India’s problem is that it might be a bit too varied and too heavily populated. India is not an ethnically defined nation-state like China or Vietnam or France or Poland, in which one group dominates the population and the government, but instead boasts more ethnic and linguistic diversity than any continent save Africa. Many of these ethnicities don’t simply have their own cultures; they have their own governments. These governments often exercise vetoes—sometimes formal, sometimes informal—over national policies. The reverse is often true as well. It isn’t a setup that argues for great
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