Well, useing india as the example is because india has the similar conditions: almost found at the same time, hugh population, extremly low economic condition, high iliteracy and diversity. Both countries were developing in the same period.
We cannot get 2 countries with comletely same condition to study. However, india and china are the most similar 2.
The problem with a lot of these analysis comparing India with China in terms of growth is that they are very shallow.
While Indians in general have a similar cultural backgrounds, there are still very strong linguistic, religious and caste differences. All my Cantonese speaking friends understand Mandarin, but as a Malayalam speaking guy I can certainly understand Tamil, but can barely make sense of a word of Telugu or any of the other 10 or 20 main Indian languages
These 2 factors make India a rich mix of traditions and cultures, but these same factors also hinder when it comes to consensus building. China does not have as many languages as India does and the only religious tradition was a weak buddhist/taoist tradition
In India religious faith and culture are also very tightly wrapped; so there is a natural divide there, in addition to language as well as caste.
You can look at it as a glass that is half-full, or half-empty.
As India becomes a more educated English speaking society, these divisions mean very little anymore as you can see in the emerging middle class and upper middle-class Indian society today, and India will gradually close the gap with China.
Conversely, as China becomes more developed; the power of the individual will increase and the power of the state communist center will decrease, and then you will begin to see the same kind of problems that democracies have to deal with. In other words, you wont be able to send in a bunch of soldiers and bulldozers and tell half a million poor Chinese peasants that they will have to relocate for a big dam project or be thrown in jail or shot !!!
In fact, you are already seeing it all over the country-side in China.
So while India and China may have started out at the same time of independence; the analysis by some Chinese, comparing these 2 countries which were very similar due to huge overpopulation, poverty and illiteracy is somewhat missing the point.
While China certainly has minorities; it does not in any way have the ethno-linguistic-religious-cultural-caste complexity of a country like India.
When the colonial Brits left, Indians had to evolve an independent democratic system based on what the Brits have left behind. It is common knowledge that maintaining a democratic system in a huge overpopulated country like India would mean that its political system would become an endless gridlock.
But that is the price that India has to pay to maintain a society that is in keeping with our values. Even the current Chinese model of capitalistic-communism would have never worked in India - simply because it is intrinsically against our value system.
Not to oversimplify a complex topic, but simply put - we are not going to shoot our poor farmers, if they dont move for a dam !
[mod] banned word deleted , please stay on topic from your next post [/mod]