None nether China nor Japan nor Korea have a “homogenous” ethnic population.
they have a homogeneous national identity and values. But this is cultivated not inherited and it isn’t really an excuses for the failure that is India and Pakistan. They survived immense trauma in the last hundred years, invasion, famine, war and turmoil and yet they have far outpaced both nations.
Pakistan is hell bent on making - "hindus & Muslims can not live together" true. Their entire actions for the past 70+ years is to validate this and make it true (sorry Pakistanis- I am not trolling).
India has chosen socialism (nehru) over capitalism (Patel; Rajaji & others). They negated the concept of nationalism. Believe it or not, India did not have a conservative/ right wing govt till recently. Till recently, politics in India are leftist & center- leftist, never center-rightist / rightist.
Many years ago, I read somewhere to the effect that- all countries in South East Asia & elsewhere has become rich first and then gave political freedom to their people. India is doing reverse. The author says that giving political freedom, when people are poor with strife never worked. The author is interested in how India will work this out in reverse (please note that I am not quoting the author verbatim, but you got the idea).
Even Deng Xiaopeng wrote about giving political freedom to Chinese after making them rich. India is giving lots & lots of political freedom, while people are poor.
Any reformist idea in India is encountering stiff resistance (for ex: "farmers" protests happening in India). Too much right to protest.
Many years back, I was in Bangalore working for a software company. Somedays, I had to work very late into night and had to ride my bike back in the night. The street dogs used to run after me wanting to bite me (they become so aggressive at nights). Why are the street dogs not "removed"? Because some people had too much time & money to protest the removal of street dogs. It is another matter that those animal activists never had to ride bikes at night.
I am very happy in USA now, but fear that USA is going India's route (socialism). This fear (coupled with person sitting in white house + VP + Pelosi + AOC etc) worries me. I console myself thinking that (by nature) human beings destroy every thing good. Many mighty civilizations have crumbled due to hitting hubris.
Enough from me.