Interns met with former president Narayanan, former prime minister Gujral, acting U.S. Ambassador Robert Blake, lawmakers and policymakers. They were briefed by influential think tanks, attended a session of Parliament and witnessed tricolor being hoisted at Red Fort on Aug. 15.

Srinivasa, Class of 2003, interned with Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). She is a senior at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, with a double major in public policy and sociology.

I often wondered how India managed to govern more than one billion people (relatively) peaceably. My parents, who have lived in the United States longer than they have in India, were unable to provide more details. “It’s a representative democracy,” they explained. “Just like the United States.”

In some ways, it seems that the Indian parliamentary system does represent its people better than the U.S. government represents the American people. The affirmative action policies of elections ensure a diversity of religion, caste and gender in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. This is a far cry from the “rich old white boy’s club” that the U.S. Senate is often accused of being. The reserved seats in the Indian government are filled by women, members of the scheduled castes and others who would not otherwise be represented. This system reflects the essence of a democracy; that political power is held by the common people. However, the affirmative action policies of the Indian government are somewhat distasteful to a meritocratic American society. Some Indians also question the merits of positive discrimination in favor of minorities. Controversy is growing regarding the bounds of the policy: Should poor but upper-caste individuals have reserved seats? Do reserved seats exclude some religious denominations?

I found one other aspect of the Indian political process troubling. When I visited Delhi, I had the dubious honor of witnessing “zero hour” in the Lok Sabha. At 12 noon every day, the Speaker assumes his seat and is immediately assaulted by a verbal barrage of shouts, chants and shaking fists. Members of the minority parties take advantage of this time allotted to raise complaints by uniting in protest.

Yet, 56 years of growth and expansion under this system puts India at the top of the list of competitors in the new world order. An outsider may see only chaos, but there may be more to the system than meets the eye.