8th Class Social Science India After Independence Notes - Independence and Aftermath

 

Independence and Aftermath

 

 

Freedom and independence came to India with a heavy price. The journey after independence was not a smooth one either. The young nation had suffered the throes of partition at its very birth. Many challenges lay ahead?both within the country and outside. After overcoming many obstacles, today, India is emerging as the world's largest democracy and one of the fastest-growing economies of the world.

 

Two nations were created on 14th August, 1947. India, the largest democracy in the world, came into being; symbolising a new hope, a new promise to the millions of people who had till then been under the British flag.

 

CHALLENGES BEFORE INDEPENDENT INDIA

 

REHABILITATION OF REFUGEES

The partition caused mass movement of people across the borders. Due to partition, millions of people were uprooted and had to flee from their homes. Eight million refugees crossed the newly drawn border to reach India. There were millions of refugees without a home. Delhi received the largest number of refugees. The new government now had a big responsibility of rehabilitating them. There was shortage of almost everything; from food to medicines, from industry and infrastructure to skilled manpower and from housing to distribution systems. Thus, a massive nationwide program, was launched for relief and aid.

 

 

INTEGRATION OF PRINCELY STATES

 

Till independence, a large part of India was under the British government and was referred to as the British India. There were about 560 states called 'Princely States' that were ruled by maharajas or nawabs. Also, a few territories were under the control of the French and the Portuguese.

 

 

According to the Indian Independence Act of 1947, monarchy was abolished and the Princely States had to join either India or Pakistan. Most of them joined the Indian Union. Sardar Vallabhai Patel played a major role in the integration of the Princely States.

 

History Reveals

The Nizam of Hyderabad wanted his state to remain independent. Indian troops were sent to Hyderabad in a military operation with the code name 'Operation Polo' to take control of the state. The Nizam, then agreed to accede to the Indian Union.

 

The unification of India was incomplete without the inclusion of French and Portuguese enclaves. The French territories were acceded to India in November 1954. However, the Portuguese refused to leave India. An uprising in Dadra and Nagar Haveli threw off the Portuguese rule there. In 1961, the Indian army liberated Goa, Daman and Diu from the Portuguese control.

 

DRAFTING A CONSTITUTION

 

 

After independence, a formidable task that lay ahead was drafting a suitable constitution for India. This was no easy task. It was undertaken by the Constituent Assembly consisting of about 300 members. These members were eminent personalities. The President of the Constituent Assembly was Dr. Rajendra Frasad and the Chairman of the Drafting Committee was Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. The members met regularly between December/ 1946 and November, 1949. It was approved on26th November 1949. Ittook2years, 11 months and 17 days to frame the Constitution. It came into effect on January 26th, 1950.

 

 

History Reveals

On 26th January, 1950, the Constituent Assembly ceased to exist, transforming itself into the Provisional Parliament of India, until a new Parliament was constituted in 1952 via general elections.

 

The Indian Constitution was based on the principles of democracy and equality. The Constitution guarantees adult franchise. This means, that the right to vote should be given to all adult citizens without the discrimination of caste, class, colour, religion or gender. It is based on equality which is the basic principle of democracy. To deny any class of persons from exercising this right, is to violate their right to equality. In fact, in other countries, initially, the right to vote was not given to women. They were given this right after prolonged struggle. In India, women got the right to vote just after independence. Every person became equal before the law. It means that every person from the President to the worker, has to obey the same rule. Even though Hindus were in majority, it was not a Hindu State.

 

There were no special privileges for Hindus and people of all religions had equal rights. They all had equal opportunities.

 

Also, caste system and untouchability were abolished. The lower castes that had been oppressed for centuries were now considered equal. Earlier, they were denied entrance to public places or even temples. Every person has access to all public places including temples, playgrounds, hotels, shops and markets etc. Untouchability is a punishable offense. Also, the tribals had been deprived of their rights and had no access to education, jobs and healthcare have been taken care of by the Constitution. The Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Castes have been provided special privileges in education and government jobs through reservations.

 

The Constitution made India a "Union of States". It was important to divide power between the Central and State governments. There were arguments that a strong centre was important whereas some felt that states should be given greater autonomy in keeping with the principles of democracy. So/ the Constitution has divided the powers between the central and state governments. There are three lists in the Constitution. The Union List has subjects which are of national importance and only the central government can make laws on these subjects.

The State List has subjects on which the state governments can make laws. There is a third list called the Concurrent List which has subjects on which both can make laws.

 

 

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar played a very important role in drafting the Constitution. According to him, "political democracy has been achieved by universal adult franchise but political democracy does not lead to social and   economic democracy. We need to achieve these also."

 

REFORMATION OF STATES

 

Before independence, the election manifesto of the Congress Party had promised the creation of states on linguistic lines. However, after independence, the scenario was different.

Formation of Andhra Pradesh

 

The contribution of Potti Sriramulu is infinite for the creation of the State of Andhra Pradesh. After I independence,   Andhras felt that a separate Province would be formed but they were disappointed as Andhra Province was nowhere in sight, even five years later. Potti Sriramulu, a dedicated Congress worker, undertook a fast on 19th October, 1952; so that the Andhras may have a state of their own. He attempted to force the government to separate Andhra along linguistic lines. Violence erupted in many places and there were strikes to support him. After 56 days of the hunger strike, he died. It was the martyrdom of Potti Sriramulu that led to the creation of a separate Andhra State in October, 1953.

 

 

 

India had already suffered division along religious lines. Now the Indian government was reluctant to divide India on linguistic basis. People felt cheated, as they were awaiting the creation of states with their native language.

 

 

Jawaharlal Nehru appointed the States Reorganisation Commission in 1953. It was headed by Justice Fazal Ali and its task was to reorganise state boundaries along linguistic lines. The Linguistic formation of Andhra Pradesh resulted in growth of lingualism and regionalism. Thus, Tamil-speaking people demanded for Tamil Nadu, Kanada-speaking people demanded for Karnataka and so on. The States Reorganisation Commission submitted its report in 1956. Consequently, 14 new states and 6 Union Territories were formed based on the language. The north-eastern states were also formed on the basis of language.

 

CHOOSING AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

 

Another major challenge that the Indian government had to face was the decision on India's national language. India is a land of many languages. There was a need for a common language to link the people of different states.

 

After much debate, the government chose Hindi as the official language of India. It was to be written in Devnagri script. People speaking other languages felt that the decision to choose Hindi as the official language was an attempt to sideline their culture. The Central government finally decided to allow the state governments to choose their own official languages and recognised 22 such Indian languages. It was also declared that English could also be used for official purposes. Neither the Constitution nor any Indian law specifies a national language.

 

History Reveals

Sikkim, the Himalayan state sandwiched between India and China, was merged with India in 1975. A referendum was held which approved its merger with India, thus abolishing monarchy.

 

ECONOMIC CHALLENGES

 

The British rule in India had led total stagnation of agriculture and industries. In 1947, the economy was in a terrible shape. The major wheat and rice producing areas went to Pakistan. Consequently, there was food shortage. Fanners were reduced to destitution. No irrigation facilities were available. The jute industry suffered because the major jute producing areas also went to Eastern Pakistan. To improve the economy was one of the most urgent tasks of the government.

 

Planning for development

The new Indian State was faced with a Herculean task of development. There was devastating poverty.

 

 

The government followed the strategy of planned growth for the economy. The Planning Commission was set up in March 1950 with Jawaharlal Nehru as its Chairman. Its objective was to plan and initiate the process of development.

 

 

 

 

 

It was decided that India would be a mixed economy in which both, government and private individuals, exercise economic control and contribute to the development of the country. The Planning Commission made a succession of Five Year Plans to hasten the development of the country. The first Five Year Plan was launched in 1951. Its main objective was development of agriculture. It was thought that improving agriculture would reduce poverty and provide food for the growing population. The government also developed irrigation facilities and many dams and hydro-electric projects were undertaken. The 2nd Five Year Plan focused on rapid industrialisation particularly the basic and heavy industries. Industries also benefited with the boost in agriculture.

 

 

INDIA'S FOREIGN POLICY

India's foreign policy was formulated by our national leaders soon after independence. Under the guidance of Jawaharlal Nehru, India championed the cause of world peace and attained an important place in world affairs. The United Nations (UN) was formed after the Second World War. It aimed at establishing world peace. India became one of the founding members of the UN.

 

 

History Reveals

Jawaharlal Nehru called dams the "Temples of Modern India".

 

 

Non-Aligned Movement

Soon after the Second World War, the world was divided into two power blocs. One was the eastern or Communist Bloc led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The other capitalist bloc was led by the United States of America (USA). Though there was no actual war between these power blocs, there was mutual distrust and suspicion leading to tension and conflict.

 

 

India did not want to be aligned with either of the power blocs. It joined the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) launched in 1961. The NAM organisation was founded by the leaders of Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Yugoslavia and India. Their action, to not give any favour to any of the two power blocs is called as 'The Initiative of Five'. Its members were countries that had acquired freedom recently and did not want to be aligned with any of these power blocs/ because it could endanger their freedom.

 

The NAM clearly stated that each country had the right to follow an independent foreign policy without intervention of any country.

 

INDIA TODAY

After nearly seventy years of independence, India has come a long way. It is the largest democracy. In spite of being a land of diversity, it is still united. In fact, there is unity in diversity. However, though India has achieved political democracy, it has a long way to go to achieve social and economic democracy. Some of the major challenges faced today are:

 

Overpopulation?the ever increasing population is a major threat to the country. The country's population ranks second only to China.

 

Illiteracy?All the rural and a large portion of the urban population are illiterate. The progress of the country, to a large extent depends on educating the masses.

Caste system?the caste system is still prevalent especially in rural areas. This leads to caste politics.

 

Unemployment?One of India's most difficult problems is unemployment. About 5 million people become eligible for jobs every year.

 

Communalism?Though India is a secular state, communal tensions and religion based politics still exist and have led to large scale violence in India.

 

The government has implemented various short and long term programmes. India has been able to achieve a significant breakthrough in agriculture and industry. Also/ the government has introduced various employment schemes and is working hard towards eradication of social evils like?caste system/ communalism, literacy, unemployment and over population.

Around the World

In 1947, the Indian subcontinent was partitioned into India and Pakistan. Present day Bangladesh became the Eastern Wing of the then Pakistan. But the movement for autonomy of East Pakistan started within a couple of years because of language and cultural differences and economic disparity between the two wings. The Lingual Movement of 1952 to recognise Bangla as a state language may be termed as the first step towards independence. The drive to reinstate the Bangla language metamorphosed into a push for self-government when the Awami League, a nationalistic party, won a majority in the 1971 national elections. The President of Pakistan, faced unacceptable result with this and postponed opening the National Assembly. Riots and strikes broke out in East Pakistan. The ensuing war was one of the shortest and bloodiest of modem times. In 11 days, it was all over and Bangladesh, the world's 139th country, officially came into existence. Sheikh Mujib, one of the founders of the Awami League, became the country's first Prime Minister in January 1972.