Democratic Development In India: Lessons For Pakistan

Abstract

This paper attempts to unleash the structural components which differed in changing the frame of rule of the states that came into the map of the world on exactly the same day named India and Pakistan. Having shared values, culture, colonial experience, same structure India managed to procure a robust democracy while in Pakistan democracy is still perceived as a mean of conducting procedural balloting. India secured functional institutions while in Pakistan still the coordination of powers among the institutions is missing. The paper attempts to strategize the solutions of the predicaments which the state of Pakistan is facing in the light of India’s experiences. It highlights the different loopholes of democratic rule in Pakistan that remained unsettled at its inception. The paper in detail examines the state and polity of both states in post –independence era and tries to trace out the factors that enable India in procuring a substantive frame of governance. The lessons and precedents that the state of Pakistan should follow from India’s democratic development have also been elaborated exhaustively. Purpose: Purpose of the paper is to explore and identify the diverging structural patterns within the comparative politics. Methodology: Explanatory research methodology has been taken up along with qualitative data analysis. Terminology: India in its beginning succeeded in paving a way towards the institutionalization of the political processes that resulted in the consolidation of democratic norms in India whereas on other hand Pakistan can learn from India’s experiences to make democratic rule more participative and functional. Significance: The study is extremely relevant as Pakistan apparently is a primary victim to the fragile political rule.