History Notes- Unit-1 ,2,3,4,5

The making of contemprory india

Laying the foundation of Independent India -
First Day of Independent India:
• August 15, 1947 started an epoch that ended India's colonial subjugation and looked forward to a new India- India as an independent
country.
• The Constituent Assembly of India met at 11 p.m. on August 14, 1947.
• Rajendra Prasad presided over the session.
• In a ceremony held in the Constituent Assembly (in Parliament House) at midnight of August 14-15, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, speaking
as the first prime minister of Independent India, gave his historic speech.
• Nehru said, "Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or
in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps,
India will wake to life and freedom..
• On August 15, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, as Prime Minister of India, hoisted the Indian national flag above the Lahori Gate of Red Fort in
Delhi.

First Government After Independence:

• The governor-general and the ministers were sworn in.
• Jawaharlal Nehru took charge as the first Prime Minister of India on August 15, 1947, and was assisted by 15 other members.
• Sardar Patel served as the deputy prime minister till his death in December 1950.
• Lord Mountbatten, and later C. Rajagopalachari served as Governor-General till January 26, 1950, when India became a republic and
elected Rajendra Prasad as its first president.
• The first Council of Ministers of Independent India was as follows:
1. Jawaharlal Nehru: Prime Minister; Minister of External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations; Minister of Scientific Research
2. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel: Deputy Prime Minister; Minister of Home Affairs and States Minister of Information and Broadcasting
3.Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: Minister of Education, John Mathai: Minister of Railways and Transport
5. Sardar Baldev Singh: Minister of Defence

Challenges:
• Independent India, however, had to face several challenges.
• Immediate Challenges-territorial and administrative integration of princely states, communal riots, rehabilitation of nearly 60 lakh
refugees migrated from Pakistan, protection of Muslims living in India as well as those going to Pakistan from communal gangs, need to
avoid war with Pakistan, Communist insurgency, etc.
* representarye, democrasc anarcinf iberca can politian fodén, ene cavonin a nog a
abolition of feudal set up in agriculture, etc.
• Long Term Challenges-national integration, economic development, poverty alleviation, etc.
• India, as well as Pakistan, faced the consequences of partition.
The Independence Act had laid the procedure for the resolution of three major roblems-
) the settlement of boundaries between the two nations;
i) the division of apparatus and personnel of Indian Civil Services and some other fervices; and
• (ifi) division of military assets and formations.

Radcliffe's Boundary Award and the Communal Riots

• In accordance with the partition plan, the respective legislative assemblies of Punjab and Bengal met in two sections (one
representing the Muslim majority districts and other of the rest of the province)and decided by simple majority in favour of the
partition of the two provinces.
• West Punjab which went to Pakistan received 62,000 square miles of territory and 15.7 million people (census 1941), of whom 11.85
million were Muslims.
• East Punjab (India's share) received 37,000 square miles of land area, with a population of 12.6 million, of whom 4.37 million were
Muslims.
• Likewise, West Bengal became part of India with a territory of 28,000 square miles. and a population of 21.2 million, of whom 5.3
million were Muslims.
• East engal, which constituted East Pakistan, got 49,400 square miles of territory and .10 million people (27.7 million Muslims and the
rest non-Muslims).
• Thy on both sides of the Radcliffe Line, sizable sections of populations became prity (religion-wise)-20 million non-Muslims in Pakistan
and 42 million (later duced to 35 million) Muslims in India.

• 1858 act provided for a combination of centralized and decentralized power structure to govern India. Centralization in indan provinces
and decentralization in Indian states

• In the centralized structure of power which was introduced in the provinces, all powers to govern India vested in the Secretary of State
for India (and through him in the Crown). He acted on behalf of the Crown. In British India, the Secretary of State of India was assisted
by the Viceroy, who was assisted by an executive council.

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 by the Viceroy, who was assisted by an executive council.

• Council of India Act, 1909 introduced for the first time a “representative element” in British India. This Act also introduced separate
representation to Muslim community.

• The Government of India Act 1919 introduced Dyarchy at provincial level.

• Unlike the earlier Acts, the Government of India Act, 1935 also provided for provincial government enjoying provincial autonomy. Idea
of federation, safeguarded minorities by separate representations to Muslims, Sikhs, the Europeans, Indian Christians and Anglo-
Indians

• Constituent Assembly of India

• In 1942, the British government sent its cabinet member – Sir Stafford Cripps with the draft declaration on proposals of constitution.
provided Dominion Status to India, union of India, the Constitution of India should be framed by an elected Constituent Assembly of
Indian people. Not accepted by INC and ML

• Cabinet Mission Plan (Lord Pathric Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr. A.V. Alexander). there should a Union of India which would
have jurisdiction over subjects of Foreign Affairs, Defense and Communication, residuary powers would belong to the Provinces and the
States

• according to the proposals of the Cabinet Mission, the election to the Constituent Assembly was held. elected by the Provincial
Legislative Assemblies and nominated by princes

• first met on December 9, 1946, it was boycotted by the Muslim League

• Was it truly a representative body? Members indirectly elected by the restricted adult franchise confined to the elite sections of
society – the educated and tax payers

• Despite having been elected through the restricted adult franchise, the Constituent Assembly represented different shades of opinions
and religious communities of India.

• Austin observed that INC had an “unwritten and unquestioned belief” that the Indian National Congress should represent social and
ideological diversity.

• Worked by “consensus and accommodation”.

• Nehru, Patel, Prasad and Azad had enjoyed unquestioned honour and prestige in the Assembly. Austins defines them as “an oligarchy”.
Some of these were simultaneously in the government, Indian National Congress Party and the Constituent Assembly.

• Working of CA: first met on 9 December 1946.ML boycotted, Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha to be the temporary Chairman, on 11 December
1946, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the permanent Chairman of the Constituent Assembly. On13 December 1946, Jawaharlal
Nehru moved resolution regarding the Objectives of the constituent Assembly

• The Indian Constitution has some salient features and give Indian Constitution and indian state a distinct identity.

1. Longest written constitution.

2. Partly Rigid and Partly Flexible

3. A Democratic Republic

4. Parliamentary System of Government

5. A Federation

6. Fundamental Rights

7. Directive Principles of State Policy

8. Fundamental Duties

9. Secular State

10. An Independent Judiciary

11. Single Citizenship

Nehru in 1937 wrote: Our great provincial languages are not dialects or vernaculars as the ignorant sometimes calls them.
They are a rich inheritance, each spoken by many million persons each tied up inextricably with the life and culture and ideas of the
masses as well as of the upper classes...
But by 1947 he was having second thoughts. The country had been divided on the basis of religion; would not dividing it further on the

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 But by 1947 he was having second thoughts. The country had been divided on the basis of religion; would not dividing it further on the
basis of Ig merel
• Formation-The Linguistic states were formed specially for two reasons.
The reasons were (i) to make easy the way to the democracy and
(in) to remove racial and cultural tensions.
• Legal framework-the States Reorganisation Act of 1956
• States created on linguistic basis
After an agitation, with death of P.Sriramulu in December, 1952, Andhra would come into being with Telugu language.
• Once Nehru conceded Andhra, he had to set up the States Reorganization Commission-1956.
• Unexpectedly, Linguistic reorganization did not disturb, but consolidated the unity of India. Hindi is now official language along with
English (which is an interstate and international one).
Eventually, on 1 May 1960, the states of Gujarat (Gujarati) and Maharashtra (Marati) came into being, with Bombay allotted to the
latter.

Panchsheel Agreement
Panchsheel, or the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence, were first formally enunciated in the. Agreement on Trade and Intercourse between
the Tibet region of China and India signed on April 29, 1954, which stated, in its preamble, that the two Governments “have resolved to enter
into the present.

The Panchsheel Agreement served as the foundation for India-China relations. It would advance economic and security cooperation
between the two nations. The implied assumption of the Fiver Principles was that newly independent states
after decolonisation would develop a more pragmatic approach towards international relations.
The Five Principles of the Panchsheel Agreement are as follows:
1. Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,
2. Mutual non-aggression
3. Mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs,
4. Equality and mutual benefit
5. Peaceful co-existence
The 5 principles were emphasized by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Premier Zhou Enlai in a broadcast speech made at the
time of Asian Prime Ministers Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka after signing the Sino-Indian Agreement in Beijing.
The five principles were subsequently modified in a form of a statement of ten principles issued in April 1955 at the historic Asian-
African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia. The conference itself would lead to the foundation of the Non-Aligned Movement which
gave shape to the idea that the post-colonial nations had something to offer to the bipolar world of the Cold War.
It has been speculated that the five principles had partly originated as the five principles of the Indonesian state. In June 1945
Sukarno, the Indonesian nationalist leader had proclaimed five general principles, or Pancasila, on which future institutions were to
be founded. Indonesia became independent in 1949.
China has emphasized the Panchsheel Agreement at the start of the negotiations between India that took place in Delhi from
December 1953 to April 1954 between the delegations from the two countries. The negotiations were about the disputed Aksai Chin
and what Chine calls South Tibert and India Arunachal Pradesh. The 29 April 1954 agreement was set to last for eight years. When
it lapsed, relations between the two had deteriorated leaving the prospects of tits renewal minimal. The Sino-Indian War of 1962
would break out between the two which would put an enormous strain on the Panchsheel Agreement in the coming decades.

Analysis of the Panchsheel Agreement

The Panchsheel Agreement began to break down when the Dalai Lama and his followers were given asylum in India on
humanitarian grounds. This, as far as China was concerned, was a blatant violation of one of the five principles of the Agreement:
Mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
Closer to home, Bhim Rao Ambedkar in a speech at the Rajya Sabha questions how seriously did the Chinese take the principles of
the Pancsheel seriously, taking into account that principle of peaceful coexistence was violated when China invaded Tibet.
While India agreed to the principles, China showed an inconsistent and contradictory attitude by agreeing with many reservations.
So five decades of no war is seen as mainly due to the evaluation of the high price of war and not due to love for peace. Due to
recent clashes in the Dokhlam Valley in 2014 and the Ladakh incursions inf 2020, it has been widely speculated by defence analysts
in India that the time has come to move beyond the principles of the Panchsheel that would benefit both the countries.
In contrast to previous confrontations, India has been proactive and aggressive in its posturing in Doklam and Ladakh. This
newfound assertiveness of India has left China stumbling for a gambit. Peace is undoubtedly the best way to resolve the conflict but
its application should not be selective and devious.
NAM
• The Non-Aligned Movement was formed during the Cold War as an organization of States that did not seek to formally align
themselves with either the United States or the Soviet Union, but sought to remain independent or neutral.
• The basic concept for the group originated in 1955 during discussions that took place at the Asia-Africa Bandung Conference held
in Indonesia.

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• The first NAM Summit Conference took place in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in September 1961.
• 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 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.
• 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. Non alignment
of NAM doesn't mean the neutrality of state on global issues, it was always a peaceful intervention in world politics.
As J.L Nehru was founding members, the principles of NAM was largely guided by Panchsheel principles, some of them are:

• 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
• Non-interference in the internal affairs of States. No State or group of States has the right to intervene either directly or indirectly,
whatever the motive, in the internal affairs of any other State.
• Promotion and defence of multilateralism and multilateral organisations as the appropriate frameworks to resolve, through dialogue
and cooperation, the problems affecting humankind.
Objectives

• NAM has sought to "create an independent path in world politics that would not result in member States becoming pawns in the
struggles between the major powers."
• It identifies 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.
• At present, an additional goal is 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.
• 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 the nuclearisation of the region.
India’s Position

• India being a founder and largest member in NAM was an active participant in NAM meetings till 1970s but India’s inclination
towards erstwhile USSR created confusions in smaller members. It led to the weakening of NAM and small nations drifted towards
either US or USSR.
• Further disintegration of USSR led the unipolar world order dominated by US. India’s New Economic Policy and inclination towards
US raised questions over India’s seriousness over non alignment.
• Prime Minister of India skipped the 17th Non Aligned Movement (NAM) summit held in Venezuela in 2016, it was only second such
instance when Head of a state didn’t participate in NAM conference.
• Moreover, NAM continued losing relevance for India in a unipolar world, especially after the founding members failed to support
India during crisis. For instance, during 1962 War with China, Ghana and Indonesia, adopted explicitly pro-China positions. During
1965 and 1971 wars, Indonesia and Egypt took an anti India stance and supported Pakistan.
• India in particular, but also most other NAM countries, have integrated themselves to varying degrees within the liberal economic

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• India in particular, but also most other NAM countries, have integrated themselves to varying degrees within the liberal economic
order and have benefited from it.
• India is a member of the G20 and has declared itself as a nuclear weapons power and has for all practical purposes abandoned
the call for global nuclear disarmament.
• India has also engaged itself with new and old global powers. India joining the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a coalition seen by
many as a counterforce to China’s rise in the Indo-Pacific and Shanghai cooperation organisation led by China shown India’s
balancing approach in new world order.
• India is striving hard for a multipolar world order and asserting itself as one of the player. Multi polar world order is very much closed
to NAM principles.
Emerging Global Order

NAM has to adopt and change itself to suit the newly emerging challenges and geopolitics such as:

• World has again moved towards bi-polarity, one led by US and other by China-Russia. The war torn syria is prime example of this,
where both US and Russia is asserting power.
• The escalating tension in Indo-pacific region due to China’s assertion and US acting as a counterweight to check the Chinese
expansionist policy.
• The large scale migration in Europe and Asia due to the unstable regimes and ethnic conflict in different parts of world.
• Issue of global climate change and occurence of catastrophic disasters raising demand to form global consensus to deal with it.
• Changing US policies, protectionism, prevalent terrorism and nuclearisation of middle east.
• Formation of multiple regional economic groupings like TPP and RCEP and fading away of multilateral bodies WTO from global
arena.
Relevance of NAM

NAM continues to hold relevance as a platform and due to its principles.

• 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 favorable 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.
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. Can be an alternative to regional groupings like TPP
and RCEP.
Way Forward

• NAM as a concept can never be irrelevant, principally it provides a strong base to foreign policy of its members.
• It should be seen as “Strategic Autonomy”, which is the need of the hour of today’s world. The principles of NAM still can guide the
nations towards it.
• NAM is a platform where India can assert its soft power and provide an active leadership and by being a torchbearer for smaller
countries at multilateral platforms.
• The conference of Heads of the State or Government of the Non-Aligned Countries, often referred to as Non-Aligned Movement
Summit is to be held in Azerbaijan in June 2019. Platform should be used for consensus making on spectrum of global issues.
• It should be used as a platform to raise global issues like terrorism, climate change and trade protectionism and others.

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• NAM platform can be used to garner support by South-East Asian countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines
against Chinese assertion in South China Sea and related island and border disputes.
• NAM can provide a platform for Afro-Asian cooperation and a strong position for poor African nation to have healthy negotiations
with China and US for economic development without compromising the sovereignty of their land.

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