Saturday, September 15, 2012

India on International Day of Democracy

India is the seventh largest (by area) and the second most populous country in the world, with roughly one-sixth of its population, of about a billion and a quarter. It is the world's largest democracy. It is one of the world's oldest civilizations yet, a very young nation. Elections to its Parliament are held once every 5 years. Currently, Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is the head of the government, enjoying a majority in the Parliament, while President Pranab Mukherjee, is the head of state. India is a constitutional republic governed under the world's longest written constitution, federally consisting of 28 states and seven centrally administered union territories, with New Delhi as the nation's capital. The country has three main national parties: the Congress, Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), and the Communist Party. The Indian National Congress has governed the country for 3/4th's of the time since independence from Britain in 1947, under the de facto one party system and now, under the Dominant-party system. At the level of its states, many regional parties stand for elections to state legislatures, every five years.



Religion
Religion as a major cultural influence plays an important role in politics. Political party support depends greatly on differentiating the electorate along religious lines. The major religious communities are those of the Hindus (although not a homogeneous block), the Muslims (again they too are differentiated as Shias and Sunnis) and the Sikhs; and many political parties are identified by the religion of their supporters. Many national religious issues are the key points of the success in elections. Even some of the political leaders uses religion for their own sake and uses it as a medium of their political stability.

Caste
The caste system crosses religious boundaries to infect both Hindu and Islamic peoples. Hindus have four main castes and hundreds of sub-castes. Many political parties draw supporters from specific castes or sub-castes. The four main caste were Bhrahmins, shatriyas, vyshar and shurdars. Bhramins were the upper caste and they are allowed to do worship in temples. shakthriya's rule country and vyshar included people like merchants etc. shurdars was the most oppressed one at that time.

Population

India is the second most populous country in the world, next only to China. The over a billion population poses a challenge to the state's ability to provide everyone with jobs, health-care, education and other public services. Slowing down the rate of population growth has been a major issue for governments, over time. India being a democratic country the ever increasing population can only be checked by voluntary means, with the informed consent of the people. With the current growth rate, India is set to leave China behind by 2025.

Development
India is still an emerging democracy, setting the pace and shape of development. India began as an explicitly socialist nation and continues with a large public-sector and many constraints on private enterprise, although recent governments have reduced some of these restrictions. Their reward has been faster economic growth, particularly through the growth of trade-oriented industry. Some recent governments were voted out due to a sluggish economy.

Regions
India is very densely populated. Some advocate[who?] splitting some twenty eight states and seven union territories.

Other factors
Factors such as education, corruption, women's issues, student politics, criminalization of politics, leadership strategies and the design of political institutions affect national and local politics. Some other factors such as the caste issue, environment policy, new long-term investment in the economy by foreigners etc., also have a bearing.

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