Political development

Sundar Athreya
Development of political parties in India

To see a World in a Grain of sand

And a Heaven in a Wild flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
- William Blake
 The seed for a party

• The party which is believed to have relieved the nation from the yoke of an oppressing
colonial rule.
• The Reasons which compelled were rather unfortunate, several famines throughout,
cholera brake out.
• This angered the educated Indian Youth.
 The beginning
• Congress was started in the year 1885 as known to all of us under the aegis of A.O. Hume.
• He appealed to the educated Indian masses in Calcutta to form the Indian National
Congress.
• A.O. Hume infact suggested names such as “Hamari party” “Antarang Mandal”.
• It is believed that Lord. Rippon suggested that a party could be formed with educated
Indians.
• The pivotal objective was to form a union of members to appeal to the British Raj.

• Funfact- INC was not India’s first political party!- Landholders’ society by Dwaraknath
Tagore
 The beginning
• W.C. Banerjee headed the first meeting with 72 members in Bombay.
• The objectives were clearly stated, It was to increase the comradeship
amongst the Indians, to instil the sense of nationality, to focus on the
attention of the socio-political problems.
• They believed in the goodness of the British and made peaceful prayers
and petitions to them regarding the state of Indian affairs.
• The members started increasing from 72 to 2000 within a span of 5
years.
• It is believed that the objective was to provide a safe outlet and to stop
the growing discontentment amongst the Indians.
 The Moderators
• The moderators and their appeasement method.
• A party of Congress was also started in Britain by William Digby, they
pointed out the drain of wealth.
• The members belonging to the moderators sought for inclusion of
Indians in ICS, Reduction of military expenses, grant of self
government, self government like Australia
• This aggravated the likes of Lord. Curzon and the other members.
• The congress wanted to achieve it in a phased manner and not in a
overnight.
 The Extremist
• The Father of Extremist is Aurobindo Gosh- “The Savitri”
• BG Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and BC Pal
• The Split happened because of the non acceptance of BG Tilak as its leader
and a new fraction was started.
• It colluded with the fact that the Calcutta famines were happening and the
leaders wanted a change in method.
• The earlier approach was not enough.
• Advent of Barrister M.K. Gandhi in 1915.
• The protests lead by him were based on the system of non- cooperation.
• It was visible during the protest against salt tax
 Congress and the grundnorm
• The participation in assembly debates.
• It was feared by Jinnah in the initial days that this was a congress
constitution.
• Initial few years of Indian democracy.
 Evolution of BJP
• The party was started in the year 1980.
• Nonetheless, the evolution of the party can be dated back to 1951.
• In 1951, the Political wing of RSS was established by Shyama prasad
Mukherjee and it came to be known as the BJS.
• It was formed with the motive of rebuilding the state on the lines of a
strong unified state.
• The party slowly started gaining strength in the hindi speaking regions of
the nation.
• The party time and again had to face criticism due to its assosciation with
a certain assassination case.
 Evolution of BJP
• The party has advocated principles based on the ideologies of
Hindutuva.
• The party was reformed in the year 1980 under the leadership of Atal
Bihari Vajpayee
• It has been critical of handling of certain issues by the earlier party.
• The party was not able to form majority for the longest time period.
• It won the election in 1999 and was in power until 2004.
• The major change in interesting model of Indian federalism.