[pm90]

The article is honest but the last paragraph makes me question whether it really was..

> India really is not a rational country. The English mushed India together in the panic of independence in 1947, but little heed was given to ethnic, religious, linguistic, historic, national, or geographic considerations which is one reason India has had problems with every one of its neighbors since. India as we know it will not survive another 30 or 40 years. This of course does not have to end in disaster, but it probably will given the chauvinism of its government and the way history has always worked.

Really? A democracy of 1.3 billion people which has held together for > 60 years and endured > 4 major wars will just topple? I find that very unlikely.

The fact is that despite a lot of troubles, the country has managed to remain more or less true to its principles of democracy and secularism, instead of devolving into a chaotic mess that most of the neighboring countries have faced. One reason is that the Indian Military has historically been apolitical, unlike many neighboring countries. I don't really understand how it has managed to stay together this way but I really hope that it does continue.

[puranjay]

There seems to be a western fascination with the idea of breaking India into different countries. River of Gods, a sci-fi novel by Ian McDonald, imagines India as 12 separate nations.

I don't ascribe this to malice, but to sheer bewilderment. From a rational perspective, India should not really exist. It is just too large and heterogeneous to stick together.

When I was in the US, some people asked me if I "speak Indian". The rational brain assumes that if they speak French in France, Italian in Italy and German in Germany, they must speak Indian in India.

Half an hour later, I figured out why the west never can and never will understand India

[trequartista]

People have been talking about the "Balkanization of India" for a while now. But there are no signs of this yet. Indians have a deep rooted (albeit slightly misguided and maybe even chauvinistic) sense of patriotism.

[chengiz]

Patriotism is there, but the main problem here is that India is pretty much already very Balkanized in geography and class if not national boundaries. It also has a strong central government. Any revolutionary/indepedence movements therefore tend to be fringe (someone in Maharashtra does not really care for farmer movement in Bengal) and easily controlled (due to the strong center). The patriotism means that any overtly violent army action is not frowned upon but rather encouraged by most who have a voice. The extreme poverty means the poor are so wretched they do not have a voice. We have met people on a two hour drive (which means only about 30 km) outside Mumbai who have never been to a big city and know nothing beyond how to get to the next day. If by some magic, most Indians become a bit educated tomorrow, and have some life other than mere existence, then we can talk about actual Balkanization. Until then, India will exist as it always has. There is also the Partition which has affected the national psyche: talk of dividing the country is like so far out there, you'd be considered a traitor a few levels before that.

[sandGorgon]

that is probably the best explanation I have read yet. But it is fairly true - I really dont know why. I think religion (in its most abstract: festivities + food) has a lot to do with it. And Bollywood.

But a lot has to do with our freedom movement - the way Gandhi, Nehru and Patel unified the different kingdoms into a single freedom struggle is incredible. And that has never gone away. We actually unified India AFTER the formal independence from the British. Hyderabad's Princely State (to which I notionally belong to... and Satya Nadella ) actually wanted to be independent and was annexed by the Indian Union by force.

And now, there is so much growth and money in India, that it is really hard to make a case for Balkanization - Kashmir is an edge case with a lot of international politics. But even in the far northeast (Mizoram, etc), the struggle is for a separate federal state... only a few splinter groups demand full independence.