Minority politicians have long wielded authority, if not power, in its various high offices. Indeed, India’s last general election, in 2004, was won by a woman of Italian heritage and Roman Catholic faith (Sonia Gandhi) who made way for a Sikh (Manmohan Singh) to be sworn in as Prime Minister by a Muslim (President Abdul Kalam) in a country that is 81% Hindu.
虽然各国的尤其是在欧洲的众多分析家们已经得出结论，认为这类事件在可预见的将来不可能发生，但印度却是个例外。少数民族的政客很久前就在印度的各种高级职位上掌握了权威，如果还算不上是掌握权力的话。事实上，印度上一次2004年的大选，赢家是一个意大利后裔的信仰罗马天主教的女人（索尼娅·甘地），她为一个锡克教徒（曼莫汉·辛格）向一个穆斯林教徒（阿卜杜勒·卡拉姆总统）宣誓就职总理铺平了道路，而该国的人口81 ％是印度教徒。印度人说，这种情况不仅可能在这里发生，而且它已经发生了。