India's unlikely, enduring democracy

Despite these hurdles, the country has experienced seven decades of almost uninterrupted democratic rule.

• Today, around 5% of Indians live in extreme poverty, down from a high of 60% just four decades ago. The administration of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made important strides in expanding access to electricity, healthcare, and sanitation.

There is plenty of work left to do.

• The share of income accruing to the top 1%, a broad measure of inequality, is the highest since tax collection began in 1922.
• Many find Modi’s push to move India away from its secular roots toward a new brand of democracy based around identification with its Hindu cultural and religious history worrisome.
• The government’s recent threat to strip 4 million people, many of whom are migrants from the predominantly Muslim Bangladesh, of their citizenship demonstrates the danger.

Despite these challenges, at a moment when democracy is increasingly in question and under threat around the world, India’s largely successful effort over the past seven decades to reconcile the competing identities and passions of over 15% of the world’s population is a staggering accomplishment.

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