question_answer

Explain any three reasons for the dominance of Congress Party in the first three general elections in India.

Or

How did the Reorganization of States place in India after its Independence? Explain.

Answer:

(1) From 1951 until his death in 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru dominated the Congress Party, which won overwhelming victories in the elections of 1951-52, 1957, and 1962. The party united in 1964 to elect Lal Bahadur Shastri and in 1966 Indira Gandhi to the posts of party leader and thus Prime Minister.

(2) One feature of the political parties? m India is chat the parties are generally woven around their leaders, the leaders actively playing a dominant role, the role of leadership can be transferred and tends to take dynastic route. Such parties include both national and regional parties such as Indian National Congress (INC) has been led by Nehru-Gandhi dynasty since independence, starting from Jawaharlal Nehru who dominated the INC and led it to victory in three consecutive elections, then after a brief period his daughter Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister, after the split in INC in 1969 she formed her own party Indian National Congress (requisition) and remained the leader of the party until her death in 1984, when her son Rajiv Gandhi took the reigns and after his death his widow Sonia Gandhi, the current leader of INC took command. As a result of such dominance, the leaders of political parties of the country tend to take an autocratic tone.

(3) One other major feature of the political parties is that, except the communist parties, most of the political parties of India lack an ideological basis. Instead political parties in India are formed on the basis of race, religion, language, caste etc. factors, thus the high number of political parties.

Or

The States Reorganization Act, 1956 was a major reform of the boundaries of India?s states and territories, organizing them along linguistic lines.

Although additional changes to India?s state boundaries have been made since 1956, the States Reorganization Act of 1956 remains the single most extensive change in state boundaries since the independence of India in 1947.

Between 1947 and about 1950, the territories of the princely states were politically integrated into the Indian Union. Most were merged into existing provinces; others were organized into new provinces, such as Rajputana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Bharat, and Vindhya Pradesh, made up of multiple princely states; a few, including Mysore, Hyderabad, Bhopal, and Bilaspur, became separate provinces. The Government of India Act 1935 remained the constitutional law of India pending adoption of a new Constitution.

Demand of states on linguistic basis was developed even before independence of India under British rule. Though that time Indian administrative regions were identified as different provinces. Odisha was the first Indian state formed on linguistic basis in the year 1936 due to the efforts of Madhusudhan Das and became Orissa Province. In Odisha linguistic movement started in the year 1895 and intensified later years with the demand of separate province from Bihar and Orissa Province.

In December 1953, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appointed the States Reorganisation Commission to recognize the Indian states known as the Fazal Alt Commission. The Commission created a report on September 30, 1955 recommending the reorganization of India?s states. The parliament debated on the report. Finally, a bill making changes in the constitution and reorganizing states was passed and was implemented from November 1, 1956.