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 POST INDEPDENCE HISTORY OF INDIA

CHAPTER SYLLABUS – POST INDEPENDENCE PAGE NO

Chapter 1 ➢ Partition And Its Aftermath

Nation Building Process ➢ Integration Of Princely States 3
and Its Challenges ➢ Legacy- Colonial and National Movement
➢ Issue of Official Language
➢ The Linguistic Reorganization Of The States
➢ Integration Of The Tribals
➢ Regional Aspirations
➢ Hindu Code Bill
Chapter 2 ➢ Emergence of Electoral Politics
From Colony to Democracy ➢ Establishment of democratic politics 47
➢ Administrative Control
➢ Social Change
➢ Education
➢ Panchayati Raj
➢ Domination of Congress
➢ Emergence of Opposition Of Parties
➢ Coalition Era
Chapter 3 ➢ Foreign Policy Under Nehru
Foreign Policy ➢ Relations with Pakistan 62
➢ Relations with China
➢ Nuclear Policy of India
➢ India-Sri Lanka Crisis (1987)
Chapter 4 ➢ Indian Economy (1947-65)
Economic Development ➢ Indian Economy (1965-1991) 82
➢ Economic Reforms Since 1991
➢ Imp Economic Developments
Chapter 5 ➢ Emergency In India (1975-77)
Important Issues In Post- ➢ Naxalite Movement 102
Independence History ➢ Communalism Events in India
➢ Bhopal Gas Tragedy
➢ Shah Bano Case
➢ Bofors Scam
➢ National Policy On Education, 1986
Chapter 6 ➢ Jammu & Kashmir Issue
Regional Discontent ➢ Punjab Issue 120
➢ Assam Accord
Chapter 7 ➢ Land Reforms
Popular Movements/Events ➢ Agriculture Growth And Green Revolution 131
in India ➢ Agrarian Struggles Since Independence
➢ Cooperatives
➢ Women’s Movement
➢ Dalit Movements
➢ Environment Movements
➢ Era Of ICT
 CHAPTER 1 - NATION BUILDING PROCESS AND ITS
CHALLENGES
Sr. Topic
1 Challenges After Independent India
2 Partition and its aftermath
3 Integration of Princely States
4 Legacy- Colonial and National Movement
5 Issue of Official language
6 The Linguistic Reorganization of the States
7 Minority Languages And Associated Issues
8 Integration of the Tribals
9 Regional Aspirations
10 Hindu Code Bill

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 CHALLENGES AFTER INDEPENDENT INDIA

Integration of Princely
States

Social, Politcal and Stability & Security of

Economic Equality India

Rehabilitation of Refugess
& Communal Riots

Establishment of
Representatve
Economic
Democracy & Civil
Development
Libertarian Political
Order

Restoration of Law &

Order after partition

Important Statements of Nehru after Independence of India:

➢ Nehru declared in his 14 August speech, 'The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening
of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements . . . That future is not one of ease and
resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken.
➢ Nehru declared in 1947, 'First things must come first and the first thing is the security and stability of
India.
➢ "There is no lack of drama in this changing world of ours and, even in India, we live in an exciting
age. I have always considered it a great privilege for people of this generation to live during this period
of India's long history ... I have believed that there is nothing more exciting in the wide world today than
to work in India.

PARTITION AND ITS AFTERMATH:

INTRODUCTION –
• Fifteenth August, 1947, the first day of free India, was celebrated. The sacrifices of generations of
patriots and the blood of countless martyrs had borne fruit.
• The initial few years of independent India were full of daunting challenges and concerns regarding
national unity and territorial integrity of India. Freedom came with Partition, which resulted in large
scale communal violence and displacement and unprecedented violence challenged the very idea of a
secular India.

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 • There was scarcity of food and other consumer goods, and a fear of administrative breakdown.
• Independence had been accompanied by a multitude of problems, and centuries of backwardness,
prejudice, inequality, and ignorance still weighed on the land.
Challenges facing India at the time of independence have been variously identified as:

Challenges facing India at

the time of independence

Immediate problems Medium term problems Long term problems

IMMEDIATE PROBLEMS:
• Territorial and administrative integration of the princely states.
• Communal riots that accompanied Partition.
• Rehabilitation of refugees who had migrated from Pakistan.
• Protection of Muslims threatened by communal groups.
• Need to avoid war with Pakistan.
• Communist insurgency.
• Restoration of law and order.
• Political stability and putting in place an administrative system, threatened with breakdown because of
Partition.
MEDIUM TERM PROBLEMS:
• Framing a constitution.
• Building a representative democratic and civil libertarian political order.
• Organizing elections to put in place the system of representative and responsible government.
• Abolishing the semi-feudal agrarian order through land reforms.
LONG TERM PROBLEMS:
• Promoting national integration.
• Pushing forward the process of nation-in-the-making.
• Facilitating rapid economic development.
• Removing endemic poverty.
• Initiating the planning process.
• Bridge the gap between mass expectations aroused by the freedom struggle and their fulfilment.
• Getting rid of centuries-long social injustice, inequality and oppression.
• Evolve a foreign policy which would defend Indian independence and promote peace in a world
increasingly engulfed by the Cold War.
• The national movement had brought together different regions, sections of society and ideological
currents around a common political agenda.
• The national leaders were committed to the goals of rapid social and economic change and
democratization of the society and polity, and the values imparted by the national movement.
• The leaders were committed to the values of democracy, civil liberties, secularism, independent
economic development, anti-imperialism and social reforms and had a propoor orientation. • The
leadership’s position was strengthened by the fact that they enjoyed tremendous popularity and prestige
among almost every section of the people.

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OTHER MAJOR PROBLEMS:
• Rehabilitation of Refugees & Communal Riots - A very important task after Independence to give
relief to and resettle and rehabilitate the nearly six million refugees from Pakistan who had lost their
all there and whose world had been turned upside down.
• Stability & Security of India- Nehru declared in 1947, 'First things must come first and the first thing is
the security and stability of India. After Independence , Indian leaders not only faced with the
communal problem arise out of partition but they also required to protect the Indian territory from
external threat mainly posed by Pakistan. This was an era of cold war and to protect its sovereignty
was also a great challenge for Indians from the influence of USSR and USA.
• Establishment of Representative Democracy & Civil Libertarian Political Order- One of the major
tasks of Indian leaders was to establish a truly Democratic and Republic India with ultimate powers
being given to citizens.
• Restoration of Law & Order after partition – After Partition, India was in the midst of a communal
holocaust. There was senseless communal slaughter and a fratricidal war of unprecedented proportions.
To restore law and order, and to make India a internally peaceful state was also an immediate challenge
at the time of Independence .
• Economic Development – During Independence , Indian Economic development was in a negative
state. To Build, frame and develop a strong and robust Indian economy with adequate employment was
also a visionary challenge for the Indian leaders during Independence .
• Social, Political and Economic Equality- The most important task after Independence was to grant
political, economic and social equality to all Indians.
Partition of India and its Consequences
• On 14–15 August 1947, two nation states came into existence, because of 'partition' of the division of
British India into India and Pakistan. According to the "two nation theory" advanced by the Muslim
League, India consisted of two 'People' Hindus and Muslims.
• A very important task at hand was demarcation of boundaries. After 3rd June plan of Mountbatten, a
British jurist Radcliff was invited to fix the problem and to form two boundary commissions one for
Bengal and one for Punjab. Four other members were also there in commission but there was a
deadlock between Congress and Muslim league. On 17th August, 1947 he announced his award.
• According to Award, it was decided to follow the principle of religious majorities which means that
areas where the Muslims were in majority would make up the territory of Pakistan. The remaining was
to stay with India.
• It initiated the process of migration from one India to Pakistan and vice versa.
Communal Holocaust-
• India was in the midst of a communal holocaust. There was senseless communal slaughter and a
fratricidal war of unprecedented proportions. Unspeakable atrocities were perpetrated on the minorities
in both India and Pakistan.
• In the span of a few months, nearly 500,000 people
were killed and property worth thousands of
millions of rupees was looted and destroyed.
Communal violence threatened the very fabric of
society.
• The situation was brought under control within a few
months through decisive political and administrative
measures like Repression of Riots by using army and
police etc.
• Nehru carried on a massive campaign against

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 communalism to instil a sense of security in the minorities, through public speeches, radio broadcasts,
speeches in parliament, private letters and epistles to chief ministers.
• A major setback to the communal forces occurred with Gandhiji's martyrdom.
• However, Communalism was thereby contained and weakened but not eliminated, for conditions were
still favourable for its growth.

Nehrus’ speech on Communalism

• If allowed free play’, ‘communalism would break up India.'' 1951
• Portraying communalism as 'the Indian version of fascism', he said in October 1947: 'The wave or
fascism which is gripping India now is the direct outcome of hatred for the non-Muslims which the
Muslim League preached among its followers for years. The League accepted the ideology of fascism
from the Nazis of Germany . . . The ideas and methods of fascist organization are now gaining
popularity among the Hindus also and the demand for the establishment of a Hindu State is its clear
manifestation.'
• On Gandhiji's birthday in 1951, he told a Delhi audience: 'If any person raises his hand to strike down
another on the ground of religion, I shall fight him till the last breath of my life, both as the head of
the government and from outside
• At the Jaipur session of the Congress in December 1948 that the Congress and the government were
determined 'to make India a truly secular state.'
• In February 1949 he described the talk of 'Hindu Raj' as 'that mad idea.' And he told his audience in
1950: 'Ours is a secular state ... Here every Muslim should feel that he is an Indian citizen and has
equal rights as an Indian citizen. If we cannot make him feel like this, we shall not be worthy of our
heritage and of our country.'

Rehabilitation of the Refugees-

• The government had to stretch itself to the maximum to give relief to and resettle and rehabilitate the
nearly six million refugees from Pakistan who had lost their all there and whose world had been turned
upside down.
• By 1951, the problem of the rehabilitation of the refugees from West Pakistan had been fully tackled.
• The task of rehabilitating and resettling refugees from East Bengal was made more difficult by the
fact that the exodus of Hindus from East Bengal continued for years. While nearly all the Hindus and
Sikhs from West Pakistan had migrated in one go in 1947, a large number of Hindus in East Bengal
had stayed on there in the initial years of 1947 and 1948.
• But as communal riots broke out periodically in East Bengal, there was a steady stream of refugees
from there year after year till 1971. Providing them with work and shelter and psychological
assurance, therefore became a continuous and hence a difficult task.
• Unlike in Bengal, most of the refugees from West
Punjab could occupy the large lands and property left
by the Muslim migrants to Pakistan from Punjab, U.P.
and Rajasthan and could therefore be resettled on land.
• This was not the case in West Bengal. Also because of
linguistic affinity, it was easier for Punjabi and Sindhi
refugees to settle in today's Himachal Pradesh and
Haryana and western U.P., Rajasthan and Delhi.
• The resettlement of the refugees from East Bengal could
take place only in Bengal and to a lesser extent in
Assam and Tripura. As a result, 'a very large number
of people who had been engaged in agricultural

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 occupations before their displacement were forced to seek survival in semi-urban and urban contexts as
the underclass,' and contributed to 'the process of immiseration' of West Bengal.

Note- Sardar Tarlok Singh of the Indian Civil Service was the director general of rehabilitation.

Growth of Communalism:
• Partition and riots strengthened communal tendencies.
• Though, communalism was weakened by massive campaign and measures but was not eliminated.

Economic Consequences:
• The partition led to an uneven distribution of area and India had to share a greater burden of population
in proportion to land share.
• Migration due to partition involved a significant wealth shock for the households involved.
• The flourishing jute industry was distorted - the boundaries separating west Bengal from East Bengal
separated the jute growing areas in East Pakistan from jute mills in West Bengal.
• India also had to bear the cost of rehabilitation of large number of refugees.

Effect on India-Pakistan Relations:

• The partition resulted in far-reaching impacts in the region.
• India-Pakistan rivalry emerged.
• Kashmir conflict emerged as a constant source of tension resulting in numerous border clashes.
• Another source of constant tension was the strong sense of insecurity among Hindus in East Bengal
which emerged as a consequence of the communal character of Pakistan political system.

Challenges posed by communists immediately after independence:

The communists in India emerged as a major challenge for the government in the post-independence
days.
• After independence, the communists of India held the view that the country was yet to be liberated.
• The Communist Party of India (CPI) proclaimed the beginning of a general revolution in India in
1948, declaring the Nehru government of being an agent of imperialist and semi-feudal forces.
• The Communists maintained that the only way to liberate the country from the hold of the nationalist
bourgeoisie was to wage war against them and seize power.
• In the second Conference of CPI held at Calcutta in 1948, the future course of Communist activities in
India was discussed and it was decided to wage a revolution in India in both agricultural and
industrial sectors.
• As per CPI’s programme, strikes in factories, railways, unrest in rural areas, revolt in police and army
took place. Methods of guerrilla war-fare were applied.
• The states of West Bengal, Madras, Assam, Bihar, Tripura, Hyderabad and Manipur were the
centres of Communist Violent activities.
• Telangana of Hyderabad was the worst affected area from the onslaught of Communists. Telangana
had already suffered from an impoverished peasantry under the corrupt regime of Nizam.
• The Communists also played an important role in other peasant struggles across India, like the Patiala
Muzara Movement in Patiala, the Naxalbari Movement in West Bengal and Srikakulam in
Andhra Pradesh
• They made all efforts to stimulate and exploit all form of urban and industrial unrest.

NEHRU’S APPROACH TOWARDS COMMUNISTS

• Nehru was highly critical of the policy and activities of the CPI.

8
 • Nehru brought the Prevention Detention Act in
action with the result that a large number of
communists including their leaders were arrested and
detained.
• However, he resisted the banning of CPI till he felt
there was enough proof of its violent activities. He
permitted the banning of CPI only in West Bengal
and Madras where it was most active.
• Nehru was in agreement with the basic socio-
economic objectives of the communists and believed
that the best way to combat their politics and
violent activities was to remove the discontent of the people through economic and other reformist
measures.
• After the CPI decided to give up armed struggle, Nehru ensured that the CPI was legalized
everywhere and its leaders and cadres released.

INTEGRATION OF PRINCELY STATE

INTRODUCTION-
• During Independence, an integration of Princely States within India was perhaps the most important
task faced by then political leadership. In colonial India, nearly 40% of the territory was occupied by
five hundred sixty-five small and large states ruled by princes who enjoyed varying degrees of
autonomy under the system of British
Paramountcy.
• As the British left, many of 565
princely states, began to dream of
independence. They had claimed that
the paramountcy could not be
transferred to the new states of India
and Pakistan.
• The ambitions were fuelled by the then
British PM Clement Attlee
announcement on Feb 20, 1947 that
"His Majesty's Government does not
intend to hand over their powers and
obligations under paramountcy to any
government of British India".
• M.A. Jinnah who publicly declared on
18 June 1947 that 'the States would be
independent sovereign States on the
termination of paramountcy' and
were 'free to remain independent if
they so desired.'
• The British stand was, however, altered
to some extent when, in his speech on
the Independence of India Bill, Attlee
said, “It is the hope of His Majesty's Government that all the States will in due course find their
appropriate place with one or the other Dominion within the British Commonwealth”.

9
• The Indian nationalists could hardly accept a situation where the unity of free India would be
endangered by hundreds of large or small independent or autonomous states interspersed within it which
were sovereign.
• Besides, the people of the states had participated in the process of nation-in-the-making from the end of
nineteenth century and developed strong feelings of Indian nationalism.
• Naturally, the nationalist leaders in British India and in the states rejected the claim of any state to
remain independence and repeatedly declared that independence for a princely state was not an
option—the only option open being whether the state would accede to India or Pakistan on the basis of
contiguity of its territory and the wishes of its people.
• In fact, the national movement had for long held that political power belonged to the people of a state
and not to its ruler and that the people of the states were an integral part of the Indian nation.
• Simultaneously, the people of the states were astir under the leadership of the States' Peoples'
Conference as never before, demanding introduction of a democratic political order and integration
with India.
Accession of Princely States in India-

• On June 27, 1947, Sardar Patel assumed additional charge of the newly created
states department with V.P. Menon as its Secretary.
• Patel was fully aware of the danger posed to Indian unity by the possible
intransigence of the rulers of the states. He told Menon at the time that 'the situation
held dangerous potentialities and that if we did not handle it promptly and
effectively, our hard-earned freedom might disappear through the States' door.
• The government's approach was guided by three considerations.
➢ The people of most of the princely states clearly wanted to become part of the
Indian Union.
➢ The government was prepared to be flexible in giving autonomy to some
regions. The idea was to accommodate plurality & adopt a flexible approach
in dealing with the demands of the regions.
➢ In the back drop of Partition, the integration and consolidation of the
territorial boundaries of the nation had assumed supreme importance.
Process of Integration of Princely States in India-

Role of Sardar Patel-

• Patel threw a series of lunch parties where he requested his princely guests to help the Congress in
framing the new constitution for India.
• Patel's first step was to appeal to the princes whose
territories fell inside India to accede to the Indian
Union in three subjects which affected the common
interests of the country, namely, foreign relations,
defence and communications.
• He also gave an implied threat he would not be able to
restrain the impatient people post August 15, 1947.
States were issued an appeal with an implied threat of
anarchy and chaos.
• With great skill and masterful diplomacy and using both persuasion and pressure, Sardar Patel
succeeded in integrating the hundreds of princely states. Few princely states joined Constituent

10
 Assembly with wisdom & realism, patriotism, but other princely states still stayed away from joining
it.
• The next step of Patel was to convince Mountbatten to bat for India. 25th July speech of Mountbatten
to the Chamber of Princes finally persuaded the Princes.
• This speech ranked as the most significant Act of Mountbatten in India. After this, virtually all the states
except 3 signed the instrument of accession.

All the States signed

Pursuance of Sardar Mountbatten speech Trvancore, Bhopal &
the Instrument of
Patel to Princely in Chamber of Jodhpur joined
Accession Except
States Princess Indian Union
some

Merger of Junagarh,
Accession of Goa in
Hyderbad, Manipur
India
& Kashmir in India

Merger of Important States Before 1947-

1) Travancore → Under the Maharaja of Travancore Chithira Thirunal but the real ruler was its Diwan
C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyyer. There was an attack on C. P. Aiyyar, and after that it was Maharaja of
Travancore which wired the government that they are ready for accession.

2) Jodhpur → A young Hindu king Hanwant Singh was there, its accession was a serious issue due to its
proximity to border. Jinnah also persuaded him but after tremendous pressure from Patel, finally he
signed the Instrument of Assession.

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3) Bhopal → Mainly Hindu population and ruler was Habibullah Khan supported by Jinnah. There was a
revolt against the Bhopal ruler, he faced pressure from Patel and communist population and finally he
signed the Instrument of Accession.

Accession of Remaining Indian States after 1947-

1) Junagarh
• Junagadh was a small state on the coast of Saurashtra
surrounded by Indian territory and therefore without any
geographical contiguity with Pakistan. Yet. its Nawab
announced accession of his state to Pakistan on 15 August 1947
even though the people of the state, overwhelmingly Hindu,
desired to join India.
• Going against this approach, Pakistan accepted Junagadh's
accession. On the other hand, the people of the state would not
accept the ruler's decision.
• They organized a popular movement, forced the Nawab to flee
and established a provisional government. The Dewan of Junagadh, Shah Nawaz Bhutto, the father of
the more famous Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, now decided to invite the Government of India to intervene.
Indian troops thereafter marched into the state.

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 • A plebiscite was held in the state in February 1948 which went overwhelmingly in favour of joining
India.

2) Jammu & Kashmir

• The state of Kashmir bordered on both India and Pakistan.
Its ruler Hari Singh was a Hindu, while nearly 75 per cent of
the population was Muslim. Hari Singh too did not accede
either to India or Pakistan.
• Fearing democracy in India and communalism in Pakistan, he
hoped, to stay out of both and to continue to wield power as an
independent ruler.
• The popular political forces led by the National Conference
and its leader Sheikh Abdullah, however, wanted to join
India.
• The Indian political leaders took no steps to obtain Kashmir's accession and, in line with their general
approach, wanted the people of Kashmir to decide whether to link their fate with India or Pakistan.
• But Pakistan not only refused to accept the principle of plebiscite for deciding the issue of accession
and instead it launched an offensive attack on Jammu & Kashmir.
Attack of Pakistan on Kashmir-
• On 22 October, with the onset of winter, several
Pathan tribesmen, led unofficially by Pakistani army
officers, invaded Kashmir and rapidly pushed towards
Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir.
• The ill trained army of the Maharaja proved no match
for the invading forces, in panic, on 24 October, the
Maharaja appealed to India for military assistance.
Reaction of Indian Government-
• Nehru, even at this stage, did not favour accession without ascertaining the will of the people. But
Mountbatten, the Governor-General, pointed out that under international law India could send its troops
to Kashmir only after the state's formal accession to India.
• Sheikh Abdullah and Sardar Patel too insisted on accession. And so, on 26 October, the Maharaja
acceded to India and also agreed to install Abdullah as head of the state's administration.
• Even though both the National conference and the Maharaja wanted firm and permanent accession,
India, in conformity with its democratic commitment and Mountbatten's advice, announced that it would
hold a referendum on the accession decision once peace and law and order had been restored in the
Valley.
• Hence, On 27 October nearly 100 planes airlifted men and weapons to Srinagar to join the battle against
the raiders. Srinagar was first held and then the raiders were gradually driven out of the Valley,
though they retained control over parts of the state and the armed conflict continued for months.
Conclusion-
• Fearful of the dangers of a full-scale war between India and Pakistan, the Government of India
agreed, on 30 December 1947, on Mountbatten's suggestion, to refer the Kashmir problem to the
Security Council of the United Nations, asking for vacation of aggression by Pakistan.
• Nehru was to regret this decision later as, instead of taking note of the aggression by Pakistan, the
Security Council, guided by Britain and the United States, tended to side with Pakistan. Ignoring India's
complaint, it replaced the 'Kashmir question' before it by the 'India-Pakistan dispute'.

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• It passed many resolutions, but the upshot was that in
accordance with one of its resolutions both India and
Pakistan accepted a ceasefire on 3 December 1948
which still prevails and the state was effectively divided
along the ceasefire line.
• In 1951, the UN passed a resolution providing for a
referendum under UN supervision after Pakistan had
withdrawn its troops from the part of Kashmir under its
control.
• The resolution has remained infructuous since Pakistan
has refused to withdraw its forces from what is known as
Azad Kashmir. Since then Kashmir has been the main
obstacle in the path of friendly relations between India and Pakistan.

Note - Nehru, who had expected to get justice from the United Nations, was to express his disillusionment in
a letter to Vijayalakshmi Pandit in February 1948: “I could not imagine that the Security Council could
possibly behave in the trivial and partisan manner in which it functioned. These people are supposed to
keep the world in order. It is not surprising that the world is going to pieces. The United States and Britain
have played a dirty role, Britain probably being the chief actor behind the scenes”.
3) Hyderabad
• Hyderabad was the largest state in India and was
completely surrounded by Indian territory. The
Nizam of Hyderabad was the third Indian ruler who did
not accede to India before 15 August.
• Some parts of the old Hyderabad states are today parts
of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.
Its ruler was called "Nizam" and one the richest men of
his time.
• Rule of the Nizam was unjust and tyrannical and he
had Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen or MIM
(Council of the Union of Muslims) which was a
Muslim political party to safeguard the interest of
Muslims in India. The MIM advocated the setup of a
Muslim dominion rather than integration with India
• Nizam Mir Osman Ali wanted an independent status for Hyderabad.

Nizam Mir Osman Ali

• But Patel made it clear that India would not tolerate 'an isolated spot which would destroy the very
Union which we have built up with our blood and toil.
• In November 1947, the Government of India signed a stand-still agreement with the Nizam, hoping
that while the negotiations proceeded, the latter would introduce representative government in the state,
making the task of merger easier. But the Nizam had other plans.

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 • He engaged the services of the services of the leading
British lawyer Sir Walter Monckton, a friend of
"Mountbatten, to negotiate with the Government of
India on his behalf.
• The Nizam hoped to prolong negotiations and in the
meanwhile build up his military strength and force
India to accept his sovereignty; or alternatively he
might succeed in acceding to Pakistan, especially in
view of the tension between India and Pakistan over
Kashmir.
• In the meanwhile, three other political developments
took place within the state. There was rapid growth,
with official help, of the militant Muslim communal organization. Ittihad ul Muslimin and its
paramilitary wing, the Razakars.
Razakars
• Then, on 7 August 1947 the Hyderabad State
Congress launched a powerful satyagraha movement to
force democratization on the Nizam. Nearly 20,000
satyagrahis were jailed. As a result of attacks by the
Razakars and repression by the state authorities,
thousands of people fled the state and took shelter in
temporary camps in Indian territory. The State
Congress-led movement now took to arms.
• By then a powerful Communist led peasant struggle
had developed in the Telengana region of the state
from the latter half of 1946. The movement, which had
waned due to the severity of state repression by the end
of 1946, covered its vigour when peasant dalams
(squads) organized defence of the people against
attacks by The Razakars.
• By June 1948, Sardar Patel was getting impatient as
the negotiations With the Nizam dragged on. From his
sick-bed in Dehra Dun, he wrote a letter to Nehru
advising military action to merge Hyderabad in India.
• Finally, on 13 September 1948, the government of India launched Operation Polo (Also known as
Hyderabad Police Action) and Indian army moved into Hyderabad. The Nizam surrendered after three
days and acceded to the Indian Union in November.
• The Government of India decided to be generous and not to punish the Nizam. He was retained as
formal ruler of the state or its Rajpramukh, was given a privy purse of five million rupees, and
permitted to keep most of his immense wealth.
• With the accession of Hyderabad, the merger of princely states with the Indian Union was completed,
and the Government of India's writ ran all over the land.
• The Hyderabad episode marked another triumph of Indian secularism. Not only had a large number
of Muslims in Hyderabad joined the anti-Nizam struggle, Muslims in the rest of the country had also
supported the Government's policy and action to the dismay of the leaders of Pakistan and the Nizam.
• As Patel joyfully wrote to Suhrawardy on 28 September, 'On the question of Hyderabad, the Indian
Union Muslims have come out in the open on our side and that has certainly created a good impression
in the country.

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4) Manipur
• Maharaja of Manipur Bodhchandra Singh signed the
instrument of Accession with the Indian government on
the assurance that the internal autonomy of Manipur
would be maintained.
• Under the pressure of public view, the Maharaja held
elections in Manipur in June 1948 & thus the state
became a constitutional monarchy.
• Manipur was the first part of India to hold an election
based on universal adult franchise. There were some
differences over Manipur's merger with India.
• The state congress was in favour, but other political parties opposed this view.
• The government of India succeeded in pressurizing the Maharaja into signing a Merger Agreement in
September 1949, without consulting the popularly elected Legislative Assembly of Manipur. The
caused a lot anger and resentment in Manipur, the consequences of which are still being felt.
After Integration –
The second and the more difficult stage of the full
integration of the princely states into the new Indian nation began
in December 1947.
• Once again Sardar Patel moved with speed, completing the
process within one year.
• Smaller states were either merged with the neighbouring
states or merged together to 'form centrally administered
areas.'
• A large number were consolidated into five new unions,
forming Madhya Bharat, Rajasthan, Patiala and East
Punjab States Union (PEPSU), Saurashtra and
Travancore-Cochin; Mysore, Hyderabad and Jammu and
Jammu and Kashmir retained their original form as separate
states of the Union.
• In return for their surrender of all power and authority, the rulers of major states were given privy
purses in perpetuity, free of all taxes.
• The privy purses amounted to Rs 4.66 crores in 1949 and were later guaranteed by the Constitution.
• The rulers were allowed succession to the gaddi and retained certain privileges such as keeping their
titles, flying their personal flags and gun salutes on ceremonial occasions.
• There was some criticism of these concessions to the princes at the time as well as later. But keeping in
view the difficult times just after independence and the Partition, they were perhaps a small price to pay
for the extinction of the princes' power and the early and easy territorial and political integration of
the states with the rest of the country.
• Undoubtedly, the integration of the states compensated for the loss of the territories constituting
Pakistan in terms of area as well population.
• It certainly partially healed 'the wounds of partition'.
ACCESSION OF INDIAN TERRITORIES OCCUPIED BY FRENCH

France

16
 • The French establishments included Pondichéry, Karikal, Yanaon (Andhra Pradesh) on
the Coromandel Coast and Mahé on the Malabar Coast and Chandernagor in Bengal.
• The French authorities were more reasonable and after prolonged negotiations handed over Pondicherry
and other French possessions to India in 1954.
Portuguese (1961)
• The Portuguese establishments included Goa as a Capital, Daman & Diu and Dadra and Nagar
Haveli.
• The Portuguese were determined to stay on, especially as
Portugal’s NATO allies. Britain and the USA, were willing
to support this defiant attitude.
• The Government of India, being committed to a policy of
settling disputes between nations by peaceful means, was
not willing to take military steps to liberate Goa and other
Portuguese colonies.
• The people of Goa took matters in their hands and started a
movement seeking freedom from the Portuguese, but it was
brutally suppressed as were the efforts of non-violent satyagrahis from India to march into Goa. In the
end, after waiting patiently for international opinion to put pressure on Portugal.
• Nehru ordered Indian troops to march into Goa under Operation Vijay on the night of 17 December
1961.
• The Governor-General of Goa immediately surrendered without a fight and the territorial and political
integration of India was completed, even though it had taken over fourteen years to do so.

17
 LEGACY- COLONIAL AND NATIONAL MOVEMENT

Colonial legacy-
• India's colonial past has weighed heavily in her development since 1947. In the economic sphere, as in
others, British rule drastically transformed India. But the changes that took place led only to what has
been aptly described by A. Gunder Frank as the 'development of underdevelopment'
• These changes—in agriculture, industry, transport and communication, finance, administration,
education, and so on—were in themselves often positive, as for example the development of the
railways.
• But operating within and as part of the colonial framework, they became inseparable from the process
of underdevelopment.
• Further, they led to the crystallization of the colonial economic structure which generated poverty, a
dependence on and subordination to Britain.
Basic Features- There were four basic features of the colonial structure in India.

Integration of
Indian
economy with
the World

Peculiar
Basic
Structure of
Role of features of
Production &
Colonial State Colonial
Division of
Legacy
Labour

Economic
Backwadness

1. Integration of Indian economy with the World:

• colonialism led to the complete but complex integration of India's economy with the world capitalist
system but in a subservient position.
• Since the 1750s, India's economic interests were wholly subordinated to those of Britain. This is a
crucial aspect, for integration with the world economy was inevitable and was a characteristic also of
independent economies.

2. Peculiar Structure of Production & Division of Labour

• To suit British industry, a peculiar structure of production and international division of labour was
forced upon India. It produced and exported foodstuffs and raw materials—cotton, jute, oilseeds,
minerals— and imported manufactured products of British industry from biscuits and shoes to
machinery, cars and railway engines.

18
 • This feature of colonialism continued even when India developed a few labour-intensive industries
such as jute and cotton textiles. This was because of the existing, peculiar pattern of international
division of labour by which Britain produced high technology, high productivity and capital-
intensive goods while India did the opposite.
• The pattern of India's foreign trade was an indication of the economy's colonial character. As late as
1935-39, food, drink, tobacco and raw materials constituted 68.5 per cent

3. Economic Backwardness-
• The process of economic development is the size and utilization of the economic surplus or savings
generated in the economy for investment and therefore expansion of the economy.
• Net Savings – The net savings in the Indian economy from 1914 to 1946 was only 2.75 per cent of
Gross National Product (i.e., national income). The small size may be contrasted with the net savings
in 1971-75 when they constituted 12 per cent of GNP.
• Total Capital Formation- The paltry total capital formation, 6.75 per cent of GNP during 1914-46 as
against 20.14 per cent of GNP during 1971-75, reflects this jump.
• Share of Industry- the share of industry in this low level of capital formation was abysmally low,
machinery forming only 1.78 per cent of GNP during 1914-46. (This figure was 6.53 for 1971-75).
• Furthermore, a large part of India's social surplus or savings was appropriated by the colonial state and
misspent.
• Another large part was appropriated by the indigenous landlords and moneylenders. Only a very
small part of this large surplus was invested in the Agricultural development.
• The 'Drain', that is the unilateral transfer to Britain in which India got back no equivalent economic,
commercial or material returns for it in any form.
• It has been estimated that 5 to 10 per cent of the total national income of India was thus unilaterally
exported out of the country.

4. Role of Colonial State-

• The fourth feature of colonialism in India was the crucial role played by the state in constructing,
determining and maintaining other aspects of the colonial structure. India's policies were determined in
Britain and in the interests of the British economy and the British capitalist class.
• An important aspect of the underdevelopment of India was the denial of state support to industry and
agriculture. This was contrary to what happened in nearly all the capitalist countries, including Britain,
which enjoyed active state support in the early stages of development.
• The colonial state imposed free trade in India and refused to give tariff protection to Indian
industries. After 1918, under the pressure of the national movement, the Government of India was
forced to grant some tariff protection to a few industries.
• Since the 1880s, the currency policy was manipulated by the government to favour British industry and
which was to the detriment of Indian industry.
• The colonial state devoted almost its entire income to meeting the needs of British-Indian
administration, making payments of direct and indirect tribute to Britain and in serving the needs of
British trade and industry and neglected the development of India.
• Besides, the Indian tax structure was highly inequitable. While the peasants were burdened with
paying a heavy land revenue for most of the colonial period and the poor with the salt tax, etc., the upper
income groups—highly paid bureaucrats, landlords, merchants and traders—paid hardly any taxes. The
level of direct taxes was quite low.
DE-INDUSTRIALISATION
• Ruin of Artisans and Handicraftsmen: Cheap machine-made goods flooded the Indian markets and
the Indian goods found it more and more difficult to penetrate the European markets.

19
• The loss of traditional means of livelihood was not accompanied by a process of industrialization.
Earlier, Indian handloom and textiles had a big market in Europe, Asia and Africa. With the coming of
industrialization in England, the textile industry there made important headway. There was now a
reverse of the direction of textile trade between Britain and India.
• There was a massive import of machine made clothes from English factories to Indian markets. The
British succeeded in selling their goods at a cheap price as foreign goods were given free entry in India
without paying any duty.
• On the other hand, Indian handicrafts were taxed heavily when they were sent out of the country.
Under the pressure of its industrialists, British government often imposed a protective tariff on Indian
textiles.
• Therefore, within a few years, India from being an exporter of clothes became an exporter of raw
cotton and an importer of British clothes. This reversal made a huge impact on the Indian handloom
weaving industry leading to its virtual collapse. It also created unemployment for a large community of
weavers.
• Many of them migrated to rural areas to work on their lands as agricultural laborers. This in turn put
increased pressure on the rural economy and livelihood.
• This process of uneven competition faced by the Indian handloom industry was later dubbed by the
Indian nationalist leaders as de-industrialization.
RURALISATION OF INDIA
• De-industrialization led to decline of many cities and hence, ruralisation of India with many artisans
returning back to villages and taking up agriculture.
• •According to 1921 Census, only 11% population was living in urban area where in 1891 nearly 61%
population was dependent on agriculture and this increased to 73% in 1921.
OVERBURDENING OF AGRICULTURE AND IMPOVERISHMENT OF PEASANTRY
• The cultivator had neither the means nor any incentive to invest in agriculture.
• The zamindar had no roots in the villages, while the Government spent little on agricultural, technical
or mass education.
• All this, together with fragmentation of land due to sub-infeudation, made it difficult to introduce
modern technology which caused a perpetually low level of productivity.
• The peasants already suffering under landlord-moneylender nexus, saw increased pressure on land
with ruralisation and deindustrialisation.
• So far, agriculture was a way of life but now it began to be influenced by commercial considerations.
• Certain specialised crops began to be grown not for the purpose of consumption but for sale in
national and international markets as raw material for industries.
• A major economic impact of the British policies in India was the introduction of a large number of
commercial crops such as tea, coffee, indigo, opium, cotton, jute, sugarcane and oilseed.
DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION
• In the 1940s, India had 65,000 miles of paved roads and nearly 42,000 miles of railway track.
• Roads and railways unified the country and made rapid transit of goods and persons possible.
• However, in the absence of a simultaneous industrial revolution, only a commercial revolution was
produced which further colonialized the Indian economy.
• Also, railway lines were laid primarily with a view to link India’s inland raw material producing
areas with the ports of export and to promote the spread of imported manufactures from the ports to
the interior.
• Moreover, unlike in Britain and the United States, railways did not initiate steel and machine
industries in India. Instead, it was the British steel and machine industries which were the beneficiaries
of railway development in India.

20
 RISE OF INDIAN BOURGEOISIE
• Indian traders, moneylenders and bankers amassed some wealth as junior partners of British
capitalists in India.
• These further provided loans to Indian agriculturists and aided British revenue collection.
• There was a rise of a strong indigenous capitalist class with an independent economic and financial
base.
• The Indian capitalists were independent of foreign capital.
• By the end of the Second World War, Indian capital controlled 60 per cent of the large industrial
units.
• The small-scale industrial sector, which generated more national income than the large scale sector,
was almost wholly based on Indian capital.
• By 1947, Indian capital had also made a great deal of headway in banking and life insurance.
• Indian joint-stock banks held 64 cents of all bank deposits, and Indian-owned life insurance
companies controlled nearly 75 per cent of life insurance business in the country.
• The bulk of internal trade and part of foreign trade was also in Indian hands.
• The development of Indian industry and capitalism was still relatively stunted and severely limited.
ECONOMIC DRAIN
• The term ‘economic drain’ refers to a portion of national product of India which was not available for
consumption of its peoples, but was being drained away to Britain.
• The drain theory was put forward by Dadabhai Naoroji in his book “Poverty and Un-British Rule in
India”.
• The major components of this drain were salaries and pensions of civil and military officials, interests on
loans taken by the Indian Government from abroad, profits on foreign investment in India, stores
purchased in Britain for civil and military departments, payments to be made for shipping, banking and
insurance services which stunted the growth of Indian enterprise in these services.
• The drain of wealth checked and retarded capital formation in India while the same portion of wealth
accelerated the growth of British economy.
• The surplus from British economy re-entered India as finance capital, further draining India of its
wealth.
• In 19th century India’s share in world GDP was 23% which declined to 4% at the time of independence
while India contributed 27% to world export which declined to 2% at the time of independence.
EDUCATION HEALTH AND BASIC SERVICES:
• The vast majority of Indians had almost no access to any kind of education and, in 1951, nearly 84 per
cent were illiterate, the rate of illiteracy being 92 per cent among women.
• This was marked by the prevalence of the extreme inequality of income, resources and
opportunities.
• It encouraged learning by rote, memorization of texts, and proof by authority.
• The rational, logical, analytical and critical faculties of the students remained underdeveloped.
• A major weakness of the colonial educational system was the neglect of mass education.
• Health services were dismal. In 1943, there were only 10 medical colleges turning out 700 graduates
every year and 27 medical schools turning out nearly 7,000 licentiates.
• In 1951, there were only about 18,000 graduate doctors, most of them to be found in cities.
• The vast majority of towns had no modern sanitation.
• A modern water supply system was unknown in villages and absent in a large number of towns.
• The vast majority of towns were without electricity, and electricity in the rural areas was unthinkable.
• Epidemics of smallpox, plague and cholera and diseases like dysentery, diarrhoea, malaria and other
fevers carried away millions every year. Malaria alone affected one-fourth of population

21
LEGAL SYSTEM
• The character of the colonial state was basically authoritarian and autocratic, it also featured certain
liberal elements, like the rule of law and a relatively independent judiciary.
• Administration was normally carried out in obedience to laws interpreted by the courts. This acted as a
partial check on the autocratic and arbitrary administration and to a certain extent protected the
rights and liberties of a citizen against the arbitrary actions of the bureaucracy.
• The laws were, however, often repressive. Not being framed by Indians, or through a democratic
process, they left a great deal of arbitrary power in the hands of civil servants and the police.
• There was also no separation of powers between administrative and judicial functions. The same civil
servant administered a district as collector and dispensed justice as a district magistrate.
• The colonial legal system was based on the concept of equality of all before the law irrespective of a
person’s caste, religion, class or status, but here too it fell short of its promise.
• The court acted in a biased manner whenever effort was made to bring an European to justice.
• Besides, as court procedures were quite costly, the rich had better access to legal means than the poor.
• Colonial rulers also extended a certain amount of civil liberties in the form of the freedoms of the Press,
speech and association in normal times, but curtailed them drastically in periods of mass struggle.
• But, after 1897, these freedoms were increasingly tampered with and attacked even in normal times.
• Another paradox of the colonial state was that after 1858 it regularly offered constitutional and economic
concessions while throughout retaining the reins of state power.
• At first, British statesmen and administrators strongly and consistently resisted the idea of establishing
a representative regime in India, arguing that democracy was not suited to India.
• They said only a system of ‘benevolent despotism’ was advisable because of India’s culture and
historical heritage.
ARMED FORCES
• The British left behind a strong but costly armed force which had acted as an important pillar of the
British regime in India.
• The British had made every effort to keep the armed forces apart from the life and thinking of the
rest of the population, especially the national movement.
• The other side of the medal, of course, was the tradition of the army being ‘apolitical’ and therefore also
being subordinated, as was the civil service, to the political authorities.
• This would be a blessing in the long run to independent India, in contrast to the political and economic
legacy of colonialism.

22
 Basic Features of National Movement & its legacy:
Character of
National
Movement

Economic
Political Norms
Underpiniings

Foreingn Policy Secularism

Nation in the
Untouchability
Making

Gender Pro-poor
Sensitisation: orientation

Communalism

• An appreciation of the hundred-year-old freedom struggle is integral to an analysis of developments in

post-1947 India.
• While India inherited its economic and administrative structures from the precolonial and colonial
period, the values and ideals—the vision—and the well-defined and comprehensive ideology that
were to inspire it in nation building were derived from the national movement.
1. Character of National Movement-
• The freedom struggle was perhaps the greatest mass
movement in world history. After 1919, it was built around the
basic notion that the people had to and could play an active
role in politics and in their own liberationGandhiji, the leader
who moved and mobilized millions into politics, all his life
propagated the view that the people and not leaders created a
mass movement, whether for the overthrow of the colonial
regime or for social transformation.
• Satyagraha, as a form of struggle, was based on the active
participation of the people and on the sympathy and support of
the non-participating 21 million.
• It may be pointed out, parenthetically, that it was because of the long experience of this kind of political
participation by common people that the founders of the Indian Republic, who also led the freedom
struggle in its last phase, could repose full faith in their political capacity. The leaders unhesitatingly
introduced adult franchise despite widespread poverty and illiteracy.
• The Indian national movement was fully committed to a polity based on representative democracy and
the full range of civil liberties for the individual. From the very beginning the movement popularized

23
 democratic ideas and institutions among the people and struggled for the introduction of
parliamentary institutions on the basis of popular elections.
• From its foundation in 1885, the Indian National Congress, the main political organ of the national
movement, was organized on democratic lines. It relied upon discussion at all levels as the chief mode
for the formation of its policies and arriving at political discussions. Its policies and resolutions were
publicly discussed and debated and then voted upon. Some of the most important decisions in its
History were taken after rich and heated debates and on the
basis of open voting
• The major leaders of the movement were committed
wholeheartedly to civil liberties. It is worth quoting them.
For example, Lokamanya Tilak proclaimed that 'liberty of
the Press and liberty of speech give birth to a nation and
nourish it'.
• Gandhiji wrote in 1922: 'We must first make good the right
of free speech and free association ... We must defend these
elementary rights with our lives.'
• Again in 1939: “Civil liberty consistent with the observance of non-violence is the first step towards
Swaraj. It is the breath of political and social life. It is the foundation of freedom. There is no room there
for dilution or compromise. It is the water of life have never heard of water being diluted.”
• Its ideology and culture of democracy and civil liberties were based on respect for dissent, freedom of
expression, the majority principle, and the right of minority opinion to exist and develop.
• Congress ministries, formed in 1937, visibly extended civil liberties. Congress did not insist on
uniformity of viewpoints or policy approach within its ranks. It allowed dissent and not only tolerated
but encouraged different and minority opinions to be openly held and freely expressed.
• Further, the resolution on Fundamental Rights, passed by the Karachi Congress in 1931, guaranteed
the rights of free expression of opinion through speech or the Press, and freedom of association.

2. Economic Underpinnings of the National Movement-

• The movement evolved a broad economic strategy to overcome India's economic backwardness and
underdevelopment. This was to form the basis of India's economic thinking after independence.
• The vision of a self-reliant independent economy was developed and popularized. Self-reliance was
defined not as autarchy but as avoidance of a subordinate position in the world economy.
• The Indian leaders also emphasized the close link between industry and agriculture. Industrial
development was seen as essential for rural development.
• Within industrialization, the emphasis was on the creation of an indigenous heavy capital goods or
machine-making sector whose absence was seen
as a cause both of economic dependence and
underdevelopment. Simultaneously, for essential
consumer goods, the nationalists advocated
reliance on medium, small-scale and cottage
industries. Small-scale and cottage industries
were to be encouraged and protected as a part of
the development strategy of increasing
employment.
• An active and central role was envisaged for
the state in economic development by the
nationalists.
• Economic planning by the government and the
massive development of the public sector were

24
 widely accepted in the thirties. As early as 1931, the Resolution on Fundamental Rights and
Economic Programme, adopted at the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress declared that in
independent India 'the State shall own or control key industries and services, mineral resources, railways,
waterways, shipping and other means of public transport. (Session was presided by Sardar Patel the
Resolution drafted by Jawaharlal Nehru and moved in the open session by Gandhiji).
• To promote planning as an instrument of integrated and comprehensive development Congress
sponsored in 1938 the National Planning Committee while the Indian capitalists formulated the
Bombay Plan in 1944.
• The nationalist movement accepted the Gandhian perspective on cottage and small-scale industries.
This perspective was to find full reflection in the Nehruvian Second Five Year Plan.
• The National Movement helped in shaping the framework for economic development of India after
Independence.

3. Secularism
• From its early days, the national movement was committed to secularism.
• Secularism was defined in a comprehensive manner which meant the separation of religion from
politics and the state, the treatment of religion as a private matter for the individual, state neutrality
towards or equal respect for all religions, absence of discrimination between followers of different
religions, and active opposition to communalism.
• The Congress in its Karachi resolution of 1931 declared that in free India 'every citizen shall enjoy
freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess and practise his religion.
• It is true that in his early years, Gandhi, a deeply religious person, emphasized the close connection
between religion and politics.
• This was because he believed that politics had to be based on morality, and to him all religions were
the source of morality. Religion was, in fact, he believed, itself morality in the Indian sense of dharma.
• Jawaharlal Nehru wrote and spoke passionately and with deep understanding on communalism. He was
perhaps the first Indian to see communalism as the Indian form of fascism.
• The leaders of the national movement never appealed to the people on religious grounds or that the
British rulers' religion was Christianity. Their critique of British rule was invariably economic, political,
social or cultural.
• It is true that the national movement was not able to counter forces of communalism adequately but it
was because of the strong secular commitment of the national movement that, despite these traumatic
events, independent India made secularism a basic pillar of its Constitution, as also of its state and
society.

4. Nation-in-the-making-
• The national movement recognized early on that the process of nation-formation in India was a recent
one. In other words, India was a nation-in-the-making.
• Promoting this process through the common struggle against colonialism became a basic objective. In
this respect, the leadership of the movement acknowledged the role of colonialism in unifying India
economically and administratively even while it criticized its furthering all kinds of politically divisive
tendencies.
• The national movement evolved the dual concepts and objectives of unity in diversity and national
integration.

5. Foreign Policy-
• Independent India's foreign policy was also rooted in the principles and policies evolved by the
nationalists since the 1870s.

25
• Over time, Indian leaders had developed a broad international outlook based on opposition to
colonialism and sympathy and support for the peoples fighting for their independence.
• In the thirties and forties, the national movement took a strong anti-fascist stand. This was put forward
in a most expressive manner by Gandhi. Condemning Hitler for the genocide of the Jews, and condoning
violence, perhaps for the first time, he wrote in 1938: 'If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name
of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would
be completely justified.

6. Political Norms
• In a mass-based struggle, ideology and its influence plays a critical role. Yet, a mass movement has also
to incorporate and accommodate diverse political and ideological currents in order to mobilize millions.
Besides, it has to be disciplined and organizationally strong and united; yet it cannot afford to be
monolithic or authoritarian.
• Recognizing this duality, Congress, under whose leadership and hegemony the anti-imperialist struggle
was waged, was highly ideological and disciplined while also being ideologically and organisationally
open-ended and accommodative.
• Congress was able to achieve this task by functioning democratically. There was a constant public
debate and contention between individuals and groups, and voting was done on majority basis.
• The highest norms of politics and political behaviour were set up by the movement. Its major leaders for
example, Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji, Bhagat Singh
etc.
• The movement was able to develop the capacity to evolve, renovate and change with the times and
highly original and innovative, keeping touch with contemporary world thought, processes and
movement.
7. Gender Sensitization:
• An aspect of its commitment to the creation of an egalitarian society was the national movement’s
opposition to all forms of inequality, discrimination and oppression based on gender and caste.
• It allied itself with and often subsumed movements and organizations for the social liberation of
women and the lower castes.
• Its reform agenda included the improvement of their social position including the right to work and
education and to equal political rights.

8. Untouchability:

• As part of its struggle against caste inequality and caste oppression, abolition of untouchability became
one of its major political priorities after 1920.
• The movement, however, failed to form and propagate a strong anti-caste ideology, though Gandhiji
did advocate the total abolition of the caste system itself in the 1940s.
• It was because of the atmosphere and sentiments generated by the national movement that no voices of
protest were raised in the Constituent Assembly when reservations for the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes were mooted.
• •The passage of the Hindu Code Bills in the 1950s was facilitated by the national movement’s efforts
in favor of the social liberation of women.
• Congress in its Karachi Resolution of 1931 declared that in free India all citizens would be ‘equal
before the law, irrespective of caste, creed or sex’, that no disability would attach to any citizen because
of caste, creed or gender ‘in regard to public employment, office of power or honour, and in the exercise
of any trade or calling’.
9. A Pro-Poor Orientation:

26
 • The Indian national movement was quite radical by contemporary standards. From the beginning it
had a pro-poor orientation. For example, the poverty of the masses and the role of colonialism as its
source was the starting point of Dadabhai Naoroji’s economic critique of colonialism.
• With Gandhiji and the rise of a socialist current this orientation was further strengthened.
• The removal of poverty became the most important objective next to the overthrow of colonialism.
• It was committed to carrying out basic changes in society, economy and polity.
• It accepted and propagated a programme of reforms that was quite radical by contemporary standards:
o Compulsory and free primary education
o lowering of taxes on the poor and lower middle classes
o reduction of the salt tax
o land revenue and rent
o debt relief and provision of cheap credit to agriculturists
o protection of tenants’ rights and ultimately the abolition of landlordism
o workers’ right to a living wage and a shorter working day
o workers’ and peasants’ rights to organize themselves
o reform of the machinery of law and order.
• And to crown this growing radicalism was that of Gandhiji who declared in 1942 that ‘the land belongs
to those who work on it and to no one else’.
10. Communalism:

• Jawaharlal Nehru wrote and spoke passionately and with deep understanding on communalism. He
was perhaps the first Indian to see communalism as the Indian form of fascism.
• Interestingly, the leaders of the national movement never appealed to the people on religious grounds or
that the British rulers’ religion was Christianity.
• It is true that the national movement was not able to counter forces of communalism adequately or
evolve an effective strategy against them.
• This contributed to the Partition and the communal carnage of 1946–47.
• But it was because of the strong secular commitment of the national movement that, despite these
traumatic events, independent India made secularism a basic pillar of its constitution, as also of its
state and society.
Bombay Plan (1943)
• The Bombay plan was a set of proposal of a small group of influential business leaders in Bombay for
the development of the post-independence economy of India.

Objective-
• The prime objectives of the plan were to achieve a balanced economy and to raise the standard of
living of the masses of the population rapidly by doubling the present per capita income within a
period of 15 years from the time the plan goes into operation.
• The Bombay Plan offers a comprehensive vision of mass education, including primary, secondary
and vocational and university schooling.
• It also made a provision of adult education and scientific training and research.
• The plan emphasizes the importance of basic industries, but also calls for the development of
consumption goods industries in the early years of the plan.
• This plan envisages that the economy could not grow without government intervention and regulation. In
other words, the future government protects indigenous industries against foreign competition in
local markets.

27
• Members → Mr. J. R. D. Tata, Mr. G. D. Birla, P. Thakurdas, Kasturba Lalbhai, Sir Shri Ram, Ardeshir
Dalal, Mr. A. D. Shroff and John Mathai.

ISSUE OF OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

Background-

• The language problem was the most

divisive issue in the first twenty years
of independent India. Linguistic
identity during first 20 years after
independence had become a strong
force in all societies.
• The problem posed to national
consolidation by linguistic diversity
has taken two major forms:
o The dispute over official language
of the union
o The linguistic reorganization of the
states
o The controversy on the language
issue became most virulent when it
took the form of opposition to
Hindi and tended to create conflict
between Hindi-speaking and non-
Hindi speaking regions of the
country.
o The dispute was not over the
question of a national language, that is one language which all Indians would adopt after some
time, since the view that one national language was essential to an Indian national identity had
already been rejected overwhelmingly by the secular majority of the national leadership.
o India was a multilingual country and it had to remain so. The Indian national movement had carried
on its ideological and political work through the different Indian regional languages.
o Its demand then was for the replacement of English by the mother tongue as the medium for higher
education, administration and courts in each linguistic area.
Course of Official Language-
• The issue of a national language was resolved when the Constitution-makers virtually accepted all the
major languages as 'languages of India' or India's national languages.
• Being a foreign language Gandhi opposed the idea that English would be an all India medium of
communications in free India.
• But the matter could not end there, for the country's official work could not be carried on in so many
languages. There had to be one common language in which the central government would carry on its
work and maintain contact with the state governments. Therefore, Sharp differences marked the initial
debates as the problem of the official language was highly political from the beginning.
• Finally, Hindi was chosen over Hindustani [written in Devanagari or Urdu script] to be the official
language of India & but not the national language.

28
 • The issue of the time-frame for a shift from English to Hindi produced a divide between Hindi & non-
Hindi areas. Proponents of Hindi wanted immediate switch over, while non-Hindi areas advocated
retention of English for a long if not indefinite period.
• Views of Nehru- Nehru was in favour of making Hindi the official language, but he also favoured
English to be continuing as an additional official language.
Role of Constitution-
• The Constitution provided that Hindi in Devanagari script with
international numerals would be India's official language.
• English was to continue for use in all official purposes till 1965,
when it would be replaced by Hindi. Hindi was to be introduced in
a phased manner.
• After 1965 it would become the sole official language. However,
the parliament would have the power to provide for the use of
English for specified purposes even after 1965.
• The Constitution laid upon the government the duty to promote
the spread and development of Hindi and provided for the
appointment of a Commission and a Joint Committee of the
Parliament to review the progress in this respect.
• The state legislatures were to decide the matter of official
language at the state level, though the official language of the
Union would serve as the language of communication between the
states and the Centre and between one state and another.
Official Language Commission-
• In 1956, the report of the official language commission set up in 1955 in terms of a constitutional
provision, recommended that Hindi should start progressively replacing English in various functions of
the central government with effective change taking place in 1965.
• Two members of commission, one each from West Bengal & Tamil Nadu, dissented this while
accusing other members for pro-Hindi Bias. JPC [Joint Parliamentary Committee] reviewed the report
to implement the recommendations of JPC.
• President issued an order in April 1960 stating that after 1965
Hindi would be the Principal official language, but English
would continue without any restriction as the associate official
language.
• To promote Hindi, according to President's directive, central
government took a series of steps to promote Hindi. These
includes the setting up of central Hindi Directorate, publication
of standards works in Hindi or in Hindi translation in various fields, compulsory training of central
government employees in Hindi and translation of major text of law into Hindi & promotion of their use
by the courts.
Official Languages Act, 1963
• To allay the fear of non-Hindi speakers Nehru in the Parliament in 1959, assured them that English
would continue as alternate language as long as the people require it. In 1963, official languages Act
was passed. The object of the Act, was to remove a restriction which had been placed by the
constitution on the use of English after a certain date namely 1965.
Criticism:

29
• Because of ambiguity in Official Languages Act due to
the world "may" instead of "shall", they criticized it.
• Now, many non-Hindi leaders in protest changed their
line of approach to the problem of the official language,
while initially they had demanded a slowing down of
the replacement of English, now they shifted their stand
and demanded that there should be no deadline fixed
for the changeover.
• There was immense amount of protests in Tamil Nadu,
some students burnt themselves, Two Tamil Ministers
in Union Cabinet, C. Subramaniam & Alagesan resigned, 60 people died due to police firing during
agitation.
• Later when Indira Gandhi became PM in 1966, in 1967, she moved an amendment to the 1963 official
Languages Act.
Official Languages Amendment Act, 1967-
• The Act put to rest all the ambiguities regarding Nehru's assurance in 1959. It provided the use of
English as an associate language in addition to Hindi for the official work at the centre & for
communication between the centre and non-Hindi states would continue as long as non-Hindi states
wanted it.
• Indefinite policy of bilingualism was adopted.
• The states were to adopt a three-language formula that is study of a modern Indian language,
preferably one of the Southern languages, apart from Hindi and English in the Hindi speaking areas and
of Hindi along with the regional languages and English in the non-Hindi speaking areas.
• The Parliament adopted a policy resolution laying down that the public service exams were to be
conducted in Hindi & English & in all the regional languages with the provision that the candidates
should have additional knowledge of Hindi or English.
Report of Education Commission,1966-
The Government of India took another important step on language in July 1967. On the basis of the report
of the education commission in 1966 it declared that Indian languages would ultimately become the
medium of education in all subjects at the University level, though the time from for the changeover would
be decided by each university to suit its convivence.
LINGUISTIC REORGANISATION OF THE STATE

Formation of Linguistic States-

• India is a land of many languages, each with its distinct
script, grammar, vocabulary and literary tradition. In
1917, the Congress Party had committed itself to the
creation of linguistic provinces in a Free India.
• After Congress's Nagpur Session in 1920, the principle
was extended and formalized with the creation of
provincial Congress Committee by linguistic zones.
The linguistic reorganization of the Congress was
encouraged and supported by Mahatma Gandhi.
• After the bitter partition on the basis of religion the then
PM Nehru was apprehensive of dividing country further
on the basis of language. During that time some Marathi

30
 speaking Congress members raised the pitches for separate Maharashtra State. Following this demand,
other language speaking people too demands a separate state for them.
Justice S K Dhar Commission (1948)-
• Following this demand, other language speaking people
too demands a separate state for them. Hence,
Constituent Assembly in 1948 appointed the Linguistic
Provinces Commission, headed by Justice S.K. Dhar,
to enquire into the desirability of linguistic provinces.
• The Commission submitted its Report on December,
1948 and recommended the reorganisation of states on
the basis of administrative convenience rather than
linguistic factor.
• The recommendation of Dhar Commission created
much resentment and led to the appointment of another Linguistic Provinces Committee by the
Congress in December, 1948 itself to examine the whole question afresh.
JVP Committee (1949)-
• It consisted of Nehru, Sardar Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya.
• It submitted its Report in April 1949 and formally rejected language as the basis for reorganisation of
States.
Andhra Pradesh- First state on the basis of Linguistic Reorganisation: -
• The movement was spread throughout India for the organisation of State on Linguistic basis.
However, the agitation in Telugu areas sparked the movement into climax.
• After Independence, the speakers of Telugu asked the
congress to implement its old resolution in favour of
linguistic states. The method they used to advance their
causes were various: Petitions, representations, street
marches, parts.
• To support their cause, former Madras CM T. Prakasam
resigned from the congress party in 1950. Another
politician Swami Sitaram went on hunger strike to
support Telegu people's cause. Later he called off his
hunger strike on the appeal of veteran Gandhian leader
Vinobha Bhave.
• On 19 October 1952, a popular freedom fighter, Potti
Sriramulu undertook a fast unto death over the demand
for a separate Andhra and expired after fifty-eight days.
After his death people were agitated and it was followed
by rioting, demonstrations, hartals and violence all over
Andhra.
• The Vishalandhra movement (as the movement for a separate Andhra was called) turned violent.
Finally, the then PM, Nehru announced the formation of a separate Andhra State in December 1952.
• In October, 1953- The Government of India of forced to create the first linguistic state known as
Andhra State by separating the Telugu speaking areas from the Madras State.

31
Fazl Ali Commission (1953)-
• The formation of Andhra Pradesh spurred the struggle for making of other states
on linguistic lines in other parts of the country. Hence Nehru appointed in
August 1953 the states Reorganisation Commission (SRC) with justice Fazl Ali
(Chairman), K.M. Panikkar and Hridaynath Kunzru as members, to examine
"objectively and dispassionately" the entire question of the reorganization of
the states of the Union.
• It submitted its Report on September, 1955 and accepted language as the basis
of reorganisation of States.
• But it rejected the theory of ‘One-Language- One State’.
• Its view was that the unity of India should be regarded as the Primary
consideration in any redrawing of the country’s political units.
State Reorganisation Act, 1956-
• Finally, the state’s Reorganization Act was passed by parliament in November 1956. It provided for
fourteen states and six centrally administered territories.
• As of now, India consists of 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 entities.
• Recently, the state of Jammu and Kashmir was reorganised to create two union territories of Jammu and
Kashmir and Ladakh. Both these union territories came into existence on 31st October 2019.
• While two Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Diu Daman were merged and single union territory Dadra Nagar
and Haveli and Daman and Diu was created on 26th January 2020.
Aftermath of SRC and State Reorganization Act 1956:
• The strongest reaction against the SRC’s report and the States Reorganisation Act came from
Maharashtra where widespread rioting broke out in 1956.
• Under pressure, the government decided in June 1956 to divide the Bombay state into two linguistic
states of Maharashtra and Gujarat with Bombay city forming a separate, centrally administered
state.
• This move too was strongly opposed by the Maharashtrians.
• The government reverted in July to the formation of bilingual, greater Bombay.
• This move was, however, opposed by the people of both Maharashtra and Gujarat.
• The Gujarat’s felt that they would be a minority in the new state. They too would not agree to give up
Bombay city to Maharashtra.
• Violence and arson now spread to Ahmedabad and other parts of Gujarat.
• In view of the disagreement over Bombay city, the government stuck to its decision and passed the
States Reorganisation Act in November 1956.
• Popular agitation continued for nearly five years.
• The government finally agreed in May 1960 to bifurcate the state of Bombay into Maharashtra and
Gujarat, with Bombay city being included in Maharashtra, and Ahmedabad being made the capital
of Gujarat.
Punjab:
• The other state where an exception was made to the linguistic principle was Punjab.
• In 1956, the states of PEPSU had been merged with Punjab, which, however, remained a trilingual
state having three language speakers—Punjabi, Hindi and Pahari—within its borders.
• In the Punjabi speaking part of the state, there was a strong demand for carving out a separate Punjabi
Suba (Punjabi speaking state).
• The issue assumed communal overtones.

32
 • Finally, in 1966, Indira Gandhi agreed to the division of Punjab into two Punjabi and Hindi speaking
states of Punjab and Haryana, with the Pahari speaking district of Kangra and a part of the Hoshiarpur
district being merged with Himachal Pradesh.
• Chandigarh, the newly built city and capital of united Punjab, was made a Union Territory and was to
serve as the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana.
• Thus, after more than ten years of continuous strife and popular struggles the linguistic reorganization of
India was largely completed, making room for greater political participation by the people.
• Evaluation of the linguistic basis of reorganization of states
• Events since 1956 have clearly shown that loyalty to a language rather complementary to loyalty to
the nation.
• By reorganizing the states on linguistic lines, the national leadership removed a major grievance
which could have led to fissiparous tendencies.
• Linguistic reorganization of the states has not in any manner adversely affected the federal structure
of the Union or weakened the Centre.
• In spite of the leadership’s earlier reservations the reorganization resulted in rationalizing the political
map of India without seriously weakening its unity.
• It removed what had been a major source of discord.
• It created homogeneous political units which could be administered through a medium that the vast
majority of the population understood.
• It can be said, rather than being a force for division has proved a cementing and integrating
influence.

MINORITY LANGUAGES AND ASSOCIATED ISSUES:

• A large number of linguistic minorities, that is, those who speak a language other than the main or the
official language of the state, continue to exist in linguistically reorganized states.
• Overall nearly 18 per cent of India’s
population do not speak the official language of
the states where they live as their mother
tongue.
• The important point to be decided upon was the
status and rights of these minorities in their
states.
• On the one hand, there was the question of their
protection, for there was the ever-present danger
of them being meted out unfair treatment.
• On the other, there was the need to promote
their integration with the major language group
of a state.
• A linguistic minority had to be given the
confidence that it would not be discriminated
against and that its language and culture would
continue to exist and develop.
• At the same time, the majority had to be assured
that meeting the needs of the linguistic minority
would not generate separatist sentiments.
The Solution

33
• To confront this problem certain Fundamental Rights
were provided to the linguistic minorities in the
constitution.
• For example, Article 30 states that ‘all minorities,
whether based a religion or language, shall have the
right to establish and administer educational institutions
of their choice’ and, more important, ‘that the state shall
not, in granting aid to educational institutions,
discriminate against any educational institution on the
ground that it is under the management of a minority,
whether based on religion or language’.
• Article 347 lays down that on a demand being made on behalf of a minority, the President may direct
that its language shall be officially recognized throughout the state or any part thereof for such purposes
as he might specify.
• The official policy since 1956, sanctioned by a constitutional amendment in that year, has been to
provide for instruction in the mother tongue in the primary and secondary classes wherever there is a
sufficient number of children to form a class.
• The amendment also provides for the appointment of a Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities to
investigate and report regularly on the implementation of these safeguards.
• On the whole, the central government has tended to play a very positive role in defense of the rights
of the minorities, but the implementation of the minority safeguards is within the purview of the state
governments and therefore differs from state to state.
• In general, despite some progress in several states, in most of them the position of the linguistic
minorities has not been satisfactory.
INTEGRATION OF TRIBAL IN INDIA
• The Tribal live in varied conditions in different parts of the country speaking tribal languages and having
distinct cultures.
• Their greatest concentration is in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, north-eastern India, West
Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
• Except in the Northeast, they constitute minorities in their home states. In colonial India, they lived in
relative isolation (in comparison with present times). Their traditions, habits and cultures were
markedly different from those of their non-tribal neighbours.
• Residing mostly in the hills and forest areas, in colonial India they lived in relative isolation and their
tradition, habits, cultures and ways of life were exceptionally different with that of their non-tribal
neighbours.
• Radical transformation and penetration of market forces integrated the isolated tribal people with
colonial power.
• A large number of money lenders, traders, revenue farmers and other middlemen and petty
officials invaded the tribal areas and disrupted the tribal's traditional way of life.
• To conserve forests and to facilitate their commercial exploitation, the colonial authorities brought large
tracts of forest lands under forest laws which forbade shifting cultivation and put severe restrictions on
the tribals' use of forest and their access to forest products.
• Loss of land, indebtness, exploitation by middlemen, denial of access to forests and forest
products, oppression and extortion by policemen, forest officials and other government officials
was to lead a series of tribal uprisings in the nineteenth & twentieth centuries, e.g. Santhal & Munda
rebellion.
The Problem of Tribal Integration in India-

34
 3 Approaches for Tribal Integration
1. Policy of Isolation- The Policy of Isolation aimed to
leave the tribal people alone, uncontaminated by modern
influences operating outside their world. Approcahes for
2. Policy of Assimilation- The second approach was that of Tribal Integration
assimilating them completely and as quickly as
possible into the Indian society all around them. The To solve problem
disappearance of the tribal way of life would represent of Tribal
Integration
their ‘upliftment’.
3. Policy of Integration- Instead of these two approaches,
Nehru favoured the policy of integrating the tribal people Policy of Policy of
Policy of Isolation
Asssimilation Integration
in Indian society, even while maintaining their distinct
identity and culture. There were two basic parameters
of the Nehruvian approach: ‘the tribal areas have to
progress’ and ‘they have to progress in their own way’
Policy of Integration –
• The problem was how to combine these two
seemingly contradictory approaches.
• Nehru stood for economic and social development
of the tribal people in multifarious ways, especially
in the fields of communication, modern medical
facilities, agriculture and education.
In this regard, he laid down certain broad guidelines
for government policy. These are known as Tribal
Panchsheel –
• First, the tribal should develop along the lines of
their own genius; there should be no imposition or compulsion from outside.
• Second, tribal rights in land and forests should be
respected and no outsider should be able to take
possession of tribal lands.
• Third, it was necessary to encourage the tribal
languages which ‘must be given all possible support
and the conditions in which they can flourish must
be safeguarded’.
• Fourth, for administration, reliance should be
placed on the tribal people themselves, and
administrators should be recruited from amongst
them and trained.
• Fifth, the effort should be to administer and develop
the tribal’s through their own social and cultural
institutions.

Government’ Policies
• The beginning was made in the constitution itself
which directed under Article 46 that the people and

35
 should protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation, through special legislation.
• The governors of the states in which tribal areas were situated were given special responsibility to
protect tribal interests, including the power to modify central and state laws in their application to
tribal areas, and to frame regulations for the protection of tribal’s right to land and also their
protection from moneylenders. The application of the Fundamental Rights was amended for this
purpose.
• The constitution also extended full political rights to the tribal people.
• In addition, it provided for reservation of seats in the legislatures and positions in the administrative
services for the Scheduled Tribes.
• The constitution also provided for the setting up of Tribal Advisory Councils in all states containing
tribal areas to advise on matters concerning the welfare of tribals.
• A Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was appointed by the President to
investigate whether the safeguards provided for them were being observed.
• Legislative as well as executive action was taken by the state governments to prevent loss of tribal
lands to non-tribal people and to prevent exploitation of the tribals by moneylenders.
• The central and state governments created special facilities and organized special programmes for the
welfare and development of the tribal areas and the tribal people including the promotion of cottage and
village industries and generation of employment among them.
• In spite of the constitutional safeguards and the efforts of central & state governments, the tribals
progress and welfare has been very slow and even dismal. Except the North East, the tribals continue to
be poor, indebted, landless and often unemployed. The problem lies in weak execution of even well-
intentioned measures.
Reasons for dismal performance of Tribal Policy-
• Quite often the funds allocated for tribal welfare are not spent or are spent without corresponding results
and sometimes funds are even misappropriated. The watch dog of tribal interests, Tribal Advisory
Council has not functioned effectively.
• Administrative personnel are either ill trained or prejudiced against tribals.
• A major handicap from which tribals suffer is denial of justice, often because of their unfamiliarity
with the laws & the legal system.
• Violation of strict land transfer laws for tribals, leading to alienation of land & eviction of tribals.
• Rapid extension of mines & industries has worsened their conditions in many areas.
• While deforestation proceeds apace, the tribal’s traditional right of access to the forest and its produce is
continuously curtailed.
• The progress of education among the tribal people has been disappointingly slow.
• Exploitations from the forest officials and unsympathetic attitude of official
• Forest laws and regulations are also used to harass and exploit the tribal people.
Positive Developments-
• Legislation to protect tribal rights and interests’
• Activities of the tribal welfare departments
• Panchayati Raj
• spread of literacy and education
• Reservations in government services and in higher educational
institutions
• Repeated elections have led to increasing confidence among the
tribal people and greater political participation by them.
• They are demanding a greater share in national economic

36
 development.
• Protest movements have sprung up among tribals out of their frustration with the lack of development
and welfare. These are bound to produce positive results in time. But some of the protest movements
have taken to violence, leading to strong state action against them. Little ground has been gained by
them, though they have often dramatically drawn national attention to the tribal condition.
Tribals in the North East-

Background-
• The tribes of north-eastern India, consisting of
over a hundred groups, speaking a wide
variety of languages and living in the hill
tracts of Assam, shared many of the features
and problems of the tribal people in the rest of
the country.
• But their situation was different in several
respects. For one, they constituted the
overwhelming majority of the population in
most of the areas they inhabited.
• Then, non-tribals had not penetrated these
areas to any significant extent.
• The tribal areas occupied by the British then
formed part of the Assam province but were
given a separate administrative status.
• No nontribal plainsmen were allowed to acquire land in the tribal areas because of which the tribals
suffered little loss of land.
• At the same time, the British government permitted and even encouraged the Christian missionaries to
move in and establish schools, hospitals and churches and to proselytize, thus introducing change and
modern ideas among some of the tribal youth.
• The missionaries, in turn, collaborated with the colonial authorities and helped keep the nationalist
influence out of the tribal areas.
• In fact, immediately after independence, some of the missionaries and other foreigners even promoted
sentiment in favour of separate and independent states in north-eastern India.
• The virtual absence of any political or cultural contact of
the tribals in the Northeast with the political life of the rest
of India was also a striking difference.
• A powerful factor in the unification of the Indian people as
a nation was the common bonds forged in the course of the
anti-imperialist struggle.
• But this struggle had little impact among the tribals of the
Northeast. The tribal policy of the Government of India,
inspired by Jawaharlal Nehru, was therefore even more
relevant to the tribal people of the Northeast.
• A reflection of this policy was in the Sixth Schedule of the
constitution which applied only to the tribal areas of Assam.
• The Sixth Schedule offered a fair degree of self-government to the tribal people by providing for
autonomous districts and the creation of district and regional councils which would exercise some of

37
 the legislative and judicial functions within the overall jurisdiction of the Assam legislature and
parliament.

Problems in Assam/Demand for Autonomy-Assam (1950)

• The problems arose because the hill tribes of Assam had no cultural affinity with the Assamese and
Bengali residents of the plains.
• The tribals were afraid of losing their identities and being assimilated by what was, with some
justification, seen to be a “policy of Assamization”.
• Especially distasteful to them was the attitude of superiority and even contempt often adopted by non-
tribals working among them as teachers, doctors, government officials, traders, etc.
• Soon, resentment against the Assam government began to mount and a demand for a separate hill state
arose among some sections of the tribal people in the mid-1950s.
• The demand gained greater strength when the Assamese leaders moved in 1960 towards making
Assamese the sole official language of the state.
• In 1960, various political parties of the hill areas merged into the All-Party Hill Leaders Conference
(APHLC) and again demanded a separate state within the Indian Union.
• The passage of the Assam Official Language Act, making Assamese the official language of the state
led to an immediate and strong reaction in the tribal
districts.
• In the 1962 elections, the overwhelming majority of the
Assembly seats from the tribal areas were won by the
advocates of a separate state, who decided to boycott
the State Assembly.
• Prolonged discussions and negotiations followed.
Several commissions and committees examined the
issue.
• Finally, in 1969, through a constitutional amendment,
Meghalaya was carved out of Assam as ‘a state within
a state’.
• As a part of the reorganization of the Northeast, Meghalaya became a separate state in 1972,
incorporating the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia tribes.
• The Union Territories of Manipur and Tripura were granted statehood.

38
 • The transition to statehood in the case of Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh was
quite smooth.
• Trouble arose in the case of Nagaland and Mizoram where secessionist and insurrectionary movements
developed.
• This fulfillment of demands couldn't stop some tribes from aspiring a separate state only for their tribal
communities like Bodos, Karbi and Dimasas.
• They drew centre's attention towards their demand of autonomy. They mobilised public opinion
through popular movements and insurgency.
• It was not possible for the centre to fulfill all the regional aspirations, and create smaller and smaller
states. So, the centre devised some other alternative to fix this demand, such as grant of Autonomous
District for such tribes.
North-East Frontier Agency-
• Nehru’s and Verrier Elwin’s policies were
implemented best of all in the North-East Frontier
Agency or NEFA, which was created in 1948 out of
the border areas of Assam.
• NEFA was established as a Union Territory
outside the jurisdiction of Assam and placed under
a special administration.
• From the beginning, the administration was manned
by a special cadre of officers who were asked to
implement specially designed developmental
policies without disturbing the social and cultural
pattern of the life of the people.
• NEFA was named Arunachal Pradesh and
granted the status of a separate state in 1987.
Jharkhand-
• Jharkhand, the tribal area of Bihar consisting of the Chota
Nagpur and the Santhal Parganas, has for decades spawned
movements for state autonomy.
• Economic differentiation has set in; there are a significant
number of agricultural labourers and a growing number of
mining and industrial workers.
• The landholding pattern among tribals is as unequal and
skewed as among non- tribals.
• A large class of moneylenders has also developed among them.
• The tribal society in Jharkhand has increasingly become a class-
divided society. Most of the tribals practise two formal religions—
Hinduism and Christianity.
• The Jharkhand tribes, however, share some features with other
Indian tribes.
• They have lost most of their land, generally to outsiders, and suffer
from indebtedness, loss of employment and low agricultural
productivity.
• Nearly two-thirds of Jharkhand’s population in 1971 was non-tribal.
• The overwhelming majority of both tribal and non-tribal were equally
exploited.

39
• The party achieved a remarkable success in electoral politics of Bihar
during the 1950s. The population composition of Jharkhand was such that
even after getting a separate state the tribal would still constitute a minority
in it.
• To overcome this problem the party tried to give its demand a regional
character by opening its membership to the non-tribals.
• The States Reorganisation Commission of 1955, however, rejected the
demand for a separate Jharkhand state on the ground that the region did not
have a common language.
• In 1963, a major part of the leadership of the party, including Jaipal Singh, joined Congress. Several
tribal parties and movements developed in Jharkhand after 1967, the most prominent being the
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which was formed in late 1972.
• The JMM revived the demand for the Jharkhand state. The JMM began to assert that all the older
residents of the Jharkhand region.
• Concentrating on economic issues, it also acquired the support of the non-tribal poor. The JMM turned
to a radical programme and ideology. Joined by other groups, especially leftist groups such as the
Marxist Coordination Centre, it organized several militant agitations.
• Shibu Soren emerged as the charismatic leader of the JMM during the early 1970s. Cooperation with
the leftists did not, however, last long; nor did the tribal–nontribal alliance.
• The movement for the Jharkhand state underwent constant ups and downs and splits over the years with
new groups coming up every so often. Jharkhand can be put after all north eastern states.

Shibu Soren
• Major differences among the Jharkhand leaders pertained to the question of cooperation or alliance
with the main all-India parties.
• The movement also found it difficult to shift completely from tribal to class based regional politics,
since it was basically built around tribal identity and Tribal society was also not homogeneous; it
contained landlords, rich peasants, traders and moneylenders.
• However, for various reasons, Jharkhand finally came into existence as a state in 2000 during Atal NDA
government.
• Secessionist Movements-The demands of autonomy can be fulfilled with the constitutional provisions,
but when someone demand a separate country from a sovereign country, then the issue get complicated.

Mizoram-
• Unhappiness with the Assam government’s relief measures during the
famine of 1959 and the passage of the Act in 1961, making Assamese
the official language of the state, led to the formation of the Mizo
National Front (MNF), with Laldenga as president.
• The MNF created a military wing which received arms and
ammunition and military training from East Pakistan and China.

40
 • In March 1966, the MNF declared independence from India, proclaimed a military uprising and
attacked military and civilian targets.
• The Government of India responded with immediate massive counter-insurgency measures by the
army.
• Within a few weeks the insurrection was crushed and government control
restored, though stray guerrilla activity continued.
• Most of the hard-core Mizo leaders escaped to East Pakistan.
• In 1973, after the less extremist Mizo leaders had scaled down their demand to
that of a separate state of Mizoram.
• The Mizo district of Assam was separated from Assam and, as Mizoram, given
the status of a Union Territory.
• Mizo insurgency gained some renewed strength in the late 1970s but was again
effectively dealt with by the Indian armed forces.
• Having decimated the ranks of the separatist insurgents, the Government of India,
was now willing to show consideration, offer liberal terms of amnesty to the remnants of the rebel forces
and conduct negotiations for peace.
• A settlement was finally arrived at in 1986. Laldenga and the MNF agreed to abandon underground
violent activities, surrender and re-enter the constitutional political stream.
• The Government of India agreed to the grant of full statehood to Mizoram, guaranteeing full autonomy
in regard to culture, tradition, land laws, etc.
Mizo-India Peace Accord
• As a part of the accord, a government with Laldenga as chief minister was formed in the new state of
Mizoram in February 1987.
Nagaland-
• The Nagas were the inhabitants of the Naga hills along the Northeast frontier on the Assam-Burma
border.
• The British had isolated the Nagas from the rest of the country and left them more or less undisturbed
though Christian missionary activity was permitted, which had led to the growth of a small educated
stratum.
• Immediately after independence, the Government of India followed a policy of integrating the Naga
areas with the state of Assam and India as a whole.
• A section of the Naga leadership, however, opposed such
integration and rose in rebellion under the leadership of A. Z.
Phizo, demanding separation from India and complete
independence.
• They were encouraged in this move by some of the British
officials and missionaries.
• In 1955, these separatist Nagas declared the formation of an
independent government and the launching of a violent
insurrection.
• The Government of India responded with a two-track policy.
• On one hand, the Government of India made it clear that it would
firmly oppose the secessionist demand for the independence of
Naga areas and would not tolerate recourse to violence.
• Refusing to negotiate with Phizo or his supporters as long as they did not give up their demand for
independence or the armed rebellion, he carried on prolonged negotiations with the more moderate, non-
violent and non-secessionist Naga leaders.

41
• Once the back of the armed rebellion was broken by the middle of
1957, the more moderate Naga leaders headed by Dr Imkongliba
Ao came to the fore.
• They negotiated for the creation of the state of Nagaland within the
Indian Union.
• The Government of India accepted their demand through a series of
intermediate steps; and the state of Nagaland came into existence
in 1963.
• A further step forward was taken in the integration of the Indian nation.
Movement Against Outsiders-
• The migration of people from other part of the region
of North-east region for its rich resources created lots of
problem and increased the tension between 'local' and
'outsiders'.
• The migrant people were seen as encroachers, who
would snatch away their scarce resources like land,
employment opportunities and political power and
render the local population without their legitimate due.
• To drive away the outsiders from the region, there was
one Assam Movement from 1975 to 1985. Their main
targets were Bengali Muslim settlers from Bangladesh.
• In 1979 the All Assam student's union (AASU) a
student’s group not related to any political party, led an anti-foreigner movement.
• Their area of focus was illegal migration, domination of Bengali and other outsiders, against faulty
voter’s register of lakhs of immigrants. AASU members used non-violent and violent methods both.
• Their violent agitation took human lives and damaged lots of properties. After 6 years of violent turmoil,
the then PM, Rajiv Gandhi negotiated with AASU leaders. Both the sides (Union Govt and AASU)
signed an accord in 1985.
• According this accord, the foreigners who migrated into Assam during and after Bangladesh war, were
to be identified and deported.
• With the success of signing this accord, the AASU and Assam Gana Sangram Parishad came
together, formed their political party, Assam Gana Parishad, won the Assembly elections in 1985 with
the promise of resolving the foreign national problem and make Assam a "Golden Assam". However,
the problem of immigration hasn't been resolved yet, but it brought peace to some extent.
REGIONAL ASPIRATIONS
Region or state are asserted against the country as a whole or against another region or state in a
hostile manner and a conflict is promoted on the basis of such alleged interests it can be dubbed as
regionalism.

What Regionalism is not?

• Local patriotism and loyalty to a locality or region or state and its language and culture do not
constitute regionalism.
• They are quite consistent with national patriotism and loyalty to the nation.
• A person can be conscious of his or her distinct regional identity - of being a Tamil or a Punjabi, a
Bengali or a Gujarati - without being any the less proud of being an Indian, or being hostile to people
from other regions.
• Aspiring to or making special efforts to develop one’s state or region or to remove poverty and

42
 implement social justice there, is not to be branded as regionalism.
• In fact, a certain interregional rivalry around the achievement of such positive goals would be quite
healthy—and in fact we have too little of it.
• Local patriotism can help people overcome divisive loyalties to caste or religious communities.
• Defending the federal features of the constitution is also not to be seen as regionalism.
• The demand for a separate state within the Indian Union or for an autonomous region within an
existing state, or for devolution of power below the state level, may be objected to on several
practical grounds, but not as regionalist, unless it is put forward in a spirit of hostility to the rest of the
population of a state.

What Regionalism Is?

• If the interests of one region or state are asserted against the country as a whole or against another region
or state in a hostile manner and a conflict is promoted on the basis of such alleged interests it can be
dubbed as regionalism.
• In this sense, there has been very little inter-regional conflict in India since 1947, the major exception
being the politics of the DMK in Tamil Nadu in the 1950s and early 1960s, the DMK has also
increasingly given up its regionalist approach over the years.

How Has India Contained Regionalism Over the Years?

• Regionalism could have flourished in India if any region or state had felt that it was being culturally
dominated or discriminated against.
• However, India has proved to be quite successful in accommodating and even celebrating India’s
cultural diversity.
• The different areas of India have had full cultural autonomy and been enabled to fully satisfy their
legitimate aspirations.
• The linguistic reorganization of India and the resolution of the official language controversy have
played a very important role by eliminating a potent cause of the feeling of cultural loss or cultural
domination and therefore of inter-regional conflict.
• Many regional disputes do exist and they have the potential of fanning interstate hostility; there has been
friction between different states over the sharing of river waters: for example, between Tamil Nadu
and Karnataka, Karnataka and Andhra, and Punjab and Boundary disputes have arisen out of the
formation of linguistic states as in the case of Belgaum and Chandigarh.
• Construction of irrigation and power dams has created such conflicts.
• But, while these disputes tend to persist for a long time and occasionally arouse passions, they have
remained within narrow, acceptable limits.
• The central government has often succeeded in playing the role of a mediator, though sometimes
drawing the anger of the disputants on itself, but thus preventing sharper interregional conflicts.

Economic Imbalances & Regionalism-

Economic Imbalances & Regionalism: – Economic inequality among different states and region could be
a potential source of trouble. Economic inequality among different states and regions could be a potential
source of trouble. However, despite breeding discontent and putting pressure on the political system, this
problem has not so far given rise to regionalism or feeling of a region being discriminated against. Hence
from the beginning, the national government felt a responsibility to counter the imbalance in regional
development. To influence the rates of growth in poorer states and regions and to reduce economic distance
from richer states, the central government adopted a whole range of policies-
• A major instrument in government's hand in bringing development to the poor state was transfer of
financial resources, which was done by Finance Commission, a constitutional body.

43
• Planning was also used as a powerful instrument to remove regional inequality. Planning Commission
allocated greater plan assistance to the backward states. The assistance was given in both the forms,
grants and loans.
• The 1956 Industrial Policy Resolution of the Government of India asserted that ‘only by securing a
balanced and coordinated development of the industrial and agricultural economy in each region can the
entire country attain higher standards of living’.
• The Third Plan explicitly stated that ‘balanced development of different parts of the country, extension
of the benefits of economic progress to the less developed regions and widespread diffusion of industry
are among the major aims of planned development’.
Planning Commission (Now NITI AAYOG)
• Public investment by the central government in major industries
such as steel, fertilizers, oil refining, petro chemicals, heavy
chemicals, and in power and irrigation projects has been a tool
for the reduction of regional inequality.
• Government incentives have been provided to the private sector to
invest in backward areas through subsidies, tax concessions, and
concessional banking and institutional loans at subsidized rates.
• The system of licensing of private industrial enterprises, which
prevailed from 1956 to 1991, was also used by the government to
guide location of industries in backward areas.
• Following nationalization of banks in 1969, the expansion of the network of their branches was used to
favour backward areas.
• Economic mobility of population through migration of unskilled labour from the backward regions and
of skilled labour to them can also contribute to the lessening of regional disparity.
Sons of Soil Doctrine-
• This doctrine mentions that particular state belongs to majority linguistic group inhabiting it or
constitutes an exclusive "homeland" for regional language speakers.
• The doctrine is majorly popular in cities. In the struggle for the appropriation of economic resources and
economic opportunities, recourse was often taken to communalism, casteism and nepotism.
• Active in these movements have also been members of the lower-middle class or workers, as well as
rich and middle peasants whose position is unthreatened, but who increasingly aspire to middle-class
status and position for their children.
• In similar way, language loyalty and regionalism
were and is still used to systematically exclude the
"outsiders".
• Some groups could then take advantage of the
‘sons of the soil’ sentiment for gaining political
power
• This doctrine was profoundly utilized in big metros
like Mumbai (Marathi) [Earlier Bombay],
Bangalore (Kannada), Kolkata (Bengali), etc.
• Sons of the soil doctrine arise when there is actual
or potential competition for industrial and
middle-class jobs, between the migrants and
local educated middle-class youth.
• The worst case of anti-migrant or implementation

44
 of Sons of the Soil doctrine was movement led by Shiv Sena which appealed regional chauvinism and
assumed fascist proportions.
• However, the courts approved the reservation on the grounds of residence, but maintained people's
right to migrate and their allied fundamental right regarding their movements.
• ‘Outsiders’ have been often far more numerous in rural areas. Here the ‘sons of the soil’ sentiment
was absent because no middle-class jobs were involved.
• The ‘locals’ did not compete with the ‘outsiders’ for rural jobs. Consequently, there has been little
conflict with the ‘locals’ when there has been large-scale migration of labourers from Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh to Punjab and Haryana or Bombay city.
• Such migrations have not posed a threat to the local middle classes—the middle classes have been the
chief beneficiaries (the welcome domestic workers).
• The Indian constitution is to some extent ambiguous on the question of the rights of the migrants.
Article 15 prohibits any discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
Article 16 prohibits discrimination in the employment or appointments to any office under the state on
grounds of ‘descent, place of birth or residence’.
• However, parliament can pass a law laying down the requirement of residence within a state for
appointments under that state.
• Under political pressure and taking advantage of the ambiguity in the constitution, many states in
fact reserve jobs, or give preference for employment in state and local governments and for
admission into educational institutions to local residents.
• Also, while the constitution permits reservation or preference in state jobs only on grounds of residence
and not language, some state governments have gone further and limited the preference to those local
residents whose mother tongue is the state language.
• They have thus discriminated against long-term migrants and their descendants, and even the
residents who can speak the state language. This has been in clear violation of the constitution.
“Son of The Soil” As a Threat to National Unity:
• While protective and preferential regulations have been widespread since the late 1960s, antagonism,
hostility and violence against migrants have increased in recent years.
• The problem posed by the ‘sons of the soil’ doctrine is still a somewhat minor one and there is no ground
for pessimism on that score.
• Even at its height, only a few cities and states were affected in a virulent form, and at no stage did it
threaten the unity of the country or the process of nation-in-the-making.
• Besides, its effects on the Indian economy have been negligible: migration within the country has not
been checked; interstate mobility is in fact growing.
• But the problem is likely to linger till economic development is able to deal effectively with
unemployment, especially among the middle classes, and regional inequality.
HINDU CODE BILL, 1956
• The Hindu code bills were several laws passed in the 1950s that aimed to
codify and reform Hindu personal law in India. Following India's
independence in 1947,
• The Indian National Congress government led by Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru completed this codification and reform, a process started by the British
Raj.
• Nehru administration saw such codification as necessary to unify the Hindu
community, which ideally would be a first step towards unifying the nation.

45
• They succeeded in passing four Hindu code bills in 1955–56: the Hindu
Marriage Act, Hindu Succession Act, Hindu Minority and
Guardianship Act, and Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act.[
• In 1941, a committee headed by BN Rau (future constitutional advisor)
was set up by the British. This committee toured India and finally came up
with a draft of Hindu personal code in 1946.
• This draft was presented to a committee chaired by DR. B. R. Ambedkar
in 1948 and was called Hindu Code Bill, despite its name, the ‘Hindu’
Code Bill was to apply to Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains as well as all
Hindu castes and sects.

Provisions of the act:

• The Hindu Code Bill included right to property, order of succession to the property, maintenance,
marriage, divorce adoption, minority and guardianship.
• The Code gave Women equal rights in Property
• The property including both movable and immovable property should be acquired by a woman
• The acquisition of property should be made by a woman before and after marriage even during the
widowhood from her parents or husband.
• The share of the property of each unmarried daughter shall be half that of each son and the share of
each married daughter shall be one quarter of that of each son.
• Hindu Personal Law considered marriage as sacred and divorce as blasphemy. The code gave both the
man and woman a right to divorce if the marriage is untenable.
• Widows and Divorcee got the right to remarry.
• Inter-caste marriage was permitted and promoted to establish cohesiveness among the Hindus.
• Making monogamy mandatory.
• Allowance of adoption of children of any caste.
• Also, decisions regarding the guardianship of the child in case of divorce were mentioned under these
laws.
Criticism
• During the debates over the Hindu code bills in the General Assembly, large segments of the Hindu
population protested and held rallies against the bills. Numerous organizations were formed to lobby for
the defeat of the bills and massive amounts of literature were distributed throughout the Hindu
population.
• The giants like Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhbhai Patel, S Mukherjee etc vehemently opposed the
bill.
• The main concern of opposing leaders was the government should introduce Uniform Civil Code and
not only Hindu Code Bill.

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 CHAPTER 2 – FROM COLONY TO DEMOCRACY
Sr. Topic
1 Emergence of Electoral Politics
2 Establishment of democratic institutions
3 Administrative Control
4 Social change
5 Education
6 Panchayati Raj
7 Domination of Congress
8 Emergence of Opposition of Parties
9 Coalition Era

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EMERGENCE OF ELECTORAL POLITICS-
Background-
• Despite the unprecedented illiterate population, diversities, poor economic condition the national
leadership were not in big quandary regarding adoption of democratic institutions to consolidate India.

• Faced with such serious challenges, other leaders from different countries resisted democracy as a form
of governance. According to the leaders of different countries who gained freedom from colonialism,
their priority was national unity, which will not be sustained with democracy as it would bring
differences and conflicts. Hence, we have seen lots of non-democratic regime in newly independent
countries.
• While competition and power are the two most visible things about politics, the intention of political
activity should be deciding and pursuing public interest. This is the route our leaders decided to pursue.
India- Democratic and Republic Nation-
After adoption of constitution on January 26, 1950, It was necessary
to install the first democratically elected government of the
country. The election commission of India was set up in January
1950 with a constitutional provision to conduct free and fair
elections. Sukumar Sen became the first Chief Election
Commissioner.
• India has adopted universal adult franchise model of
democracy where any person with prescribed condition of age,
could vote without any form of discriminations.
• Election commission soon realized that it was an uphill task to
conduct a free and fair election in a country of India's size. Sukumar Sen

48
 • Preparing for the first general election was a huge exercise. No election on this scale had ever been
conducted in the world before. At that time there were 17 crores eligible voters, who had to elect about
489 MPs of Lok Sabha and 3200 MLA of state assemblies.
• Only 15% of these eligible voters were literate. Hence Election Commission had sought some special
method of voting, like the candidates were to be
identified by symbols, assigned to each major party
and independent candidates, painted on the ballot
papers in the box assigned to a particular candidate
and ballot was secret.
Election Commission trained over 3 lakhs officers
and polling staff to conduct the election. Democracy
took a giant step forward with the first elections were
the biggest experiment in democracy anywhere in the
world. Many people were skeptical about the
democratic elections being conducted in the caste
ridden, multi religious, illiterate and backward
society like India.
• The elections were spread out over nearly four months
from Oct 25, 1951 to Feb 21, 1952. The elections were
conducted in a fair, free, impartial and orderly
manner with very little violence.
Response of People to Election & New Political Order-
• People's response to the new political order was
tremendous. They participated in the polls with enough
knowledge that their vote was a prized possession.
• At certain places, people treated polling as a festival
wearing festive clothes, women wearing their jewellery.
• Despite higher percentage of poverty and illiteracy, the
number of invalid votes cast was a low as 0.3% to 0.4%.
• A remarkable feature was the wide participation of
women: at least 40% of women eligible to vote did so.
Thus, the faith of the leadership in the people was fully
justified. When the elections results were declared, it was
realised that nearly 46% of the eligible voters had cast
their vote.
Political Parties who participated in First Election of Independent India-
• Indian National Congress to Socialist Party
• Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party
• Communist and allies
• Jan Singh
• Hindu Mahasabha
• RRP [Ram Rajya Parishad]
• other local parties
• Independents.
Results-

49
• The congress had emerged as the single largest
party by winning 364 seats with 45% of total polled
votes for Lok Sabha.
• The congress formed all the government in all the
states and at the centre too. It did not get a majority
on its own in four states–Madras, Travancore-
Cochin, Orissa, PEPSU but formed governments
even there with the help of independents and smaller
local parties which then merged with it.
• The communist performance was big surprise and
it emerged as the second largest group in the Lok
Sabha. Princes and big landlords still wielded a
great deal of influence in some parts of the country.
• Their party Gantantra Parishad won 31 seats in
Orissa Assembly. Despite the numerically dominant
position of the congress, the opposition was quite
effective in parliament.
• Other forms of political participation such as trade
unions, Kisan Sabha, strikes, hartals, bands and
demonstrations were available to the middle
classes, organized working class and sections of
the rich and middle-class peasantry. Elections
were the main form of direct political participation
for the vast mass of rural and urban poor.
• After 1952, during the Nehru years, two other
general elections were held for the Lok Sabha and
state assembles in 1957 & 1962. Voter’s turnout
improved in 1957 to 47% and in 1962 to 54%. In
both the elections, the congress again emerged as a
single largest party and formed government at the centre and at states level.
• However, In 1957, the communist were able to form a government in Kerala, which was the first
democratically elects communist government anywhere in the world.
Conclusion-
• The fair and peaceful conduct of the polls was an
indication that the democratic system and institutions, a
legacy of the national movement were beginning to
take root.
• The successful conduct of the polls was one of the
reasons why India and Nehru, came to be admired
abroad, especially in the ex-colonial countries.
• Political leadership used elections both to promote
national consolidation and to legitimize its policies of
integration. Ashok Mehta said, "The parliament acted
as a great unifier of the nation".

List of Government and Prime Ministers (1947-2020)-

50
 S.N. Name Born-Dead Term of office Remark
1. Jawahar Lal Nehru (1889–1964) 5 August 1947-27 May The first prime minister of
1964 India and the longest-serving
16 years, 286 days PM of India, first to die in
office.
2. Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) 27 May,1964 to 9 June First acting PM of India
1964,
13 days
3. Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–1966) 9 June, 1964 to 11 January He has given the slogan of
1966 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan'
1 year, 216 days during Indo-Pak war of 1965
4. Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) 24 January 1966 to 24 First lady Prime Minister of
March 1977 India
11 years, 59 days
5. Morarji Desai (1896–1995) 24 March 1977 – 28 July Oldest to become PM @ 81
1979 and first to resign from
2 year, 116 days office
6. Charan Singh (1902–1987) 28 July, 1979 to 14 Jan. Only PM who did not face
1980 the Parliament
170 days
7. Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) 14 Jan.1980 to 31 Oct. 1984 The first lady who served as
4 years, 291 days PM for the second term
8. Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) 31 Oct, 1984 to 2 Dec. 1989 Youngest to become PM @
5 years, 32 days 40 year
9. V. P. Singh (1931–2008) 2 Dec. 1989 to 10 Nov. First PM to step down after a
1990 vote of no confidence
343 days
10. Chandra Shekhar (1927–2007) 10 November,1990 to 21 He belongs to Samajwadi
June 1991 Janata Party
223 days
11. P. V. Narasimha (1921–2004) 21 June 1991 to 16 May First PM from south India
Rao 1996
4 years, 330 days
12. Atal Bihari (born 1924) 16 May, 1996 to 1 June PM for shortest tenure
Vajpayee 1996
16 days
13. H. D. Deve Gowda (born 1933) 1 June, 1996 to 21 April He belongs to Janata Dal
1997
324 days
14. Inder Kumar Gujral (1919–2012) 21 April 1997 to 19 March, ------
1998 332 days
15. Atal Bihari (born 1924) 19 March, 1998 to 22 May The first non-congress PM
Vajpayee 2004 who completed a full term as
6 years, 64 days PM
16. Manmohan Singh (born 1932) 22 May 2004 to 26 May First Sikh PM
2014
10 years, 4 May 2 days
17. Narendra Modi (born 1950) 26 May 2014, Incumbent 4th Prime Minister of India
who served two consecutive

51
 tenures

ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS

• The independence of the courts was nurtured in this period.
• Parliament was treated with respect and effort was made to sustain its dignity, prestige and power.
• Parliamentary committees like Estimates Committee played an important role as a critic and watchdog of
the government administration.
• Under Nehru’s leadership, the cabinet system evolved in a healthy manner and functioned effectively.
• Federalism, provided for in the constitution, was established as a firm feature of Indian polity during
these years, with devolution of power to the states.
• The tradition of the supremacy of the civil government over the armed forces was fully established.
ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL
• The kingpin of the administrative structure was the Indian Civil Service (ICS).
• Sardar Patel felt that retention of the existing administrative machinery was necessary. He was not in
favour of a sudden discontinuity and vacuum in administration, particularly the ICS.
• Having a well-trained, versatile and experienced civil services was a distinct asset and advantage to
India.
• A major achievement of the Nehru era was in the field of scientific research and technological education.
• To emphasize the importance of science and scientific research, Nehru himself assumed the
chairmanship of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, which guided and financed the
national laboratories and other scientific institutions.
• IITs were formed. Expenditure was increased in scientific research.
• In later years, scientific research began to suffer because the organization and management structure of
the scientific institutes was highly bureaucratic and hierarchical.
• Nuclear energy was given importance. Nehru was convinced that nuclear energy (for peaceful purposes)
could bring revolution in the social, economic and political spheres. Atomic Energy commission was set
up in 1948. • Steps were taken to increase India’s capacity in production of defence equipment, so that
India becomes self-sufficient in its defence needs.
SOCIAL CHANGE
• Some important measures of social reforms were: land reforms, the initiation of planned economic
development, rapid expansion of the public sector, right to form trade unions and to go on strike,
security of employment, and provision of health insurance.
• There were steps taken for a more equitable distribution of wealth through progressive and steep
income tax and excise tax policies.
• The government passed the Anti-Untouchability Law in 1955 making the practice of untouchability
punishable and a cognizable offence. However, the SCs and STs continued to be backward and caste
oppression was still widely prevalent, especially in rural India.
• Hindu Code Bill was passed in the parliament. It introduced monogamy and the right of divorce to both
men and women, raised the age of consent and marriage, and gave women the right to maintenance and
inherit family property. An important drawback in this respect was that a uniform civil code covering the
followers of all religions was not enacted.
EDUCATION
• Better and wider education was as an important instrument of social and economic progress.

52
 • The government provided large sums for developing primary, secondary, higher and technical education.
Since education was primarily a State subject, Nehru urged the state governments not to reduce
expenditure on primary education.
• The Nehru years witnessed rapid expansion of education, especially in the case of girls.
• The number of universities and colleges had increased drastically. However, the progress in primary
education did not match the needs as intended, especially in rural India.
• Two major programs for rural upliftment and laying foundation for welfare state in villages were:
Community Development programme and Panchayati Raj. Though designed for the sake of
agricultural development, they had welfare content. Their basic purpose was to change the face of
• The programme covered all aspects of rural life from improvement in agricultural methods to
improvement in communications, health and education.
• Emphasis of the programme: self-reliance and self-help by the people, popular participation and
responsibility and uplift the backward communities.
• Results of the programme: The programme resulted in better seeds, fertilizers, agricultural development,
food production, construction of roads, tanks and wells, school and primary health centres, and extension
of educational and health facilities.
• But, the programme failed to achieve its objective. It failed in involving the people as full
participants in developmental activity, bureaucratization of the programme and lack of popular
involvement.
• The weaknesses of the Community Development programme had come to be known when Balwant Rai
Mehta Committee had strongly criticized its bureaucratization and lack of popular involvement.
• The Committee recommended the democratic decentralization of the rural and district development
administration.
• On the Committee’s recommendation, it was decided to introduce an integral system of democratic self-
government with the village panchayat at its base.
• The new system, came to be known as Panchayati Raj and was implemented in various states.
PANCHAYATI RAJ
• It consisted of a three-tier structure, directly elected village or gram panchayats, and indirectly
elected block-level panchayat samitis and district-level zilla parishads.
• The Panchayati Raj was intended to make up the deficiencies of the Community Development
programme by providing popular participation in the decision-making and implementation of
development process with the officials working under the guidance of three-level samitis.
• Drawbacks: The state governments showed less enthusiasm, devolved no real power on the
Panchayati samitis, curbed its powers and functions and starved them of funds. There were issues of
politicization and bureaucratization as well.
• Thus, Panchayati Raj could not perform the role assigned to it by Balwant Rai Mehta Committee and
Jawaharlal Nehru. The basic weakness of the Community Development programme, Panchayati Raj and
the cooperative movement was that they ignored the class division of the rural society where nearly half
the population was landless or had marginal holdings, and was thus quite powerless. The village was
dominated socially and economically by the capitalist farmers, and the rich and middle peasantry.
Neither dominant rural classes nor the bureaucrats could become the agents of social

53
 DOMINANCE OF CONGRESS (1947-1977)

Background-
• As we have discussed about emergence of electoral politics, the congress party
achieved great success in country's first general elections.
• In the initial three general elections, the congress gained overwhelming
majority. The congress won three out of every four seats but it did not manage to
win half the total votes polled.
• After Independence of India, for First 30 years, Congress Government was the
only largest party in Lok Sabha. Symbol of Indian
• There was a dominance of Congress in Indian Politics which lasted National Congress (1971)
unchallenged till 1977 General Election.
• India is not the only exception to have experienced the dominance of one party. We can see example of
‘one party dominance’ in other parts of the world as well.
• In other countries, we have seen that there was compromise with democratic values and norms
whereas India upheld those values and norms.

54
 • In some countries like China, Cuba and Syria the constitution allows only a single
party to rule the country.
• Some others like Myanmar, Belarus, Egypt and Eritrea were effectively one-
party states due to legal and military measure
Nature of Congress Dominance-
• The congress had reached the fruits of their diligent labor of their freedom
struggle movement in ensuring post-independence general elections. It had
inherited the legacy of Indian National Congress Movements.
• So, by default, due to their strong organizational network of freedom
movement, throughout the country, it reached out to the masses instantly and
connected with masses well.
• It was not possible for other political parties organizing themselves in such a
short time and achieving the faith of the masses. During the freedom
struggle movement, INC adopted inclusive approach and accepted
membership of all strata of the society.
• After independence, the congress maintained the same characteristics. The
congress also remained sensitive to and functioned as the medium for the
reconciliation, accommodation and adjustment of the diverse and
divergent class, sectional and regional interests.
• The congress was an ideological coalition. It accommodated the
revolutionary and pacifist, conservative and radical, extremist and
moderate and the right, left and all shades of the centre.
• The coalitional nature of the congress party tolerated and encouraged various
factions and instead of being a weakness, internal factionalism became the
strength of the congress.
• The system of factions functioned as balancing mechanism within the ruling
party. In the first decade of electoral competition, the congress acted both as the ruling party as well as
the opposition.
• Hence, noted political scientist, Mr. Rajni Kothari termed this period of Indian Politics as “The
Congress system”.
Conclusion-
• Congress again backed to power in 1980 under the leadership of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi
(1984) with overwhelming majority.
• The period of 1980-89 is a comeback period of Congress dominance in the history of Indian
Democracy.
• After the loss of General Election of 1989, Congress never formed the government in Majority.
• General elections were held in India in 1991 to elect the members of the 10th Lok Sabha.
• The result of the election was that no party could get a majority, so a minority government (Indian
National Congress with the help of Left parties) was formed, resulting in a stable government for the
next 5 years, under the new Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.

EMERGENCE OF OPPOSITION PARTIES

Background

55
• Due to the great performance of the congress party, all opposition parties achieved only a token
representation in the Lok Sabha and State assemblies during the “congress system”, period. Yet these
oppositions played a key role in maintaining the democratic character of the system.
• The opposition parties offered a sustained and principle criticism of the parties and policies of the
congress of the practices and policies of the congress party. By keeping democratic political alternative
alive, the opposition parties prevented the resentment with the system from turning into anti-
democratic.
• In the beginning of true sense of democracy in India, there was high respect between the congress and
opposition leaders.
• There was induction of opposition leaders in the interim government before independence and even in
the post-independence government, opposition leaders like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Shyama Prasad
Mukherjee (Jan Jabha) were in the Nehru’s Cabinet.
• In 1977- First time non-Congress Government was formed by the Janata Government under the
leadership of Morarji Desai. Although the Janata Government could not survive for more than 2 years
but it successfully broke the dominance of Congress.
• An emergence of Bhartiya Janata Party played a vital role in balancing the dominance of Congress
Government.
Emergence of Opposition Parties-

Socialist party
• The foundation of the socialist party laid before independence when some leaders
within the congress party has sought more radical and egalitarian congress. So,
they formed the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) in 1934.
• Later after independence, the congress party had changed the rule regarding dual
membership and barred the C.S.P members with congress’s membership. This
situation compelled CSP leaders to form separate Socialist Party in 1948.
• The socialists believed in the ideology of democratic socialism which
distinguished them both from the congress and the communists.
• Socialist party leaders criticized congress for favouring capitalists and landlord
and ignoring teaming masses like workers, peasants.
• Socialist party was in big dilemma when the congress party in 1955 declared its
goal to be the socialist pattern of society. In such scenario, their leader Ashok
Mehta offered limited cooperation with the congress.
• Many factions emerged from the split and union of the socialist party viz. Kisan
Mazdoor Praja party, the Praja socialist party, Samyukta Socialist Party
• Jayprakash Narayan, Rammanohar Lohiya, Achyut Patwardhan, Ashok
Mehta, Acharya Narendra Dev, S.M. Joshi were stalwart leaders of the
socialist party.
• In the contemporary times, the Samajwadi party, the Rashtriya Janta Dal
(RJD), Janta Dal (United), Janta Dal (Secular) trace their origins to the
socialist party.
Bhartiya Jan Sangh (BJS)
• BJS was formed in 1951 by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and trace its roots with
R.S.S (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Singh) and the Hindu Mahasabha before
independence.
• The BJS emphasised the idea of one country, one culture and one nation and
believes that the country could become modern, progressive and strong on the

56
 basis of Indian culture and traditions.
• BJS leaders were Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Deen Dayal Upadhayaya (He initiated the concept of
integral humanism), and Balraj Madhok.

Shyama Prasad Mukerjee

• BJS performed very well in almost all the Lok Sabha Election.
• In the contemporary times, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) traces its roots to B.J.S
Relation with RSS:
• It was a creation of the RSS, and had remained under the latter’s tight ideological and organizational
control since its foundation.
• Keen on persuading the government to lift the ban on the RSS. o The working cadres and the leaders
also were provided by the RSS
Ideas:
• It supported a mixed economy, regulation of large-scale industries, nationalization of key industries,
service cooperatives in the rural sector etc. but these were merely formal positions.
• In its initial years, the Jan Sangh argued for the reuniting of India and Pakistan in pursuit of its central
objective of Akhand Bharat.
• Raised the slogan of ‘one country , one culture, one nation’
• Initially in favour of Sanskritized Hindi and against the retention of English as an official link language
of India. Later accepted English along with Hindi so long as the non-Hindi states wanted this.
• It forcefully opposed the Hindu Code Bill, and after its passage pledged to repeal this legislation.
• It did not take up any religious issue other than that of a legal ban on cow slaughter
• The Jan Sangh consistently accused the secular parties of appeasement of Muslims.
Communal:
• All the party ’s popular slogans were filtered through communal ideology
• Admitting Muslims into the party was also perceived by its leaders and cadres as a mere formality and
technicality.
• The high-water mark of the Jan Sangh before it became BJP was reached in 1967 when it won 35 seats
Throughout, the party fared badly in South India and lost its political hold in West Bengal after the death
of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
The Communist Party of India-
• Taking inspiration from the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, there emerged lots of
communist group advocating socialism is the solution to the problems affecting the
notion in 1920’s.
• The communists worked mainly within the congress fold, but they had separated

57
 themselves from the congress when they supported the British in WW-II.
• It had well organized dedicated cadre and healthy machinery to run political party.
• The communist believed in violent uprising, as they thought transfer of power was not genuine. Very
few people believed in their ideology and they got crushed by the armed force. They later abandoned
violent means and participated in general elections and emerged as second largest opposition party.
• The party’s support was more concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, and Kerala.
• Their stalwart leaders included A.K. Gopalan, S.A. Dange, E.M.S. Namboodiri pad, P.C. Joshi, Ajay
Ghosh and P. Sundarrya.
• The CPI was spilt up in 1964 and the pro-china faction formed the CPI (Marxist).
• Now, the base of both has shrunk a lot and their presence concentrates in very few states of the country.
Swatantra Party
• The Swatantra party was formed in August 1959 after Nagpur resolution of
the congress which called for land ceilings, takeover of food grain trade by the
state, adoption of cooperative forming. They didn’t believe this resolution.
• The party believed lesser involvement of the government in economy. It
opposed the development strategy of state intervention in economy, central
planning, nationalization, Public sector. They opposed progressive tax regime,
demanded dismantling of license Raj.
• It was critical of non-alignment policy and friendly relations of India with the
Soviet Union and advocated closer ties with the U.S.A.
• The industrialist and big landlords had supported this party.
• This party has a very limited influence, lacked dedicated cadres, so it didn’t
perform well.
• The stalwart of party were C. Rajagopalachari, K.M. Munshi, N.G. Ranga and Minoo Masani.
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-
• The BJP's origin lies in the Bhartiya Jana Sangh, formed in 1951
by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
• In 1977, the Jana Sangh merged with several other parties to form the Janata
Party
• it defeated the incumbent Congress party in the 1977 general elections. After
three years in power, the Janata party dissolved in 1980 with the members of
the erstwhile Jana Sangh reconvening to form the BJP.
• BJP was founded in 1980 and hereafter it became dominant in the national
Politics of India.
• BJP formed its First government in 1996 in which the party secured 161
Lok Sabha seats, making it the largest party in parliament. Vajpayee was
sworn in as Prime Minister, but was unable to attain a majority in the Lok
Sabha, forcing the government to resign after 13 days.
• A coalition of regional parties formed the government in 1996, but this
grouping was short lived, and mid-term polls were held in 1998.

• The BJP contested the elections leading a coalition called the National
Democratic Alliance (NDA), which contained its existing allies like
the Samata Party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Shiv Sena in addition to
the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Biju
Janata Dal.
• Among these regional parties, the Shiv Sena was the only one which had an

58
 ideology similar to BJP.
• The NDA had a majority with outside support from the Telugu Desam
Party (TDP) and Vajpayee returned as Prime Minister. However, the
coalition ruptured in May 1999 when the leader of AIADMK, Jayalalitha,
withdrew her support, and fresh elections were held again.
• On 13 October 1999, the NDA, without the AIADMK, won 303 seats in
parliament and thus an outright majority.
• The BJP had its highest ever tally of 183. Vajpayee became Prime Minister
for the third time, Advani became Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister.
• This NDA government lasted its full term of five years. Its policy agenda included a more aggressive
stance on defence and terror as well as neo-liberal economic policies.
• However, in 2004 General Elections, BJP led NDA Government was defeated.
• In 2014, BJP emerged as victorious under the leadership of Narendra Modi with a majority seats in Lok
Sabha.
• IMP Leaders- Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan,
Narendra Modi.

COALIATION ERA/ COALITION POLITICS

Background-
• In the initial years, the congress party gained overwhelming majority.
• The congress party commanded popularity and respect of the people. The party had mass base and
grass roots in India. It remained in power both at the centre as well as in the states right from 1947 to
1967 and it had a monolithic character.
• However, emergence of strong regional parties, politicization of various social groups and their
struggle for share in power characterized the political transition and churning in contemporary India
and it have made coalition government inevitable at the Federal level.
Beginning of Coalition Politics in India
• During the fourth general elections to the Lok Sabha
and the state assemblies, after the demise of Nehru, and
Shastri, the Congress Party exhausted its mandate and
lost its character and motivation as a party of social and
institutional change.
• People were unhappy with corruption and lavish
lifestyle of party members. According to Zareer
Masani, a freelance journalist and broadcaster, due to
the continuous power struggle within and rapid
erosion of party discipline, confidence was built up in
the anti-congress wave during 1967 elections.
• An important feature of the 1967 elections was the
coming together of the opposition parties. The 1967
elections also initiated the dual era of short-lived
coalition governments and politics of defection.

59
• Coalition governments were formed in all opposition ruled states except Tamil Nadu. Congress too
formed coalition governments in some of the states.
• 1967 elections also heralded politics of coalition. In Haryana where the defection phenomenon was first
initiated, and new term was coined "Aya Ram Gaya Ram"for the leaders frequently changing their
party.
• During 1967 to 1970 nearly 800 assembly members crossed the floor, and 155 of them were rewarded
with ministerial offices.
• The 1967 elections, also dramatically changed the balance of power within the Congress Party.

1977 Elections –
• Due to Emergency (1975-77) and J P movement led to collapse of Congress Government at the Centre
in 1977 General Election.
• Majority of Opposition Parties came together and formed Janata Party and won the election in 1977.
Formation of Government-

60
 No. Constituent Group No. of MP’s No. of Ministers
1 Jana Sangh 94 11
2 Bhartiya Lok Dal 71 12
3 Congress (O) 50 10
4 Socialist Party 28 4
5 CFD Congress for Democracy 28 3
6 Ex-Congressmen [Chandra Shekhar group] 5 2
7 Others [Like Akali Dal etc.] 25 2

• Due to the aspiration of power and position the Janata Coalition collapsed like a
house of cards in July 1979. Others reasons for the collapse were flood gates of
defection were open and Akali and other regional groups withdrew their
support.
• According to L.K. Advani, Janata Party was in the pain of collapse in 1979,
partly due to their divergent concept of a party discipline. Non governance
became the bane of the administration.
• The struggle for power within the coalition led to the conflicts, confrontation
and mudslinging at each other.
• After the collapse of Janata Government, India had another coalition government
headed by Charan Singh. But this government too remained for a very short
time.
• Later for almost a decade India had a stable one-party government at the centre
under Congress's leadership. People were unhappy with earlier two coalition governments.
Era of Constant Coalition Government –
• After a decade old stable government by the congress,
there was a return of coalition politics. Elections in
1989 led to the defeat of the Congress Party but didn't
result in majority for any other party.
• This defeat of 1989 of the Congress Party marked the
end of Congress dominance over the India Party
System. Hence an era of multi-party system began.
• This new evolution in multi-party system meant that no
single party secured a clear majority of seats in any Lok
Sabha elections held since 1989 until BJP got majority
in 2014.
• The nineties also saw the emergence of powerful parties
and movements that represented the Dalit and backward
castes. With the elections of 1989, a long phase of
coalition politics began in India.
• There have been nine governments at the centre,
majority of them either been coalition governments or
minority governments. In this phase, any government could be formed only with the participation or
support of many regional parties.
• This can be seen from the National Front in 1989, the United Front in 1996 and 1997, the NDA in
1997, BJP led coalition in 1998, NDA in 1999 and UPA in 2004 and 2009.

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 CHAPTER 3 – FOREIGN POLICY OF INDIA
Sr. Topic
1 Introduction to India’s Foreign Policy
2 Foreign Policy under Nehru
3 Relations with Pakistan
4 Relations with China
5 India-Srilanka Crisis (1987)
6 Nuclear Policy of India

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 INTRODUCTION TO INDIA’S FOREIGN POLICY
• At the world level, situation around the world in general was very
grim. The world had just witnessed the devastating World War II,
attempt of creating new international body for peace, emergence
of new nations with the collapse of colonialism, twin challenges
face by new countries; welfare and democracy for all.
• In Indian context, the partition, the legacy of British India left
behind many difficult challenges. India's efforts to pursue an
independent foreign policy were highlight of post 1947 politics.
• Nehru used foreign policy as an instrument to defend and
strengthen India's independence and to safeguard her national interests, to develop the self-
reliance, self-confidence and pride of the masses while serving the cause of world peace and anti-
colonialism.
• India decided to conduct its foreign relations with an aim to respect the sovereignty of all other nations
and to achieve security through the maintenance of peace.
• This aim finds an echo in the Directive principles of state Policy, in the Article 51 of constitution:
"Promotion of international peace and security.
The state shall Endeavour to:
• Promote international peace and security
• Maintain just and honourable relations between nations.
• Foster respect for international law and treaty obligations in the dealings of organised people with one
another.
• Encourage settlement or international disputes by arbitration.

Panchsheel: Nehru outlined the five principles of peaceful coexistence or Panchsheel for conducting
relations among countries. These were mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and
sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual
benefit, and peaceful coexistence

FOREIGN POLICY OF INDIA UNDER NEHRU

Basic Parameters of Nehru’s Foreign Policy

Indepedent
Foreign Policy

Non-Alignmnet
Security of India
Movement

To protect Indian Support to

Economic Colonial & Ex-
Inteeest colonial Countries

Peaceful Co-existence
with neighbours & other
countries

63
Overview of Nehru’s Foreign Policy-
International Role-

Korean War (1950-53)-

• After the end of the Second World War, Korea was divided between a Communist North Korea
(controlled by Socialist camp led by USSR) and South Korea (dominated by Western powers led by
USA).
• When North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, India supported US in the UN Security Council and
condemned North Korea as aggressor.
• But, India’s main concern was to prevent entry of outside powers into the conflict.
• The Korean war tested India’s faith in non-alignment and commitment to peace.
• India continued to press UN to recognize and give a seat to Communist China in Security Council.
• India faced Chinese and Soviet hostility because declared North Korea as the initial aggressor.
• India also faced American hostility for refusing to go with Western intervention in the war, and for
refusing to declare China as the aggressor.
Indo-China
• India tried to prevent internationalization of Indo-Chinese conflict.
• India got guarantee from China for neutralization of Laos and Cambodia.
• India also got assurances from Great Britain and France to China that they would not allow US to
have bases in Laos and Cambodia.
• India was appointed Chairman of International Control Commission and its work included
supervision of imports of foreign armaments into Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Suez Canal-
• There was an Anglo-American withdrawal of the promised
financial aid for building the Aswan Dam on river Nile.
• Then, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal.
• The users of Suez Canal (Britain and France particularly)
demanded international control over it.
• India was a user as well and it recognized that Suez Canal
was an integral part of Egypt.
• India condemned the attack by France and Britain on Egypt.
• Finally, the withdrawal took place under UN supervision and

64
 Indian troops participated in large numbers in the peace-keeping force.
Hungary-
• The Soviet Union’s intrusion in Hungary in 1956 to crush a rebellion aimed at taking Hungary out of the
Soviet bloc. It was severely condemned by the UN and it demanded withdrawal.
• India abstained from joining in the formal condemnation and received a lot of criticism from the West.
• Nehru criticized the Soviet action and did not send an ambassador to Budapest for two years to show
unhappiness. Soviets reciprocated by abstaining when Kashmir came up in the UN Security Council.
• Later, they reverted to their usual practice of vetoing resolutions that were against Indian interests.
• India withstood considerable pressure from both sides and did not flip in either direction.
Congo-
• A major achievement of Indian foreign policy was to
maintain the integrity and independence of Congo.
• Congo had just gained independence from Belgium on
1960. Its copper-rich province of Katanga announced
its independence from Congo immediately, backed by
Belgium.
• Nehru demanded that UN play a more decisive part, get
rid of foreign troops, stop the civil war, convene the
parliament and form a new government, and that India
was ready to commit troops.
• The Security Council adopted a resolution on 1961 and
Indian armed forces successfully brought the civil war to
a close and restored the government’s authority over
Katanga.
• It was one of the finest moments for India’s policy of non-alignment. It helped strengthening the role
of multilateral bodies like the UN.
USA
• India needed technology, machines, and aid for its development effort, food for its people, and
moral support for its nation-building and democratic efforts from US.
• US stand on Kashmir disturbed the hope of friendship.
• The UN Security Council (dominated by the US and its allies) evaded decision on Indian charge of
Pakistani aggression even after UN Commission reported the presence of Pakistani troops in Kashmir.
• US did not appreciate India’s recognition of Communist China in 1950.
• Nehru expressed his unhappiness at Cold War being brought to the Indian subcontinent by the inclusion
of Pakistan in CENTO, SEATO.
• Though, economic ties grew as US was the source of technology and machines.
Soviet Union
• Communist ambivalence towards Indian freedom struggle was transferred to Nehru’s government.
• Soviet Union sent food shipments to tide over the drought in India, at a time when US was not helping
India.
• From 1955, USSR gave full support to Indian position on Kashmir, and from 1956 used its veto in
the UN Security Council to stall resolutions unfavourable to India on Kashmir.
• Both countries took a common stand against colonialism.
• In the UN, the USSR supported India on the integration of Goa in opposition to the US.

65
• The path of economic development based on planning and role of public sector in industrialization
brought India closer to USSR.
• In 1962, an agreement permitted India to manufacture MiG aircraft.
• During Chinese attack on India in the year 1962, USSR maintained complete neutrality.
• • Also, India was an important entry point to Afro-Asian world of newly independent nations who did
not want to become US allies and preferred USSR instead. This helped the USSR in the Cold War as
well.

NON-ALIGNMENT MOVEMENT (NAM)

Reasons for formation:

• After the end of WW II, the world was divided into two hostile blocs, one led by the U.S.A. and the
western powers and another was by the Soviet Union.

66
 • Nehru had thought that the poor countries of Asia and Africa would
gain nothing and lose everything if they join such military blocs which
will serve their own self interests.
• The leaders of NAM were firm in their view to expand the "area of
peace" instead of hostility. Hence India and other countries like Egypt,
Indonesia did not approve joining of Baghdad Pact, the Manila
Treaty, SEATO and CENTO, which were military blocs.
• Non-Alignment came to symbolize the struggle of India and other
newly independent nations to retain and strengthen their
independence from colonialism and imperialism.
• To pursue the dream of a peaceful world, India advocated non alignment policy by reducing the cold
war tensions and contributing human resources to the UN peace
keeping operations.
• Due to acceptance of non-alignment policy, many nations of the
world got their voice heard in the nascent organization, UN.
• The one country, one vote system enables the non-aligned bloc
to check domination by the Western bloc. Thus, Non
alignment advanced the process of democratization of
international relations.
Background-
• Indian National Movement was a part of the worldwide struggle against colonialism and imperialism.
India's struggle influenced the liberation movements of many Asian and African countries.
• There was communication between the nations who were united in their common struggle against
colonialism and imperialism.
• Due to vast size, location and power potential, Nehru envisaged a major role for India in world
affairs, particularly in Asian Affairs.
• Throughout the 1940s and 50s, Nehru had been an ardent advocate of Asian unity. Hence, under his
leadership, India convened the Asian Relations Conference in March 1947 in New Delhi.

Asian Relation Conference

• Later India supported the Indonesian struggle for freedom from the Dutch colonial regime by
convening an international conference in 1949.
• India was an ardent supporter of the decolonization process, firmly opposed racism, particularly the
apartheid in South Africa. The Afro Asian Bandung Conference 1955, marked the Zenith of India's
engagement with the newly independent Asian and African Nationals. The Bandung Conference later
led to the establishment of the NAM.
Establishment of NAM-
• Founded- 1961, Belgrade, Yugoslavia (Now Serbia)

67
• HQ- Central Jakarta, Indonesia
• The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum
of 120 developing world states that are not
formally aligned with or against any major power
bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest
grouping of states worldwide.
• It has 120 members as on April 2018 comprising
53 countries from Africa, 39 from Asia, 26 from
Latin America and the Caribbean and 2 from
Europe (Belarus, Azerbaijan). There are 17
countries and 10 international
organizations that are Observers at NAM.
• The basic concept for the group originated in 1955 during discussions that took place at the Asia-Africa
Bandung Conference held in Indonesia.

Bandung Conference
• The first NAM Summit Conference took place in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in September 1961.
• The Non-Aligned Movement was founded and held its first conference (the Belgrade Conference) in
1961 under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt,
Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and Sukarno of Indonesia.

First NAM Summit

• The purpose of the organization was enumerated in Havana Declaration of 1979 to ensure "the
national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in
their struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign
subjugation.
• During the cold war era the NAM played a vital role in stabilizing the world order and preserving
peace and security.

68
 • Non alignment of NAM doesn't mean the neutrality of state on global issues, it was always a peaceful
intervention in world politics
Principles of NAM:

Respect for the principles enshrined in the charter of the United Nations and international law.

Respect for sovereignty, sovereign equality and territorial integrity of all States.

Peaceful settlement of all international conflicts in accordance with the charter of the
United Nations.

Respect for the political, economic, social and cultural diversity of countries and peoples.

Defence and promotion of shared interests, justice and cooperation, regardless of the differences existing
in the political, economic and social systems of the States, on the basis of mutual respect and the equality
of rights.

Respect for the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence, in accordance with the charter of the
United Nations

Respect for the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence, in accordance with the charter
of the United Nations

Promotion and defence of multilateralism and multilateral organisations as the appropriate

frameworks to resolve, through dialogue and cooperation, the problems affecting humankind.

Non-interference in the internal affairs of States.

Objectives of NAM

"create an independent path in world politics that would not result in member States becoming pawns in
the struggles between the major powers

The right of independent judgment, the struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism, and the use of
moderation in relations with all big powers as the three basic elements that have influenced its approach

Facilitating a restructuring of the international economic order.

NAM in Cold war Era-

• Against Apartheid: The evil of apartheid was massively prevalent in African countries like South
Africa, its was on the agenda of NAM right from first conference. During 2nd NAM conference at
Cairo the government of South Africa was warned against the discriminatory practices of apartheid.

69
• Disarmament: The Non-aligned Movement repeatedly
comes out for maintenance of peace, ‘the cessation of
arms race and the peaceful coexistence of all States. In
the General Assembly, India submitted a draft resolution
declaring that the use of nuclear weapons would be
against the charter of the United Nations and crime
against humanity and should therefore be prohibited.
• UNSC reforms: Right from its inception NAM was in
the favour of UNSC reforms, it was against the
domination of US and USSR. It wanted the
representation of third world countries to make UNSC more democratic. Members echoed with same
demand at 17th NAM conference at Venezuela.
• Failed to resolve regional tensions: In the era of cold war the tension in South Asia escalated due to
regional conflict between India- China and India-Pakistan. NAM failed to avoid tensions in the region,
that further led to the nuclearization of the region.
Relevance of NAM-
• World peace - NAM has played an active role in preserving world peace. It still stands by its
founding principles, idea and purpose i.e. to establish the peaceful and prosperous world. It prohibited
invasion of any country, promoted disarmament and a sovereign world order.
• Territorial integrity and sovereignty - NAM stands with this principle and proved its repeated
relevance with the idea of preserving the independence of every nation.
• Third World nations - Third world countries fighting against socio-economic problems since they
have been exploited for a long time by other developed nations, NAM acted as a protector for these
small countries against the western hegemony.
• Support of UN - NAM’s total strength compromises of 118 developing countries and most of them
being a member of UN General Assembly. It represents two third members of general assembly,
hence NAM members act as important vote blocking group in UN.
• Equitable world order - NAM promotes equitable world order. It can act as a bridge between the
political and ideological differences existing in the international environment.
• Interest of developing countries - If disputes arise between developed and developing nation at any
point of a concerned topic for example WTO, then NAM act as a platform which negotiates and
conclude disputes peacefully securing the favourable decisions for each member nation.
• Cultural diversity and human rights - In the environment of gross human right violation, it can
provide a platform to raise such issues and resolve the same through its principles.
• Sustainable development - NAM supported the concept of sustainable development and can lead the
world toward sustainability. It can be used as larger platform to make consensus on global burning
issues like climate change, migration and global terrorism.
• Economic growth - The countries of NAM has inherent assets, such as a favourable demography,
demand and favourable location. The cooperation can lead them to higher and sustainable
economic growth. It Can be an alternative to regional groupings like TPP and RCEP.
RELATIONS WITH PAKISTAN

India and Pakistan

• India's relations with her neighbours were of central concern to her. India signed with Nepal, Treaty of
Peace and Friendship in 1950, which gave Nepal unhindered access for commercial transit through
India and secured its total sovereignty and making both the countries responsible for each other's
security.
• With Burma [now Myanmar] there was problem of India settlers which was solved peacefully.

70
 • Even though there was some tension with Sri Lanka regarding Tamil settlers’ issue, but it didn't
become obstacle in the relations.
• However, India had bitter relations with both China and Pakistan. (Note- India’s foreign policy with
neighbours have been discussed separately in IR notes)
Background-
• Communal riots and transfers of population during
partition led to strained relations. Pakistani invasion
of Kashmir in October 1947 further disturbed the
relationship.
• Maharaja of Kashmir had signed the Instrument of
Accession, and Kashmir became a part of India
• India had put a complaint with the UN against
Pakistani aggression.
• UN resolution of August 1948 laid down two
preconditions for holding a plebiscite.
o First, Pakistan should withdraw its forces from
Jammu and Kashmir.
o Second, that authority of Srinagar administration
should be restored over whole state.
• In 1951, the UN passed a resolution providing for a
referendum under UN supervision after Pakistan had
withdrawn its troops from the part of Kashmir under
its control.
• The resolution has remained infructuous since Pakistan
has refused to withdraw its forces from what is
known as Azad Kashmir. Since then Kashmir has
been the main obstacle in the path of friendly relations
between India and Pakistan.
• The Kashmir issue to be used to trouble India, especially as Pakistan became more and more integrated
into the US-led Western alliance via membership of CENTO, SEATO, Baghdad Pact and military
pact with the US.
• The Kashmir conflict didn't prevent cooperation between the government of India and Pakistan.
Both the government worked together to restore the abducted women to their original families, a
long-term dispute of river water sharing was resolved – with world Bank's mediation and India-
Pakistan Indus Water Treaty was signed by Nehru and General Ayyub Khan in 1960.
• However, all these early efforts were temporary and short term. After 1960, India had fought 3 full
scale war with Pakistan where India emerged victorious.
• After 1980’s Pakistan started supporting state sponsored Terrorism in India which still exist as a
main security challenge before India.
• Since, Independence though India always tried to maintain friendly and cordial relations with
Pakistan but Pakistan always made an attempt to destabilize India- economically, politically and from
Defense and security point of view.

1965 1971 1999 Kargil

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Indo-Pak Wars
Indo-Pak War (1965) -
• Pak still desired for the accession of Kashmir, even
after its debacle by Indian troops in 1947.
• Pakistan launched armed attacks in the Rann of Kutch
area of Gujarat, later it launched bigger offensive in
J&K in August and September in 1965.
• Pakistan thought that this time the local population
would support the cause of Pakistan, but this thought
again failed to convince the local people and Pak
couldn't get the local support.
• Meanwhile, in order to ease the pressure from Kashmir
front, the then PM Shastri ordered Indian troops to
launch counter offensive on the Punjab border.
• This war again won by India, and the hostilities came
to an end with UN intervention. Due to the mediation
of Soviet Union, Both the countries signed the
Tashkent Agreement [Shastri from India & General
Ayub Khan from Pak] in January 1966.
• Provisions of Tashkent Declaration – Some of the
important provisions of the declaration are as follows:
o Pakistan to give up on international arbitration of
the Kashmir dispute o India to withdraw from key
posts like Haji Pir Pass and other strategic gains in
Kashmir
o Withdrawal of forces by both the sides to the positions held before the war.
o The orderly transfer of prisoners of war
o The resumption of diplomatic relations
• Although India won the war, this war added India the economic difficulties.
• During this war, here was scarcity of food grains in the country. Hence, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur
Shahstri gave the popular slogan- Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan which means our Jawan (Soldiers) would
defend the boundaries and our Kisan (Jawans) would make India self-sufficient in Foodgrains
Production.

Indo-Pak war (1971)-

• The internal crisis of Pakistan after the verdict of their general elections turned violent.
• The ruling party of Zulfikar Bhutto emerged as winner in West Pakistan while in their Eastern Part
Sheikh Mujib-Ur Rahman's Awani League won the seats with great margins.
• However, strong and powerful western establishment ignored the democratic verdict and didn't accept
the League's demand for federation.
• Instead of responding to their demands and verdict positively, Pak army arrested Rahman and unleashed
brutal terror activities and suppressed their voices ruthlessly.
• To end this menace permanently, people of Eastern Pak started liberation struggle of Bangladesh from
Pakistan.

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 • Due to the huge influence of refugees from Eastern Pak, India deliberated much and later extended its
support to people's cause materially and
morally, which was frowned by Western Pak
as Indian conspiracy to break of Pakistan.
• The support to Western Pak came from the
USA & China to quash the people's
movement.
• To ensure its safety from the attacks of
American and Chinese backed Pak, India
signed 20-year Treaty of Peace and
Friendship with the Soviet Union.
Even after much diplomatic deliberations it
could not achieve concrete results, and full-
scale war broke out in December 1971 on both
the western and Eastern front.
• India’s external intelligence agency R&AW
played a decisive role in this war. It formed and
organised Mukti Bahini (It includes local
population of Bangladesh suffered from
Pakistan Atrocities and ex-soldiers of Pakistan
army belonged to Bangladesh).
• With the support of local population in the
form of "Mukti Bahini" Indian army made
rapid progress and compelled the Pakistani
troops to surrender in 10 days only.
• This victory is commemorated as ‘Vijay
Diwas’. Throughout the crisis Indira Gandhi
acted with immense courage and caution. It
was Indira’s and India’s finest time.
• With emergence of Bangladesh as an
independent country, India declared a
unilateral ceasefire.
• Later Shimla Agreement of 1972 (July 03)
between Indira Gandhi & Zulfikar Bhutto
brought back the peace between two nations.
• It was to establish durable peace, friendship
and co-operation between two nations.
Under this agreement both countries undertook
to solemnly resolve the conflict and confrontation which both the nations have experienced in the past.
This agreement contains a set of guiding principles which were mutually agreed by both the
nations:
Provisions-
• Respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty
• Non-interference in each other’s internal affairs’
• Political independence
• Sovereign & equality
• Peaceful resolution through bilateral approaches

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• To build the foundations of a cooperative relationship with special focus on people to people contacts.
• To uphold the inviolability of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, which is a key to durable
peace.

Kargil war (1999)-

• After the debacle of 1971 war, Pak army never tried to
fight with Indian army directly and started the proxy
war by sending the terrorists trained by their secret
agencies to create havoc and panic in J& K and India.
• In 1999, so called Mujahideens along with Pakistan
Army (non-uniform) occupied several points on the
Indian side of LOC in the Mashkoh, Dras, Kaksar,
Batalik.
• Suspecting Pak's hand behind such activities, Indian
forces immediately started reaching to such proxy war
which is known as "Kargil conflict".
• This conflict gets worldwide attention because of the nuclear capabilities attained by these countries in
1998, which could be used by either side, however this wasn't used in the war, and without it Indian
troops regained their points with the help of their courage, bravery and conventional war tactics only.
• India emerged as a victorious in this war.
• There was huge controversy surrounding this Kargil conflict, that, the then PM of Pak was kept in the
dark of such move. Later, the then Pak army Chief General Parvez Musharraf took over as its
President.

INDIA-CHINA RELATIONS

Background
• India had followed a policy of friendship towards
China from the very start.
• India was the first to recognize People’s Republic of
China on 1950.
• Nehru had great hopes that the two countries with
common experience of suffering at hands of colonial
powers and common problems of poverty and
underdevelopment would join hands. Nehru pressed
for representation of Communist China in the UN
Security Council.
• In 1954, India and China signed a treaty in which India
recognized China’s rights over Tibet and both
countries agreed to be governed in their mutual
relations by the principles of Panchsheel.
• In 1959, there was a revolt in Tibet and Dalai Lama
fled Tibet. He was given asylum in India but not
allowed to set up a government-in-exile and dissuaded
from carrying on political activities. The Chinese were
unhappy.
Panchsheel Treaty-

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 • The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, known as the Panchsheel Treaty: Non-interference in
others internal affairs and respect for each other's territorial unity integrity and
sovereignty (from Sanskrit, panch: five, sheel: virtues), are a set of principles to govern relations between
states.
• Their first formal codification in treaty form was in an agreement between China and India in 1954.
• They were enunciated in the preamble to the "Agreement (with exchange of notes) on trade and
intercourse between Tibet Region of China and India", which was signed at Peking on 28 April 1958.

Mutual non-
aggression

Mutual respect for Mutual non-

Peaceful co- each other's interference in each
existence. territorial integrity a other's internal
nd sovereignty affairs

Equality and mutual

benefit;

Five Principles of Panchsheel:

• The agreement was signed between then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and China's first
Premier (Prime Minister) Chou En-Lai.
Implications
• It has been alleged that Panchsheel treaty was a great diplomatic blunder conducted by India whose
effects are still prevalent.

75
• The renunciation of Indian rights over some
part of Tibet opened the gates for China’s
claim on the whole area of sovereign Tibet.
• The same argument was used by china to
occupy the whole of Tibet through aggressive
tactics and ultimately showing its expansionist
approach towards Sikkim and Arunachal
Pradesh.
• By giving up Tibet, India lost a significant
military advantage of having control over
passes that prevented China’s movement into the subcontinent.
• India also lost a buffer state that would have acted as a deterrent against Chinese border disputes that
we are currently facing including Docklam.

1962 Indo China war- Attack of China

• In 1962, Chinese army launched a massive attack and
overran Indian posts in the eastern sector in NEFA
(now Arunachal Pradesh).
• In western sector, Chinese captured 13 posts in the
Galwan Valley and the Chushul airstrip was
threatened
• It was thought that Chinese rush to the plains and
occupy Assam and other areas.
• Nehru asked for US and British help.
• Chinese declared a unilateral withdrawal soon.

Aftermath of war-
• India took a long time to recover from the blow to its self-respect.
• It was only after the victory over Pakistan in the Bangladesh war (in which China and US were
supporting Pakistan) that restored the sense of self-worth.
Reasons for failure in the war-
• Indian political and military leadership erred in not
anticipating the precise nature of the attack.
• The Indian army commander in NEFA fled after the
Chinese attack without any effort at resistance leaving
the door wide open for China to walk in.
• India refused to settle the borders with China on
treasonable terms offered by the Chinese and instead
followed from 1959 a ‘forward policy’ which
provoked the Chinese to attack in self-defence.
• Even after the revolt in Tibet, and Dalai Lama’s
arrival, and the border clashes, India could not
anticipate the dangers. Nehru did not expect that Communist China could threaten the Indian state.
• Nehru erred in not anticipating the precise nature of the attack, rather than in the foreign policy he
pursued.

76
 • On the military front, the military leadership thought
in terms of either border clashes or a full-scale war
in the plains of Assam, but not about the possibility of
a limited deep thrust and withdrawal. They believed
that a total war with China was unthinkable.
• The failure was also due to the lack of a proper system
of higher defence command and management, and
because there was no system of defence planning
and the structure of civil military relations was
flawed.
• It was a failure of logistics, of intelligence and
analysis of intelligence, of coordination of different wings such as the army with the Air Force.
• Another mistake was the panic in appealing to US and UK for help, as next day the Chinese withdrew.
The military leadership also thought in terms of either border clashes or a full-scale war in the plains
of Assam, but not about the possibility of a limited deep thrust and withdrawal.
• The war raised doubts on the correctness of Nehru’s foreign policy.
• By humiliating India, China wanted to show that India’s policy of peace and nonalignment.
Impact-
• The resources for the economic development and third five-year plan were diverted for defence and
India faced very difficult situation.
• In August 1963, Nehru faced His first and the last confidence motion of his life.
• It induces a sense of national humiliation and dented India's image at home and abroad.
• Nehru was severely criticised for his naive assessment of the Chinese intentions and the lack of
military preparedness.
• Relations between the nations remained cold till 1976. Normal relations resumed in 1976, and later the
then Foreign minister A.B. Vajpayee was the first top level leader who visited China in 1979.

INDIA-SRILANKA CRISIS (1987)

Background
• Since independence in 1948, Buddhist majority Srilanka
adopted the policy of gradual exclusion of Tamil minority
in the country.
• Over a period of time, the conditions of Tamil minority
aggravated further. They were deprived from almost all
forms of rights- political, economic and social.
• As a result, various groups emerged in Srilanka to fight for
the cause of Tamil minority in the region in which LTTE
played avital role.
• LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) led by
Prabhakaran was a violent armed struggle to liberate
Jaffna Province (Where Tamil was in a majority) from Srilanka.
• In 1980’s, Srilanka dragged into civil war and, Srilanka Army started killing number of innocent Tamil
Civilians in Jaffna and thus migration was occurred from Srilanka to India.
• This alarmed Indian Government and since this cause was directly related to India (Tamil nadu region),
hence, India intervened in the conflict directly during Rajiv Gandhi Government.

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• An objective of intervention was to settle disputes between Srilanka and LTTE peacefully and to
protect the human rights of Tamils in Srilanka.
Support provided by Indian Government to Tamil Groups-
• President J. R. Jayawardene did not enjoy the same warm relationship with Indian Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi that he had enjoyed with her father, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
• Thus, with the outbreak of Black July ethnic riots, the Indian government decided to support the
insurgent groups operating in Northern Sri Lanka From mid-1983, on the instructions of Indira
Gandhi, RAW began funding, arming and training several Tamil insurgent groups.

Operation Poolmalai-
• India became more actively involved in the late 1980s,
and on 5 June 1987, the IAF air dropped food
parcels to Jaffna while it was under siege by Sri
Lankan forces.
• At a time when the Sri Lankan government stated they
were close to defeating the LTTE, India dropped 25
tons of food and medicine by parachute into areas
held by the LTTE in a direct move of support toward the
rebels. Further Sri Lanka government accused, that not
only food and medicine but weapons were also
supplied to the LTTE.

India-Sri Lanka Peace Accord (29th July, 1987)-

• The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was an accord signed
in Colombo on 29 July 1987, between Indian Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J. R.
Jayewardene.
• Under this accord, the Sri Lankan Government made a
number of concessions to Tamil demands, including
a devolution of power to the provinces, a merger—subject
to later referendum—of the Northern and the Eastern
provinces into the single province, and official status for
the Tamil language (this was enacted as the 13th
Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka).
• India agreed to establish order in the North and East
through a force dubbed the Indian Peace Keeping
Force (IPKF), and to cease assisting Tamil insurgents.
Militant groups including the LTTE, although initially
reluctant, agreed to surrender their arms to the IPKF, which
initially oversaw a cease-fire and a modest disarmament of
the militant groups.
• While most Tamil militant groups laid down their weapons
and agreed to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict, the
LTTE refused to disarm its fighters. Keen to ensure the success of the accord, the IPKF then tried to
demobilize the LTTE by force and ended up in full scale war.

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 Operation Pawan
• Operation Pawan was the codename assigned to the operations by the Indian Peace Keeping Force to
take control of Jaffna from the LTTE in late 1987 to enforce the disarmament of the LTTE as a part of
the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord.
• In brutal fighting that took about three weeks, the IPKF wrested control of the Jaffna Peninsula from
LTTE rule, something that the Sri Lankan army had then tried and failed to achieve for several years.
Supported by Indian Army tanks, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery, the IPKF routed the LTTE.
Jaffna University Helidrop-
• The Jaffna University Helidrop was the first of the
operations launched by the Indian Peace Keeping
Forces (IPKF) aimed at disarming the Tamil Tigers
(LTTE) by force and securing the town of Jaffna, Sri
Lanka, in the opening stages of Operation
Pawan during the active Indian mediation in the Sri
Lankan Civil War.
• Mounted on the midnight of 12 October 1987, the
operation was planned as a fast heliborne assault
involving Mi-8s of the No.109 HU, the 10th Para
Commandos and a contingent of the 13th Sikh LI.
• The aim of the operation was to capture the LTTE leadership at Jaffna University building which
served as the Tactical Headquarters of the LTTE, which was expected to shorten Operation Pawan, the
battle for Jaffna.
• However, the operation ended disastrously, failing to capture its objectives -owing to intelligence and
planning failures.
• The helidropped force suffered significant casualties, with nearly the entire Sikh LI detachment of
twenty nine troops falling to the heavy fortifications of the university and fighting until death, along with
six Paracommandos falling in battle.
End of India’s involvement-
• Nationalist sentiment led many Sinhalese to oppose the continued
Indian presence in Sri Lanka. These led to the Sri Lankan
government's call for India to quit the island, and they allegedly
entered into a secret deal with the LTTE that culminated in a
ceasefire. But the LTTE and IPKF continued to have frequent
hostilities.
• In April 1989, the Ranasinghe Premadasa government ordered
the Sri Lanka Army to hand over arms consignments to the
LTTE to fight the IPKF and its proxy Tamil National Army
(TNA).
• Although casualties among the IPKF mounted, and calls for the
withdrawal of the IPKF from both sides of the Sri Lankan
conflict grew, Rajiv Gandhi refused to remove the IPKF from Sri
Lanka.
• However, following his defeat in Indian parliamentary elections
in December 1989, the new prime Minister V. P. Singh ordered
the withdrawal of the IPKF, and their last ship left Sri Lanka on 24 March 1990.
• The 32-month presence of the IPKF in Sri Lanka resulted in the deaths of 1200 Indian soldiers and over
5000 Sri Lankans. The cost for the Indian government was estimated at over ₹10.3 billion

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Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi (1991)
• A Support for the LTTE in India dropped
considerably in 1991, after the assassination of ex-
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a female suicide
bomber named Thenmozhi Rajaratnam.
• The Indian press has subsequently reported that
Prabhakaran decided to eliminate Gandhi as he
considered the ex-Prime Minister to be against the
Tamil liberation struggle and feared that he might
re-induct the IPKF, which Prabhakaran termed the
"satanic force", if he won the 1991 Indian general
election.
• Hereafter, India remained an outside observer of the conflict, after the assassination.

NUCLEAR POLICY OF INDIA

Background
• Nehru had always maintained his strong faith in Science and Technology for rapid
building of modern India. A significant component of his industrialisation plans
was the nuclear programme initiated in the late 1940s, under the guidance of Homi
J. Bhabha.
• India wanted to generate atomic energy for peaceful purposes. Nehru was always
against the use of nuclear weapons, so he pleaded to all the superpowers for
complete nuclear disarmament.
Nuclear Test of 1974 (Pokhran)-
• In 1974, India under the leadership of Indira Gandhi conducted its first
nuclear explosions. India termed it as peaceful explosion and argues that
it was committed to the policy of using nuclear power only for peaceful
purposes.
• The code name given to operation was Smiling Buddha.
• Earlier the five permanent members of UNSC U.S., U.S.S.R. France,
U.K. China the five nuclear weapon acquired powers and tried to impose
NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] in 1968 on the rest of the world.
• India considered such move as discriminatory and refused to adhere to it. India always maintained
that treaties like NPT was selectively applicable to the non-nuclear powers and legitimized the monopoly
of the Five Nuclear weapon holding powers.

Nuclear Test of 1998 –

• The Pokhran-II tests were a series of five nuclear bomb test
explosions conducted by India at the Indian Army's Pokhran Test
Range in May 1998 under the leadership of Prime Minister A B
Vajpayee.
• The tests were initiated on 11 May 1998, under the assigned code
name Operation Shakti, with the detonation of one fusion and two
fission bombs.

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 • Dr. Abdul Kalam and Dr. R Chidambaram had led the Operation
Shakti in Pokhran Range.
• Many names have been assigned to these tests; originally these were
collectively called Operation Shakti–98, and the five nuclear bombs
were designated Shakti-I through to Shakti-V. More recently, the
operation as a whole has come to be known as Pokhran II.
• It displayed India’s capacity to use nuclear & energy for military
purposes.
• After some time, Pak too conducted such test, and increases vulnerability of the region to nuclear
exchange.
• Unhappy with moves of both India and Pak, International community imposed harsh sanctions, which
were later waived when India assured no first use of nuclear weapon and maintained its stand of
peaceful use nuclear energy and reiterated its commitment to global verifiable and non-discriminatory
nuclear disarmament leading to a nuclear weapon free world

Previous Year Questions- 2013

1) Analyze the circumstances that led to Tashkent Agreement in 1966. Discuss the highlights of the
agreement.
2) Critically examine the compulsions which prompted India to play a decisive role in the emergence of
Bangladesh.
3) Write a critical note on the evolution and significance of the slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”.(2013)
Note- To answer this question, one need to study this chapter and last chapter – Green revolution

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 CHAPTER 4. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Sr. Topic
1 Indian Economy On The Eve Of Independence
2 Indian Economy (1947-65)
3 Indian Economy (1965-1991)
4 Economic Reforms Since 1991
5 Important Economic Developments

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 Indian Economy

Indian economy on the Indian Economy Indian Economy

Indian Economy (1947-65)
eve of independence (1965-91) (Since 1991)

INDIAN ECONOMY ON THE EVE OF INDEPEDENCE

When India got Independence, Indian economy was in backward and underdeveloped state.
Following problems were faced by Indian economy at the time of independence:
• Poverty and illiteracy- At the time of Independence, Majority of Indian Population were illiterate and
poor. Apart from extreme poverty and illiteracy, a ruined agriculture and industry led to
Unemployment problem which further aggravated the condition of poverty in India.
• Economic Growth- The Drain of Wealth Policy by Britishers left the Indian treasures with almost
nothing. Balance of Trade was also favourable to English
• Lack of Resources- India had limited financial resource during British time. The financial base of
India was more or less weak to invest in Capital industries.
• Structural Distortion in Economy- These structural distortions created by colonialism in Indian
economy and society made the future transition to self-sustained growth much more difficult.
• An ensure of well-being and economic development were the important challenges for the Indian
leadership and to pursue these goals, they had two model of economic development, the liberal –
capitalist model followed in U.S.A. and Europe, another was the socialist model followed in
U.S.S.R.
• During the debate of model of economic development, almost everyone agreed that the development of
India means economic growth and social and economic justice.
• Hence very few people supported the American style of capitalist development. There were many who
got impressed by the Soviet model of development.
• India had to abandon the colonial style of functioning for commercial gains only and strive for
poverty alleviation and social-economic redistribution was primary responsibility of the then
government.
• Therefore, India adopted the mixed model of economic development, which has features of both the
capitalist and socialist models.

Indian Parliament in December 1954 accepted 'the socialist pattern of society’ as the objective of social
and economic policy. In fact, the model projected was of a "mixed economy" where the public and the
private sectors were not only to co-exist but were to be complementary to each other and the private
sector was to be encouraged to grow with as much freedom as possible within the broad objectives of the
national planning.

INDIAN ECONOMY (1947-65)

Mixed Economy Model-

• In this model, Government and Private sector will exist together in economy.
• A mixed economic system is a system that combines aspects of both capitalism and socialism.

83
• A mixed economic system protects private property and allows a level of economic freedom in the use
of capital, but also allows for governments to interfere in economic activities in order to achieve
social aims
• Indian Parliament in December 1954 accepted 'the socialist pattern of society’ as the objective of
social and economic policy.
In fact, the model projected was of a "mixed economy" where the public and the private sectors were not
only to co-exist but where to be complementary to each other and the private sector was to be encouraged to
grow with as much freedom as possible within the broad objectives of the national plan.

Why did the Government opt for mixed economy after Independence?

• After independence, the newly formed government neither had sufficient resources nor the estimate
of potential resources. So, the efficiency i.e. property of getting more from scarce resources, had to be
improved since the beginning. Capitalism being profit centered depicts a greater efficiency.
• But on the other hand, there lied a major chunk of population that was oppressed, down trodden and
underprivileged. It was quite apparent that the equality i.e. uniform distribution of economic
prosperity was much needed for sustained growth of country as a whole. Socialist economy advocates
equality
• As we studied above, the Cold war was started between USSR and USA to establish supremacy of
their economic system, it would have been hard for India not to resort to only one of the ideologies. But
our leaders did a good thing then, they looked at the feasibility of both (communism and
capitalism) based on our country’s condition.
• Capitalism- Capitalism would mean more profit in lesser hands followed by more power. This simply
means those few would have the power to influence market as well as bystander (the common man).
Even a thin possibility of some of those few going against the interest of government or masses
would have added to the territorial tension our country was already facing. Such an economy would
also mean eventually doing away with public subsidies.
• Socialist/communist economy- A decision to opt for communist economy would have highly
discouraged the class of traders and merchants who were operating ever since the ages of monarchy.
The government gravely needed their expertise, capital and active participation to explore the means
and prospects of economic growth. Moreover, people were just out of the authoritative and rough rule
of British government. A strict practice of communism might have been perceived as same causing a
large-scale resistance.

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 • Above two insights made it very clear that mixed economy was an optimal choice aimed both at
increasing productivity as well as reducing inequality.
• Different five year plans showed government’s varied emphasis on communism and capitalism.
• In the first five-year plan, essence of communism can be seen in abolition of landlordism i.e. zamindari
system, ryotwari system, talukdar system etc. The constitution was amended to give legislature the
ultimate authority. On contrary, second and third plans were aimed at rapid industrialization,
sufficiency of food grains, and utilisation of man power augmented with increased budget plan for
private sector.

Strategy for industrialization and Nehruvian Consensus -

Industrial policy evolution -

• It defined the broad contours of the policy delineating the role of the
State in industrial development both as an entrepreneur and
authority
• It made clear that India is going to have a Mixed Economic Model.
• The Industrial Policy 1948 emphasised the role of cottage and small-
scale industries in economic development. It sought to provide
encouragement to these industries in India's industrial development
programmes because these industries make use of local resources and
provide larger employment opportunities.
• It classified industries into four broad areas:
INDUSTRIAL o Strategic Industries (Public Sector): It included three industries in
POLICY 1948 which Central Government had monopoly. These included Arms and
ammunition, Atomic energy and Rail transport.
o Basic/Key Industries (Public-cum-Private Sector): 6 industries
viz. coal, iron & steel, aircraft manufacturing, ship-building,
manufacture of telephone, telegraph & wireless apparatus, and
mineral oil were designated as “Key Industries” or “Basic
Industries”. These industries were to be set-up by the Central
Government. However, the existing private sector enterprises
were allowed to continue.
o Important Industries (Controlled Private Sector): It included 18
industries including heavy chemicals, sugar, cotton textile &
woollen industry, cement, paper, salt, machine tools, fertiliser,
rubber, air and sea transport, motor, tractor, electricity etc. These
industries continue to remain under private sector however, the
central government, in consultation with the state government, had
general control over them.
o Other Industries (Private and Cooperative Sector): All other
industries which were not included in the above mentioned three
categories were left open for the private sector.
• Government revised its first Industrial Policy (i.e. The policy of 1948)
through the Industrial Policy of 1956.
• It was regarded as the “Economic Constitution of India” or “The Bible
of State Capitalism”.
• The 1956 Policy emphasized the need to expand the public sector, to build

85
 up a large and growing cooperative sector and to encourage the separation
of ownership and management in private industries and, above all, prevent
the rise of private monopolies.
• It provided the basic framework for the government’s policy in regard to
industries till June 1991.

IPR, 1956 classified industries into three categories:

• Schedule A → consisting of 17 industries was the exclusive responsibility
INDUSTRIAL of the State. Out of these 17 industries, four industries, namely arms and
POLICY 1956 ammunition, atomic energy, railways and air transport had Central
Government monopolies; new units in the remaining industries were
developed by the State Governments.
• Schedule B → consisting of 12 industries, was open to both the private
and public sectors; however, such industries were progressively State-
owned.
• Schedule C → All the other industries not included in these two
Schedules constituted the third category which was left open to the private
sector. However, the State reserved the right to undertake any type of
industrial production.
• The IPR 1956, stressed the importance of cottage and small-scale
industries for expanding employment opportunities and for wider
decentralization of economic power and activity
• The Resolution also called for efforts to maintain industrial peace; a
fair share of the proceeds of production was to be given to the toiling mass
in keeping with the avowed objectives of democratic socialism.
• In December 1977, the Janata Government announced its New Industrial
Policy through a statement in the Parliament.
• The main thrust of this policy was the effective promotion of cottage and
small industries widely dispersed in rural areas and small towns.
INDUSTRIAL • In this policy the small sector was classified into three groups—cottage
POLICY 1977 and household sector, tiny sector and small-scale industries.
• The 1977 Industrial Policy prescribed different areas for large scale
industrial sector- Basic industries, Capital goods industries, High
technology industries and Other industries outside the list of reserved
items for the small-scale sector.
• The 1977 Industrial Policy restricted the scope of large business houses so
that no unit of the same business group acquired a dominant and
monopolistic position in the market.
• It put emphasis on reducing the occurrence of labour unrest. The
Government encouraged the worker’s participation in
management from shop floor level to board level.
• Industrial Policy of 1980 sought to promote the concept of economic
INDUSTRIAL federation, to raise the efficiency of the public sector and to reverse the
POLICY 1980 trend of industrial production of the past three years and reaffirmed its
faith in the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP)
Act and the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA).
INDUSTRIAL • LPG Policy (This topic has been discussed in the topic of 1991 reforms)
POLICY 1991

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 • While undertaking a difficult and complex task, India, unlike
many other post-colonial societies, had certain advantages.
• First, a small but independent (Indian owned and
controlled) industrial base had emerged in India between
1914 and 1947.
• By the time India gained political independence in 1947,
Indian entrepreneurs had successfully competed with
European enterprise in India.
• India was fortunate to have a broad societal consensus on
the nature and path of development to be followed after
independence.
It was based on the following agenda:
• Multi-pronged strategy of economic development based on
self-reliance
• Rapid industrialization based on import-substitution,
including of capital goods industries
• Prevention of imperialist or foreign capital domination
• Land reforms involving tenancy reforms
• Abolition of zamindari
• Introduction of cooperatives, especially service
cooperatives
• For marketing, credit, growth to be attempted along with equity, i.e., the growth model was to be
reformist with a welfare, pro-poor orientation
• Positive discrimination or reservation, for a period, in favour of the most oppressed in Indian society,
the Scheduled Castes and Tribes
• State to play a central role in promoting economic development, including through direct state
participation in the production process, i.e., through the public sector.
• There was agreement that India was to make this unique attempt at planned rapid industrialization
within a democratic and civil libertarian framework.
• There was a wide consensus emerging around the notion that the role of the state would not only involve
the proper use of fiscal, monetary and other instruments of economic policy and state control and
supervision over the growth process, but also have to include direct participation in the production
process through public sector.
• It was felt that in the development of capital goods industries and other basic and heavy industries,
which required huge finances and had a long-time lag for returns, the public sector would have to play a
critical role.
• Great emphasis on heavy and capital goods industries in the Second Plan led to a major shift towards
the public sector.
• A basic element of the strategy was the rapid development of heavy and capital goods industries in
India.
• The shift in favour of heavy industry was to be combined with promoting labour-intensive small and
cottage industries for the production of consumer goods.
• Another critical strategy was the emphasis on growth with equity. Hence, the issue of concentration and
distribution in industry and agriculture was given a lot of attention.
• State supervision of development along planned lines, dividing activity between the public and
private sectors, preventing rise of concentration and monopoly, protecting small industry,

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 ensuring regional balance, canalizing resources according to planned priorities and targets - all this
involved the setting up of an elaborate and complicated system of controls and industrial licensing,
which was done through the Industries Development and Regulation Act (IDRA) of 1951.

IRDA (INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT REGULATION ACT), 1951

• It was passed in 1951 to implement the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1948.
• This Act empowered the Government-
- To make rules for registration of existing industries
- License all new undertakings
- Rules for regulating production and development of industries in the Schedule.
- Consultation with state government on these matters.
- The act provided for constitution of a Central Advisory Council & Development Board.

• The overall economy performed impressively compared to the colonial period.

• An important achievement in this period was the rise
in the savings and investment rates.
• On the agrarian front, the comprehensive land
reform measures were initiated soon after
independence.
• The setting up of a massive network for agricultural
extension and community development work at the
village level, the large infrastructural investment
in irrigation, power and agricultural research had
created the conditions for considerable agricultural growth in this period.
• Industry, during the first three Plans, grew even more rapidly than agriculture, at a compounded
growth rate of 7.1 per cent per annum between 1951 and 1965.
• The industrial growth was based on rapid import substitution, initially, of consumer goods and
particularly, since the Second Plan, of capital goods and intermediate goods.
• The growth pattern went a long way in reducing India’s near-total dependence on the advanced
countries for basic goods and capital equipment, which was necessary for investment or creation of
new capacity.
• By mid-1970s, India could meet indigenously more than 90 per cent of her equipment requirements
for maintaining her rate of investment.
• This was a major achievement, and it considerably increased India’s autonomy from the advanced
countries in determining her own rate of capital accumulation.
• The weight of the public sector in the overall economy increased rapidly.
• Apart from industry and agriculture, the early planners gave utmost priority to the development of
infrastructure, including education and health and Science and Technology.
Heavy industry is industry in which large machines are used to produce raw materials or to make large
objects. Examples of Heavy Industries- Shipbuilding, Space, Transportation, Construction mining
Material, Chemicals, Energy, Heavy equipment’s etc.

Economic Planning –
Economic planning is the making of major economic decisions— by the conscious decision of a determinate
authority, on the basis of a comprehensive survey of a country’s existing and potential resources and a
careful study of the needs of the people.

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 Indian Economic
Planning

Planning before independence Planning after independence

Planning before independence

• The era of economic planning in India started with Visvesvaraya
ten-year Plan.
• 1934, Sir M. Visvesvaraya had published a book titled “Planned
Visvesvaraya Plan Economy in India”, in which he presented a constructive draft
of the development of India in next ten years.
• His core idea was to lay out a plan to shift labour from
agriculture to industries and double up National income in ten
years. This was the first concrete scholarly work towards planning.
Indian National • The economic perspective of India’s freedom movement was formulated
Congress (INC) during the thirties in 1931 Karachi session of Indian National Congress
(Presided by- Sardar Patel) and 1936 Faizpur session of India National
Congress (Presided by-Jawaharlal Nehru)
• Note- Faizpur Session was the first Rural Conference of INC.
• The first attempt to develop a national plan for India came up in 1938.
National Planning • In that year, Congress President Subhash Chandra Bose had set up a
Committee (NPC) National Planning Committee with Jawaharlal Nehru as its president.
• However, the reports of the committee could not be prepared and only for the
first time in 1948 -49 some papers came out.
• In 1944 Eight Industrialists of Bombay Mr. JRD Tata, GD Birla,
Purushottamdas Thakurdas, Lala Shriram, Kasturba Lalbhai, AD Shroff,
Ardeshir Dalal, & John Mathai working together prepared “A Brief
Bombay Plan Memorandum Outlining a Plan of Economic Development for India”.
• This is known as “Bombay Plan”. This plan envisaged doubling the per capita
income in 15 years and tripling the national income during this period. Nehru
did not officially accept the plan, yet many of the ideas of the plan were
inculcated in other plans which came later.
• People’s plan was drafted by M.N Roy.
• This plan was for ten years period and gave greatest priority to Agriculture.
People’s Plan • Nationalization of all agriculture and production was the main feature of
this plan.
• This plan was based on Marxist socialism and drafted by M N Roy on behalf
of the Indian federation of Lahore.
• This plan was drafted by Sriman Nayaran, principal of Wardha Commercial
Gandhian Plan College.
• It emphasized the economic decentralization with primacy to rural
development by developing the cottage industries.
• Sarvodaya Plan (1950) was drafted by Jaiprakash Narayan. This plan itself

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 Sarvodaya Plan was inspired by Gandhian Plan and Sarvodaya Idea of Vinoba Bhave.
• This plan emphasized on agriculture and small & cottage industries. It also
suggested the freedom from foreign technology and stressed upon land
reforms and decentralized participatory planning.
Planning and • In August 1944, The British India government set up “Planning and
Development Development Department” under the charge of Ardeshir Dalal. But this
Department department was abolished in 1946.
Planning Advisory • In October 1946, a planning advisory board was set up by Interim Government
Board to review the plans and future projects and make recommendations upon them.

Planning after independence

Planning Commission –
• After the Independence, the Planning Commission was set up in March 1950 Non-constitutional, non-
statutory body formed by executive resolution. by a simple resolution of the Government of India.

• It has an advisory role and its recommendation become effective only when the Union cabinet approves
these.

• The scope of the resolution by which Planning

Commission was formed:
o Every individual should have the right to an
adequate means of livelihood.
o Material resources of community their ownership
and control should serve the common good.
o Economic system should operate in such a way that
use of ‘means of production’ and ‘wealth’ should
not result in well-being of particular community and
to the detriment of the society.
• As in the then U.S.S.R [United Soviet Socialist Republic], the Planning Commission of India opted for
five-year plan.
• The government of India prepares a document that has a plan for all its income and expenditure for
the next 5 years.
• Accordingly, the budget of the central and all the state governments is divided into parts:
o Non 'Planned' Budget – This is spent on routine items on a yearly basis.
o Planned Budget – This is spent on a Five-year basis as per the priorities fixed by the plan.
• A five years plan has the advantage of permitting the government to focus on the larger picture and make
long term intervention in the economy. (5-year plan in detail was covered in Economy notes)
Objectives
• To make an assessment of the material, capital and human resources of the country, including
technical personnel and to investigate the possibilities of augmenting such of those resources as are
found to be deficient in relation to the nation’s requirements.
• To formulate a plan for the most effective and balanced utilisation of the country’s resources.
• To determine priorities as between projects and programmes accepted in the plan.
• To indicate the factors that retard economic development and to determine conditions which should
be established for the success of the plan.
• To determine the nature of the machinery to secure the successful implementation of the plan.

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 • To appraise from time to time the progress of the plan and to recommend the necessary adjustments of
policy and measures.
• To make recommendations either for facilitating the discharge of its duties or tor a consideration of
the prevailing economic conditions, current policies, measures and development programmes; or
for an examination of problems referred to it for advice by the Central or State Government.
National Development Council-
• It was founded on August, 1952.
• It was presided over by Prime Minister.
• It is the apex body for decision creating and deliberations on development matters in India.
• It gives the final approval to the 5-year plan of India.
Some of the important five-year plans:

FIRST PLAN (1951-56) • Focus: agriculture, price stability, and infrastructure.

• It was based on Harrod Domer model (growth rate of the economy depends
upon investment rate and productivity of capital in a positive manner).
SECOND PLAN (1956-61) • Focus: rapid industrialization. It was also known as Mahalanobis Plan
(advocated planning shift from agriculture to industries)..
• It laid emphasis on heavy and basic industries. · Also advocated import
substitution; export pessimism and overvalue exchanges.
THIRD PLAN (1961-1966) • Focus: heavy and basic industry which was then shifted to agriculture
(PL480)
• Due to two wars- war with China, 1962 and war with Pakistan, 1965 and
severe drought of 1965-66; it failed on many fronts.
PLAN HOLIDAY • 1966-67, 1967-68 and 1968-69 were annual plans. Discontinuation of five-
year planning for three consecutive years is regarded as plan holiday.
• Due to the prevailing food crisis, annual plans were primarily focused on
agriculture.
• During these plans, the foundation of the green revolution was laid down
which included widespread use of HYV (high yielding varieties) seeds,
chemical fertilizers and extensive exploitation of irrigation.
FOURTH PLAN (1969-74) • Focus: Self-sufficiency in food and self-reliance ·
• Objective was to improve domestic food production.
• It was aimed at saying no to foreign aid.
• First oil shock of 1973, made remittances a major source of foreign exchange
reserve.
FIFTH PLAN (1974-79) • Focus: "removal of poverty' and 'attainment of self-reliance' .
• It was drafted and launched by D. D. Dhar.
• This plan was terminated in the year 1978. · There were rolling plans for the
year 1978, 1979 and 1979-1980.
SIXTH PLAN (1980-85) • Focus: poverty eradication and productivity enhancement
• Stressed upon modernization of technology.
• For the first time, the frontal attack was made on poverty by adopting
ambitious poverty eradication programmes (trickle down strategy was
discarded).
SEVENTH PLAN (1985-90) • Focus: productivity and work i.e. employment generation. For the first
time, the private sector got priority over the public sector. ·
• Due to volatile political situations at the center, two annual plans were

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 commenced for the year 1990-1991 and 1991-1992.
EIGHTH PLAN (1992-97) • Focus: 'Plan with a human face' i.e. human resource development.
• During this plan, new economic policy was launched with LPG
(Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization).
• It gave primacy to human capital and the private sector.
NINTH PLAN (1997-2002) • Focus: 'Growth with justice and equity'
• It stressed upon four dimensions: quality of life; generation of productive
employment; regional balance and self-reliance.
TENTH PLAN (2002-07) • It was aimed to double the per capita income of India in the next 10 years.
And to reduce the poverty ratio by 15% by 2012.
ELEVENTH PLAN (2007- • Focus: Faster growth and more inclusive growth
12)
TWELTH PLAN (2012- • Focus: Faster, more inclusive growth and sustainable growth.
2017)
• NITI Aayog, the National Institution for Transforming India, is a policy
• think tank of Government of India established in 2015.
• It replaced the Planning Commission.
NITI AYOG (2017-2032) • It has a dual objective of achieving sustainable development goals and
to enhance cooperative federalism with 'bottom to top' approach.
• Its initiatives include:
(a) Action Plan- 3 Years
(b) Strategy Plan- 7 Years
(c) Vision Plan- 15 years.

Indian Economy (1965-1999)

THE MID-1960S: CRISIS AND RESPONSE

• Two successive monsoon failures of 1965 and

1966, added to the burden on the agriculture which
was beginning to show signs of stagnation, and led
to a fall in agricultural output.
• The rate of inflation rose rapidly.
• The inflation was partly due to the droughts and
partly due to the two wars of 1962 (with China)
and 1965 (with Pakistan) which had led to a
massive increase in defence expenditure.
• The balance of payments situation, fragile since
1956–57, deteriorated further.
• The dependence on foreign aid, which had been rising over the first three Plans, now increased sharply
due to food shortages as well as the weakness of balance of payments.
• The USA, the World Bank and the IMF wanted India to:
o Liberalize its trade and industrial controls
o Devalue the rupee
o Adopt a new agricultural strategy
• The method chosen for meeting the balance of payments crisis and reducing the fiscal deficit was
involving drastic cuts in government expenditure rather than increases in tax levels.
• The immediate imperative was seen to be:
o Restoring of the health of India’s balance of payments situation

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 o Creation of sufficient foreign exchange reserves
o Removal of dependence on food imports by improving agricultural production and creating food
reserves.
• The major private commercial banks in India were nationalized in 1969.
• The same year, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act, severely restricting the
activities of large business houses, was passed.
• Insurance was nationalized in 1972.

Name of Company Year of Establishment Headquarter

LIC 1956 Mumbai
National Insurance Company 1972 Calcutta
Oriental Insurance 1972 New Delhi
New India Insurance 1972 New Delhi
United India Insurance 1972 Chennai
Employee State Insurance 1948 New Delhi
Corporation
Deposit Insurance Corporation 1962 New Delhi
New Delhi Export Risk 1957 Mumbai
Insurance Corporation

• The coal industry was nationalized in 1973.

• The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) was passed in 1973, putting numerous restrictions on
foreign investment and the functioning of foreign companies in India, making India one of the most
difficult destinations for foreign capital in the world.
FERA ACT
• It came into force with an effect from January, 1974.
• It deals in foreign exchange and securities and the Transactions which had an indirect impact on the
foreign exchange and the import and export of currency.
• It was repealed in 1999 by the Government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
• It replaced by the Foreign Exchange Management Act, which liberalized foreign exchange control and
restrictions on foreign investment.

• A strategic plan was made after the mid-1960s to improve the balance of payments situation, create
food security, introduce anti-poverty measures and reduce dependence on imports for critical
inputs like oil.
• The Green Revolution strategy of introducing a package of high-yield variety (HYV) seeds,
fertilizers and other inputs in a concentrated manner to some suitable select areas paid immediate
dividends in creating food security and poverty reduction.
• The rural poverty index continued to show a decline in these crisis years as rural employment and
incomes were maintained through government programmes using the surplus food stocks.
• Apart from food self-sufficiency, certain other features emerged that pointed towards a greater
autonomy of the Indian economy and increased self-reliance.
• A new feature of the 1980s was the phenomenal increase in new stock market issues, the stock market
thus emerging as an important source of funds for industry.

LONG-TERM CONSTRAINTS: THE NEED FOR REFORM

• The first set of problems related to the emergence of structural features led to inefficiency.

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• The import-substitution industrialization (ISI) strategy based on
heavy protection to indigenous industries was effective in deepening
and widening India’s industrial base and giving the economy freedom
from foreign dependence.
• However, the excessive protection through import restrictions started
leading to inefficiency and technological backwardness in
Indian industry.
• This situation was further aggravated by the so-called
‘Licence Quota Raj’, that is, a complete set of rules,
regulations and restrictions which stifled entrepreneurship and
innovation.
• The Reservation of certain areas for small-scale industries
meant excluding some areas from the advantages of scale
and larger resources for R&D activities.
• This made the sector often internationally uncompetitive,
leading to India losing out to its competitors in many areas.
• The large public sector in India, which controlled ‘the
commanding heights’ of the economy, also began to emerge
as a major source of inefficiency. Picture of R K Lakshman depicting License raj
• Over time, political and bureaucratic pressure on the pre 1990’s
public-sector undertakings gradually led to most of them
running at a loss.
• The Licensing, MRTP Act, small-scale reservation and the like made entry or expansion of business
very difficult,

Year Agriculture & Allied Industry Services

1950-51 55.9 14.9 29.2
1970-71 45.2 21.7 33.1
1980-81 38.1 25.9 36.0
1990-91 33.2 25.2 41.6
2006-07 20.5 24.7 54.8
2007-08 19.4 24.9 55.7
2019-2020 16.5% 29.6%. 55.3%

• Since the mid-1970s virtually no exit was possible for inefficient lossmaking companies as they could
not close down or retrench without government permission.
• All this led to the investment efficiency in India being very low or the capital-output ratio being very
high.
• India failed to make a timely shift from the export pessimism inherent in the first three Plans.
• India did reasonably well till the mid-1960s, basing herself on an inward-oriented, import substitution

based strategy.
• However, India failed to respond adequately to the new opportunities thrown up by the changing world
situation despite the availability of the East Asian experience.
• The More and more sections emerged which made strong, articulate demands on state resources.
• However, Government were increasingly unable either to meet these demands and fully or diffuse the
clamour for them. This resulted in the gradual abandoning of fiscal prudence from about the mid-1970s.

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 • The gradual erosion of fiscal prudence was reflected in government expenditure rising consistently,
mainly because of the proliferation of subsidies and grants, salary increases with no relationship to
efficiency or output, over staffing and other ‘populist’ measures such as massive loan waivers.

• The growing government saving-investment gap and the fiscal deficit had a negative impact on the
balance of payments and debt situation.
• The prejudice against foreign direct investment (FDI), which still remained, led to this excessive
dependence on foreign debt rather than foreign equity capital, and inadequate returns on the borrowings
led to an unsustainable debt service burden.
• India’s foreign exchange reserves fell from $5.85 billion in 1980–81 to $4.1 billion in 1989– 90, and in
the next year (1990– 91) they fell drastically by nearly half to $2.24 billion enough only for one month’s
import cover.
• India’s international credit rating was sharply downgraded and it was becoming extremely difficult
to raise credit abroad.
• The crisis pushed India into initiating a process of economic reforms and structural adjustment.

Economic Reforms since 1991 –

Background

• The origin of the financial crisis can be traced from the inefficient management of the Indian economy
in the 1980's. In the late 1980's government expenditure began to exceed its revenue by such large
margins that it became unsustainable.

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• Inflation was rising, imports grew in excess to the export to such a level that foreign exchange
reserves declined to a level that it was not adequate to finance imports for more than two weeks.
• Even there was insufficient foreign exchange to pay the interest to international lenders.
• To overcome this aggravated situation of economy, India approached the World Bank and IMF and
received $7 billion as loan to manage the crisis. In return, these institutions wanted that the Indian should
open up the economy by removing restrictions of the several sectors and reduce the role of
government in many areas and remove trade restrictions.
• India had no choice but to accept these conditions and announced the New Economic Policy.
• The Crux of the policy was to remove the barrier to the entry of private firms and to create more
competitive environment for the economy.
• These reforms can be classified into two types:

Economic Reforms

Stabilization Measures Structural Reform Measures

• The government initiated a variety of policies which fall under three heads viz. Liberalization,
Privatization and Globalization, "LPG Policy". The first two are policy strategies & the last one is
the outcome of these strategies.

New Economic Policy,1991-

New Economic Policy

Liberalisation Privatisation Globalisation

Liberalization Globalization Privatization

➢ Industrial licensing was ➢ Government had reduced/sell ➢ Globalisation is the
abolished for almost all but off the ownership and outcome of the policies of
product categories – alcohol, management of various liberalisation and
cigarettes, hazardous chemicals government owned privatisation.
industries, expensive electronics, enterprises. .
aerospace drugs and
pharmaceuticals.
➢ The only industries now reserved
for the public sector are defence
equipments, atomic energy

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 generation and railway
transport. In many industries,
the market has been allowed to
determine the prices.
➢ Financial sector reforms- ➢ Government started ➢ Globalisation implies
o Major aim of financial sector disinvestment by selling off greater interdependence
reforms was to reduce the equity of PSU's and integration.
role of RBI from regulator ➢ The purpose behind such ➢ It involves creation of
to facilitator of financial move was to improve networks and activities
sector. financial discipline and to transcending economic
o In a way, financial sector facilitate modernization. social and geographical
may be allowed to take ➢ The government has also boundaries. The best
decision without consulting made attempts to improve example is of outsourcing.
RBI. the efficiency of PSUs by e.g. BPOs
o These reforms led to the giving them autonomy in
establishment of private taking managerial decisions.
sector banks, entry of
foreign banks with certain
conditions on FII, such as
merchant bankers, mutual
funds and pension Funds
were not allowed to invest
in Indian Financial
markets.
• Tax Reforms – • Globalization is mix bag
o Since 1991, there has been a of results. On one hand it
continuous reduction in the has provided greater
taxes on individual incomes. access to global markets,
o The rate of corporation tax imports of high
was reduced; simplification Technology etc.
of procedures to pay the • on the other hand,
income tax was also developed countries
initiated. expands their markets in
other countries.
• It has also been pointed
out that markets driven
globalization has widened
the economic disparities
among nations and people.
• Foreign Exchange Reforms-
o Initially the rupee was
devalued against foreign
currencies.
o This led to the increase in the
inflow of foreign exchange.
o Now usually, markets
determine exchange rates
based on the demand and
supply of foreign exchange.
• Trade and Investment Policy

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 Reforms:
o To promote the efficiency of
the local industries and for
the adoption of modern
technologies competitiveness
of industrial production,
foreign investment and
technology into the economy
was promoted.
o Import licensing was
abolished except in case of
hazardous and
environmentally sensitive
industries.

PROCESS OF ECONOMIC REFORM AND RESULTS-

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 The process of reforms started in 1991, as an immediate fiscal correction:
• Making exchange rate more realistically linked to the
market
• Liberalization of trade and industrial controls like free
access to imports.
• Considerable dismantling of the industrial licensing
system and the abolition of the MRTP Act.
• Reform of the public sector including gradual
privatization
• Reform of the capital markets and the financial sector.
• SEBI was established in 1992 to regulate securities
market.
• Removing a large number of the restrictions on
multinational corporations and foreign investment and
welcoming them, particularly foreign direct investment
• The growth rate of India’s GDP which had fallen to a 0.8
per cent in the crisis year of 1991–92 recovered quickly
to 5.3 per cent by 1992–93 and rose further to 6.2 per
cent in 1993– 94
• The capital goods sector, which had demonstrated
negative growth rates for a few y ears, bounced back to nearly 25 per cent growth in 1994–95.
• The central government’s fiscal deficit, which had reached 8.3 per
cent of GDP in 1990–91, was reduced and averaged roughly 6
per cent between 1992-97.
• The external sector also showed considerable improvement.
Exports, which registered a decline of 1.5 per cent in dollar terms
during 1991-92, recovered quickly and maintained an average
growth rate of nearly 20 per cent between 1993-96.
• The overall external debt - GDP ratio for India fell from a peak
of 41 per cent in 1991–92 to 28.7 per cent in 1995–96.
• The Calculations based on several different indicators of poverty show that poverty, mainly rural
poverty, marked a significant rise only in 1992–93 and its
causation was linked mainly to a drought and fall in food grain
output in 1991–92, leading to a rise in food prices, and
weakly to the stabilization programme.
• However, all the poverty indicators showed that by 1993–94
there was much improvement in the poverty situation.
• The improvement in the poverty situation was helped by the fact
that the government increased the overall Social Services and
Rural Development expenditure from 1993–94.
• The annual rate of inflation, which touched a high of 17 per cent
in August 1991, was brought down to below 5 per cent in 1996.
IMPORTANT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

PL-480 Programme-
• It refers to Public Law 480, also known as ‘Food for Peace’ was US funding program for food to
provide overseas aid. This program was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as commonly
known as PL-480.

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• This made poor nations to pay US in their own currency. This program brought humiliation for India as
very dependence on the foreign supplied food and led to the need of Food Security.
• The issue of devaluation and to accept this ‘Ship to Mouth’ aid (food came directly from the ships
into the hungry mouths due to acute shortages) was unpopular and drew a huge criticism against Mrs.
Gandhi.
• Each instance increased deficit spending, further accelerating the already severe inflation. Besides, the
World Bank fell short of its promised aid inflows to India.
• The Indian government took steps to counter soaring inflation, but it turned out to be very unpopular
and laid the foundation for distrust between the people and the government.
• India was quick to learn from its PL- 480 mistake.
• As a result, it imported 18,000 HYV seeds from Mexico and ushered a new stepping stone in the name
of Green Revolution.
• Today India is not only self-sufficient in agriculture rather a net exporter of agriculture produces.
Public Distribution System-
• PDS is food security system which was launched in India in June 1947. It was established under
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and it is managed jointly by the state
government. Under this scheme, the subsidized food and non-food items are distributed.
• Subsidized food items are distributed through Fair Price Shops/ Ration Shops.
• The food items include wheat, rice, sugar whereas non-food items include kerosene.
• PDS is maintained by Food Corporation of India (FCI).
• In June 1992, it was converted to Revamped PDS (RPDS) and launched in 1775 blocks of the country.

• After 5 years, Targeted PDS (TPDS) was introduced. PDS helped in stabilizing the food prices and
ready availability of food grains.
• On the other hand, due to inefficiency in the system, food grains get spoiled because of bad weather
conditions and improper monitoring.
• In the present scenario, PDS has been put under Right to Food Act, 2013, which has now become a
legal right.
Abolition of Privy Purse –
• At the time of integration of the states, this move drew a little criticism as the main motive was the
consolidation and the integration process.

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 • The Privileges given to the rulers were actually against the
principles of equality and social and economic justice
which was laid down in the Constitution of India.
• Later in the year 1971, Indira Gandhi proposed the nation
to abolish Privy Purse.
• The Constitutional (Twenty Sixth Amendment) Act,
1971 was then successfully passed and led to the abolition
of Privy Purse.
• The rationale behind the abolition was based on the
requirement of the government to decrease the revenue
deficit.
Garibi Hatao-
• “Garibi Hatao Desh Bachao” was the theme and slogan of Indira Gandhi during 1971 election.
• The slogan was well crafted to reach out directly to the poor and marginalized section of society,
especially the unprivileged groups.
• It was part of the five-year plan.
• Indira’s political opponents campaigned on the slogan ‘Indira Hatao’ (Remove Indira), Indira retooled
it to “Garibi Hatao” (Remove Poverty).
• This slogan had a considerable impact and Indira was now looked upon by many as India’s saviour.

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 CHAPTER 5 - IMPORTANT ISSUES IN POST INDEPDENCE HISTORY

Sr. Topic
1 Shastri Era
2 Indira Gandhi Era
3 Emergency in India (1975-77)
4 Naxalite Movement
5 Communalism Events in India
6 Bhopal Gas Tragedy
7 Shah Bano Case
8 Bofors Scam
9 National Policy On Education, 1986

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 SHASTRI ERA:

Introduction:
• Nehru’s death provided a challenge to the Indian political system. Contradicting the predictions that
Indian political system and congress will fall into turmoil in the issue of succession, it happened in a
mature manner showing the strength of Indian democracy.
• The succession occurred under the direction of a group of Congress leaders who came to be collectively
known as the Syndicate.
• The group, formed in 1963, consisted of K. Kamaraj, the Congress president, and regional party bosses,
Atulya Ghosh of Bengal, S.K. Patil of Bombay, N. Sanjeeva Reddy of Andhra Pradesh, and S.
Nijalingappa of Mysore (Karnataka).
• When they had to decide between Shastri and Morarji Desai they favoured Shastri because, in addition
to his other qualities, he had wider acceptability in the party which would keep the party united.
• Shastri, elected unopposed as the parliamentary leader by the party MPs, was sworn in as prime minister
on 2 June 1964.
SHASTRI AS PM:
• Shastri did not make any major changes in Nehru’s cabinet, except for persuading Indira Gandhi to join
it as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
• Under him the cabinet ministers functioned more autonomously. He also did not interfere in party affairs
or with the working of the state governments.
PROBLEMS FACED BY INDIA DURING SHASTRI’S PRIME MINISTERSHIP ARE:
• The problem of the official language of Hindi versus English, flared up in 1965.
• The demands for a Punjabi Suba (state) and Goa’s merger with Maharashtra were also allowed to
simmer.
• Economic problems:
o The Indian economy had been stagnating in the previous few years.
o There had been a slowdown in the rate of industrial growth and the balance of payments problem had
worsened.
o The most serious problem was the severe shortage of food. Agricultural production had slowed
down, there was severe drought in several states in 1965 and buffer food stocks were depleted to a
dangerous extent.
• Critics said that the government did not deal with them in a decisive manner as it followed a policy of
drift instead.
• Clearly, long-term measures were needed to deal with the situation. But those were not taken,
particularly as the chief ministers of food grain-surplus states refused to cooperate.
• After the US suspended all food aid because of the Indo-Pak war, the government was compelled to
introduce statutory rationing but it covered only seven major cities.
• The government also created the State Food Trading Corporation in January 1965, but it did not succeed
in procuring a significant amount of food grains.
• However, one positive development was the initiation of the Green Revolution strategy with the purpose
of increasing agricultural output and achieving self-sufficiency in food in the long run.
CHANGE IN SHASTRI’S ATTITUDE AND THE GOVERNMENT:
• In general, initially Shastri was accused by critics of being ‘a prisoner of indecision’ and of failing to
give a direction to government policies or even to lead and control his cabinet colleagues
• With the passage of time, however, Shastri began to show greater independence and to assert himself.

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• The Indian government was among the first to criticize the US bombing of North Vietnam.
• Shastri also set up his own Prime Minister’s Secretariat, headed by L.K. Jha as a source of information
and advice to the prime minister on policy matters, independent of the ministries.
• The Secretariat, which came to be known as the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) started acquiring a great
deal of influence and power in the making and execution of government policy
ROLE OF SHASTRI IN POST CONSOLIDATION OF INDIA:
• His display of military prowess, was evident in his dealing of the surprise attack of
Pakistan on Kashmir.
• Shastri had responded to Pakistani provocations on the border through speeches in
Parliament from the very beginning, making India’s red lines clear.
Security • He was determined to convince President Khan that “India had no desire whatsoever
to acquire even one square inch of Pakistani territory but would never allow any
interference by Pakistan in Kashmir which was an integral part of India.”
• His successful handling of the 1965 war(covered earlier), gave India a proper military
framework and established India's military intelligence to be much more competent,
compared to 1962.
• By not approaching the UNSC for intervention, he helped reiterate to the world, that
International Kashmir was a bilateral issue, and did not need involvement of world powers. This set
the stage for India's diplomatic stance in world politics, as firm and uncompromising.
• His unifying call of "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan" was greatly helpful in unifying the nation
behind the true saviours of the nation, the farmers and the soldiers and rallied all the
Agriculture citizens of India to support them.
• Prime minister realized that India’s food security needs were to be given primary
interest after the continuous droughts. Hence, he promoted the green revolution with
great fervor and put the nation on the track of self-sustenance in food.
• Despite initial hiccups, he helped solve the language crisis in southern states by
making sure the government continues to use English as a language and not imposing
Political Hindi on them.
• During his tenure as Home Minister, he created the famous “Shastri Formula” to
contain agitation in the state of Assam and Punjab acceptable to all section of the
people.
• Lal Bahadur Shastri In his tenure as rail minister he initiated the projects of railway
Economic up gradation and electrification. This was one the first steps taken toward
modernization of railways in India.

CRITICISMS:
• Inability to come out with a firmer agreement from Tashkent in dealing with Pakistan.
• In general, initially Shastri was accused by critics of being ‘a prisoner of indecision’ and of failing to
give a direction to government policies or even to lead and control his cabinet colleagues.
• With the passage of time, however, Shastri began to show greater independence and to assert himself.
JAI JAWAN JAI KISAN SLOGAN BY SHASTRI:
• The Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri coined it during a public rally in 1965, the slogan struck a chord
with an India that was fighting Pakistan at the border (Jai Jawan) and battling a severe food scarcity at
home (Jai Kisan).
Significance of the slogan:

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 • The government recognized the significance of farmers and soldiers and encouraged them by playing a
decisive role itself.
• The aim was to boost the morale of soldiers fighting on the frontiers and to acknowledge the labour of
farmers.
• The slogan gave a huge psychological boost to the farmers and soldiers.
• The government’s focus on white revolution led to formation of AMUL. The autonomy of National
Dairy Development Board (NDDB) also became an institutional point of reference for several other
organisations including National Innovation Foundation. In that sense, Shastri was a great institution
builder.
• it is Shastri’s decisive leadership that helped India gain the upper hand. He ordered the bold move to
invade West Pakistan.
• When food grain production was reduced by 1/5th, food aid saved India from mass starvation. To
overcome this shortage, Shastri asked experts to devise long-term strategies. He was instrumental in
guiding both the Green Revolution and the White Revolution.
• He helped establish the Indian Council of Agriculture Research and experimented with hybrid seeds to
increase crop productivity.
• The slogan was later changed as “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Jai Vigyan” by PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to
underscore the importance of Science and technology.
INDIRA GANDHI ERA:

Introduction:
Void was created after Shastri’s death regarding succession but again was smoothly accomplished with
Syndicate’s choice of Indira Gandhi.
PROBLEMS EXISTING IN INDIA AT THAT TIME WERE:
• Punjab was on the boil and the Naga and Mizo areas were in rebellion.
• There was growing loss of public confidence in the administration
Political: • Communal forces were on peak with demands like total ban on cow-slaughter.
• Constant disturbances and indiscipline in parliament with some opposition members
showing complete disregard for parliamentary decorum.
• The economy was in recession, fall in exports and industrial production.
• Severe drought led to galloping inflation and grave food shortages.
Economic: • Budget deficits were growing, endangering the Fourth Five Year Plan
• The wars of 1962 and 1965 and the Pakistan–China axis had led to a sharp rise in
military expenditure and diversion of resources
• The capitalist pattern of development was increasing economic disparity.
• India was heavily dependent for its food security on imports of wheat from the US
Foreign under the PL-480 aid programme.
affairs: • Urgent need for economic aid by the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund.

INDIRA GANDHI GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE:

1. Political:
• She dealt effectively the demand for Punjabi Suba and being firm with the Naga and Mizo rebels,
showing willingness to negotiate with them and accepting the Naga rebels’ demand for autonomy.
• Stood firm against the demand of ban on cow slaughter
2. Economic:

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 • Initially it could not reduce its administrative expenditure which the financial situation required but
succeeded in dealing with the drought and famine situation.
• Devaluation of rupee: Under international pressure, consequently, the Government of India
devalued the rupee. The devaluation failed in its stated objectives of increasing exports and attracting
foreign capital.
3. Foreign affairs:
• Urgently needing American wheat, financial aid and capital investment, she initially tried to build
bridges with the United States.US promised India with PL-480 and give $900 million in aid. But
actual dispatches to India were irregular
• With conditions by US like ‘India change its farm policy’s and also its position on Vietnam India
decided to get out of this vulnerable position
• She signed a joint statement with the Soviet Union regarding US action in Vietnam
• India had agreed to the US proposal for an Indo-American Educational Foundation to be funded by
PL-480 rupee funds to but abandoned the proposal after criticism from various fronts.
4. Relations with other countries: a. Supported non-alignment to counter the danger of neo-colonialism
emanating from the US and West European countries. b. She also expressed a desire to open a dialogue
with China.

THE FOURTH GENERAL ELECTIONS TO THE LOK SABHA AND THE STATE ASSEMBLIES:

• Great political awakening among the people with 61% voting

• Factionalism started engulfing the Centre and the states.
• Now the central leadership supported the dominant groups in the states in order to secure its own
position at the Centre
• Opposition parties came together as some of them formed anti-Congress fronts in some states

Election results:
• Even though Congress won its majority drastically reduced in the Parliament and it lost its majority in
the assemblies of eight states
• The beneficiaries of the Congress decline were the communal, feudal, right wing and regional parties.
Long-term consequences:
• The 1967 elections heralded the era of the greater importance of rich and middle peasants in Indian
politics.
• The other important feature of the coalition governments of the period was the beginning of the politics
of defection.
Coalition governments:
• In states Congress was replaced by multiplicity of parties, groups and independents with Congress itself
forming coalition governments in some states
• Failure:
o Except the DMK government in Tamil Nadu and the Swatantra led government in Orissa, the
coalition governments in all the other states proved to be highly unstable and could not stay in power
for long due to the conflicts between the parties themselves, changing loyalties of MLA’s.
o Small parties and independents came to play an important role.

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 o It was clear for congress that it should have to renew itself and it could no longer get support on the
basis of its role in the freedom struggle or its achievements during the Nehru era.
o These elections changed the balance of power inside Congress.
o Syndicate dominance was hit as many of its leaders lost the elections.
o Role of Indira Gandhi strengthened
TOWARDS THE 1971 GENERAL ELECTIONS
• When the Supreme Court refused the government to abolish the privy purses of the princes Lok Sabha
was dissolved and elections were held in 1971 one year ahead of time.
• The non-Communist Opposition parties {Congress (O), the Jan Sangh, Swatantra and the Samyukta
Socialist Party (SSP)} formed the Grand Alliance.
• Effective slogan ‘Garibi Hatao’ (Remove Poverty) was also quoted during this period.
• The results of the 1971 elections turned out to be an overwhelming personal triumph
• Nature of voting:
o The elections also represented further politicization of the masses. People’s votes had cut across
religious, caste and regional barriers.
o Elections had also shown that once national issues were raised, vote banks and politics of patronage
became relatively irrelevant.
• However, the fulfilment of the mandate of 1971 was again postponed as the Bangladesh crisis occurred.
(Bangladesh war covered in Foreign policy section)
EMERGENCY IN INDIA (1975-77)
Introduction:
• on June 26, 1975, President Fakkrauddin Ali Ahmed
drew on Article 352 of the Constitution to declare a
state of internal emergency.
• The presidential proclamation said, “the security of
India is threatened by internal disturbance”.
• The Emergency was in force from June 26, 1975 and
March 21, 1977
Events Responsible for imposition of emergency –
Indira Gandhi emerged as an unparalleled leader after 1967. But this
period also witnessed many tensions internally in the form of tussle
between the party members as well as external in the form of rising
corruption, economic and food crisis.
Economic Issues-
• A combination of recession, growing unemployment rampant
inflation and scarcity of food grains created a serious economic
crisis.
• India support to Bangladesh's liberation, materially, caused serious repercussion on India's foreign
exchange reserves it got drained and more resources were diverted to defence.
• Consecutive monsoon failure in 1972 & 73 affected India food grains availability and fuelled prices.
• Large scale unemployment and economic recession led to industrial unrest and wave of strikes in
different parts of country culminated in All India railway strike in May 1974.

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Political Issues-
• Congress started declining as a political organization.
• The government’s capacity to redress the political crisis was impaired by corruption.
• Another development was the growing detachment of 3 major social group from Congress:
• The middle class turned against Congress because of price rise and corruption
• The rich peasantry started opposing Congress because of the threat of land reforms.
• The capitalists turned against Congress because of the talk of socialism, nationalization of banks and
coal mining and anti-monopoly measures.
• This phase also witnessed the rise of Marxist activities as they didn’t believe in Parliamentary politics.
They used violent measures to overthrow the government.

Tussle with Judiciary –

• The union government under the leadership of Indira Gandhi,
amended the constitution in the Parliament that it can abridge
Fundamental rights while giving effect to DPSPs.
• Later, In Kesavananda Bharti Case, the Apex Court ruled that
there are some basic features of the constitution, which can't be
amended.
• As a response, the Union Government changed the long-term
precedence of appointing senior most judge in S.C. as Chief
Justice. In 1973, the government set aside seniority of three judges
and appointed Justice A.N. Ray as Chief Justice of India.

Raj Narain Case –

• Raj Narain was a socialist who was defeated by Mrs.
Gandhi in Rae Bareilly parliamentary constituency of
UP.
• Under ‘State of Uttar Pradesh Vs Raj Narain’ case,
he filed a petition challenging the election of Indira
Gandhi on the ground that she misused the government
machinery and resources to gain unfair advantage in her
election campaign.
• On June 12th 1975, Justice Jagmohan Lai Sinha
found her guilty of misuse of government machinery for election campaign. The court declared her
election ‘null and void’ and barred her from contesting any election for 6 years.
• Since, she was no more an MP, so she cannot retain the post of Prime Minister as well. The court
granted her the stay to take some more time to find the successor for Prime Minister’s post.
• But the Supreme Court ordering a partial stay on the order, the opposition pressed for her resignation.

Gujarat and Bihar Unrest –

• In January 1974, students in Gujarat protested against rising prices, unemployment and corruption.
• An Assembly election were held in Gujarat in June 1975 and the Congress was defeated.

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 • A similar agitation was started by the students in Bihar in March 1974.
• After a point Jayprakash Narayan (JP) took the leadership of the movement and gave a call for ‘Total
Revolution’
• Thus, the student’s movement assumed a political character.

Jai Prakash (JP) movement/total revolution-

• The JP movement was one of the
significant movements in India’s
political life after independence.
• Jayprakash Narayan drew on the
enormous discontent prevalent in the
country to force a movement.
• Jay Prakash Narayan, popularly known as
JP or ‘Loknayak’ was an eminent
personality in India’s Freedom
Movement.
• JP launched the ‘Bihar Movement’,
started by the students in Bihar in 1974
where he provided perfect leadership to
these students.
• This agitation was inspired by the student
protest in Gujarat. (We have discussed
Gujarat and Bihar Movement in above
points)
• On 5th June, 1974 addressing a mammoth
gathering of 5 lakh people in Gandhi
Maidan at Patna, he launched the
revolutionary programme called Total
Revolution (Sampoorna Kranti) against
immense corruption, economic crisis and
inflation.
• During the JP Movement, people set up
parallel governments all over the state,
didn't pay the taxes etc. The J.P.
Movement attracted wide support from
students, middle classes, traders, and a
section of the intelligentsia. The J.P.
Movement also got the backing of nearly
all the non-left political parties.
• The JP movement quickly spread to other
part of the country – this was mainly because it drew upon the widely held feeling that only a shift in
power and a new beginning to India’s political life could save India’s democracy.

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Total Revolution-

•Establishing equality and brotherhood in the society.

Social Revolution -

•Decentralization of economy and making efforts to bring about

Economic Revolution- economic equality by taking village as the unit of development.

•Ending political corruption, decentralization of politics and

Political Revolution- making public partner by giving them more rights.

•Defending Indian culture and regeneration of cultural values in

Cultural Revolution- common man.

•Revolution in the way of thinking.

Thought Revolution-

•Developing moral and spiritual values, and turning materialism

Spiritual Revolution- towards spirituality.

•Making education occupation based and changing of education

Educational Revolution- system.

Major Flaws of Movement-

• The aims of the movement were vague, impractical.
• Socio-economic, political contents and the programme and policies of the movement were not properly
defined.
• The agitation methods adopted by the JP movement were extra-constitutional and undemocratic.
• The movement was itself a coalition of too many disparate groups – the RSS, the Jan Sangh, the
Anand Marg, Naxal groups etc.
• The JP movement did not try to conceptualize radical changes like equalization of resources; as a
result, its social base remained limited, not touching the peasantry and working class.
• However, by the end of 1974, the JP Movements got down because of absence of organizational
structures of the movement.
Imposition of Emergency –
• All these factors especially Raj Narain Case and J P Movement played a decisive role in imposing a
state of emergency on June 26, 1975 on the grounds of threat of internal disturbances, invoked article
352 of constitution.
• Once an emergency is proclaimed, the federal distribution of powers remains suspended and all the
powers gets concentrated in Union government. Even the Fundamental rights get curtailed during
such period.

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 • The Union Government misused it’s all powers, electricity of the newspaper houses got disconnected,
leaders of opposition parties were arrested.
Impact of Emergency-
• Government curtailed the freedom of press via "Press censorship"
and made it mandatory to get its approval before publishing it.
• Protests, strikes and public agitations were not allowed.
• Fundamental right of constitutional remedies to move the court
for restoring their fundamental rights to get suspended.
• Religious and cultural organisation like R.S.S., Jamait-E-Islami
were banned on the apprehension of disturbance to social and
communal harmony.
• Government misused the provision of preventive detention,
arrested the political workers of opposition parties.
• Under preventive detention arrested persons can't challenge such
move as right to constitutional remedies gets suspended.
• Due to such harsh conditions during emergency regime, people
who were awarded with honours like Padma shri and other awards
returned these honours in the protest against suspension of
democracy.
• Torture and custodial deaths, arbitrary relocation of poor
people, imposition of compulsory sterilisation to control population occurred during emergency.
• People without official position, misused the powers of administration and interfered in the functioning
of the government.
Forced Sterilisation
• During Emergency, Civil liberties were suspended. Sanjay
Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi had formulated a five-point
program which included Family Planning, afforestation,
abolition of dowry, slum clearance and removal of illiteracy.
• The sterilizations that followed were carried out under so-called
“compulsuasion,” (a combination of compulsion and
persuasion).
• The sterilizations were performed in assembly-line fashion, in
hurry, and in unhygienic conditions. Many men and women died from subsequent infections.
• Thus, innocent Indian masses were subjected to this outrageous exercise marked by vulgarity, cruelty
and brutality.
• Soon public anger over the forced sterilization technique resulted in riots all over the country. Indira
Gandhi soon asked to halt the campaign thereafter in 1977.
• This can also be considered as one of the major reasons of her loss from the office of Prime Minister in
1977 general elections.
20-point Programme during Emergency-
In July 1975, Indira Gandhi announced the 20-Point Programme. The 20-Point Programme promised to-
• Liquidate the existing debts of landless laborers, small farmers and rural artisans.

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• Extend alternate credit to landless laborers, small
farmers and rural artisans.
• Abolish bonded labour
• Implement the existing agricultural land ceiling laws.
• Provide house sites to landless laborers and weaker
sections
• Revise upwards minimum wages of agricultural
labour.
• Provide special help to the handloom industry by
bringing down the prices,
• Prevent tax evasion and smuggling
• Increase production and Streamline distribution of
essential commodities.
• Increase the limit of income tax exemption up to Rs 8000
• Liberalize investment procedures.
Constitutional amendments during emergency:
The 38th to 42nd amendments were passed during the Emergency.
38th Amendment • The 38th Amendment barred the review of proclamations of the Emergency,
judicial review of overlapping proclamations, of ordinances promulgated by the
President or by Governors, and of laws that contravened the Fundamental Rights.
39th Amendment • The 39th Amendment: In the background of the ruling of the Allahabad High
Court in the Indira Gandhi case, the amendment declared that elections of Prime
Minister, President and Vice President could not be challenged in the Court. The
Amendment was placed in the Ninth Schedule, beyond judicial review.
41st Amendment • The 41st Amendment said no criminal proceedings “whatsoever” could lie against
a President, Prime Minister, or Governor for acts before or during their terms of
office.
42nd Amendment • The 42nd Amendment:
o Gave unrestrained powers to Parliament to change the Constitution,
o Invalidated the Supreme Court ruling in the Keshavananda Bharti case that
the government couldn’t change the basic structure of the Constitution
o Made India a socialist, secular, republic and laying down the fundamental
duties of the citizens.
o The duration of legislature in the country was extended from 5 to 6 years,
besides this, during an emergency; elections can be postponed by one year.

• Initially, a large majority of the people accepted the Emergency. A major factor in the people’s
acceptance was its constitutional, legal and temporal character.
• From early 1976, the Emergency started becoming unpopular.
• The intelligentsia opined that the 42nd Amendment was an effort to undermine democracy- the
Emergency started losing its legitimacy.
• A major reason for growing unpopularity of the emergency was development of an extra
constitutional center of power- the rise in political power of Sanjay Gandhi.

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 End of Emergency –
• On January 1977, Indira Gandhi announced that
elections to the Lok Sabha would be held in March.
• A decision was also taken to release the political
prisoners
• The Elections were held on 16th March 1977- Congress
was defeated
• The Emergency came to an end on 21st March 1977

Government Justification for imposing Emergency-

• India’s stability, security, integrity and democracy where in danger from the disruptive character of
the JP movement.
• There was the need to implement a programme of rapid economic development in the interests of the
poor and underprivileged.
• There was intervention and subversion from abroad with the aim of weakening and destabilizing
India.
Criticisms of Emergency-
• Detention of people by police without charge or notification of families
• Abuse and torture of detainees and political prisoners
• Use of public and private media institutions for government propaganda
• Forced sterilization
• Destruction of the slum and low-income housing in the Turkmen Gate and Jama Masjid area of old
Delhi
• Large-scale enactment of law
Analysis of Emergency
• Indira Gandhi stunned the whole nation and the world by the
proclamation of Emergency. It affected millions of lives and the entire
country had become the storm centre which grabbed the attention of
whole world. With a single stroke, the largest democracy on the Earth
came down to the level of dictatorship.
• Emergency lasted for 21 months (1975- 1977) and was the darkest phase
of Indian democracy.
• Also, right to life under Article 21 was suspended.
• It was also the darkest period of judiciary which gave rise to distrust in
Indian Judiciary.
• One of the major rights to be violated during Emergency was Habeas Corpus
• In May 1977, a commission of inquiry headed by justice J P Shah (retired judge of Supreme Court)
was appointed by Janata Government to inquire several aspects of allegation of abuse of authority,
malpractices and actions taken in the wake of emergency.
• The Shah Commission gave three reports on the basis of the testimonies of the witnesses.
• The report was accepted by the government.

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• It was followed by the Constitutional (44th Amendment) Act, 1978 which reversed most of the
exceeds done during the National Emergency.
• But due to this darkest phase of unfortunate incident of emergency Indians became aware about their
rights and use their Right to vote efficiently.
• Also, the era of coalition government started after a few years. Few advantages are also attached with
the coalition governments that it suppresses the autocratic rule and monopoly of a single largest party.
NAXALITE MOVEMENT

Background-

• The CPM had originally split from the united

CPI in 1964 on grounds of differences over
revolutionary politics and reformist
parliamentary politics.
• In practice, the CPM participated actively in
parliamentary politics, postponing armed
struggle and formed a coalition government in
West Bengal after 1967 elections.
• However younger cadres of the party wanted a
revolutionary armed struggle to the entire
country. So, these rebel CPM leaders launched
a peasant uprising in the small Naxalbari
area of northern West Bengal.
• The CPM leadership immediately expelled the
rebel leaders, and suppressed the Naxalbari
insurrection.
• The breakaway CPM leaders came to be known
as Naxalites.
Formation of CPI-ML and Naxalite Movement-
• In 1969, the Communist Party Marxist-Leninist (ML) was formed under the leadership of Charu
Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal.
• It succeeded in organizing armed peasant bands in some rural areas and in attacking policemen and
rival communists as agents of the ruling classes.
• An objective of Naxalite movement was to overthrow democractic elected government through use of
violence and establish Communist government in India.
• Even though the then government and the subsequent governments strived to control the Naxalite
menace, it didn't succeed rather it spread to many other parts of the country.
• Still more than 75 districts in around nine states are affected by Naxal Movements.

COMMUNALISM EVENTS IN INDIA

Background-
• The problem of communalism begins when a religion is seen as the basis of the national unity and
identity.

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 • Communal politics is based on the idea that religion is the principal basis of social community.
• Communalism was and continues to be one of the major challenges to democracy in our country. The
founding fathers of the nations wanted secular India, hence they strictly refrained themselves from
declaring India's official religion, and provided equal freedom to all the followers of different
religions.
• Here we will discuss some major incident of communal politics.

Commalism Events in India

Ayodhya Anti-Sikh Gujarat Muzaffarnagar Delhi Riots

Dispute Riots Riots, 2002 Riots 2013 2019

Ayodhya Dispute 1990s

• A dispute had been going on for many decades over the mosque known as Babri Masjid at Ayodhya,
built by Mir Baqi Tashqandi, Mughal Emperor Babur's General.
• Some Hindus believe that it was built after demolishing a temple of Lord Rama which is believed to be
his birthplace.
• The dispute reached to the court and in late 1940's the mosque was locked up as the matter was with
court. In February 1986, the Faizabad district court ordered that Babri Masjid premises to be unlocked
so that Hindus could offer prayers at the statue which they considered as a temple.
• Soon with the unlocking of doors, mobilisation on communal lines began on both the sides. Gradually
the local issue became national issue and increased the communal tensions.
• In December, 1992 many Karsevaks of Hindu Right-Wing faction like VHP, Bajrang Dal etc. arrived at
Ayodhya in the name Karsevaks, voluntary service by devotees to build Ram temple.
• Meanwhile the Apex Court ordered that State government must ensure that disputed site won't be
endangered. However, thousands of peoples arrived there and demolished the Babri Masjid on Dec. 06,
1992 and it was followed by communal riots in the country at large scale, in which lots of people died.
• Then Union government dismissed state government and appointed Librehan Commission to
investigate circumstance leading to demolition of mosque.
• Since then, this issue was pending in apex court and finally Supreme Court came out with its judgement
on 9th November, 2019.
• The five-judge Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi read out a unanimous
judgment and ruled in favour of the Ram Janmabhoomi and said there will be Ram Mandir at the
disputed site and Muslims will be given an alternate 5-acre land for their mosque.
Gujarat Riots, 2002
• In months of February and March 2002, Gujarat witnessed it's one of the ugliest communal riots in its
history. The spark of the riots happens at Godhra Station, where a bogey of train that was returning
from Ayodhya with Karsevaks set on fire.

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• Suspecting it to be Muslims conspiracy, large scale violence was spread in many parts of Gujarat
between Hindu and Muslim community.
Note: Anti-Sikh Riots, 1984 – (we will cover this issue in upcoming chapter of Punjab issue)

Assam violence (2012):

• There were frequent clashes between the Bodos and Bengali speaking
Muslims due to increased competition for livelihood, land, and political
power.
• In 2012, one such outbreak escalated into a riot in Kokrajhar, when
unidentified miscreants killed four Bodo youths at Joypur.
• This was followed by retaliatory attacks on local Muslims killing two and
injuring several of them. Almost 80 people were killed, most of whom
were Bengali Muslims and some Bodos. Approximately, 400,000 people
were displaced to makeshift camps.

Muzzafarnagar Riots (2013):

• The clashes between the Hindu Jats and Muslim communities in
Muzaffarnagar, UP resulted in at least 62 deaths, injured 93 people, and
left more than 50,000 displaced.
The riot has been described as "the worst violence in Uttar Pradesh in recent
history", with the army being deployed in the state for the first time in the last
20 years.

Delhi Riots, 2019

• New Delhi witnessed one of the worst communal violence in the history of the national capital.
• The premise of the New Delhi 2020 riots is based on growing animosity and destabilisation of
communal harmony in the background of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National
Register of Citizens (NRC).

BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY 1984

• In 1970 Union Carbide India limited (UCIL), a
subsidiary of Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation (an
American multinational), established a pesticide plant
in Bhopal.
• The plant produced a pesticide Sevin (Carbaryl) using
methyl isocyanate (MIC). A number of minor leaks had
been reported since 1976 but the management had
ignored them.
• On the night of 2-3 December, 1984 about 45 tons of the
dangerous gas methyl isocyanate (MIC) stored in three
tanks, escaped from the plant in Bhopal and drifted over the densely populated neighbourhoods around
the plant, killing thousands of people immediately and creating a panic as tens of thousands of others
attempted to flee Bhopal.
• During that time, Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister and Arjun Singh was the Chief minister of MP.
• The chemical tragedy was the worst industrial disaster witnessed in the history of India and perhaps
the worst in the world at that point in time.

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 • As per official estimates, it led to death of 2259 people, caused 5.6 lakh injuries and many more
were permanently disabled.
• However, unofficially deaths have been put at around 20,000.
• Some half a million survivors suffered respiratory problems, eye irritation or blindness, and other
maladies resulting from exposure to the toxic gas.
• In 2004, the Indian Supreme Court ordered the state to supply clean drinking water to the residents of
Bhopal because of groundwater contamination.
• In 2010, several former executives of Union Carbide’s India subsidiary were convicted by a Bhopal
court of negligence in the disaster.

SHAH BANO CASE

Background-
• Shah Bano, a 62-year-old Muslim woman and a mother of five
from Indore, was divorced by her husband in 1978. She filed a suit
in the Supreme Court seeking compensation from her husband.
• The Supreme Court invoked Section 125 of Code of Criminal
Procedure, which applies to everyone regardless of their caste,
class, creed or religion, and ruled in favour of Shah Bano,
ordering that she be given maintenance money, similar to alimony.
• The case was considered a milestone as it was a step ahead of the general practice of deciding cases on
the basis of interpretation of personal law and also dwelt on the need to implement the Uniform Civil
Code. It also took note of different personal laws and the need to recognize and address the issue of
gender equality and perseverance in matters of religious principles.
• The judgment became very controversial, and there were many protests from various sections of
Muslims.
• Muslims felt that the verdict was an attack on their religion, and their right to have their own
religious personal laws. At the forefront of these protests was the All India Muslim Personal Law
Board.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986
• Under pressure from the Muslims, the government headed by Rajiv Gandhi introduced a legislation
which reserved the Supreme Court verdict.
• The Parliament passed The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 which
nullified the Supreme Court’s judgment.
• The act allowed maintenance to a divorced woman only during the period of 90 days after the divorce
(iddat), according to provisions of Islamic law.
• Therefore, the liability of the husband to pay maintenance was restricted to the period of iddat only.
• The act was criticized heavily by many experts as this was a great opportunity to fight for women’s
rights, but the law endorsed the inequality and exploitation that Muslim women face.
• Rather than working on the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code as per the court’s direction, the
government brought amendments to overturn Supreme Court’s ruling.
• The opposition parties criticized the act and denounced it as one aimed at Muslim appeasement and
vote bank politics.

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BOFORS SCAM
• Another major incident during Rajiv Gandhi’s rule was
a political scandal pertaining to Defense deals.
• During the 1980s and 1990s, Bofors, a Sweden based
company won a bid to supply 410 Howitzers to India.
It was the biggest arms deal ever in Sweden, therefore
money which was marked for developmental projects
was diverted to secure this contract from India.
• Several politicians of Indian National Congress
including the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were
accused of receiving illegal kickbacks from Bofors, in
its bid to win the contract worth US $1.4 billion.
• The scandal soon used by opposition to launch major attack on Rajiv Gandhi himself.
• V.P Singh, who had served as the Finance minister first and then as the Defense Minister in the Rajiv
Gandhi cabinet, after resigning from the Congress in 1987 made the scandal and corruption a major
plank of his political campaign to elections in 1989.
• Bofors and the stink of corruption resurfaced in 1989 of election. Although, the Joint Parliamentary
Committee Report had given a more or less clean chit to the Rajiv Gandhi, But the Comptroller and
Auditor- General’s Report cast doubts on the procedure for acquisition of Bofors.
• In wake of these findings, the opposition demanded Rajiv Gandhi’s resignation. In the election of 1989,
the Congress failed to secure the majority and V. P. Singh formed a coalition government with outside
support of the left parties and BJP.

NATIONAL POLICY ON EDUCATION, 1986

Background:

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 • In May 1986, the new National policy on Education (NPE) was introduced by Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi.
• It was named as “Special emphasis on the removal of disparities and to equalize education
opportunity”.
Objective- The main objective of this policy was to provide equivalent opportunity to all including
Women, ST and SC communities to study.
Key highlights of 1986 NPE:
• Expansion of scholarships and promotion of adult education.
• Employment of more teachers from the SCs and STs Communities.
• Incentives for poor families to send their children to school regularly.
• For primary education, the NPE called “child centric approach”, then “Operation Blackboard” was
launched to expand primary schools nationwide.
• Under this policy the Open University system was expanded with the Indira Gandhi National Open
University, which had been created in 1985.
• The policy was also recognized “rural university” model, based on the philosophy of Mahatma
Gandhi, to encourage economic and social development at the grassroots level in rural India.

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 CHAPTER 6- REGIONAL DISCONTENT
Sr. Topic
1 Jammu & Kashmir issue
2 Punjab Issue
3 Problems in North East

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 JAMMU & KASHMIR ISSUE

• As we have studied that in 1951, the UN passed a resolution providing for a referendum under UN
supervision after Pakistan had withdrawn its troops
from the part of Kashmir under its control.
• The resolution has remained infructuous since Pakistan
has refused to withdraw its forces from what is known
as Azad Kashmir.
• Since then Kashmir has been the main obstacle in the
path of friendly relations between India and Pakistan.
• Also, Article 370 of the constitution, which gives
greater autonomy to it as compare to other states in the
country.
• All provisions of Indian constitution are not
applicable to the state. The Laws passed by the
Parliament apply to J&K only if the state agrees. J&K
has its own constitution too.
• There is a section of people and parties outside J&K that believes that the special status of the state
doesn't allow full integration of the state with India. Hence, it should be revoked.
• By 1989, the J&K state had come in the grip of a militant movement mobilised around the cause of a
separate Kashmiri region.

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• The insurgents get moral, material and military support
from Pakistan and Separatist Politics has taken different
forms and made up of various strands.
• From 1990 onwards, Pakistan started supporting state
sponsored Terrorism in India especially in Kashmir and
Security forces which still exist as a main security
challenge before India.
• In August, 2019 BJP led NDA government had revoked
the Article 370 and divided the state into two union
Territories – Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, thus it
made the integration of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh in
India in a complete manner.
• Also, the separatists have been sidelined forever by the
NDA government.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIA AND J&K
• In pursuance of the provisions of Article 370, the President issued an order called the Constitution
(Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1950, to specify the Union’s jurisdiction over the state.
• In 1952, the Government of India and the State of J&K entered into an agreement at Delhi regarding
their future relationship. In 1954, the Constituent Assembly of J&K approved the state’s accession to
India as well as the Delhi Agreement.
• Then, the President issued another order with the same title, that is, the Constitution (Application to
Jammu and Kashmir), Order, 1954. This order superseded the earlier order of 1950 and extended the
Union’s jurisdiction over the state. This is the basic order that, as amended and modified from time to
time, regulates the constitutional position of the state and its relationship with the Union.
ARTICLE 370
• In pursuance of this commitment, Article 370 was incorporated in the Constitution of India. It clearly
states that the provisions with respect to the State of J&K are only temporary and not permanent.
• It became operative on 17 November 1952, with the following provisions:
1. The provisions of Article 238 (dealing with the administration of Part B states) is applicable to
the state of J&K. The state of J&K was specified in the category of Part B states in the original
Constitution (1950). This Article in Part VII was subsequently omitted from the Constitution by the
7th Constitutional Amendment Act (1956) in the wake of the re-organisation of states.
2. The power of Parliament to make laws for the state is limited to:
a. Those matters in the Union List and the Concurrent List which correspond to matters specified in
the state’s Instrument of Accession. These matters are to be declared by the president in
consultation with the state government. The Instrument of Accession contained matters classified
under four heads, namely, external affairs, defence, communications and ancillary matters.
b. Such other matters in the Union List and the Concurrent List which are specified by the president
with the concurrence of the state government. This means that laws can be made on these matters
only with the consent of the State of J&K.
3. The provisions of Article 1 (declaring India as a Union of states and its territory) and Article
(that is, Article 370) are applicable to the State of J&K.

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 4. Besides above, the other provisions of the Constitution can be applied to the state with such
exceptions and modifications as specified by the President in consultation with the state government
or with the concurrence of the state government.
5. The President can declare that Article 370 ceases to be operative or operates with exceptions
and modifications. However, this can be done by the President only on the recommendation of
Constituent Assembly of the state. Therefore, Article 370 makes Article 1 and Article 370 itself
applicable to the State of J&K at once and authorises the president to extend other Articles to the
state.
External and Internal Disputes:

EXTERNAL ISSUE
Externally, Pakistan has always claimed that Kashmir valley should be part of Pakistan. Pakistan
sponsored a tribal invasion of the State in 1947, as a consequence of which one part of the State came under
Pakistani control. India claims that this area is under illegal occupation. Pakistan describes this area as ‘Azad
Kashmir’. Ever since 1947, Kashmir has remained a major issue of conflict between India and Pakistan.
INTERNAL ISSUE
Internally, there is a dispute about the status of Kashmir within the Indian Union. Kashmir was given a
special status by Article 370 in our Constitution. Article 370 gives greater autonomy to Jammu and
Kashmir compared to other States of India. The State has its own Constitution. All provisions of the Indian
Constitution are not applicable to the State. Laws passed by the Parliament apply to J&K only if the State
agrees.
PUNJAB ISSUE
Background-
• After partition, the Sikhs were now a majority in the state of Punjab. Hence to fulfill this demand,
during the 1970s a section of Akalis began to demand political autonomy for the region.
• They passed a resolution in this regard in their Anandpur Sahib Conference in 1973. This resolution
asserted regional autonomy and wanted to redefine centre-state relationship in the country.
• They declared their goal of attaining bolbala (dominance or hegemony) of the Sikhs. However, this
didn't mean separation from India.
• The more extreme elements started advocating secession from India & demanded "Khalistan" under the
leadership of Bhindrawala.
ROOTS OF COMMUNALISM - POST-1947
Two major issues, which were in themselves secular but were communalized by Sikh and Hindu
communalists, dominated Punjab politics till 1966.
The first issue was that of state language:
• to decide what was to be the language of administration and schooling in bilingual Punjab. The Hindu
communalists wanted this status for Hindi and the Sikh communalists for Punjabi in the Gurmukhi
script.
• The government tried to resolve the problem by dividing Punjab into two— Punjabi and Hindi—
linguistic zones. But the Hindu communalists opposed the decisions to make the study of Punjabi, along

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 with Hindi, compulsory in all schools and Punjabi being made the only official language for district
administration in the Punjabi linguistic zone.
• Even more contentious was the problem of the script for Punjabi. Traditionally, for centuries, Punjabi
had been written in Urdu, Gurmukhi and Devanagari (Hindi) scripts.
• However, dissociating Punjabi from its common cultural background, the Akalis demanded that
Gurmukhi alone should be used as the script for Punjabi. The Hindu communal organizations insisted on
Devanagari also being used along with Gurmukhi.
• The issue was given a strong communal complexion by both the Sikh and Hindu communalists.
Second issue - Punjabi Suba
• In the 1950s and 1960s, linguistic issues in India caused civil disorder when the central government
declared Hindi as the main official language of India.
• For demanding Punjabi to be the official language of the Punjab a total of 12000 Sikhs were arrested for
their peaceful demonstrations in 1955 including several Akali leaders.
• The nationwide movement of linguistic groups seeking statehood resulted in a massive reorganisation of
states according to linguistic boundaries in 1956.
• At that time, Indian Punjab had its capital in Shimla, and though the vast majority of the Sikhs lived in
Punjab, they still did not form a majority.
• But if Haryana and Himachal could be separated Sikhs could have a Punjab in which they could form a
majority of 60 per cent against the Hindus being 40 per cent. The Akali Dal, Sikh dominated political
party active mainly in Punjab, sought to create a Punjabi Suba. This case was presented to the States
Reorganisation Commission established in 1953.
ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION
While the Green Revolution in Punjab had several positive impacts, the introduction of the mechanised
agricultural techniques led to unemployment. The unemployed youth could have been absorbed by industrial
development, but the Indian government had been reluctant to set up heavy industries in Punjab due to its
status as a high-risk border state with Pakistan. The resulting unemployed rural Sikh youth were drawn to
the militant groups, and formed the backbone of the militancy.
PAKISTAN INVOLVEMENT
• Pakistan has been deeply involved in the training, guiding and arming Sikh militants. Wadhawa Singh,
Chief Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Lakhbir Singh Rode, Chief, International Sikh Youth
Federation (ISYF), and Ranjit Singh Neeta, Chief, Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) permanently based
in Pakistan, have been co-ordinating militant activities of their outfits in Punjab and elsewhere in India
under the guidance of Pak ISI.
• Interrogation reports of Sikh militants arrested in India suggest training of Sikh youth in Pakistan under
the supervision of ISI
Operation Blue Star (1984)
• The leadership of Akali was transformed from moderate to extreme elements, and they took the path of
armed insurgency to get Khalistan.
• They made the Golden Temple as their HQ in Amritsar and turned it into an armed fortress.

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 • In June 1984, the government of India carried out
"operation Blue star" an army action to flush out
the militants. It was successfully achieved by Indian
army personnel.
• Meanwhile during the action, the holy place got
damaged and people's sentiments got hurt and this
gave impetus to militant and extremist groups.
• Later, the bodyguards of our PM Indira Gandhi
shot her to avenge the feelings of Sikhs, which was
followed by brutal anti Sikh riots
Anti-Sikh Riots (1984)
• The assassination of Indira Gandhi led to anti-Sikh
riots across the country, particularly in Delhi and
Punjab.
• The riots were very violent, and they have been
termed by some as genocide or massacres as well.
• Rajiv Gandhi ordered an independent judicial
enquiry into the Sikh riots and also signed the
Punjab accord.
• In 2000, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
appointed Justice Nanavati to investigate the killing
of innocent Sikhs during the riots.
• The commission submitted its report in February
2005. The report was criticized heavily as it didn’t mention clearly the role of members of the Congress
party like Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti- Sikh riots
• There were widespread protests in the aftermath of the report, leading to resignation of Tytler from the
Union Cabinet.
• After the report, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apologized to the Sikh community for
Operation Blue Star and the riots that followed.
Punjab Accord (1985)
• Rajiv Gandhi initiated negotiations with the Akali leaders to
provide a lasting solution to the Punjab problem. In August
1985, Rajiv Gandhi and Longowal signed the Punjab accord.
The major provisions of the accord were:
o Rangnath Mishra commission was to enquire into the
1984 riots.
o Families of innocent persons who were killed after 1st
August 1982 would be compensated fairly, and there would
be compensation for any property damaged too.
o Chandigarh was to be given to Punjab by overruling the recommendation of Shah Commission,
which had suggested that it be given to Haryana.
o A Part of Anandpur Sahib Resolution dealing with Centre-state relations was to be referred to the
Sarkaria commission.

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 o Sharing of Water through tribunal between Rajasthan,
Punjab, Haryana.
o Revocation of AFSPA from Punjab.
• This accord didn't facilitate peace immediately. Militancy and
counter insurgency violence continued which led to human
rights violation.
• The Fragmentation of Akali Dal also started. Normal political
process was suspended and President's rule was imposed.
• Gradually the militancy was eradicated by the security forces.
• The Peace returned to Punjab by the middle of 1990's. The alliance of BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal
emerged as victorious and brought back democratic process in the state

Aftermath of Punjab Accord and end of militancy

• Elections for state assembly in Punjab and national
Parliament were scheduled on September 1985.
Longowal was assassinated by the Sikh militants who
were opposed to the accord.
• In spite of this, elections were held on time, with a voter
turnout of 66%. Akali Dal secured an absolute
majority in the state assembly for the first time in their
history.
• Surjit Singh Barnala became the Chief Minister. The
Akali government was ridden with factionalism and
militant groups who soon took advantage of the soft
policies of the state government.
• Therefore, there was resurgence of terrorist activities with time, and the state government was not able
to contain them.
• Post this, the central government dismissed the government and imposed President’s Rule in May
1987. In spite of this, terrorism went on increasing, with support from Pakistan.
• The governments headed by VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar tried to solve the Punjab problem
through negotiations and by appeasement of terrorists and extremists.
• In 1988, the state launched Operation Black Thunder, which was undertaken by Punjab police and
paramilitary forces. It succeeded in flushing out terrorists.
• From mid-1991 onwards, Narsimha Rao government followed a hard policy towards terrorism. The
police became increasingly effective and by 1993, Punjab had been virtually freed of terrorism.

PROBLEMS IN NORTH EAST:

Reasons for problem in North East India:

The historical connection:
• The historical connections among the traditional tribes in the Northeast are largely of Tibeto-
Burman/Mongoloid stock and closer to Southeast Asia than to South Asia.
• It is ethnically, linguistically and culturally very distinct from the other states of India.

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 • Though cultural and ethnic diversity per say are not causes for conflict, but one of the major problem areas
is that the Northeast is territorially organized in such a manner that ethnic and cultural specificities were
ignored during the process of delineation of state boundaries in the 1950s, giving rise to discontentment and
assertion of one’s identity.
Influx of migrants:
Most States in this region underwent major demographic changes due to influx of migrants from
neighboring States and countries.
Backwardness compared to the rest of India:
The isolation of the region, its complex social character and its backwardness compared to other parts of the
country have all resulted in the complicated set of demands from different states of the North-East.
International border:
The vast international border and weak communication between the North-East and the rest of India have
further added to the delicate nature of politics there. Three issues dominate the politics of North-East:
demands for autonomy, movements for secession, and opposition to ‘outsiders’.
The AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Power Act) The application of this act shows the inability and
reluctance of the government to solve the conflict with adequate political measures. The AFSPA was passed
on 18 August 1958, as a short term measure to allow deployment of the army to counter an armed separatist
movement in the Naga Hills, has been in place for the last five decades and was extended to all the seven
states of the Northeast region in 1972 (except for Mizoram).
Assam Crisis:

Reasons:
Economic
• Severe underdevelopment of Assam was due to unfair treatment being meted out to it by the central
government, which had not only neglected its development but also discriminated against it in allocation
of central funds and location of industrial and other economic enterprises.
• Economic backwardness was also ascribed to control of its economy and resources, particularly the
production and sale of its tea, plywood and other commodities by outsiders, mostly Marwari’s and
Bengalis. • The labour force in tea, plywood and other industries was also mostly non-Assamese.
• There were demands for a greater share for Assam in the revenues derived from tea and plywood
industries, a higher royalty for its crude oil, larger central financial grants and plan allocation, location of
oil refineries in Assam, construction of more bridges over the Brahmaputra river, upgrading of the
railway link between Assam and the rest of India, greater effort at industrialization of the state by both
the state and the central governments, and greater employment of Assamese in central government
services and public sector enterprises located in the state.

Bengali people
• Throughout the colonial period and for several years after independence, Bengalis settled in
• Assam occupied a dominant position in government services, in teaching and other modern professions
and in higher posts in the public and private sectors.
• The lack of job opportunities, the significant role of ‘outsiders’ in Assam’s industry and trade, and the
fear of being culturally dominated produced a sense of deprivation in the minds of middle-class
Assamese.

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 o They started a movement in the 1950s demanding preference for Assamese speakers in recruitment
to state government services and making Assamese the sole official language and medium of
instruction in schools and colleges.
o The movement for a change in the official language led to the gradual building up of hostility
between Bengali and Assamese speakers. In July 1960, it erupted in tragic language riots.
o In 1960 itself, the state assembly passed a law, against the wishes of Bengali speakers and many
tribal groups, making Assamese the sole official language, though Bengali remained the additional
official language in Cachar.
o In 1972, Assamese was made the sole medium of instruction also in colleges affiliated to
Guwahati University.
o This effort to impose the Assamese language became one of the factors which hampered the process
of evolution of the Assamese identity, prevented it from encompassing the entire state and led to
many of the hill tribes demanding separation from Assam.

Illegal migrants
• The main grievance that was to develop into a massive anti-foreigners movement in 1979 was the
large-scale illegal migration in a relatively short span of time from Bangladesh and to some extent from
Nepal.
• The British administration had encouraged migration of thousands of Biharis to work on the plantation
system introduced by them.
• Between 1939 and 1947 Muslim communalists encouraged Bengali Muslim migration to create a better
bargaining position in case of partition of India.
• Partition led to a large-scale refugee influx from Pakistani Bengal into Assam besides West Bengal and
Tripura.
• After 1971, there occurred fresh, continuous and large-scale influx Bangladeshi peasants into Assam.
• This demographic transformation generated the feeling of linguistic, cultural and political insecurity that
overwhelmed the Assamese and imparted a strong emotional content to their movement against illegal
migrants in the 1980s.

Division of state
• Many Assamese felt that the development and consolidation of a wider Assamese identity, by the
gradual assimilation of Assamese tribes, was prevented by the central government’s decision to separate
large tribal areas from Assam and create small non-viable states such as Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram
and Arunachal Pradesh.

Conflict due to illegal migrants

• Illegal migrant became a major issue in 1979 when it became clear that a large number of illegal
immigrants from Bangladesh had become voters in the state.
• The All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (Assam People’s
Struggle Council), a coalition of regional political, literary and cultural associations, started a massive,
anti-illegal migration movement.

Demands
• They asked the central government to seal Assam’s borders to prevent further inflow of migrants, to
identify all illegal aliens and delete their names from the voters list and to postpone elections till this was
done, and to deport or disperse to other parts of India all those who had entered the state after 1961.
• The years from 1979 to 1985 witnessed political instability in the state, collapse of state governments,
imposition of President’s Rule, sustained, often violent, agitation, frequent general strikes, civil
disobedience campaigns which paralysed all normal life

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 ASSAM ACCORD (1985)

Background-
• The issue of outsiders migrating into Assam has a
long history, starting from the British era during
which migration of tea-plantation workers was
encouraged.
• In 1971, after the Pakistani crackdown in East Bengal,
more than one million refugees sought shelter in
Assam. Most of them went back after the creation of
Bangladesh, but nearly 100,000 remained.
• After 1971, there were large scale illegal
immigration into Assam and nearby north-eastern
states from Bangladesh.
• This led to demographic transformation of Assam
created apprehension among many Assamese.
• They felt that Assamese being reduced to a minority in
their own land and consequently to the subordination
of their language and culture, loss of control over
their economy and politics, and, loss of their very
identity and individuality.
• As a result, 1979, the All Assam Students Union
(AASU) and the Assam Gana Sangram Parishad
(Assam People’s Struggle Council), started a
massive, anti-illegal migration movement.
• They demanded that the central government seal
Assam’s borders to prevent further inflow of migrants, and also to identify all illegal aliens and
delete their names from the voters list.
• There was a complete breakdown of law and order, and riots on the basis of linguistic and communal
identities took place.
Assam Accord (15th August, 1985)-
• After Rajiv Gandhi came to power, he signed the Assam
Accord on 15th August, 1985.
• As per the accord:
o All foreigners who had entered Assam between 1951
and 1961 were to be given full citizenship,
including the right to vote
o Entrants between 1961 and 1971 were to be denied
voting rights for 10 years, but could enjoy all other
citizenship rights and migrants who entered after
1971 would be deported
o A second oil refinery, a paper mill and an
institute of technology were also promised to
ensure economic development of the state.

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 o The central government promised to provide legislative and administrative safeguards to protect
the cultural, social and linguistic identity and heritage of Assamese people
• In the aftermath of the accord, fresh elections were held in December 1985. A new party, Assam Gana
Parishad (AGP), was formed by the leaders of the anti-foreigners movement, which was elected to
power.

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 CHAPTER 7 - POPULAR MOVEMENTS/EVENTS IN INDIA
Sr. Topic
1 Land Reforms
2 Agriculture Growth And Green Revolution
3 Agrarian Struggles Since Independence
4 Cooperatives
5 Women’s Movement
6 Dalit Movements
7 Environment Movements
8 Civil Democratic Movements
9 Era of ICT

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 LAND REFORMS
Introduction-
• The land reforms process in India after Independence can be categorised mainly in two phases-

Phase of
Phase of Institutional Technological
Reforms/First Phase Reforms/2nd Phase

1947-1960 After 1960

Abolition of Green
Intermdearis i.e Revolution, etc.
Zamindars etc

Tenancy
Reforms

Ceilings on size
of large land
holdings

Cooperative &
Community
Development
programmes

First Phase- Phase of Institutional Reforms-

• KUMARAPPA
COMMITTEE - At the time of
independence, not only

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 intermediaries like Zamindars and Talukdars dominated the agriculture in the country but there also
existed various forms of absentee landlords.
• The agricultural production suffered due to lack of investment in the land, which in turn was a result of
the following factors: Unfair tenancy arrangements, Begar, Illegal extractions by landlords &
Rack-renting of the peasants.
• The Kumarappa Committee for the first time made a detailed survey of the agrarian relations
prevailing in the country and recommended comprehensive recommendations covering all issues of
land reforms-

J C KUMARAPPA
• It opined that all intermediaries between the State and the tiller should be eliminated and land must
belong to the actual tillers of the soil
• Subletting of land should be prohibited except in case of widows, minors and other disabled persons,
persons who put a minimum amount of physical labour and participate in actual agricultural operations
should be deemed to cultivate personally, etc.
• There should be a ceiling to the size of holdings which a farmer should own and cultivate.
• It considered collective farming for the development of reclaimed waste lands on which landless
labourers could be employed.
• It held that peasant farming would be the most suitable form of cultivation.
Abolition of Zamindari –
• While the Constituent Assembly was in the process of framing India’s constitution, a number of
provinces such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Madras, Assam and Bombay introduced
zamindari abolition bills or land tenure legislation, which provided for removal of intermediary
levels.
• The first amendment in 1951 and the fourth amendment in 1955 further strengthened the hands of
the state legislatures for implementing zamindari abolition, making the question of violation of any
fundamental right not permissible in the courts.
• Another major hurdle in implementing the Zamindari abolition legislation was the absence of adequate
land records.
• Amidst all these, the land reform process in the country was completed by the end of 1950s.
• After the abolition of zamindari system, around 20 million tenants became landowners. It not only
made them landowners but also evicted them from the shackles of existing land owners.
• The compensation which was made to landowners varied from state to state depending upon the
population of tenant.

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Abolition of Intermediaries
• Intermediaries like Talukdars, Jagirs and Imams had dominated the agricultural sector in the India
during Independence.
• Soon after Independence, measures for the abolition of zamindari system adopted in different parts of
country.
• The first act to abolish intermediaries was passed in Madras in 1948.
• As a result, about a crore tenants became the owners of the land.

Limitations-
• Reluctance of the Zamindars-
o After the law was passed, the zamindars filed a litigation in High Courts and Supreme Court.
Such litigations greatly reduced the effectiveness of these legislations.
o After the law was finally implemented, the Zamindars refused to cooperate with the revenue
authorities.
o The petty revenue officials at Village and Tehsil level actively supported Zamindars for bribes.
• Loopholes in the Laws-
o Zamindars misused this loophole in the law to evict tenant farmers and keep most of the land with
themselves through means of legal process.
o They started capitalistic farming in the area to increase productivity.

• New Intermediaries-
o Main beneficiaries of zamindari abolition were the upper or superior tenants.

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 o These new landowners leased the same land to inferior tenants/ sharecroppers, based on oral and
unrecorded agreements.
o These inferior tenants/sharecroppers could be evicted as per the whims and fancies of the new
landowner.

TENANCY REFORM-
• The tenancy reforms laws provided the provisions for registration of tenants, or giving ownership
rights to the former tenants to bring them directly under the state.
• The political and economic conditions in different parts of India, however, were so varied that the nature
of tenancy legislation passed by the different states and the manner of their implementation also
varied.

Political will

Surplus land is
Poor redressal
fallow and
system
uncultivable

Reasons
for land
reforms
failure
Benami and Loopholes in
fraud laws &
trabsactions regulations

States sided
with big
farmers

• Several states enacted legislation conferring security of tenure on tenants. But they are not uniform.
In some states, in the event of resumption of land for self-cultivation by the landlord, a minimum land
required to be left with the tenant cultivator.
• In others, there was no provision for a minimum land to be left for the tenants in case of resumption
of land for self-cultivation.

• Legislation for security of tenure had three essential elements:

o Ejection could not take place except in accordance with the provision of the law-
o Land could be resumed by an owner, but only for personal cultivation
o In the event of resumption, the tenant was assured of a prescribed minimum area.

Regulation of Rent:
• Before the enactment of laws regulating rent, tenants paid exorbitant rents ranging from 50 to even
80 per cent of the produce to the landlords. Legislations were passed to regulate the rent.

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• Now the maximum rates of rent were fixed at levels not exceeding 1/4 to of the gross produce in all
states except in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.
Rights of Ownership:
• In some states, the governments took over the land from the owners after paying compensation to them
and then transferred the same to the tenants-cultivators in lieu of its price to state in instalments.
• In others, the tenants were asked to pay a fixed compensation directly to the owners in instalments.
Constitutional Safeguards:
• The Court cases challenging the agrarian reforms began to proliferate, and the 1st Amendment to the
constitution became necessary.
• This first amendment inserted new Articles 31A and 31B and the Ninth Schedule, thus securing the
constitutional validity of zamindari abolition laws, specifying that they could not be challenged on the
grounds that they violated the Fundamental Rights.

In July, 2013, ministry of rural development put forth a draft of a new National Land Reform Policy.
It has 5 basic goals-
• Distribution of land to all rural landless poor
• Restore land unjustly taken from vulnerable communities such as Dalits and Tribals.
• Protect the land of the Dalits and Tribals.
• Liberalize leasing laws.
• Improve rights of women

Land Ceiling-
• Land ceiling means fixing maximum size of landholding that an individual/family can own.
• The objective of land ceiling was to make distribution of land more equitable.
• The Land owned above the ceiling limit, was called surplus land.
• What did govt. do with surplus land- If an individual or a family owned more land than the ceiling
limit, the surplus land was to be taken away with or without paying compensation to original owner and
then this surplus land was to be distributed among small farmers, landless labourers, even handed
over to village panchayat or given to cooperative farming societies
• Thus, ceiling on land holdings was an important step toward achieving growth with Social justice.
• Limitations- By and large the ceiling laws in most states had certain major shortcomings.
Ceiling on Land Holding-It implies the fixing of the maximum amount of land that an individual or
family can possess.
Economic rationality of land holding- According to some Economists, some farms are more efficient
than large farms. Because they required less capital than large farms.
Social rationality of Land ceiling- In a developing country like India, the supply of land is limited and
number of claimants is large. Hence, it is socially unjust to allow small number of people to hold large
part of land.
• The ceiling fixed on existing holdings by the states were very high. Only in some states, where very few
holdings exceeded the ceiling limit such as Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh
and Punjab, no allowance was made for the size of the family.
• A large number of exemptions to the ceiling limits were permitted by most states following the Second
Plan recommendation.
• The long delay in bringing in ceiling legislation to a large extent defeated its purpose.

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 • Further, the landowners also resorted to mass eviction of tenants, resuming their lands at least up to the
ceiling limit, and claiming, often falsely, to have shifted to progressive farming under their direct
supervision.
• Thus, by the time the ceiling legislations were in place, there were barely any holdings left above the
ceiling and consequently little surplus land became available for redistribution.
• This was recognized by the Congress leadership and the Third Plan also admitted it.
THE BHOODAN MOVEMENT (DONATION OF LAND)-
• Bhoodan was an attempt at land reform, at bringing about institutional
changes in agriculture, like land redistribution.
• Leadership - Eminent Gandhian Acharya Vinoba Bhave
• Objectives-
o To bring about a social order based on equality of opportunities
by ensuring balanced economic distribution.
o Decentralisation of economic holdings and powers.
o Vinoba writes, while describing the objectives of Bhoodan
movement, “In fact, objective is of three-fold.”
1. Power should be decentralised from village to village.
2. Everybody should have a right on land and property.
3. There should be no distribution in the matter of wages etc.
• Vinoba was interested in the creation of a new social order.
• Acharya Vinoba Bhave drew upon Gandhian techniques and ideas such
as constructive work and trusteeship to launch this movement in the
early 1950s.
• He organized an all-India federation of constructive
workers named the Sarvodaya Samaj, which took up
the task of a non-violent social transformation in the
country.
• He and his followers set on a padayatra (walk on foot
from village to village) to persuade the larger
landowners to donate at least one-sixth of their lands
as Bhoodan or ‘land-gift’ for distribution among the
landless and the land poor.
• The Bhoodan was started in 1951. The problems faced
by the landless Harijans were presented to Vinoba
Bhave in Pochampalli, Telangana.
• In response to appeal by Vinoba Bhave, some land owing class agreed to voluntary donation of some
part of land.
• This led to the birth of Bhoodan Movement. Central
and State governments had provided the necessary
assistance to Vinoba Bhave.
• The movement, though independent of the government,
had the support of the Congress, with the AICC
urging Congressmen to participate in it actively.
• An Eminent former Congressman and a prominent
leader of the Praja Socialist Party, Jayaprakash

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 Narayan withdrew from active politics to join the Bhoodan movement in 1953.
• Meanwhile, towards of the end of 1955, the movement took a new form, that of Gramdan or ‘donation
of village’
• The objective of the Gramdan movement was to
persuade landowners and leaseholders in each village
to renounce their land rights and all the lands would
become the property of a village association for
egalitarian redistribution and joint cultivation.
• A village is declared as Gramdan when at least 75 per
cent of its residents with 51 per cent of the land
signify their approval in writing for Gramdan.
• The first village to come under Gramdan, was
Magroth, Haripur, Uttar Pradesh. The second and
third took place in Orissa in 1955.
• The movement received widespread political patronage.
• Several state governments passed laws by aimed at Gramdan and Bhoodan.
Conclusion-
• The movement reached their peak around 1969. After 1969, Gramdan and Bhoodan lost its importance
due to the shift from being a purely voluntary movement to a government supported programme.
• In 1967, after the withdrawal of Vinoba Bhave from the movement, it lost its mass base. In the later
period, landlords had mostly donated land under dispute or unfit for cultivation.
• The whole movement was treated as something different from the general scheme of development
rather than combining with the existing institutional means.
• This separation from the mainstream scheme seriously affected its continuation as a policy.
COOPERATIVES & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

Introduction-
• A wide spectrum of the national movement’s leaders
including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, the
Socialists and Communists were in consensus that
cooperativization would lead to major improvement in
Indian agriculture and would particularly benefit the poor.
• Thus, cooperativization was seen as an important element in
the agenda for institutional changes sought to be achieved
through land reform.
• The Congress at independence made very tentative proposals—like the state making efforts to
organize ‘pilot schemes for experimenting with cooperative farming among small holders on
government unoccupied but cultivable lands.
• Further, it was clarified that any move towards cooperativization was to be through persuasion, by
getting the goodwill and agreement of the peasantry.

EVOLUTION OF COOPERATIVES IN INDIA

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 democratic
member control

element of
Common
service and
economic goal
profit

need of
cooperatives

eliminating
self help
intermediaries

open
membership

KUMARAPPA COMMITTEE 1949 RECOMMENDATION-

• The State should be empowered to enforce the application of varying degrees of cooperation for
different types of farming.
• Thus, while the family farmer will have to make use of the multipurpose cooperative society for
marketing, credit, and other matters, the below-basic holder (i.e., peasant with small
uneconomic holding) will have to cultivate his farm jointly with such other holders’

The First Plan-

• It approached the issue more judiciously and recommended that small and medium farms in
particular should be encouraged and assisted to group themselves into cooperative farming societies.
• The early planners had hoped that the village panchayat activated by motivated party workers and aided
by the trained workers of the newly launched Community Development programme (in October
1952) would not only help implement rural development projects but would help bring about critical
institutional changes in Indian agriculture.
The Second Plan-

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• The main task during the Second Five Year Plan is to take such essential steps as will provide sound
foundations for the development of cooperative
farming so that over a period of ten years or so a
substantial proportion of agricultural lands are
cultivated on cooperative lines.
• In 1956 two Indian delegations (one of the Planning
Commission, the other of the Union Ministry of
Food and Agriculture), were sent to China to
study how they organized their cooperatives and
achieved such rapid increases in agricultural
output.
• They both recommended (barring the minute of dissent by two members of one committee) a bold
programme of extending cooperative farming in India.
• The National Development Council and the AICC now set targets even higher than the one envisaged
by the Second Plan, proposing that in the next five years agricultural production be increased by 25 to 35
per cent if not more, mainly by bringing about major institutional changes in agriculture such as
cooperativization.
• The states, however, resisted any large-scale plan for cooperativization, agreeing only to experiments
in cooperative farming and that too if they remained strictly voluntary.
The Nagpur Resolution of INC, 1959-
• It clearly stated that ‘the organisation of the village should be based on village panchayats and
village cooperatives, both of which should have adequate powers and resources
• The future agrarian pattern should be that of cooperative joint farming, in which the land would be
pooled for joint cultivation, the farmers continuing to retain their property rights, and getting a share
of the net produce in proportion to their land.
• Further, those who actually work on the land, whether they own the land or not, will get a share in
proportion to the work put in by them on the joint farm.
• As a first step, prior to the institution of joint farming, service cooperatives should be organised
throughout the country within a period of three years. Even within this period, however, wherever
possible and generally agreed to by the farmers.

Co-operative Society

Credit Coop. Society Non-Credit Coop. Society

Agricultural Non-Agricultural Agricultural Non-Agricultural

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 The Third Plan-
• The Third Plan took a very pragmatic and cautious approach.
• As regards cooperative farming it accepted a modest target of setting up ten pilot projects per
district.
• At the same time, it put in the caveat that ‘cooperative farming has to grow out of the success of the
general agricultural effort through the community development movement, the progress of cooperation
in credit, marketing, distribution and processing, the growth of rural industry, and the fulfillment of the
objectives of land reform’.
• This sounded like a gradual process and not a plan of action.
TYPES OF COOPERATIVES-

• As for joint farming, two types of cooperatives were observed.

• First, the ones that were formed essentially to evade land reforms and access incentives offered by the
state. Typically, these cooperatives were formed by well-to-do, influential families who took on a
number of agricultural labourers or ex-tenants as bogus members.
• Second, the state-sponsored cooperative farms in the form of pilot projects, were generally poor,
previously uncultivated land was made available to the landless, Harijans, displaced persons and
such underprivileged groups.
Milk Cooperative-
• After independence there was emphasis on the
cooperatives as a means to improve agriculture and
benefit the poor.
• In agriculture, particularly in land-reforms, it could
not achieve desired results due to various reasons.
The most successful experiment in the cooperatives
was the milk cooperatives.
White Revolution-
• The condition of the farmers of the Kaira district of Gujarat (in 1997 Kaira was divided and new
Anand district was formed) was same as the farmers from rest of the country after independence.
• The Bombay Milk Scheme started by the Government of Bombay in 1945 benefitted milk contractors
who took away the biggest share of profit.

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 Bombay Milk Scheme
• The discontent amongst farmers grew. They reached to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for his advice. He
sent Morarji Desai to Kaira for the formation of the farmer’s cooperative.
• After some struggle with the Bombay government, in 1946 Kaira District Cooperative Milk
Producer’s Union was set up.

Dr. Varghese Kurien- Father of White Revolution

• The objective of the Kaira Union was to provide proper marketing facilities for the milk producers of
the district.
• It started supplying milk under the Bombay Milk Scheme.
• Dr. Varghese Kurien was the Chief Executive of the union from 1950-73.
• In 1955, Kaira union introduced the name ‘Amul’ (Anand Milk Union Limited) for marketing of
their products.
• This new venture achieved a major breakthrough by producing milk products from the buffalo milk, a
first in the world.
• In 1955, it had set up a factory to manufacture milk powder and butter, partly to deal with the
problem of the greater yields of milk in winter not finding an adequate market.
• In 1960, a new factory was added which was designed to manufacture 600 tonnes of cheese and 2,500
tonnes of baby food every year - the first in the world to manufacture these products on a large
commercial scale using buffalo milk
• In 1960, a new factory to manufacture cheese and baby food was set up.
• In 1964, a modern plant to manufacture cattle feed was commissioned
• An efficient artificial insemination service through the village society workers was introduced so that
the producers could improve the quality of their stock.
• A special effort was made to educate women who generally looked after the animals in a peasant
household.
• An Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) was founded in Anand for training professional managers
for rural development projects, using the AMUL complex and the Kaira Cooperative as a live laboratory

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 IRMA
• Thereafter, a modern plant to manufacture cattle feed was
commissioned. It used computer technology to do costbenefit
analysis of prices of inputs for cattle feed and their nutritional
value.
• With the spread of ‘Anand Pattern’ to other districts, in 1974,
the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd was
formed as an apex organization of the unions in the district to
look after marketing

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National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)
• In 1964, the then Prime Minister of India Lai Bahadur
Shastri visited Kaira.
• After his discussions with Dr. Kurian he was keen to
replicate this model of cooperatives success to other
parts of India to achieve the socialistic pattern of
society.
• The keenness of the PM led to the formation of the
National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1965.
It was headquartered in Anand. Dr. Kurian was its
first chairman, who headed the body till 1998.
• Its aim was to strengthen the farmer’s cooperatives It had the vision of transforming dairying as an
instrument for the development of rural India.
• NDDB did not restrict itself to milk cooperatives. At the initiative of the NDDB, cooperatives for
fruits and vegetable producers, oilseed cultivators, small scale salt makers and tree growers were
started. For example, ‘Dhara’ a vegetable oil brand is a result of NDDB’s efforts.

REASONS FOR SUCCESS-

• Visionary leadership -The visionary leadership provided by Dr. Kurien. He solved the crucial problem
of the milk marketing through village level cooperatives.

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 • Veterinary services - Veterinary services were made available to the producers including artificial
insemination service, to improve the quality of stock.
• High quality -High quality fodder seeds, vaccines etc too helped in milk production. It envisages a
comprehensive programme of animal breeding, animal nutrition, and animal health and hygiene,
livestock marketing and extension work on scientific lines.
• Financial Security- Insurance cover was made available to the producers and peasants were educated
about the developments in the animal husbandry. Women who generally look after animals were also
educated to adopt scientific practices in the milk production.
• Democratic model of functioning -It was the democratic model of functioning of cooperatives which
inculcated the sense of ownership in all.
OPERATION FLOOD-
Introduction
• The NDDB in 1969 designed a dairy development programme
to lay the foundation for a viable, self-supportive national
dairy industry.
• It sought to link rural milk production to urban milk
marketing through the cooperatives.
• In 1970, with the technical assistance from the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) and the Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) the programme was launched as ‘Operation Flood’.
• It drew heavily from the Kaira Union for personnel, expertise etc. It was envisaged to replicate the
‘Anand Pattern’ in other milk-sheds of the country.

Objectives of Operation Flood-

Increasing milk
production

To make India self- Bringing producer and

sufficient in milk consumer closer by
production eliminating midddle men

Reasonable
Augmenting
prrice for
rural income
consumers

Impact
• Before the launch of ‘Operation Flood’ national milk
production grew at 0.7%, with the initiation of the programme,
it grew at more than 4%.
• The dairying became an important source of income especially
for small farmers and landless. About 60% of the

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 beneficiaries were small farmers and landless. It acted as important poverty alleviation measure.
• Overall animal services were improved including nutrition, health and it gave an advantage of reaching
to certain deprived sections without exclusively targeting
them.
• ‘Operation Flood’ along with NGOs like Self- Employed
Women’s Association (SEWA) established about 6000
women dairy cooperative societies, managed by women
only. These were run efficiently than their male counterparts.
This enabled them to participate in the decision making in
various forums.
• With increase in income, access to education for children
increased and the dropout rates declined.
• Work-load on girl-child decreased which helped in increasing
their school attendance. Moreover, the rise in income helped
in curbing child-labour.
• With this programme, there was an impetus to indigenous
dairy equipment manufacturing industry. This helped in
overall modernization of the sector
AGRARIAN STRUGGLES SINCE INDEPENDENCE –

The Srikakulam Peasant Uprising-

• The Srikakulam peasant uprising occurred in 1967–
1970, in regions of Srikakulam district, Andhra
Pradesh, India. The Naxalbari uprising inspired the
upsurge.
• On October 31, 1967, two persons associated with the
communists, Korana and Manganna were killed by
landlords at Levidi Village while the two were going to
attend Girijan Samagam Conference.
• In retaliation, the Girijans started retaliating by land, property and food grain seizure.
• The tribals started facing severe offensive. The leadership started organizing the mass upheaval into an
organized movement by forming peasant guerrilla squads and a more systemic resistance.
• By 1969 activities of the peasant squads increased along with their increasing actions.
• The government sent 12,000 CRF to tackle the uprising. Serious warfare continued from 6 months.
• By January 1970, 120 CRPF were killed. But the uprising soon met a rapid decline.
Note- We have covered Telangana Movement in Modern History and post-Independence chapter 1 notes
and Naxal movement in our previous chapter).

New Farmers Movement-

• The farmers’ movements burst onto the national political stage in 1980 with the road and rail roko
agitation in Nasik in Maharashtra led by the Shetkari Sangathan of Sharad Joshi. Nearly 200,000
farmers block the road and rail traffic on the Bombay-Calcutta and Bombay-Delhi route on November
10 demanding higher prices for onions and sugar cane.

146
 • The Farmers in thousands and lakhs stopped traffic on
highways and train routes, withheld supplies from
cities, sat on indefinite dharnas at government offices in
local and regional centre and prevented political leaders
and officials from entering villages, especially at
election time, till they agreed to support their demands.
• Why the Movement was launched- The basic
understanding on which the movements rested is that
the government maintains agricultural prices at an
artificially low level in order to provide cheap food and
raw materials to urban areas, and the consequent disparity in prices results in farmers paying high prices
and receiving low returns for their produce.
• These ‘new’ farmers’ movements that attracted much media and political attention, especially in the
1980s, focussed mainly on demanding remunerative prices for agricultural produce, and lowering or
elimination of government dues such as canal water charges, electricity charges, interest rates and
principal of loans, etc.
• These organizations have shown scant concern for the landless rural poor or rural women. It is,
however, true that they are broad based among the peasantry and not confined to the upper sections.
• Despite many claims by the leaders to be following in Gandhi’s footsteps, there is little evidence of
lessons learnt from him, especially about the awesome responsibility of leadership.
• These movements are often referred to as ‘new’, the suggestion being that they are part of the
worldwide trend of ‘new’ non-class or superclass social movements which have emerged outside the
formal political party structures, examples being the women’s and environmental movements.
• The other ground on which ’newness’ is asserted is that these movements are not linked to political
parties. While it is true that none of the organizations were started by political parties, it is also true that
over time they have got linked to politics.

AGRICULTURE GROWTH AND GREEN REVOLUTION

Background-
• During independence, the condition of Indian Agriculture was in an underdeveloped state.
• Despite three percent annual agricultural growth from 1949 to 1965, India was facing huge food
shortages.
• India was not self-sufficient in Food production and therefore India need to import huge amount of
food
• The two wars of 1962 and 1965 to successive droughts in 1965-66 reduced agricultural output.
• Massive population growth increased the demand for food.
• India was importing huge amount of grains in 1960s to feed its population.
• It faced famine conditions in most parts.
• Also, we have studied earlier that USA supplied foodgrains under PL-480 schemes to India. This
agreement was humiliating for India and in this situation, the USA threatened to discontinue food
exports to India.
• Hence, Indian leaders decided to make India self-sufficient in foodgrains.
Green Revolution-

147
• Green Revolution is the phenomenon that is identified with India’s transition from an import
dependent country for food to a self-sufficient one. It is related with major technological reforms
undertaken in Indian agriculture from mid- 1960s.
• The project was led by Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, an Indian geneticist and biologist

Dr. M.S. Swaminathan

• The then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri along with Indira Gandhi gave full support to New
Agriculture Strategy. Under this focus was given on:
o High Yield Variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides
o Agriculture machinery including tractors, pump- sets, and soil-testing facilities etc.
o Institutional credits with focus on areas which had assured irrigation facilities along with
supporting agriculture infrastructure.
o Government investment in agriculture increased significantly.
o Efforts were made to ensure that the farmers have assured market at remunerative prices.
o The Agriculture Prices Commission was set up in 1965 to recommend the prices for the
agriculture produce like wheat and rice.
o All these initiatives by the government also led to increase in gross capital formation in
agriculture.
Outcome of Green Revolution-
• Food production rose by 35% during 1967-68 and 1970-71. This led to increase in food availability as
marketable surplus of food-grains increased.
• Net food imports fell from 10.3 million tonnes in 1966 to 3.6 million tonnes in 1970 and India not only
had buffer of food- grains, but also it started exporting food-grains. It brought prosperity to farmers.

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 • Moreover, as a result of Agro-industries, warehousing
for agriculture produce, transport, fertilizers,
manufacturing of farm equipment’s etc resulted into
increase in the overall employment in the country.
• Further, the surplus generated under the Green
Revolution helped the government to launch schemes for
employment generation. This had a major impact on the
poverty alleviation.
• The need for agriculture equipment contributed to
industrial growth and the attitude of farmers towards
farming changed. They started investing in agriculture,
thereby shifting to capitalist farming.
Criticism of Green Revolution-
• The Green Revolution was criticized for concentrating
resources in the regions like Punjab, Haryana, and
Western Uttar Pradesh that already had certain
advantages.
• This further increased regional inequalities.
• The benefits of the Green Revolution were cornered by the
big farmers, at the expense of small farmers and tenants.
• This contributed to increase in inequality and the
mechanization of agriculture led to rural unemployment.
• Excessive use of chemical fertilizers resulted into
environmental degradation and the groundwater tables, especially in Punjab, was criticized for its
unsustainability.
FOOD CORPORATION OF INDIA (FCI) -
• The Food Corporation of India (FCI) was set up in 1965, under the Food Corporation’s Act 1964.
• It was set up for the purchase, storage, movement, transport, distribution, sale of food-grains and
another foodstuff. It was set up in order to fulfill following objectives of the Food Policy:
o Effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers.
o Distribution of food grains throughout the country for public distribution system (PDS).
o Maintaining satisfactory level of operational and buffer stocks of food grains to ensure National
Food Security.

ENVIORNMENT MOVEMENTS
Chipko Movement: -
Introduction-
• The Chipko movement or Chipko Andolan, was a
forest conservation movement in India.
• It began in 1970s in Uttarakhand, then a part of Uttar
Pradesh (at the foothills of Himalayas) and went on to
become a rallying point for many future environmental
movements all over the world. It created a precedent for

149
 starting nonviolent protest in India.
• It is a movement that practiced methods of Satyagraha
• It was Inspired by Jayaprakash Narayan and
the Sarvodaya movement.
Course of Movement-
• This movement began in Uttarakhand when forest
department had refused permission to villagers to fell ash
trees for making agricultural tools and allotted the same
patch of land to sports manufacturer for commercial use.
• The villagers demanded that no forest exploiting contracts should be given to outsiders and local
communities should have effective control over natural resources like land, water and forests.
• Women's active participation in the Chipko agitation was a very novel aspect of the movement.
• Villagers in general, and women in particular thwarted
commercial falling of trees by hugging the trees to
prohibit their cutting and the name Chipko originates from
this very practice only.
• The movement achieved a victory when the then
government issued a ban on felling of trees in the
Himalayan regions for fifteen years, until the green cover
was fully restored
Way Forward-
• Gaura Devi, a middle-aged widow of the village was prominent figure of this movement.
• After this movement, the Chipko movement inspired many environmental movements and gave rise to
series of forests against commercial felling in Himalayan foothills led by Gandhians and leftists.
• In 1987, the Chipko movement was awarded the Right Livelihood Award "for its dedication to the
conservation, restoration and ecologically-sound use of India's natural resources.

Narmada Bachao Andolan-

Introduction-
• An ambitious developmental project was launched in the Narmada
valley of central India in early 60’s.
• The foundation stone of the dam was laid on April 5, 1961 by the
country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
• The project consisted of 30 big dams, 135 medium sized and
around 3000 small dams to be constructed on the Narmada and its
tributaries that flow across three states, MP, Gujarat and
Maharashtra.
• Sardar Sarovar Project in Gujarat and Narmada Sagar Project in
MP were two most important biggest, multipurpose dams planned
under the project.
• The projects mentioned above were aimed to provide drinking
water and water for irrigation, generation of electricity and
increase in agricultural production.

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 • Leading by- Medha Patkar and Baba Amte.
Course of Movement-
• The project required relocation of about two and half lakh people
and 245 villages were expected to get submerged. Initially locals
demanded proper relocation and proper rehabilitation.
• It was during late 80's that the issue crystallised under the banner of
Narmada Bachao Andolan, a loose collective of local voluntary
organs.
• NBA demanded a proper cost benefit analysis of the major
developmental projects completed in the country so far. It also
demanded that social cost should be calculated too with respect to
such projects.
• Social cost meant forced settlement of project affected people,
serious loss of means of livelihood and culture, depletion of
ecological resources.
• Because of constant struggle, Right to rehabilitation has been
recognized by the government and judiciary.
• A comprehensive National Rehabilitation Policy formed by the
government in 2003 can be considered as an achievement of the movements like NBA.
• The mode of campaign under NBA includes court actions, hunger strikes, rallies and gathering
support from notable film and art personalities.
• NBA used every available democratic strategy to put forward its demands like Pradarshan, Dharna,
Gherao, Rasta Roko, Jail Bharo Aandolan, Bhook Hartal etc.
• Medha Patkar has been at the forefront of the movement. She has organised several fasts and
satyagrahas, and been to jail several times for the cause.

Medha Patkar
• Another popular figure was Baba Amte, known for his work against leprosy. He published a booklet
called “Cry O Beloved Narmada” in 1989 to protest against the construction of the dam.

Baba Amte
• Amongst the major celebrities who have shown their support for Narmada Bachao Andolan are Booker
Prize winner Arundhati Roy and Aamir Khan.
• It was also supported by music composer and bass guitarist in the band Indian Ocean, Rahul Ram,
who was actively involved in the movement from 1990 to 1995.

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• In 1994 was the launch of “Narmada: A Valley Rises” by filmmaker Ali Kazimi. It documents the
five-week Sangharsh Yatra of 1991.
• The film went on to win several awards and is considered by many to be a classic on the issue. In 1996,
veteran documentary filmmaker, Anand Patwardhan, made an award-winning documentary: A
Narmada Diary. Alok Agarwal, current member of the Aam Aadmi Party, is an active figure in the
movement.
Way Forward-
• The court ruled for Andolan, effecting an immediate stoppage of
work at the dam and directing the concerned states to complete
the rehabilitation and replacement process.
• It deliberated on this issue further for several years and finally
upheld the Tribunal Award and allowed the construction to
proceed, subject to conditions in 2000.
• Finally, in Sept,2017 Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated
the Sardar Sarovar Dam on river Narmada.

SILENT VALLEY MOVEMENT/ SAVE SILENT VALLEY –

Introduction-
✓ Save Silent Valley was a social movement aimed at the protection of Silent Valley, an evergreen
tropical forest in the Palakkad district of Kerala.
✓ It was started in 1973 by an NGO led by school teachers and the Kerala Sastra Sahithya
Parishad(KSSP) to save the Silent Valley from being flooded by a hydroelectric project
Course of Movement-
• After the announcement of imminent dam construction on
Kuntipuzha river, as an ideal site for electricity construction
“Save silent valley” movement was started in 1973 and Kerala
Sasthra Sahitya Parishad (K.S.S.P) effectively aroused the
public opinion to save silent valley.
• The poet activist Sugathakumari played an important role in the
Silent Valley protest and her poem "Marathinu Stuthi" ("Ode to
a Tree:) became a symbol for the protest from the intellectual
community and was the opening song/prayer of most of the "save the Silent Valley" campaign meetings.

Sugathakumari
• Dr. Salim Ali, eminent ornithologist of the Bombay Natural History Society, visited the valley and
appealed for cancellation of the hydroelectric project.

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 Dr. Salim Ali
• In January 1980 the High Court of Kerala lifted the ban on clear cutting, but then the Prime Minister
of India requested the Government of Kerala to stop further works in the project area until all
aspects were fully discussed.
• In December, the Government of Kerala declared the Silent Valley area, excluding the hydroelectric
project area, as a national park.
• In 1982, a multidisciplinary committee with Prof. M. G. K. Menon as chairman and Madhav
Gadgil, Dilip K. Biswas and others as members, was created to decide if the hydroelectric project was
feasible without any significant ecological damage.

Prof. M. G. K. Menon
• Early in 1983, Prof. Menon's Committee submitted its report. After a careful study of the Menon
report, the Prime Minister of India decided to abandon the Project.
Way Forward-
• Finally, the protesters were successful in 1985, when the then
PM Rajiv Gandhi inaugurated silent valley National Park and
the park was designated as the core area of Nilgiri Biosphere
Deserve.
• Silent Valley is also famous for the endangered lion-tailed
macaque.

FISHERIES MOVEMENT: -
• Both in the eastern and the western coastal area of our country
hundreds of thousands of families, belonging indigenous
fishermen communities are engaged in fishing occupation.
• The livelihood of these fishermen worker was threatened, when
the government permitted entry of mechanized trawlers and
technologies like bottom trawling for large scale harvest of fish
in the Indian seas.
• To protect their interests and livelihood, the fishermen came
together on a national level platform as a National Fish

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 workers Forum.
• NFF achieved their first success against Indian government's move to open the entry of commercial
vessels including of MNCs in deep sea.
• In July 2002, NFF called for a nationwide strike to oppose the move of government to issue licenses to
foreign trawlers as well.
WOMEN’S MOVEMENT

Pre-Independence-
It can be divided into 2 phases:

Early Reformers Fight for their own cause

They condemned social eveils like

Purdah, Sati, Female infanticide, In this phase, common women
Child marriage etc. and initiated started fighting for their own cause
reformist movements

Post-Independence-
• After India gained independence, the women’s question
disappeared from the public arena for over twenty years with
the constitution guaranteeing equality to all its citizens of
caste, creed or gender, through articles 14 and 16.
• However, from mid-1960s onwards, disillusionment with the
developmental policies and lack of change in conditions of
women saw an upsurge of movements around:
o Land rights & equality

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 o Security of employment & wages
o Population policies
o Atrocities on women (including rape and liquor related domestic violence).
o From the 1970s onwards, various movements were launched, sometimes localized, sometimes with
a bigger spatial reach, on these issues, and public awareness of these has therefore heightened.

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDIAN WOMENS

• lt was established in 1954 by several leaders from Mahila

Atma Raksha Samiti, a women’s movement in Bengal
linked to Communist Party of India.
• It was the first women mass organization which brought
women from all walks of life and worked for their
empowerment, emancipation and building a gender just
society and country.
• It combined mobilization for awareness raising, mass
campaigns around all issues and developments that impact women’s lives with such constructive
work projects as adult literacy centers, production units for needy women, training for employment, free
legal aid for victims of violence and social oppression.
• It has played a crucial role in pressurizing the Union government at different times to bring in gender
sensitive laws such as Hindu Code Bill 1956, Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, Maternity Entitlement
Act, Domestic Violence Prevention Act, among others.
• Many eminent personalities and well-known freedom fighters were associated with NFIW like Aruna
Asaf Ali, Pushpamoye Bose, Renu Chakravartty, Hazara Begum, Geeta Mukherjee, Anasuya
Gyanchad, Vimla Dang, Vimla Farroqui.

THE SELF-EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA)

• Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) was born in 1972
as a trade union of self-employed women, at the initiative of
Ela Bhatt.
• Women involved in different trades were brought together by
their shared experiences of as low earnings, harassment at
home, harassment by contractors and the police, poor work
conditions, nonrecognition of their labour to list just a few.
• It grew out of the Textile Labour Association, India’s oldest and
largest union of textile workers founded in 1920 by a woman, Anasuya Sarabhai, who had been
inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s involvement in the Ahmedabad textile strike in 1917.
• SEWA aimed at improving the working conditions of women through:
o A process of training
o Technical aid, legal literacy
o Collective bargaining
o To teach values of honesty, dignity and simplicity, (the Gandhian goals) to which SEWA
subscribes
• Its main goals are to organize women workers for:

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 o Full employment: intends women to have work security, income security, food security and social
security
o Self-reliance: intends women to be autonomous and self-reliant, both economically and in terms of
their decision-making ability.
ANTI-PRICE RISE MOVEMENT-
• In 1973, the United Women’s Anti-Price Rise Front was formed
to mobilize women against inflation, as a result of drought and
famine conditions that affected rural Maharashtra in early in
1970’s.
• It took the shape of mass women’s movement for consumer
protection and demanded the government to fix minimum prices
and to distribute essential commodities.
• Large groups of women, between 10,000 and 20,000, would hold
demonstrations at government offices, houses of Members of
Parliament and merchants.
• Those who could not get out of their homes would express their support by beating thalis (metal plates)
with lathis or belans (rolling pins).
• The Anti-Price Rise movement spread to the neighbouring state of Gujarat, where it was called the
Nav Nirman movement. The movement has the distinction of being the only movement in post-
independence India that led to the dissolution of an elected government of the state.
• It started as a student’s movement and later grew into a middle-class movement that attracted thousands
of women.
• The spiraling costs, corruption and black marketing in the state were the causes that flared the
agitation in the state
• The methods used by the protesting women and students included:
o Mock courts where judgments were passed on corrupt state officials and politicians.
o Mock funeral processions.
o Processions to greet the dawn of a new era.
ANTI-LIQUOR MOVEMENTS-
• Anti-liquor movements in India have a history of their own since the pre-
independence and they continue to erupt from different parts of the country
at different points in time.
• Two prominent movements were in:

1. UTTARAKHAND:
• In 1963, Vimla and Sunderlal Bahuguna, started a movement in the
Kumaon region of Uttarakhand against the awarding of contracts to sell
liquor in a village close to the ashram, set up by members of the
Sarvodaya movement. The government agreed to cancel the contract.
• Later, the movement spread to draw women, who picketed the liquor
shops, demanding prohibition on sale of liquor, ultimately forcing them
to close.
• Protest continued in the following years, with many women being jailed, for protesting and picketing
liquor shops.
• Eventually, in 1972 the government agreed to impose prohibition in Uttarakhand.

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 2. ANDHRA PRADESH:
• In a village in the interior of Dubagunta in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, women had registered
in the Adult Literacy Drive on a large scale in the early 1990s.
• It is during the discussion in the class that women complained of increased consumption of a locally
brewed alcohol - arrack - by men in their families
• A discontent had been brewing among the women in the region due to following reasons:
o Increased consumption of a locally prepared alcohol by men in their families.
o The habit of alcoholism, which had taken deep roots among the village people, was ruining the
physical and mental health of men.
o It affected the rural economy of the region as indebtess grew.
o The contractors of alcohol engaged in crime for securing their monopoly over the arrack trade.
o Women were the worst sufferers as it resulted in the collapse of the family economy and they had
to bear the brunt of violence from the male family members, particularly the husband.
Spread of the movement:
• Women in Nellore came together in spontaneous local
initiatives to protest against arrack and forced closure
of the wine shop.
• Some women even armed themselves with sticks, chili
powder and broomsticks and forced the nearby arrack
shops to shut down.
• The news spread fast and women of about 5000 villages
got inspired and met together in meetings, passed
resolutions for imposing prohibition and sent them to
the District Collector.
• This movement in Nellore District slowly spread all over the State.
• The movement ultimately forced the government to ban alcoholic beverages throughout the state in
1995 but it was later abandoned partially in 1997.
Critical Analysis of Women’s Movement-
• After independence, women from diverse castes, classes and communities participated in the
movement along with activists drawn from a variety of political trends, parties and groups belonging to
various ideologies making the movement heterogeneous.
• These campaigns contributed a great deal in increasing overall social awareness about women’s
questions. Focus of the women’s movement gradually shifted from legal reforms to open social
confrontations.
• In pre-independence phase, they were dominated by only certain classes of women, while in post-
independence phase, they have seen participation from various sections of women and is not limited
to any particular section.
• Cases like Shah Bano were seen politically rather than on gender equality basis.
• Labour division was still viewed by feminists as being on gender lines and there was not much change
on the ground in the status of women.

DALIT MOVEMENTS-

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Introduction-
• The term, ‘Dalit’ was perhaps first used by Jyotirao
Phule in the nineteenth century in context of the
oppression faced by the erstwhile “untouchable”
castes among the Hindus
• It signified the socio-economic position of the
untouchables within the country, especially among the
Hindus.
• The contemporary use of the term Dalit has moved
away from its earlier meaning of oppression faced by the “untouchables” and has become a new
political identity.
• The Dalits in India, through the ages, have organized several movements in different parts of the
country for their rights of justice and equality.
Anti-Hindu Movement-
• Re-emergence of Bhakti - It was an egalitarian religion exclusive to the untouchables which
developed into a religious movement and argued that ‘Bhakti’ was a religion of the original
inhabitants and rulers of India, the Adi-Hindus, from whom the untouchables claimed to have
descended
• literate untouchables- The new generation of literate untouchables, who led the movement, argued that
the social division of labour based on caste status was an imposition forced on Indian society by the
Aryan conquerors, who had subjugated the Adi-Hindu rulers and made them servile labourers.
• disassociate low-caste status- This ideology strove to disassociate low-caste status from menial
occupation considered as impure and thus challenged imposition of ‘low’ social roles, functions and
occupations
• Attracted the mass of the untouchables- The Anti- Hindu ideology attracted the mass of the
untouchables and it provided a historical explanation for the poverty and deprivation of the
untouchables and presented a vision of their past power and rights, and hopes of regaining such lost
rights.
GANDHI AND DALIT MOVEMENT-
• In 1920, Mahatma Gandhi for the first time brought the practice of
“untouchability” into the national movement and a matter of public
concern by inserting an appeal to eradicate Hinduism from its scourge in
the Nagpur resolution of the Congress.
• He even launched a campaign for the welfare of the “untouchables”,
which failed to get much support from the caste Hindu.
• He later used the term Harijan meaning people of Hari or God to refer to the untouchables.
• He even opposed the idea of separate electorate, as provide by the communal award in 1932, because
he believed that once the depressed classes were separated from the rest of the Hindus there would be no
ground to change Hindu society’s attitude towards them.
Constitutional Provisions-
o It included the erstwhile Dalits and certain others castes in schedules on the basis of their social and
economic disabilities. Thereafter, the Dalits came to be referred as the Scheduled Castes or SCs, as per
the term used in the constitution.

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 o It guaranteed and secured all the citizens of India, irrespective of caste, religion, sex, colour or place of
birth, justice, social economic and political, equality of status, of opportunity, and before the law.
Dalit Panthers-
• In the early 1970s, an organization calling itself the Dalit
Panthers was formed with the project of instituting class-based
Dalit politics.
• Dalit Panther as a social organization was founded by Namdev
Dhasal in April 1972 in Mumbai.
• It was a part of countrywide wave of radical politics which
reflected in use of creative literature to bring out the plight of
Dalits.
• Though the movement took birth in the slums of Bombay, it spread
out to cities and villages throughout the country, proclaiming revolt.
• The Panthers gave a call to for the unity of Dalit politicians under
Ambedkar’s movement, and they attempted to counter violence
against untouchables in the villages.
• They also stirred public attention through the emerging Dalit Sahitya,
the literature of the oppressed.
• The Dalit Panthers rapidly became popular and mobilized Dalit
youth and students and insisted that they use the term Dalit as Namdeo Dhasal

against any other available term for self-description. In course, the Dalit Panthers became an important
political force, especially in the cities.
• However, it was not to escape the contagion of internal splits that were to afflict other Dalit
organizations.
• Post Emergency, serious differences started to emerge in the organization over whether or not to include
non-Dalit poor and non-Buddhist Dalits.
• A debate that mostly centered around Culture versus Economy, and also differences based on
personalities for example Raja Dhale vs Namdeo Desai, led to its most factions merging or allying with
the Congress.
BAHUJAN SAMAJ PARTY (BSP)

Kanshi Ram
• In North India a new political party called Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) emerged in 1980’s under the
leadership of Kanshi Ram (and later Mayawati who went on to become the Chief Minister of Uttar
Pradesh).
• BSP declared electoral power as its basic strategy and aim, which can be seen in its political history,
where it is willing to ally with any mainstream political party to further its political power.
• It succeeded in gaining sufficient political base in northern states such as Uttar Pradesh Madhya
Pradesh and Punjab which raised its significance in coalition politics.

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DALIT CAPITALISM-
• At conference in Bhopal in 2002, Dalit intellectuals argued that the retreat of the state in the era of
globalization will bring diminishing returns if they depended only on reservations.
• Since then, Dalit intellectuals have provided that capitalism is the best way to break caste in the
modern economy.
• Dalit control of means of production, more broadly referred to as Dalit capitalism, has also been
proposed as means to Dalit emancipation from the clutches of social discrimination
• It has been premised on the argument that it is easier to shackles of economic backwardness than
escape the shadow of social discrimination.
• In recent years, this attempt to be entrepreneurs among the Dalits has been gaining momentum.
• The government too has initiated a number of schemes such as MUDRA Yojana, under which loans up
to Rs. 10 Lakhs would be provided to small businesses, and Stand-Up India, under which loans between
Rs. 10 Lakhs and Rs. 1 Crore would be facilitated to SCs, STs and at least one woman per branch.
IMPACT & ANLYSIS OF DALIT MOVEMENTS-
• Practice of Hindu Customs - It is seen that Buddhist converts in villages have not given up their old
gods and goddesses, and they still celebrate their festivals in the same way they used to do before.
Thus, despite conversion, it is apparent that Dalit’s feel equality only when they are able to practice the
religious rites that were earlier denied to them.
• Struggle against the Dalit plight- Gandhi’s understanding of struggle against the Dalit plight that
emphasized gaining religious equality via temple entry and reforming the caste system from within
stands validated to some extent.
• Reservation-It helps in bringing equitable growth even within the Schedules Castes.
• Process of socio-economic change- The process of socio-economic change, industrialization,
globalization, schemes such as rural employment guarantee scheme, right to education, mid-day
meal system, the extension of primary health and education centers, the campaign of abolition of
child labour has been crucial in raising the overall status of Dalit’s in the society.
• Provision for house sites- The provision for house sites in villages have reduced their vulnerability
from looming threat by upper caste having them thrown out of the villages as punishment. Land
redistribution where it has occurred has reduced the stigma attached to landlessness.
• Delinking of caste system- The delinking of caste system attached to traditional occupation has also
been critical. As a result of many such initiatives, untouchability in urban areas have virtually
disappeared and is on a decline in rural areas especially in those rural areas where the opportunities
for employment has increased.
• Positive social measures- It is seen that the link between caste and literacy is strong which can be seen
in overall literacy rate of lower caste, especially that of women. It is possible to reduce this inequality
only through positive social measures, such as compulsory primary and even secondary education
and employment guarantee schemes

ERA OF ICT (INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY) -

• The main objective behind any innovation in technology is to
ensure that it provides comfort leisure, productivity and a
better quality of life and built environment to its citizen.
• In India, the path towards technology induced development
especially associated with ICT, was given a vent in 1984 by Rajiv
Gandhi government.

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 • He adopted an effective route to development with massive programme of computerization, launched
in the public sectors as well as in commercial and the public sectors undertakings and in
administrative departments.
• By 1985, large sectors had announced computerization plans,
which included railways, banking operations, schools etc.
• In 1998, National Task Force on Information Technology and
Software Development prepared the blue print for making the
adoption of IT as a national movement by establishing a wide
network of empowered taskforce at all governmental & non-
governmental level.
• In 1999, the Ministry of Information Technology was
established by bringing together government agencies
involved in different aspects of IT for creating job to
harness opportunities provided by convergence of
communication technologies and to facilitate the use of
IT in use of Electronic Governance.
• ICT generates new possibilities to address problems of
rural poverty, inequality and environmental
degradation. In India, the growth of information
technology and communications is very significant in
the past two decades.
• IT Industry in India comprises of software industry and information technology enabled services
(ITES) which also includes BPO industry.
• India is considered as a pioneer in software development
and a favourite destination for IT-enabled services (ITES).
• Many other countries look to India as a model for global
outsourcing and try to imitate elements of this is their own
strategies.
• The Government of India and respective state government in
India use ICT for delivery of government information and
services to citizens (G2C), business (G2B), employees
(G2E), and governments (G2G).
• The Government of India initiated an e-government
programme during the late 1990's by adopting the Information Technology Act in 2000.
• The major aims of this Act were to recognize electronic contracts, prevent computer crimes and
make electronic filing possible. Later in 2006, Government approved the National e governance Plan
(NeGP) to enhance e government initiatives in India.
• Almost all state governments and UTs have also implemented their own e government services to serve
their citizens and business. Some of the most prominent services include "Bhoomi" from Karnataka,
"Gyandoot" from MP, "Smart government" from Andhra Pradesh, "SARI" from Tamil Nadu.

Previous Year Questions-

1. Critically discuss the objectives of Bhoodan and Gramdan movements initiated by Acharya Vinoba
Bhave and their success. (2013)
2. Write a critical note on the evolution and significance of the slogan “Jai Jawana Jai Kisan” (2013)

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