Indian political system

For students of politics India is perhaps the most important of all the newer nations of the so-called "underdeveloped world." Its long and complex past, its vast population (one-seventh of the human race, greater than that of Africa and Latin America combined), and its present position give India a special importance that can be acknowl edged without doing an injustice to any other nation.

India is a particularly significant laboratory of political, economic, and social development and change. It is a static society, with a political system grounded in orthodox and conservative traditions, but one para doxically in the process of change. Although it is common and con venient to speak of India's "political system" -and for these reasons I have chosen to do so throughout the book. it is not quite accurate. In the strictest sense of the term India has perhaps not yet evolved a real political system at all; but it has a well-established framework of govern ment and law which is a working reality, although to be sure this some times operates in peculiar ways and is currently under extraordinary stresses and strains.