Question

India and Nigeria are both former British colonies characterized by extreme divisions. Why was India relatively more successful in its process of democratization than Nigeria?

Answer 1

Both the Nigerian and Indian nations have extraordinarily diverse populations, witnessed the systematic divide-and-rule policies implemented by British colonizers attempting to intensify internal disparities, and undergone peaceful transitions from colonial rule to independence. Despite these primary parallels in certain aspects of their histories of colonialism and decolonization, India and Nigeria have had very different rates of success in their attempts to develop and sustain politically stable nation-states.Today, India is distinguished by its political stability from other post-colonial independent nations, evidenced by its "collection of stable political and legal institutions that have remained more or less intact for more than five decades" and a parliamentary democracy that "has remained more or less unchanged since India's independence and continues to operate in an orderly manner

British colonizers introduced the civil service to India and set up 'national and regional assemblies' which 'provided an institutional basis for parliamentary democracy in post-colonial India,' as well as 'systematic division of labor between central and provincial administrations, providing a bridge from the tax system to modern Indian federalism institutions'

India gained independence from Britain in 1947, but since the early 1920s wealthy voters had elected national and regional representatives, and elected officials had governed all of the executive departments in some provinces since the 1930's. This included the creation of political parties, such as the Congress Party, which provided the basis for democratic challenges to independence