Remarkable Trees
Byline
Divided by Democracy
The second book in the "Cross-border Talks" series examines why India is a democracy while Pakistan is not. Meghnad Desai identifies the revolutionary decision of the Constituent Assembly to adopt universal adult franchise as the key to the survival of democracy in India. The overwhelming desire of the leaders of the independence movement, many of whom were educated in England, was for a Westminster-style democracy. The adoption of this model led to demands for inclusion from lower and backward castes and Dalits, and today Indian democracy is a heady and vigorous mix of ethnic and immigrant groups, class cleavages as well as rural/urban and North/South divisions. Aitzaz Ahsan argues that at Partition, while India had a strong middle class and political structure and a subordinated civil and military bureaucracy, in Pakistan it was the opposite. It inherited a strong feudal class, an insignificant bourgeoisie and an entrenched civil and military bureaucracy. These vested interests have never relinquished their control over the country, and have in the process choked the spirit of democracy there.
Meghnad Desai was born in Baroda and studied economics at Bombay University. He did his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of the Nobel laureate, Lawrence Klein. He is an Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics where he has taught since 1965. He received his peerage in 1991 and is an active member of the British Labour Party. He has authored and edited many books, and has written many articles for academic journals. Aitzaz Ahsan is a member of the Pakistan People's Party and has served as minister of law, justice, interior and education in the federal government between 1988 and 1993. He studied law at Cambridge University and was called to the Bar at Grays' Inn in 1967. He is a senior advocate in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and has been incarcerated many times by military and authoritarian regimes
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