WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Why India Is More Like Europe Than China.

While Indians share a strong sense of identity and common destiny, India is a much more complicated place than China. There are many more different languages and different cultures, many different political traditions, and deep divides in religious and political history. In some ways India is less like China—a large relatively homogenous nation state with some minority groups and regional differences—than it is like Europe: a society made up of many different cultures and groups. Many of the differences in politics and political outcomes between India and China have less to do with the difference between democracy and autocracy than between the decision-making process of a nation state and the decision-making processes of a multi-cultural confederation. If India were a communist country like China, its decision making would likely be slower, less effective and more corrupt than China’s. If China were a democracy, its government would likely be more effective than Indian democracy.

Modern India is truly a noble experiment. In some ways it is more audacious even than the European Union—an attempt to use democratic methods to allow people of many different histories and backgrounds to build a common future using democratic methods. India’s success, partial and sometimes disappointing as it is, is a great sign of hope to the whole world that we can perhaps one day live together reasonably well despite our cultural and social differences.

But geopolitical analysts need to keep in mind that the challenges facing both societies are formidable and they are in many respects quite different. We shouldn’t exaggerate their similarities or view them through the same lenses just because they are rapidly developing countries with more than a billion people in them.

True.