Miscalculations mark US8217; India policy 8212; Expert

The report prepared by Dr Stephen P Cohen, an expert on India, said the regional cries between India and Pakistan, were misunderstood by many Americans.

8220;Indians and Pakistanis are not fools, and they have learned the lessons of what was their own version of the Cuban missile crisis during 8216;Operation Brasstacks8217;, he said.

8220;I am afraid we have not taken seriously, nor looked closely, at the way in which these two states have managed to contain disputes, especially Kashmir, which not only affect their vital security interests but their very national identities,8221; he adds.

The report said 8220;we need to understand that India is atruly revolutionary state, in that there are radical changes underway in its domestic political and economic order.

8220;From about 1989, we have witnessed the inauguration, or the intensification, of five separate revolutions8221;.

8220;There has been a caste and class revolution, in which hitherto suppressed or disenfranchised Indians have sought a bigger share of the pie, often through the ballot box, but sometimes through the gun,8221; the report adds.

8220;We have witnessed the lift-off of an economic revolution, hesitant at first, and now perhaps stalled, but a revolution that has widespread support because only through a transformation of the Indian economy can the system deliver the goods to these newly assertive and powerful castes.8221;

India has also seen the beginning of a federal revolution, the report adds. 8220;As new regional parties achieve power, their first goal is to capture their state government.8221;

As in the US, the report points out, the party that controls New Delhi may not control the states,and power must be shared between parties who are rivals at the state level.

8220;Led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its associated social organisations, India is now experiencing an ideological revolution, in which long-established norms and values are being challenged,8221; the report says. 8220;Again, this can produce shocking acts of violence, as in the case of the recent murder of an Australian missionary and his sons.8221;

8220;Finally, as in many places around the world, India is subjected to the information revolution as ideas and images circulate more freely than ever before. This is accelerated by satellite television and the Internet, and cheap travel and growing literacy,8221; it adds.