Pages: 3

South Asia comprises over two billion people and evidence cross-cutting cleavages unlike other regions. Much of the region also points to a democratic paradox in that people in South Asian states value democracy and vote in high numbers even as they grapple with malgovernance. The attendant fascinating and complicated politics are best analyzed via a democratic prism.

Pages: 37

India’s political, economic, and social development over the last several decades has made it a different country than the “Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic” described in its Constitution. In some ways, India has become more democratic today than it was in earlier decades, particularly in a subordinate caste revolution that has given greater agency and visibility to Dalits, tribal communities, and the so-called “other backward classes.” But it also has become a more majoritarian and less liberal democracy. Indians are a deeply divided people, but for the most part, they have held together though turbulent times—and in this, the Indian experience may still offer an example to other deeply divided societies. Even so, there are tensions at the heart of India’s secularism—especially between the right to religious freedom and Hindu nationalist visions of economic and social transformation. In continually forging political compromises, sovereign India defines secularism, democracy, and republicanism in new ways and on its own terms. India’s federal structure and evolving party system also have shown a surprising capacity to channel a wide range of demands into the formal political process. From a political-economic perspective, India’s greatest constraint—and greatest opportunity—in the 21st Century is that it contains so many of the world’s poorest people. Recent economic growth has brought many Indians out of absolute poverty, but the margin for error is perilously thin for the millions of near-poor, as the COVID-19 shock and its aftermath have demonstrated.

Pages: 31

Pakistan is often depicted as a state in perpetual crisis, with elected national leaders unable to complete their terms in office, excessive and unsustainable reliance on foreign debt, military interventions in government processes, and insurgencies and non-state actors threatening to undermine the entire polity. These impressions are fueled by dramatic and sensationalistic media coverage. Critically examining and assessing these depictions, and building a fuller understanding, require a closer look. The legacy of British colonialism, the evolving roles of Islamic claims in political life, the political economy of development, the repeated and long-lasting military interventions, the geo-political context, and territorial disputes, as well as the strategic imperatives of seeking political survival through coalitions in an ethnically fragmented society, are some of the factors covered here.

Pages: 33

Since its independence in 1971, Bangladesh has experienced various forms of governance, from multi-party democracy to one-party system to military rule. Despite numerous institutional weaknesses, it practiced electoral democracy between 1991 and 2006. However, in the past decade, the ruling party’s authoritarian bent has become easily discernible. This chapter explores this pathway. Once described as an “international basket case,” the country has succeeded in achieving economic progress, lifted millions out of poverty, made education accessible to almost all girl children, and reduced child and maternal mortality. The chapter explores various aspects of the country’s socioeconomic accomplishments, its long-term impacts, and ongoing challenges. The country’s regional and international relations highlight how it has maintained balanced relationships with its neighbors, especially India and Myanmar. The country has enormous potential thanks to its geostrategic location, homogeneity, and people’s resilience, but the chapter warns that unless the current political course is reversed, this country that was established with a promise of inclusive democracy and egalitarianism could flounder.

Pages: 44

Post-independence Sri Lanka appeared well on its way to becoming a commendable polyethnic democracy but ethnic politicking and malgovernance landed the island in a civil war that lasted three decades. There was much hope that the war’s end in May 2009 would enable the country to reconcile ethnic differences and regain its democratic promise. But the mechanisms that allowed the country to defeat a separatist movement also enabled President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family to drive the island in an authoritarian direction while disregarding reconciliation with the Tamil minority and fanning anti-Muslim sentiments. While Sri Lanka under the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime experienced impressive infrastructure development and economic growth (amidst economic disparity), it also saw compromised institutions, increased militarization, triumphant Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, rampant corruption, and democratic regression. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat in January 2015 promised constitutional changes and the space to regain its once vaunted democratic credentials, but the government that followed disappointed. Sri Lanka’s consolidation of ethnocracy continued when Mahinda Rajapaksa returned as prime minister after his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president in 2019. But widespread anti-government protests stemming from an economic crisis forced both Rajapaksas out and led to Ranil Wickremesinghe becoming president in July 2021. By then Sri Lanka had declared it was bankrupt. President Wickremesinghe is determined to revive the economy but doing so would require his unpopular government to force through additional austerity measures. The regime is determined to crack down on any protest movement that could destabilize the government, and it is resorting to authoritarian measures in the process. Sri Lanka’s ethnocracy could well see worse days ahead.

Pages: 24

Nepal is a diverse country with over 100 different caste and ethnic groups, speaking just as many languages and practicing ten different religions. It is home to Mount Everest and birthplace of Lord Buddha. The country has been struggling to consolidate an inclusive democratic political system for more than half a century. Between 1996–2006, it went through a violent Maoist conflict that killed over 17,000 people. In 2008, Nepal abolished a 240-year-old monarchy and introduced a new constitution in 2015, but fifteen years later it continues to be plagued by heightened political instability, corruption, and nepotism. Being landlocked and surrounded by China and India adds to Nepal’s vulnerabilities. What has been the cause of the failure of democracy in Nepal? What are the prospects for consolidation of an inclusive democracy in a highly diverse society? This chapter provides an overview of regime transitions and struggle for inclusion and extension of democratic rights in Nepal, focusing particularly on the political development of the country.

Pages: 34

This chapter argues that the astonishingly rapid, chaotic, and comprehensive collapse of the internationally recognized and well-funded Government of Afghanistan to Taliban insurgents in 2021, following the US announcement of a troop withdrawal, was rooted in a failed state-building project. The dramatic implosion of the young state was the culmination of two decades of futile efforts by Western powers and Afghan elites to build functional political institutions, resolve historically accreted ethnic tensions, and pacify rival claimants to the state’s authority. Instead of a strong, liberal, democratic state, a centralized but weak and sparse executive presided over a dysfunctional and deadlocked legislature; a marginalized judiciary; a factionalized military that was incapable of securing the country; and a donor-dependent, unsustainable formal economy characterized by endemic corruption and a corrosive informal economy in opium cultivation. In the wake of the official state’s collapse, the universally shunned Taliban regime has begun to re-institute a set of austere and brutal social policies seeking to subordinate women, minorities, and Westernized elites. With critical food shortages, an exodus of human capital, and the formal economy facing collapse, Afghanistan has a bleak future with no realistic prospect to cease being one of the poorest countries on earth. A weak and unstable Afghanistan has historically resulted in foreign intervention by regional and global powers, and the danger for the region and international community is that this sorry past could easily repeat itself.