The Arab Spring and its Implications for India

The ‘Arab Spring’ is the popular rejection of the political and economic scenario that has prevailed across the Arab world from Morocco to Yemen over the last 100 years. In the post-colonial era following the Second World War, country after country in Asia, Latin America and, recently, in Africa moved towards establishing a democratic political system. But the Arab world was excluded from this political evolution and remained mired in despotic and tyrannical rule over polities that were politically and economically stagnant and functioned primarily to serve the interests of the despots and their immediate coterie, as well as Western interests, rather than those of their own population.