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Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to want fundamental changes in Indias pluralistic democracy and not for the better. Photograph: EPA

When the British departed from the subcontinent 70 years ago, the most appropriate epitaph was probably provided by an Indian official who remarked: You British believe in fair play. You have left India in the same condition of chaos as you found it. The months that followed the partitioning ofBritish India seemed to confirm the nature of the gift of independence. The subcontinent endured a lawless, bloody anarchy that encompassed some of the 20th centurys greatest migrations and crimes. Born in blood were two newly created nations of mostly-Hindu India, and Pakistan, a Muslim homeland in south Asia, as well as about 500 feudal autocracies, which ranged from princely states some as large as a European nation to village-sized chiefdoms. When the British predicted there would be many more partitions, it was because the former colonial masters thought no one can make a nation out of a continent of many nations.

In Pakistan, that forecast came partly true, thanks largely because of an attempt to impose a single language Urdu on its most populous province, East Bengal. By 1971, after a civil war in which India played a part in stoking, Pakistan had been cleaved in two. The unfinished business of princely states remains: continuing revolts in Pakistans Baluchistan, Indias Kashmir and Manipur are rooted in identities distinct from the nations that swallowed them up. However, gloomy prophecies of fragmentation have been proved wrong decade after decade in India despite the poverty and diversity. It is perhaps Indias greatest achievement that one-sixth of humanity now cast their votes regularly in free and fair elections.

Unlike democracy in the west where voters first had to be rich men, then adult men and later women, Indias democracy came into being peacefully in 1951 with its first general election where every citizen irrespective of gender, caste, creed, religion, occupation, wealth or level of literacy got to vote. It is also a democracy where the military have been confined to their barracks in peacetime. Almost alone in the non-western world barring a brief interruption in 1975 India has clung doggedly to its democratic convictions. Voting is only one part of a liberal democracy. Indias noble aim of political equality is undermined by a creaking criminal justice system, flagrant interference in its public institutions and the inability toeliminate large-scale political corruption. Freedom ofexpression, necessary for true democracy, does not exist in full measure. India is a land of taboos where almost every fundamentalist be it religious, linguistic or regional cancall for books to be banned or film sets burned. That India was the first country to ban the Satanic Verses is a blot onits democracy.

Indians were once in academia described as Homo Hierarchicus, a species of human who most intensely practised inequality. This in-built discrimination chained Dalits and women for centuries. Indias laws abolished untouchability and made men equal to women, yet in practice violence and prejudice continue. Thanks to casteism and bigotry against Indias tribal peoples, the country is home to the worlds largest slave population. However, we can see examples ofeveryday equality between people in India. The link between a persons occupation and their caste is weakening, thanks in part to the worlds biggest affirmative action programme. Theres also evidence that women are choosing their own spouses, abigshift in a nation where marriage was seen as a contract between families.

In an Asian century, India has long been considered as a democratic counterweight to its larger authoritarian neighbour, China. Last year Indias economy grew faster than Chinas, although alarming pollution levels suggest Delhi risks making many of Beijings mistakes. Worryingly, Indian and Chinese troops have in recent weeks been engaged in a tense Himalayan standoff. But Indias biggest threat is internal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an impressive politician but he also runs a government backed by rightwing Hindu extremists who condone and actively support violence against minorities, especially Muslims. Like its less-peopled cousin, the European Union, India works because no single culture or language is central to its identity or mandatory for unity. Mr Modi seems to want fundamental changes in Indias pluralistic democracy and not for the better. The quest for equality and the rule of law have shown impressive resilience in India, but they are under threat from within.

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The Guardian view on India at 70: democracy in action - The Guardian