India After Independence Flashcards

1
Q

Challenges for newly independent India

A

When India became independent in August 1947 it faced a lot of challenges.

As a result of partition, 8 million refugees had come into the country from what was now Pakistan

These people had to be found homes and jobs

There was a problem of princely states, almost 500 of them, he ruled by a maharaja or nawab and each of home had to be persuaded to join the new nation

In the longer term, the new nation had to adopt a political system that would best serve the hopes and expectations of its population

India had to adopt a constitution and build a consensus on which ideals the constitution would be based

India was left with a colonial legacy, which had drain the country of its economic wealth and industries

It had impoverished the masses, agricultural lands were heavily burden and where concentrated in the hands of few

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2
Q

Making of the constitution

A

In the situation of challenges, the constituent assembly pondered and discuss the making of the constitution of India

The members of the constituent assembly were not elected on the basis of universal franchise

In 1945 to 46, provincial elections were held in India. The provincial legislature then selected the representatives to the constituent assembly

The constituent assembly that came into being was dominated by congress

The Congress swept the general seats in the provincial elections and the Muslim league captured most of the reserved Muslim seats

The Muslim league choose to Boycott the constituent assembly, pressing its demand for Pakistan with a separate constitution

Though the constituent assembly was dominated by congress, views of its members differed on critical issues

Some members were inspired by socialism, while others were defenders of landlordism. Somewhere close to communal parties, while others were assertively secular

The constituent assembly had 300 members, of which 6 members played particularly important roles

Three were representatives of the Congress, Nehru, Patel and Rajendra Prasad

And the other three were lawyers, Ambedkar, KM Munshi and Alladi krishnaswamy Aiyar from Madras

During the period of British rule, Ambedkar had been a political opponent of the Congress, but on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi, he was asked at independence to join the union cabinet as the law minister

BR Ambedkar served as the chairman of the drafting committee of the constitution.

He was given assistance by 2 civil servants, BN Rao, the constitutional advisor to the Government of India and the chief draughtsman, SN Banerjee.

Hansa Mehta from Bombay demanded social, economic and political justice for women in the constituent assembly

Jawaharlal Nehru moved the resolution proposing that the national flag of India be a horizontal tricolor of saffron, white and dark green in equal proportion with a wheel in navy blue at the centre

On 13 December 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the objectives resolution in the constituent assembly

The objective resolution outlined the defining ideas of the constitution of independence India

A provided the framework within which the work of the constitution-making was to proceed

The constitution of India was framed between December for 1946 and November 1949

During this time, its drafts we discussed clause by clause in the constituent assembly of India

In all, the constituent assembly held 11 sessions with sittings spread over 165 days

In between the sessions, the work of revising and refining the drafts were carried out by various committees and sub committees

The Indian constitution, which came into effect on 26 January 1950 was the longest in the world

At independence, India was deeply divided. A constitution was designed to keep the country together and to take it forward and necessarily to be an elaborate and carefully worked out and drafted document

The constitution was signed in December 1949 after 3 years of debate

One feature of the constitution was its adoption of the universal adult franchise. All Indians above the age of 21 would be allowed to vote in state and national elections

A second feature of the constitution was that it guaranteed equality before law to all its citizens regardless of their caste or religious affiliation

After a long debate, the constituent assembly also recommended that a certain percentage of seats in legislatures as well as jobs in the government be reserved for members of the lowest castes

The constitution stop to balance the power of the central government and States by providing three lists of subjects, the union list, the state list and the concurrent list

The constitution declares India a union with federal features

A major debate in the constituent assembly took place concerning language

Many members believed that the English language should leave India with the British rulers. According to them Hindi should take place of English

A compromise was made that Hindi would be the official language of India, English would be used in courts, services and communication between one state and another

The first general election was held between 1951 to 52 on the basis of universal adult franchise and those above 21 years were eligible to vote

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3
Q

Integration of the princely states

A

Indian independence Act of 1947 and the British paramountcy on India and the princely states where given the choice of either merging with India or Pakistan or remaining independent

On 15th June 1947, all India Congress committee decided that it will not accept independent of any province within the territory of India and it will neither allow any integral part of India to succeed from India

To resolve the issues of provinces, a department of Indian provinces was established on 5th July 1947

It was headed by the than home minister sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

By the time of 15th August 1947, the majority of states had merged into India, but only three states Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir retained autonomy

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4
Q

Junagadh

A

The population of Junagadh was almost 7 lakhs and it had a Hindu majority population, but its ruler was a Muslim nawab, Mahawat Khan

On September 1947, dhanyvad announce the merger of Junagadh into Pakistan but the majority of population wanted to live in India

Due to the resistance of people in Junagadh, the nawab fled to Pakistan

A plebiscite (voting) was held in Junagadh, where the majority of people voted for merger with India

On 8 November 1947, the diwan of Junagadh, Shahnawaz Bhutto send a letter of integration into the Government of India

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5
Q

Kashmir

A

The Kashmir problem was different from that of the other princely States

The majority of population was Muslim but the ruler was a Hindu king

Kashmir decided neither to integrated with Pakistan nor with India and remain independent

But Pakistan attack Kashmir with the help of Tribes of mountain areas

To protect the territory of Kashmir, Raja Hari Singh requested the Indian military for help and integration with India

The Indian government accepted the request and on 26 October 1947 an army was sent to Kashmir

India approach the UNSC with regards to the Pakistan attack on Kashmir

Leading to a ceasefire, but the original status was not established

In the year 1954, the constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir confirmed its integration into India

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6
Q

Hyderabad

A

It was the biggest princely state in India

Surrounded from all sides by Indian territory

The nawab of Hyderabad was Miz Usman Ali Khan

The nawab wanted to integrate with Pakistan but the majority of population was Hindu

Hyderabad signed stands till agreement with India in November 1947 to retain the same status as it had before 15 August 1947

Hyderabad did not remain loyal with the agreement, and it had started building military strength and weaponising its army

By military action in September 1948, Hyderabad was integrated into India

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7
Q

Integration of European colonies

A

After India’s independence, the Portuguese and French colonies existed in India

Portuguese included Goa, Daman and Diu, dadra and Nagar haveli

French included Pondicherry, Karikal, yanam, Mahe and Chandra Nagar

In 1954, a treaty was signed between India and France, according to which all the French colonies were liberated by France

In 1961, Daman and diu + Goa where merged into the republic of India after attaining independence from Portuguese rule

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8
Q

Formation of states and linguistic problem

A

In the 1920s, the Indian National Congress had promise that once the country won independent each major linguistic group would have its own province

But after independence both pm Nehru and deputy pm Vallabhbhai Patel where against the creation of linguistic States

The Kannada, Malayalam and Marathi speakers had all looked forward to having their own state

However the strongest protect scheme from the Telugu speaking districts of the Madras presidency

When Nehru went to campaign there during the general elections of 1952, he was met with black flags and slogans demanding “we want Andhra”

In October 1952, a better than Gandhian named, Potti Sriramulu went on a hunger strike demanding the formation of the Andhra state to protect the interests of Telugu speakers

On 15 December 1952, after 58 days into his fast, he died

Thus, on 1st October 1953, the new state of Andhra came into existence, later called Andhra Pradesh

A state reorganisation Commission was set up with submitted it report in 1956 recommending the red drawing of district and provincial boundaries to form compact provinces of Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu speakers respectively

The Hindi speaking region of North India was broken up into several States

In 1960, the bilingual state of Bombay was divided into separate States for Marathi and Gujarati speakers

In 1966, the state of Punjab was also divided into Punjab and Haryana on linguistic basis. Punjab was for Punjabi language speakers who are mostly sikhs.
Haryana was for the rest who spoke Haryanvi or Hindi

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9
Q

Tribal integration and national consolidation

A

Tribals in India are a heterogeneous community and they were gradually integrated in India

Manipur was a monarchy at the time of independence and it was merged into India in September 1949

In 1969, Meghalaya was made another state within Assam and later a full state in 1972

Nagaland came into being with India in 1963 after a violent rebellion with Dr. Imkongliba accepting the Indian offer of a separate state

Mizoram became a full state in 1987 with Laldenga as its first CM after years of insurgency

In the case of Jharkhand, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Shibu Soren led the demand and got statehood in the year 2000

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10
Q

Development and planning

A

In 1950, the government set of the planning Commission to help designed an execute suitable policies for economic development

A mixed economy model was adopted in which both the state and the private sector played roles in increasing production and generating jobs

In 1956, the second five year plan focused strongly on the development of heavy industries like steel and on the building of large dams

Focus was also put on science and higher education

The Indian council of scientific research and the Indian institute of technology were established

The atomic energy commission under Homi Jahangir Bhabha for development of nuclear energy was set up in 1948

Rural upliftment was done by two programs: community development in 1952 and panchayati Raj in 1959.

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11
Q

Banking sector reforms

A

After independence the government of India made many banking sector reforms

On 1st April 1949, the RBI was nationalized

On 1st July 1955 the Imperial Bank was nationalised and made the State Bank of India

The Government of India made banking one of the branches of social sector reforms and expanded services into social sector

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12
Q

Foreign policy

A

India game freedom soon after the World War 2

The UN formed in 1945 was at its infancy

The 1950s and 60s saw the emergence of the cold war, that is conflicts between the USA and the USSR with both countries creating military alliances

Prime minister Nehru who was also the foreign minister of the newly independence India developed free India’s foreign policy in this context

Non alignment form the bedrock of the this foreign policy

It was led by statesmen from Egypt, yugoslavia, Indonesia, Ghana and India

The NAM urge country is not to join either of the two major alliances

But this policy of staying away from alliances was not a matter of remaining isolated or neutral

Non aligned countries like India played an active role in mediating between the American and Soviet alliances

They tried to prevent war by often taking a humanitarian and moral stand against war

The panchsheel agreement was signed between India and China in 1954 over the issue of Tibet

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13
Q

Panchsheel agreement

A

The panchsheel or five principles of peaceful coexistence was first formally signed on 29th April 1954 between India and China

The agreement was signed between the then prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru and China’s first prime minister Chou En Lai

The main points of panchsheel agreement were;

Peaceful coexistence
Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty

Mutual non interference

Mutual non aggression

Equality and mutual benefits

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14
Q

Non alignment movement

A

The first prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru with Nkrumah from Ghana, nasser from Egypt, sukarno from Indonesia and Tito from Yugoslavia (now Serbia) had a meeting of non aligned nations in New York in October 1960

This 5 comprise the core leadership of the non aligned movement

Free India’s foreign policy reflected all these concerns in the period immediately after independence

Apart from these factors at the global level India had its own share of concerns

As a nation born in the backdrop of the world wars, India decided to conduct its foreign relations with an aim to respect the sovereignty of all Nations and to achieve security through the maintenance of peace

This aim is derived from the directive principles of State policy

Just as both internal and external factors guy the behaviour of an individual or a family, both domestic and international environment influence the foreign policy of a nation

Since independence, cold war was just beginning and the world was getting divided into these two camps

The foreign policy of a nation reflex the interplay of domestic and external factors. Therefore the noble ideas that inspired India’s struggle for freedom influenced the making of its foreign policy

Bandung conference:

The Afro Asian Conference held in the Indonesian city of bandung in 1955 is commonly known as the bandung conference

It marked the Zenith of India’s engagement with the newly independent Asian and African countries

The bandung conference later lead to the establishment of the non alignment movement

The first summit of the NAM was held in Belgrade in September 1961

Nehru was a co-founder of the NAM

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15
Q

PL 480 agreement

A

In the year 1959, the president of America, Dwight D Eisenhower visited India

After he visited the year 1960 he made a 4 year PL 480 agreements between both countries

According to which the USA will fill the food demand in India by exporting food grains

In the year 1964 The USA health India to overcome heavy food shortage in India by exporting huge amounts of food grains to India

This agreement also impacted India negatively as India became dependent on USA for food scarcity

During the year 1965 USA stopped supply of food grains to India as an effect of the India Pakistan war

This event made the government realise that it had to become self sufficient in food production

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16
Q

An evaluation of the ideals in our country

A

India is United and is still democratic

Many foreign observer like Church that India could not survive as a single country and that it would break up into many parts with each region or linguistic group seeking to form a nation of its own

Others believed that it would come under military rule

However since independence it is United despite the several internal conflicts and factions

There is a free press as well as an independent judiciary

Finally the fact that people speak different languages or practice different faiths has not come in the way of National unity

Though deep division persist despite constitutional guarantees

The constitution recognises equality before law but in real life some Indians are more equal than others