Four out of five Indians trust their national government and the majority favour some form of autocracy, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.

“In India, where the economy has grown on average by 6.9 percent since 2012, 85 percent (of people) trust their national government,” Pew Research said in a study which inferred that people in rapidly growing economies are more likely to trust their national government.

The survey was conducted before talk of an economic slowdown gained traction, triggered by a significantly slower 5.7 growth in GDP in the June quarter.

Of the two parameters — 'a lot' and 'somewhat' — used for collecting people's opinion, out of 85 percent, 46 percent Indians 'somewhat' trusted the government to do what is right while 39 percent trust the government 'a lot'.

For a different parameter, it emerged that more than half of Indians, about 55 percent, favour autocracy in some way or the other. Even though in advanced economies there is little overall backing for autocracy, the study pointed out that often people with a secondary education or below are more likely than those with more education to favour autocratic rule.

In India, about 27 percent of the public want a strong leader as the sole decision-maker. This opinion is not shared globally, where seven-in-ten (71 percent) say it would be a bad type of governance.

"A global median of 26 percent say a system in which a strong leader can make decisions without interference from parliament or the courts would be a good way of governing," the report said.

According to the report, roughly half of both Indians (53 percent) and South Africans (52 percent). who live in nations that often hold themselves up as democratic exemplars for their regions, say that military rule would be a good thing for their countries.

However, in these societies, older people (those ages 50 and older) are said to be the least supportive of the army running the country as they are the ones who either personally experienced the struggle to establish a democratic rule or are the immediate descendants of those democratic pioneers, the report added.

Only one in ten Europeans back military rule.

Globally, more than half of the citizens in each of the 38 nations polled consider representative democracy a very good or somewhat good way to govern their country.

The study showed that pro-democratic attitudes coexist in all the countries although in varying degrees, with openness to non-democratic forms of governance, including rule by experts, a strong leader, or the military.

The sample size for the face-to-face survey conducted in India was 2,464 people, where questions were asked in eight languages. The survey conducted between February 21 and March 10 involved adult population from Delhi and 15 of the 17 most populous states.