India and China: Two Paths in Politics

Both countries groan under the weight of the problems connected with modernization. But they take sharply different paths, and the contrast is instructive.

India is not a happy land today— far from it. At least 1-0 million of its people live on the edge of starvation. Economic growth came to a halt in 1966, and the base of modern technology inherited from the British is frail. The Congress party, which has ruled free India since 1947, shows signs of inner division and weariness. Charges of corruption fill the land. Other problems—the cow slaughter issue, the Hindu-Moslem conflicts — show how agonizingly difficult it is to try to modernize a backward economy while retaining democratic norms.

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