The Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy have released the 2008 version of the Failed States Index. 177 countries have been ranked. Twelve sets of indicators are used - and for each indicator, a country is ranked on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being most stable and 10 being least stable.

As is but inevitable, such indicators are difficult to pin down and quantify. There is inherent subjectivity, especially if cross-country comparisons are attempted. However, the exercise is not without utility.

Evidently, India is has particular problems with demographic pressures, a legacy of violence, chronic human flight, uneven economic development along group lines, deterioration of public services and a security apparatus operating as a ‘state within a state’.

In all probability, most Indians will agree with most of these, but raise their eyebrows on the security apparatus claims. This raises a question impossible to answer. Understandably, debates are more visible in democracies, particularly in media. Since rankings factor in media reports and NGO reactions, does that exaggerate the importance of items like violence, uneven development, worsening public services and an overweening security system? In June 2008, UN polled respondents in 19 countries on their views on torture. The majority in 14 countries wanted unequivocal rules against torture. The four exceptions, when respondents wanted exceptions made for terrorists when innocent lives were at stake, were India, Nigeria, Turkey and Thailand, with India leading the group at 59 per cent. 28 per cent of Indians felt all torture should be prohibited, 47 per cent accepted limited torture of terrorists to save innocent lives and 12 per cent felt torture should generally be allowed. In a similar poll conducted in June-July 2006, the percentage of Indians supporting torture was 32 per cent, not 59 per cent. Assuming samples are comparable, that’s a very sharp increase indeed.

... contd.