CONTEMPORARY Unit 1

India gets

INDIA Independence:
Political Aspects
EMERGENCE OF
INDEPENDENT INDIA

1920- 1947- 2000-

1947 1970 2023
POLITICAL ASPECTS
Nationali
Democr sm Who is an
Constitution of acy Indian?
India

Discriminati
on,
Untouchabil Seculari Econom Industrialization,
ity, sm ics Green Revolution
SC/ST/
Tribals

Women
Rural
Educati Empow
Legal rights,
development on erment
Social status

Riots, Partiti
Wars Land
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NATIONALISM
Who am I ?
I can also be referred as per my language, religion, caste, region, gender,
profession or Nationality. The answer to this question refers to one’s
sense and sources of identity.
What does it mean when we say that we are Indians?
A nation is usually defined as a political community with a shared history,
culture, and a sense of political goals. By definition, nations are supposed
to be culturally homogeneous.
If India is a nation, then how do we understand the shared history,
culture, and a sense of political destiny of the ‘Indians’?
There is a broad consensus among historians that the idea of the nation,
the sense of national identity, and nationalism in India emerged very
recently in history, and they are all products of political and cultural
response by the English educated middle-class intelligentsia to the
colonial rule. Nationalism emerged as a reaction against and as a
challenge to colonialism.
Hindu Nationalism:
Hindu Nationalism in contemporary India is a variant of communal
nationalism since it seeks to grant privileges to the Hindu religious
community and identifies national history and culture with the history and
culture understood exclusively from the perspective of the Hindu
community.
The most salient components of the Hindu nationalism were developed first
by V.D. Savarkar in Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? And by Golwalkar in We, Our
Nation is defined. In these tracts Savarkar and Golwalkar elaborate a
conception of Indian nationalism based on a specific relationship between
territory, history, and culture. For Savarkar, only those persons can claim a
full membership of the Indian nation who has both his fatherland
(pitrubhumi) and holy land (punyabhumi) in the territory of India that he
broadly equated with the territory of British India. Savarkar thus defines a
Hindu as ‘ a person who regards this land of Bharatvarsha from the Indus to
the seas as his pitrubhumi as well as punyabhumi that is the cradle land of
his religion.
According to these territorial, religious, and genealogical criteria, Hindus,
Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists can be considered the natural members of the
Indian nation as all these religions were born here but not Jews, Christians
and Muslims for they do not meet the religious criterion of the holy land
within the territory. For the Muslims and Christians, their holy land are in
Arabia or Palestine.
Secular Nationalism:
As against Communal nationalism, secular nationalism in India is born of a desire to
construct an identity of Indian nationhood that recognizes the immense diversity
that prevailed in India: the diversities of religion, sect, language, caste, regions etc.
How to discover a common culture in the face of so much diversity? This was a
difficult task as it included the discovery of culture that would be non-sectarian,
non-communal and inclusive.
Jawaharlal Nehru’s Discovery of India is usually considered the foundational text of
secular nationalism wherein the Indian history is told as a narrative of composite
culture and unity in diversity. In this work Pluralism, syncretism, tolerance, peaceful
coexistence, and composite culture appear to be main motifs. In this narrative, the
heroes of Indian history are Ashoka, Kabir, Guru Nanak, Akbar, Gandhi.
The Nehruvian idea of the Indian national identity as based on composite and
pluralist cultural traditions was shared by many leaders within and outside the
Congress. They believed that religion could not play any important role in the
political affairs of a modern society. Thus, during the last two decades of the
freedom movement, mainly under the influence of Gandhi and Nehru, a pluralist
identity for the Indian Nationhood emerged as a strong contender if not the
dominant model. Thus politicians promoted the struggle for freedom in India as a
struggle for a secular republic where all of India’s inhabitants were entitled to live,
irrespective of religious denomination. The events such as partition, the
assassination of Mahatma Gandhi provided the background against which the post-
independent Indian state adopted secularism as the principle of State policy.
DEMOCRACY
What is democracy?
Abraham Lincoln from his Gettysburg address of 1863 :” it is the
government of the people, for the people and by the people.”
This idea is also supported by the etymology of the word ‘
Democracy’, which means the rule (kratos) by the people (demos).
It could thus be distinguished from ‘ aristrocracy’ which means rule
by the wise; from oligarchy, which means rule by strong groups
like certain families; and from monarchy, which means rule by an
individual.
Democracy is identified with political quality of citizens on the basis
of their equal moral status. Such a notion of equality is manifested
in equal political rights for all citizens. Nevertheless, democracy has
of late been formally linked to electoral aspects.
Democracy has become increasingly appealing in the modern world
especially in the second half of the 20th century. The reason for that
lies in the nature and functioning of the contemporary state.
The Prussian philosopher, Immaunel Kant (1724-1804), believed
that if more countries across the world became democratic then
there would be greater likelihood of perpetual peace because
democracies have fewer chances of fighting each other. Such a
belief is based on the assumption that public opinion within
democratic countries would prevent their governments from going
to war.
Therefore, when independent India chose democratic institutions of
government, she was greeted with cheer but not without doubts
about her ability to consolidate and deepen the country’s newly
born democratic structure.
Origins of Democracy in Independent India :
Indian democracy not only incorporates elements from Greco-Roman,
French, British and American traditions but also certain indigenous aspects
particular to our own culture. The preconditions for the establishment of
democracy, such as, an industrialized developed economy, an ethically
homogeneous population and a civic culture hospitable to democracy were
all missing from the Indian scenario. Yet, the consolidation of democracy in
the country, despites its many failures, is evidence of remarkable
achievement of the Indian people.
Ideologically and otherwise many portions of our constitution derive from
the Government of India Act 1935, which was the last major framework
under which the British had ruled India till 1947. Many important features of
the Indian polity are a continuation of the British political practice. These
include, amongst others, the liberal-democratic nature of the Indian
constitution, parliamentary form of the government, the Indian Civil Service
and the Unitary character of the Indian state, whereby the emergency and
residual powers lie with the central government.
However, the Indian constitution broke away from the colonial
legacy in many important aspects:
In defending the Indian Constitution, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan
demonstrated that the republican tradition was not foreign to
India, for we had it since the beginning of history. In saying so he
was also arguing against the European historicist tradition, most
clearly manifested in the works of John Stuart Mill. The latter had
declared that Indians were not as fit to rule themselves and that
the huge illiterate population was a hindrance to the
implementation of adult suffrage. Dr. Radhakrishnan dismissed
Mill’s claim and declared that all Indians, irrespective of gender and
education, were always suited for self-rule.
Consolidating Indian Democracy:
Some of the more significant features of the consolidation of Indian
Democracy are: an inclusive civil service avoiding nepotism in the
administrative structure, the acceptance of parliamentary
democracy by major communist and socialist organizations from
their initial antagonist attitudes towards electoral democracy, the
decline of Congress party with its family/personality –centered rule,
and military’s non-interference in politics.
The outstanding phenomena of recent years in the process of
democratic consolidation in India:
1. Judicial activism
2. Election commission of India
3. The new panchayati raj or the consolidation of the institutions of
local governance
4. The right to information
Democratic Deepening in India:
Ever since Independence, democratic deepening has been
accompanied by an attack on the hierarchies of the traditional
caste system. However, it is striking that members of the
marginalized castes have asserted their caste identity and have
politically mobilized themselves to demand an equal status, on par
with other castes rather than raising demands for the abolition of
the caste system. The marginalized castes chose the term Dalit
instead of the apparently patronizing term Harijan, which was
introduced by Mahatma Gandhi to denominate marginalized castes.
The presence of democratic institutions is largely responsible for
the growing consciousness and political mobilization of
marginalized castes in their demand for equal status and equal
respect. It has incorporated castes previously excluded from
political power. In this context, the steady rise of the Bahujan
Samaj Party founded by Kanshi Ram to represent Dalits in 1984 and
claiming to be inspired by the ideas of B.R. Ambedkar is the most
noteworthy case.
Critiques of Indian Democracy:
Despite the many successes attributed to Indian democracy, the
state has failed in eradicating massive poverty and continuing
violence against religious minorities, depressed castes, tribes and
women. Economic equality had failed to be a part of debates on
democracy.

Screening of Samvidhaan Series (Rajya Sabha TV)

ECONOMICS
At the time of Independence, the Indian economy was ridden with many structural
constraints. The economic planners were facing a very tough task of putting the
economy on the development trajectory. The problem was two-fold.
First, they needed to improve the performance of the economy in generating income
and fighting poverty despite the existence of various kinds of constraints and second,
these constraints had to be removed.
The prime constraints that the economy was facing were:
1. Acute shortage of physical capital in relation to the availability of employable
persons.
2. The industrial sector was too weak to bring about any big turnaround.
3. The agricultural sector already had a huge surplus of unemployed or under-employed
persons.
4. The agrarian economy was feudal in nature, the prime concern of which was
exploitation and not the development of agriculture itself.
5. Low saving capacity of the economically drained population.
6. High rate of population
7. Situations on health, food, security, infrastructure and defense fronts was quite
difficult.
India before Independence
The economic growth rate in colonial India was very low but the
situation became far more serious during the first half of the 20th
century. Colonial India was an agrarian economy. The national
income heavily depended on the performance of agriculture, and
the performance of agriculture was dependent on monsoon.
The growth prospects of industry and the tertiary sector depended
on the demands for their goods and services. This demand itself
depended on the agriculture sector.
It is important to note here that the Indian economy then was much
more open than in the post-Independence era. Foreign trade,
therefore, was an important source of demand for the industrial
performance. Thus, agriculture performance was the most
important cause of fluctuations in the national income.
Economic growth during British Raj
Economic growth is defined as a sustained increase in the real per
capita income. This growth depends on three crucial factors,
LAND
The land tenure system in India during the first half of the 20th century was highly
exploitative. The prime goal of the zamindars was to extract maximum possible
rent. Furthermore, there was a large chain of intermediaries between the state
and the tiller of the land. There was economic as well as social exploitation due to
the caste-based control system. The land administrative system during the
colonial times exploited majority of the labor class as well as the farmer
community, in general.
The last half-century of British rule in the United Provinces ( 17 provinces and 562
princely states) witnessed a sharp intensification of agrarian difficulties and an
increasing responsiveness of the land revenue administration to political pressure.
The change in property rights benefitted the landlord class in the zamindari
system, which was largely prevalent in Bihar, Bengal and Orissa whereas the
changes in property rights benefitted the cultivators in the ryotwari area like
Punjab and Western UP.
Interestingly, the area under ryotwari had help India usher in the green revolution.
DEMOCRATIC
DECENTRALIZATION
Being such a huge and highly populated country, India felt the need for
introducing democratic decentralization as a way to make democracy more
sustainable. Democratic decentralization rejects the idea of a highly
centralized State and replaces it with the concept of distribution of power to
the people at large. In this process, the government represents a variety of
people, responds to a variety of interests, and distributes power and
resources in an effective manner.
People occupy the center-stage of democratic development process.
It has objectives of exploring issues like :
1. People’s involvement in issues of governance
2. Accountability of the government to the people
3. Reaching the fruits of development to the people
4. Bridging the gaps of fulfillment / taking appropriate corrective measures
in case of failures in the course of implementation.
PANCHAYAT RAJ
Panchayat Raj Institutions( PRI’s) are not new in India. The age-old village society used to
have a sort of village council which was popularly known as Panchayats. These local bodies
exercised many duties to keep order in their locality. They were the last word in the internal
matters of the village. They also assesses what should be the tax contribution of each
villager and negotiated the village’s collective tax with the king’s representative.
However, during the colonial rule, the PRI’s lost control and their autonomous rule was
thwarted. Statutes like Indian Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code were created by the
British to replace the traditional and customary laws.
However, during the period of drafting our constitution after independence, Mahatma Gandhi
voiced for decentralization structure of a self-sufficient village republic. However, Ambedkar
and his supporters felt that only a strong, centralized State could deliver developmental
services to all segments of society.
Balwantrai. Mehta committee studied the possibility of re-establishing Panchayati Raj
Institutions in India. His recommendations led to the formation of the PRI’s all over the
country.
While distributing powers between Union and States, the Constitution referred to Panchayats
as a subject under the jurisdiction od states. Article 40 ( Directive Principles of State Policy)
stated that the State shall take steps to organize village panchayats and endow them with
powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-
government.