My apologies for being behind in posting...I know that is a familiar lament on this blog...but let's bring you up to date. I think it has been two weeks since the last post and in that time we've talked about India's economic system and status and then today we went through the Indian political system and their foreign policy challenges. The Indian economic system is very interesting to study as an American Historian, because it is much closer to the US economy in sectors of growth than other countries of the Near East or Far East. Focused largely on the service sector, the Indian economic "miracle" has not proceeded at the rapid rate that China's has but has provided consisent growth around 7% for the past 20 years or so. Even during this time of world-wide recession, their growth outpaced ours and still came in at 6.2% for 2009. While there is a growing middle class in India of around 300 million, there are also 300 million people who live on a dollar a day or less...that is the equivalent of putting the country of Nigeria within India's borders...three times over. India's economic future looks good and while it will take it time, this will become one of the dominant economies in the world with more time to grow...the problem they must deal with, as in all things Indian, is the growing population stuffed into a relatively small area. Remember...India has almost four times the population of the US in 1/3 the landmass.
The class on politics focused largely on creating an understanding of the structure. An amalgam of the US and British systems, India has a bicameral legislature, with a president and a prime minister. The president is head of state and commander in chief, but the real political power in the country is the prime minister who is selected by the majority party in the House of the People...a body much like our House of Representatives. India's parliamentary system seemed to confuse some folks today and it is easy to understand why...we watched a short video clip about one prime minister whose government only lasted 13 days...that wouldn't happen here and we have a hard time understanding it. Finally, our study led to the violence in the disputed area of Jammu and Kashmir...a region of northwest India that is jointly claimed in part by India, Pakistan, and China. Much violence...both formal warfare and terrorist activity...has occurred here and continues unabated today. This led to a short discussion of the religious violence occuring in India today...with Muslims killing Hindus and Christians...Hindus killing Muslims and Christians...and so on and so on. One location, called Babri Magrib, was the site of the destruction of a centuries old mosque...which had been purportedly built on the ruins of the birthplace of Rama...a Hindu god...and the feud had continued to this violence in 1992. Something like 150,000 people were involved in the rioting and violence, with nearly 2000 being killed.
We will look into Bangladesh in a few weeks, but in the meantime I have family responsibilities to tend to with my parents. I look forward to sharing information with all of you once again in the near future.
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