How the crises in India might affect Pakistan?

                 After discussing the effects of China and Afghanistan on Pakistan in the article from the previous week, I'll move on to India, Pakistan's third neighbor, which is currently dealing with its own issues. Some of them were discussed when the nation celebrated its 75th birthday, a day after Pakistan celebrated its 75th birthday on August 14. It might be good to discuss why Pakistan's birthdate is one day earlier than India's before I talk about the Indian scenario.

 

The last Viceroy dispatched to India by the British government, Lord Louis Mountbatten, made it known that he wanted to continue serving as Governor General of both the dominions of India and Pakistan as the British prepared to depart their Indian colony and return to London. Extensive preparations had been made for the swearing-in of the new government, which would be led by Jawaharlal Nehru, who along with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had led the campaign for independence, on August 15. Although he was now known as Mahatma Gandhi, the latter declined to hold any formal positions in the new administration.

 

The suggested plan was rejected by Jinnah, who also did not want to share the position of governor-general with Mountbatten. He desired a total split from India. Jinnah suggested that he may be sworn in as Pakistan's Governor General a day earlier, on August 13, after Mountbatten recommended delaying Pakistan's independence by a few days. The Viceroy reluctantly consented to go to Karachi a day before transferring control to the Indian successor. Pakistan became India's twin brother and is one day older as a result.

 

India was a strict parliamentary democracy for over 60 years, or more precisely from August 15, 1947, to May 26, 2014. The Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, passed the laws that governed how the government operated. All citizens of the nation over the age of 21 were given the right to vote in the Lok Sabha elections, regardless of their sex, caste, or religion. Contrary to the history of the enlargement of the franchise in the United States, citizens of other large democracies such as those of lower socioeconomic levels or women did not have to fight for the right to vote. From the moment India became a constitutional republic, they received that.

 

A majority of seats in the Lok Sabha were gained by the Hindu Nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014. This meant that it did not have to form a coalition with other parties, as the Indian National Congress (INC), which ruled the nation before 2014, had to do. The INC was a venerable organization that had led the struggle to restore South Asia's British colony's independence. The BJP was a fairly new party. It took inspiration from the Nazi Party of Germany by way of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS.

 

Similar to the Nazis, the RSS only allowed people who shared its extremely constrictive worldview to join. Only Hindus who strictly adhered to the religion's tenets were permitted entry. They had to undergo ongoing instruction in martial arts and ideology once they joined the party. Similar to a military organization, the party had ranks; by joining at the bottom and working their way up, individuals could eventually assume leadership roles. In fact, Narendra Modi, the current leader of the BJP and twice-elected prime minister of the nation, has consistently carried out this behavior. The acknowledged leaders of the Indian independence struggle, including Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, had a secular viewpoint and were revered for 65 years as the real pioneers of modern India.

 

When a development called for the American-Indian interest, India received a considerable amount of attention thanks to the sizeable, powerful, and increasing Indian diaspora in the United States. One such occasion was the 75th birthday celebration on August 15, 2022, which was chronicled in significant depth.

 

The way that various powerful voices were reevaluating Gandhi's contribution to driving the British out of his country and establishing modern-day India was widely covered by the American press. For instance, Gerry Smith of The Washington Post noted how many Indians were rewriting their history in a lengthy article titled: "As India remembers its first 75 years, Gandhi is minimized, even mocked." He began the narrative by giving his thoughts on a film on the Indian freedom movement. The three-hour visual effects film "RRR" broke box office records as soon as it was released in the spring of this year.

 

In the film's climactic battle against the British, who had long since dominated India, Indian villagers arm themselves with weapons, bows, and arrows in a nod to the increasing wave of Hinduism. The movie ends with a grandiose song and dance that pays tribute to several historical rebels from India. Smith queries, "Absent from the names?" The answer is Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian pacifist who has been hailed as an inspiration and an example of peaceful resistance by many, including the Rev. Martin Luther Jr. "As India commemorates 75 years of independence on Monday, the legacy of the 'father of the nation,' who had espoused nonviolence and secularism, is being contested more than ever before," Smith continues in his article.

 

Instead, a pantheon of other 20th-century heroes that includes leaders who supported military conflict or openly promoted Hinduism is being embraced by Indians, which is a reflection of the country's mood and altering political landscape.

 

India is not only abandoning its reputation as one of the few developing nations that had found a way of governance by adhering to what Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson suggest in their widely read book, Why Nations Fail, for a governing system to succeed. Radical Hinduism is on the rise, and the country has adopted Hindutva as its governing philosophy. They contend that to create a functioning country, it must adopt an inclusive rather than exclusive approach.

 

A lower caste lawyer drafted India's constitution, which was ratified in 1951, and included measures to increase prospects for advancement for those from lower social classes. A historian of Indian descent named Sunil Khilnani argued in his book The Idea of India that India had figured out how to create a political structure that could handle its tremendous variety. There are 120 languages spoken in the nation, just one illustration of diversity. The treatment of its minority by India under the Hindutva system, however, is what worries people the most about modern India. Despite being a minority, there are still 200 million Muslims or about as many as there are in Pakistan.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the charge against Gandhi and his place in Indian history. Narendra Modi, the well-liked prime minister who is portrayed by his allies as a living counterpoint to Gandhi and Nehru: tough on Islamic separatists, steeped in Hindu nationalism, formidable on the international stage, and — if his campaign speeches are to be taken literally — physically imposing, with a 56-inch chest, personifies the cultural shift, according to Gerry Smith's article. Modi has taken a harsh stance against Muslims, converting Kashmir, which has a majority of Muslims, into a "Union territory" that is directly under the sovereignty of New Delhi and implementing legislation that degrades Muslims to second-class citizens. Islamabad will have problems because of the sizable, unruly Muslim population on Pakistan's border.