More than sixty years ago, in the summer of 1948, the Indian nation, then newly-born, was struggling for its very survival. It was pierced from the left by the Communists, and pinched from the right by Hindu extremists. And there were other problems aplenty. Eight million refugees had to be resettled; provided with land, homes, employment and a sense of citizenship. Five hundred princely states had to be integrated, one by one, a process that involved much massaging of egos (for the Maharajas tended to think very highly of themselves), and just a little coercion.
Few Indians now alive know how uncertain our future looked in the summer of 1948. The question then being asked everywhere was ‘Will India Survive?’. Now, sixty-four years down the road, that fearful query has been replaced by a far more hopeful one, namely, ‘Will India Become a Superpower?’.
This new, anticipatory, expectant question has been prompted by the extraordinary resilience, in the long term, of India’s democratic institutions. When the fi rst General Elections were held, in 1952, they were dubbed the ‘BiggestGamble in History’. Never before had universal adult franchise been tried in a poor, divided, and largely illiterate society. Evidently, it is a gamble that has worked. The country has successfully held fi fteen General Elections to the national Parliament, as well as countless polls to different state assemblies. Rates of voter participation are often higher than in Western democracies.
And after what happened in Florida in 2000, we can add that the conduct of polls is at least as fair. Back in 1948, doubts were also being cast about the Indian experiment with nationhood. Never before had a new nation not based its unity on a single language, religion, or common enemy. As an inclusive, plural, and non-adversarial model of nationalism, the idea of India had no precedent or imitator.
In the words of the political theorist
Sunil Khilnani, India has been ‘a substantial bridgehead of effervescent liberty on the Asian continent’.
As such, it inspires hope that the largely poor, still divided, and formerly colonised countries of Africa and the Middle East can likewise move towards a more democratic political system.
Meanwhile, through its collective co-existence of different faiths, languages, cultures, and cuisines, India is a better model for world governance than more homogeneous countries such as China, Japan, or the United States. Once, the heterogeneity of India was seen as its greatest fl aw; now, it may justly be celebrated as its greatest strength.
India was not expected to survive as a democracy nor hold together as a single nation; but it has. These manifest successes, achieved against the odds and against the logic of human history, have compelled worldwide admiration. If calls are now being heard that India must be made a Permanent Member of the Security Council of the United Nations, then these demands are not just legitimate, but also overdue. It is India’s long-term record as a stable, multicultural democracy that lies behind its claims for a place at the High Table of Global Affairs. But if politics were all, then we would not be asking whether India will become a superpower. 
That question is prompted also by the spectacular success, in the short-term, of the Indian economy, the impressive growth rates of the past decade, the entrepreneurial drive manifest in such crucial, cutting-edge sectors such as information technology, and the creation of an ever larger and ever more confident middle class.
