ABSTRACT
The transfer of power from colonial rulers to their Indian successors in 1947 marked the birth of the independent Indian state. But this most significant of moments in Indian history was tarnished by post-Partition Hindu-Muslim riots of unprecedented violence. Compared to the violent chaos and uncertainty of those desperate days, the institutions of state such as the Parliament, the Police, the Army, the Civil Service, the Judiciary, federalism and the party system five decades later come across as singularly robust, vital and resilient. Thus, India belongs to a minority of changing societies1 that have achieved the distinction of having durability, adaptability and innovativeness as characteristics of their institutions. This distinction, of course, also belongs to the People’s Republic of China, except with one major difference. In spite of sporadic inter-community riots, violent insurgency in border regions and Maoist uprisings deeper inland, missing from the Indian case are the vast tragic costs in human lives which have gone into maintaining the resilience of Chinese institutions.2
