August 2009

India’s Fault Lines & Fixes
COVER STORY| 62 years of independence| state of the nation
AT 62, India is hardly a senior citizen nation-for the simple reason that nations age slowly. And, like the Galapagos tortoises, they are great survivors. To say India is the largest multi-religious, multi racial, multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic democracy in the world is a cliché, but that is the truth. Historically, India and its people have baffled others. Al-Biruni, who came to India with the invading armies of Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century, said foreigners found Indians different from other people “in everything which other nations have in common”.