Today as I was sitting in the class, while changes in Indian Polity from 1950 to the present were being discussed; a thought came in to my mind.
We always take pride in saying that India is a country, where inspite of all the differences, inspite of all the dissent - our democracy has survived and we beam with pride, when we compare this with our neighbours who so often slip into the other side with anarchy, coups and military dictators!
People attribute several reasons to this thriving of democracy. Some say its the prudence of the constitution drafters, some say its the structure that gives it the inherent stability of proces, while some say that we are a nation of such vast differences that we cant have one single military dictator landing in the scene who can carry the entire nation with him/her.
But just to think of it - could this have been the reason? - India’s lead of the Non Alignment Movement(NAM). This ensured that we kept away from any real alignment of our country with the US of A or in the old days USSR. Therefore, our military establishment didnt get that might - which they would have got/assumed if there was any alignment of our military/foreign affairs strategy directly with that of the US. This would have given the generals greater power and we could have been part of plans - larger or otherwise to dethrow governments and replace them with mightier generals with covert(and sometimes not so very covert) Uncle Sam’s support!
