A clean sweep of renewing political activism in South Asia by the cricket bat and the broom - A comparative case study of India and Pakistan

The recent political events in Pakistan and India have marked the ushering of a new era of political transformations in the South Asian region. The dawning of two new political parties Pakistan-tehreek-e-Insaf literally translating into The justice party of Pakistan (bearing the symbol of a cricket bat) and the Aam Admi Party literally translating into the common man s party of India (bearing the symbol of a broom), as a result of the anti-graft/ rights based movements, has taken the region by storm presenting new political alternatives to the people, promising to swing the bat hard enough to sweep out corruption that has hindered progress and development in their respective countries. With the Broom, which symbolizes dignity of labour/ common man, AAP hopes to clean the filth, which has permeated the government and the legislature. Irrespective of caste, class, creed, and religion, the factors that have dominated the politics of these countries, these actors of change are claiming to voice the concerns of the common man and have successfully created a new political block challenging the age-old elitist democracy at the ballot box. The upcoming of the new political alternatives and their similarities are not only thought-provoking given the diverging contexts they are appearing in, but they remains contrary to the established theories of democratization in the global south. This thesis sets out to explain the aforementioned puzzles