Becoming the world’s most populous nation allows India to burnish its credentials as a global economic and political heavyweight. With a population that is much younger than those of China, the US and the EU, there will be renewed interest in India’s potential to be a beacon of liberal values. The west is eager to draw a democratic giant into its orbit. China and India will together account for about half of all global growth this year. But India risks emulating its bigger northern neighbour’s economic ascent under tight political control by a dominant authoritarian party.
Hindu nationalism in India is writing an epitaph for the country’s experiment with multi-ethnic secular democracy. Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has weakened institutions meant to keep the state both transparent and accountable. Information is censored, civil society hounded and protests suppressed. It is absurd that opposition leaders have been targeted to the extent that Mr Modi’s main rival – Rahul Gandhi – is currently disqualified from parliament. Such is the polarisation in politics that India’s last parliamentary session was the least productive since 1952.
