of India may offer the world “an alternative road to nation-building.” (Apr.)