Politics in India since Independence

This chapter examines how newly independent India tackled three foundational challenges in its first decade after 1947: managing the violence and mass displacement caused by Partition, integrating approximately 565 princely states into the Indian Union, and reorganising internal state boundaries to reflect linguistic diversity.

• 1Independent India faced three immediate challenges after 1947: national unity amid diversity, establishing democratic practices, and ensuring development and wellbeing for all sections of society.
• 2Partition was rooted in the two-nation theory advanced by the Muslim League, which held that Hindus and Muslims constituted two separate nations; the Congress opposed this theory but several political developments in the 1940s led to the creation of Pakistan.
• 3Partition caused one of the largest and most abrupt transfers of population in human history — roughly 80 lakh people were displaced and between five and ten lakh were killed in communal violence.
• 4All 565 princely states became legally independent when British paramountcy lapsed at Independence; Sardar Patel negotiated their accession to India, and most rulers signed the Instrument of Accession before 15 August 1947.
• 5Hyderabad's Nizam resisted accession and unleashed a para-military force called the razakars; the Indian army moved in September 1948 and the Nizam surrendered, completing Hyderabad's accession to India.

Chapter 2 of Politics in India since Independence covers the era of one-party dominance, tracing how the Indian National Congress won the first three general elections (1952, 1957, 1962) under conditions of free and fair democratic competition, and how opposition parties emerged during this period.

• 1The Election Commission of India was set up in January 1950; Sukumar Sen became the first Chief Election Commissioner.
• 2India's first general election was held from October 1951 to February 1952, involving 17 crore eligible voters electing 489 Lok Sabha members and about 3,200 MLAs; only 15 per cent of voters were literate.
• 3Congress won 364 of 489 Lok Sabha seats in 1952 with 45 per cent of votes, benefiting from the first-past-the-post system; the CPI came second with just 16 seats.
• 4Congress maintained dominance in the 1957 and 1962 elections, winning roughly three-fourths of Lok Sabha seats each time; in 1957 the CPI formed a government in Kerala under E.M.S. Namboodiripad — the first Communist government elected democratically anywhere in the world.
• 5Congress dominance operated under democratic conditions, distinguishing India from one-party states like China or Cuba; it functioned as a broad social and ideological coalition accommodating diverse classes, castes, religions and ideological factions.

"Politics of Planned Development" (Chapter 3, Politics in India since Independence) examines the key political choices and debates around India's economic development strategy after Independence, tracing the establishment of the Planning Commission, the adoption of Five Year Plans, and the contested meanings of 'development' across different social groups.

• 1Post-independence India identified economic development as its third major challenge, after nation-building and establishing democracy.
• 2There was broad consensus that development required government planning; the Planning Commission was set up in March 1950 by a simple resolution of the Government of India — not by the Constitution.
• 3The Bombay Plan (1944), drafted by a section of leading industrialists, had already called for state-led planned development before Independence.
• 4The First Five Year Plan (1951–56) prioritised agriculture, dams and irrigation, and land reforms; economist K.N. Raj, who helped draft it, argued India should 'hasten slowly' to protect democracy.
• 5The Second Five Year Plan, drafted under scientist-statistician P.C. Mahalanobis, stressed rapid industrialisation and heavy industries; public sector industries — electricity, railways, steel, machineries, and communication — expanded significantly.

Chapter 4 of 'Politics in India since Independence' examines India's external relations from independence through the early 1970s, covering the policy of non-alignment, wars with China (1962) and Pakistan (1965 and 1971), and the evolution of India's nuclear programme. It shows how domestic politics and international conflicts — shaped largely by Nehru's leadership — were deeply intertwined.

• 1Nehru served as both Prime Minister and Foreign Minister from 1946 to 1964, making him the central architect of India's foreign policy.
• 2His three core objectives were to preserve sovereignty, protect territorial integrity, and promote rapid economic development — all pursued through non-alignment.
• 3India avoided both Cold War military blocs (US-led NATO and Soviet-led Warsaw Pact) and could receive aid from members of both sides.
• 4India convened the Asian Relations Conference in March 1947 and co-founded the Non-Aligned Movement; the First NAM Summit was held in Belgrade in September 1961.
• 5The Panchsheel agreement — Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence — was jointly announced by Nehru and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai on 29 April 1954.

This chapter traces how the Congress system was challenged in the 1960s—through succession crises after Nehru, a damaging 1967 electoral setback, and a formal Congress split in 1969—and how Indira Gandhi restored Congress dominance through the populist Garibi Hatao campaign and a landslide 1971 election victory.

• 1Nehru died in May 1964; Lal Bahadur Shastri was chosen as PM by consensus and coined 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan' before dying in Tashkent on 11 January 1966 after signing an agreement with Pakistan's President Ayub Khan.
• 2Indira Gandhi defeated Morarji Desai in a secret ballot by more than two-thirds of Congress MPs to become Prime Minister in 1966.
• 3The 1967 elections were a 'political earthquake': Congress retained a Lok Sabha majority but with its lowest seat tally since 1952 and lost power in nine states; DMK became the first non-Congress party to win a state majority on its own (Madras/Tamil Nadu).
• 4Ram Manohar Lohia coined 'non-Congressism'—the strategy of ideologically disparate opposition parties uniting against Congress—which drove anti-Congress fronts and seat-sharing arrangements in 1967.
• 5The Congress 'Syndicate,' led by K. Kamraj and including S. K. Patil, S. Nijalingappa, N. Sanjeeva Reddy, and Atulya Ghosh, had backed Indira Gandhi but expected to control her; she gradually sidelined them and launched a Left-leaning Ten Point Programme in May 1967.

Chapter 6 of 'Politics in India since Independence' examines the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi's government on 25 June 1975 under Article 352 — its economic and political background, consequences for civil liberties and democratic institutions, and the 1977 Lok Sabha elections that ended it. It is a critical chapter for understanding how Indian democracy faced and survived its most serious internal challenge.

• 1The Emergency was declared on 25 June 1975 under Article 352 of the Constitution, citing the threat of internal disturbances — it was recommended to President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed on the night of 25 June 1975 and proclaimed immediately.
• 2The economic background included inflation of 23% in 1973 and 30% in 1974, high unemployment, a government salary freeze, and an 8% decline in food grain output after failed monsoons in 1972-73.
• 3Student agitations in Gujarat (January 1974) and Bihar (March 1974) against rising prices and corruption grew into a national 'Total Revolution' movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), backed by non-Congress parties such as the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Congress (O), Bharatiya Lok Dal, and the Socialist Party.
• 4The Railway Strike of May 1974, led by George Fernandes under the National Coordination Committee for Railwaymen's Struggle, lasted twenty days and was declared illegal by the government; leaders were arrested and the territorial army was deployed.
• 5The Allahabad High Court's judgment of 12 June 1975, delivered by Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha on a petition by Raj Narain, declared Indira Gandhi's 1971 Lok Sabha election invalid on the ground that she had used government servants in her campaign.

Chapter 7 of Class 12 Political Science (Politics in India since Independence) covers Regional Aspirations — how India balanced unity with diversity by responding to demands for autonomy and secession in Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, the North-East, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, and Goa through democratic negotiation and accords.

• 1India adopted a democratic approach to diversity: regional aspirations are not treated as anti-national, and democratic politics allows parties to address regional identity and problems.
• 2Jammu & Kashmir's accession to India followed Pakistan's tribal invasion in October 1947; the state had special status under Article 370, which was abrogated on 5 August 2019 when it was reorganised into two Union Territories — Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
• 3The Dravidian movement, led by E.V. Ramasami 'Periyar' through Dravidar Kazhagam, opposed Brahmin dominance and north Indian cultural domination; the DMK came to power in Tamil Nadu in 1967 and Dravidian parties have dominated the state's politics since.
• 4Punjab's armed militancy led to Operation Blue Star in June 1984 (army action in the Golden Temple, Amritsar), the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984, and eventually the Rajiv Gandhi-Longowal Accord of July 1985.
• 5The Mizo National Front under Laldenga waged armed struggle for independence from 1966; a 1986 peace accord with Rajiv Gandhi granted Mizoram full statehood and ended the insurgency — today Mizoram is among the most peaceful states in the region.

Recent Developments in Indian Politics (Chapter 8) examines five transformative shifts of the late 1980s and 1990s — the end of Congress dominance after 1989, the Mandal/OBC reservation debate, the launch of new economic reforms, the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi — all of which together launched India's enduring era of coalition governments.

• 1The 1989 Lok Sabha elections reduced Congress from 415 seats (1984) to 197, marking the end of what political scientists call the 'Congress system' of one-party dominance.
• 2From 1989 to 2014, no single party won a clear Lok Sabha majority; coalition and minority governments became the norm, with regional parties playing a central role in forming ruling alliances.
• 3The Mandal Commission (Second Backward Classes Commission), chaired by B.P. Mandal and set up in 1978, submitted its report in 1980 recommending 27% reservation for OBCs in government jobs and educational institutions; the National Front implemented this in August 1990, triggering violent protests across north India.
• 4The Supreme Court upheld OBC reservations in November 1992 in the Indira Sawhney case; since then, all major political parties have come to support OBC reservation.
• 5The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), founded by Kanshi Ram and rooted in BAMCEF (formed 1978), achieved a breakthrough in Uttar Pradesh in 1989 and 1991 — the first time a party backed mainly by Dalit voters achieved such electoral success in independent India.