Republicans colder than Democrats toward India, reveals Pew Survey

Republicans are more negatively disposed towards India than Democrats, a latest Pew survey on popularity of several countries among the members of the two American political parties said Monday.

According to the survey, Republicans and Democrats express overwhelmingly negative views of North Korea, but they diverge in their opinion on several other countries, including India, Mexico, Iran, Russia and other US allies.

Asked to rate their feelings toward 10 countries on a feeling thermometer, the Pew survey said Republicans are more likely than Democrats to have warmer feelings toward just one country - Russia.

For six other countries Canada, Germany, Mexico, India, China and Iran, Democrats have warmer feelings than Republicans, the Pew survey said.

The new national survey by Pew Research Center, conducted between July 30 and August 12 among 4,581 adults, asked respondents for their feelings toward 10 foreign countries on a feeling thermometer ranging from 0 to 100.

The survey described a rating of 51 or higher as warm, rating below 50 as cold and rating of 50 as "neutral".

According to Pew, Republicans gave four countries average ratings of 51 or higher: Canada (65), Britain (64), Japan (59) and Germany (54). Democrats gave positive average ratings to six countries, including Mexico and India.

The average "thermometer rating" was highest for Canada (an average of 71), followed by Britain (66), Japan (61) and Germany (59).

Ratings for Mexico and India are mixed (51 for each), and negative for China (42), Russia, Iran (both 28) and North Korea (21), Pew said.

While comparable shares in both parties have neutral feelings about India (42 per cent of Democrats, 41 per cent of Republicans), more Republicans feel coldly toward India (31 per cent vs 21 per cent of Democrats), Pew said.

Democrats were found in the survey less likely than Republicans to express cold feelings toward China and India.

And while overall partisan views of Japan do not differ significantly, more Democrats than Republicans feel "very warmly" toward Japan, it said.

In views of China, far more Republicans give cold (57 per cent) ratings than neutral (24 per cent) or warm ratings (16 per cent).

Democrats' views of China were more divided: 38 per cent feel coldly, 35 per cent have neutral feelings and 25 per cent express warm feeling, Pew said.