Islam and Democratization in Asia By Shiping Hua

institutions upon which any democratic nation must rely, has been concomitant with creeping inroads made by Islamist extremism. Thirty-seven years after its independence, the nation's political fabric revealed a deeply divided people, pitting Bengalis against Bengalis, and described by some hyperbolically as pushing the nation to the perilous edge of civil war. Only intervention by the army and the installment of an army-backed government in January 2007, marking a disturbing return of the military to the political arena after a hiatus of fifteen years, prevented that scenario from becoming reality.

In chapter 6, “Muslim Experience of Indian Democracy,” Omar Khalidi remarks that with Muslims representing fully 12 percent of India's population, the Indian Muslim population exceeds most Middle Eastern countries' Muslim populations, and is rivaled only by Indonesia and Pakistan. India is also the world's largest democracy. Despite all its shortcomings, Indian democracy is sharply contrasted with its absence in its immediate neighborhoods to the east (Bangladesh, Myanmar) and the west (Pakistan and beyond). India is also officially a secular country, again in contrast to the neighboring countries of the Middle East. For all of the reasons outlined here, a study of the Indian Muslim experience with democracy is critical to any discussion on Islam and democracy in Asia and elsewhere.

Khalidi's study explores three interrelated themes. First, it considers the Indian Muslim elite's perception of the British-style parliamentary democracy in the nineteenth century, and why they thought it would be injurious to their interests in a multireligious society in which they are a minority. Instead, the Indian Muslim elite sought and gained an electoral system—Separate Electorates—perceived to be in their interests. Second, it examines Indian nationalist (mainly Hindu) critique of the system of Separate Electorates, and its abolition in the 1950 constitution. Third, it examines the implications of Muslims' poor numbers in parliament and state assemblies on power-sharing, as seen through cabinet appointments, allocation of state resources for development, and the protection of lives and property during the riots and pogroms that are part of contemporary Indian life.