Post Independence Reorganization

Dhar Commission

❑The integration & merger of princely states was purely ad hoc arrangement & there was need for reorganization of states on a permanent basis on account of the haphazard growth of provinces, disparity between various states & multilingual nature of the states.

❑Linguistic Provinces Commission

❑In 1948, the government appointed commission under S KDhar, to examine the case for the reorganization of states on the linguistic basis.

❑Administrative convenience rather linguistic factor

JVP Committee❑In December, 1948, Congress appointed a Linguistic Provinces committee under Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabh Bhai Patel & PattabhiSitaramayya to examine the issue afresh.

❑The committee, in a report submitted in April, 1949, dismissed the idea of reorganization on a linguistic basis.

❑However the committee stated that the problem may be re-examined in the light of public demand.

First Linguistic State

❑1953: the government was forced to create a separate state of Andhra Pradesh for Telugu-speaking people following the long-drawn agitation & death of Potti Sriramulu after a hunger strike for 56 days.

Fazl Ali Commission

❑This led to the demand for creation of states on linguistic basis from other parts of country & on December 22, 1953, Nehru announced the appointment of a commission under Fazl Ali to consider this demand.

❑K M Pannikkar & H N Kuzru

Fazl Ali Commission❑Broadly accepted language as the criteria

❑Rejected one language one state

❑Said unity of India should be primary consideration.

❑Recommended abolishing 4 fold classification of states

❑It recommended the reorganization of the whole country into 16 states & 3 centrally administered areas.

Fazl Ali Commission

❑However, the government did not accept these recommendations in toto.

❑It removed distinction between Part A & Part B states

❑Part C states were abolished

❑ As a result 14 states & 6 union territories on November 1 ,1956

Division of the State of Bombay

❑1960: As a result of agitation & violence, the states of Maharashtra & Gujarat were created by bifurcating the state of Bombay.

❑With this the strength of the Indian states rose to 15.

Dadra & Nagar Haveli

• Liberated : 1954

• An administrator ran it till 1961

• 1961: Union territory

Goa, Daman & Diu

• 12th UT in 1962

Puducherry

• 1954: India

• Acquired Territory

• 1962:UT

Formation of Nagaland

❑In 1963, the state of Nagaland was formed to placate the Nagas.

❑However, before providing it the status of a full-fledged state, it was placed under the control of the Governor of Assam in 1961.

❑With this the strength of the Indian states rose to 16.

Shah Commission❑In 1966, the Parliament passed the Punjab Reorganization Act

after an agitation for the formation of Punjabi Subha. This step was taken on the recommendation of the Shah Commission appointed in April, 1966.

❑As a result of this act, the Hindi speaking areas were constituted into the state of Haryana & the hilly areas were merged with the adjoining Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh.

❑ Chandigarh was made a Union Territory & was to serve as a common capital of Punjab & Haryana. The 2 states were also to have a common High Court, common university and joint arrangement for the management of the major components of the existing irrigation and power system.

❑With the division of Punjab, the strength of states rose to 17.

Himachal Pradesh

• 1971: With the elevation of the union territory of Himachal Pradesh to the status of a state, the strength of Indian states rose to 18

Further Formation of the State❑1972: Manipur 19th, Tripura 20th the state of Meghalaya 21st was created out of the state of Assam. Initially, the state was given autonomous status within Assam, but subsequently it was made a full-fledged state.

❑ 1975, Sikkim was admitted as a state of the Indian Union. Initially, Sikkim was given the status of an associate state but was subsequently made a full-fledged state.

❑1986 it was decided to give Mizoram, a Union Territory of India, the status of a full-fledged state. However, it actually acquired the status of a state in February 1987 & became the 23rd state of the Indian Union.

Further Formation of the State❑February 1987 Arunachal Pradesh, another Union Territory of India, was also given the status of a state & became the 24th

state of the Indian Union.

❑May 1987 the state of Goa was created by separating the territory of Goa from the Union territory of Goa, Daman & Diu.

❑While Daman and Diu continued to be a Union Territory, Goa became the 25th state of the Indian Union.

❑3 new states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand & Uttaranchal were created in November 2000.

❑ 2014: Telangana(29th state)

❑ 2019: J & K bifurcation

❑ 2020: Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman & Diu merged into one union territory.

Non-Alignment Movement

❑ It was Nehru who gave a shape to the idea of non-alignment.

❑ The immediate context for the emergence of this movement was the division of the world into 2 hostile blocs.

❑ Nehru’s understanding was that newly independent, poor countries of Asia & Africa had nothing to gain & every thing to lose by falling for the temptation of joining the military blocs of the big powers.

❑ Their needs were to fight poverty , & illiteracy & disease, & these could not be met by joining military blocs.

❑ On the contrary , India & other similarly placed countries needed peace & quiet to get on with the business of development.

❑India, therefore, neither joined nor approved of the Baghdad Pact, the Manila Treaty , SEATO & CENTO which joined the countries of West & East Asia to the Western power bloc.

❑But India went far beyond just neutrality or staying out of military blocs.

❑Nehru was quick to reject the charge of ‘immoral neutrality ’ hurled at India by John Foster Dulles.

❑Non-alignment meant having the freedom to decide each issue on its merits, to weigh what was right or wrong & then take a stand in favor of right.

Tamil Nation & DMK❑ The DMK emerged in the fifties as a party & a movement that thrived on

strong caste, regional, & even secessionist sentiments.

❑ It was the heir to two strands of the pre-independence period movements in Tamil Nadu Justice party

❑ Self-Respect Movement.

❑ 1944: Naicker & C.N. Annadurai established Dravida Kazhagam(Federation) or DK which split in 1949 when Annadurai founded the Dravida Munnetra (Progressive) Kazhagam (DMK).

Tamil Nation & DMK

❑ But, significantly, in contrast to the Justice party & Naicker, Annadurai had taken up a strongly anti-imperialist, pro-nationalist position before 1947.

❑ Along with M. Karunanidhi & M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) & other film personalities—actors, directors & writers—Annadurai used dramas, films, journals, pamphlets & other mass media to reach out to the people.

❑ The DMK was strongly anti-Brahmin, anti-North & anti-Aryan— southern Brahmins & North Indians being seen as Aryans, all other South Indians as Dravidas.

❑ Naicker & others had earlier in 1938 organized a movement against the decision of the Congress ministry to introduce Hindi in Madras schools, labelling it to be an aspect of Brahmanical North Indian cultural domination.

❑ DMK also decided to oppose what it described as expansion of Hindi ‘imperialism’ in the South.

❑ It’s main demand, however, was for a homeland for the Dravidas in the form of a separate independent South Indian state—Dravidnadu or Dravidasthan.

❑ During the fifties & sixties, however, there were several developments that gradually led to a change in the basic political thrust of DMK.

❑ K Kamaraj

❑ There was also a gradual change in DMK's secessionist plank as it began to participate in elections & in parliamentary politics.

❑ That a change was coming became visible when, in the 1962 elections it entered into an alliance with Swatantra & CPI & did not make a separate Dravidnadu a campaign issue though it was still a part of its manifesto.

❑ Later still, during the India-China war, it rallied to the national cause, fully supported the government, & suspended all propaganda for secession.

❑ A further and final change came when, as a result of Nehru’s determination to deal firmly with any secessionist movement, the 16th Constitutional Amendment was passed in 1962 declaring the advocacy of secession a crime & requiring every candidate to parliament or state assembly to swear ‘allegiance to the Constitution’ & to ‘uphold the sovereignty & integrity of India.’

❑ The DMK immediately amended its Constitution & gave up the demand for secession.

Issue of language

➢ The language problem was the most divisive issue in the first 20 years of independent India.

➢ Linguistic identity during first 20 years after independence had become a strong force in all societies.

➢ Due to diversity in languages, this language issue became more difficult to tackle.

➢ The dispute over official language of the union.

The Official language

➢ Opposition to Hindi as a national language tended to create conflict between Hindi speaking & non Hindi speaking regions of the country.

➢ The issue of a national language was resolved when the constitution-makers virtually accepted all the major languages as "languages of India".

➢ Being a foreign language Gandhi opposed the idea that English would be an all India medium of communications in free India.

➢ Hindi was chosen over Hindustani [written in Devanagari or Urdu script] to be the official language of India & but the national language.

➢ The issue of the time-frame for a shift from English to Hindi produced a divide between Hindi & non Hindi areas. Proponents of Hindi wanted immediate switch over, while non Hindi areas advocated retention of English for a long if not indefinite period.

➢ Nehru was in favour of making Hindi the official language, but he also favoured English to be continuing as an additional official language.

➢ The constitution provided that Hindi in Devanagari script with international numerals would be India's official language.

➢ English was to continue for use in all official purposes till 1965, when it would be replaced by Hindi in phased manner.

➢ However, Parliament would have the power to provide for the use of English for specified purposes even after 1965.

➢ In 1956, the report of the official language commission set up in 1955 in terms of a constitutional provision, recommended that Hindi should start progressively replacing English in various functions of the central government with effective change taking place in 1965.

➢ Two members of commission, one each from West Bengal & Tamil Nadu, dissented this while accusing other members for pro-Hindi Bias.

➢ To allay the fear of non Hindi speakers Nehru in the Parliament in 1959, assured them that English would continue as alternate language as long as the people require it.

➢ In 1963, official languages Act was passed. The object of the Act, was to remove a restriction which had been placed by the constitution on the use of English after a certain dates namely 1965.

➢ Because of ambiguity in Official Languages Act due to the world "may" instead of "shall", they criticized it.

➢ Now, many non Hindi leaders in protest demanded that there should be no deadline fixed for the changeover.

➢ There was immense amount of protests in Tamil Nadu, some students burnt themselves, Two Tamil Ministers in Union Cabinet, C. Subramaniam & Alagesan resigned, 60 people died due to police firing during agitation.

➢ Later when Indira Gandhi became PM in 1966, in 1967, she moved a amendment to the 1963 official Languages Act.

Features of Amended Act:

➢ The Parliament adopted a policy resolution laying down that the public service exams were to be conducted in Hindi & English & in all the regional languages with the provision that the candidates should have additional knowledge of Hindi or English.

The 1962 Chinese Attack

❑ Sino-Indian war erupts

over a border dispute.

Hindi-Chini are not

bhai-bhai

❑ The Chinese declared a unilateral withdrawal and, as unpredictably as it had appeared, the Chinese dragon disappeared from sight, leaving behind a heartbroken friend & a confused & disoriented people.

❑ India took a long time to recover from the blow to its self-respect, and perhaps it was only the victory over Pakistan in the Bangladesh war, in which China & the US were also supporting Pakistan, that restored the sense of self-worth.

❑ Nehru never really recovered from the blow, & his death in May 1964 was most likely hastened by it.

❑ He was forced to sacrifice Krishna Menon, his longtime associate & then Defence Minister.

❑ The policy of nonalignment, which he had nurtured with such care, seemed for a while unlikely to be able to withstand the body -blow delivered by a friend.

❑ The irony was that it was derailed by a Socialist country & not by a capitalist power.

❑ Right-wing forces & pro-West elements loudly criticized Nehru.

❑ The Third Plan was badly affected & resources had to be diverted for defence.

❑ 1964 Prime Minister Nehru dies. A nation is orphaned

Lal Bahadur Shastri❑ Nehru’s death in May 1964 provided a test of the strength of the Indian political system.

❑ There were two main contenders for the leadership of the Congress parliamentary party &

therefore for the prime minister’s job, Morarji Desai & Lal Bahadur Shastri.

❑ Desai was senior & more experienced, a sound administrator & scrupulously honest. But he

was rigid & inflexible in outlook and had the reputation of being self-righteous, arrogant,

intolerant & a right-winger. Moreover, he was quite unpopular with a large section of the

party.

❑ Shastri was mild, tactful & malleable, highly respected & known to be personally

incorruptible.

❑ The succession occurred under the direction of a group of Congress leaders who came to be

collectively known as the Syndicate.

❑ Desai was utterly unacceptable to them. They favored Shastri because, in addition to his other

qualities, he had wider acceptability in the party and which would keep the party united.

❑ Accepting the limited character of his political mandate, Shastri did not make any major

changes in Nehru's Cabinet, except for persuading Indira Gandhi, to join it as Minister of

Information & Broadcasting.

❑ Under him, the cabinet ministers functioned more autonomously. He also did not interfere in

party affairs or with the working of the state governments.

❑ On the whole, he kept a low political profile except towards the end of his administration.

❑ With the passage of time, however, Shastri began to show greater independence & to assert

himself, so much so that Kamaraj began to complain that Shastri was quite often bypassing

him in important decision-making.

❑ Shastri also set up his own Secretariat, headed by L.K. Jha, his principal private secretary.

Which was a source of information & advice to the prime minister on policy matters,

independent of the ministries.

Indo-Pak War of 1965❑ First came the dress rehearsal and a probe. Pakistan tested India’s

response to a military push by occupying in April 1965 a part of the disputed & un demarcated territory in the marshy Rann of Kutch.

❑ There was a military clash but, because of the nature of the terrain, India’s military response was weak & hesitant.

❑ On Britain's intervention, the two sides agreed to refer the dispute to international arbitration.

❑ Unfortunately, the conflict in the Rann of Kutch sent wrong signals to the rulers of Pakistan, who concluded that India's government & armed forces were not yet ready for war.

Indo-Pak War of 1965❑ They paid no heed to Shastri’s statement; given in consultation with the

Army Chief, General J.N. Chaudhri, that whenever India gave battle it would be ‘at a time & place of its own choosing.’

❑ In August, the Pakistan government sent well-trained infiltrators into the Kashmir Valley, hoping to foment a pro-Pakistan uprising there & thus create conditions for its military intervention.

❑ Taking into account the seriousness of this Pakistan-backed infiltration, Shastri ordered the army to cross the ceasefire line & seal the passes through which the infiltrators were coming & to occupy such strategic posts as Kargil, Uri & Haji Pir.

❑ In response, on 1 September, Pakistan launched a massive tank & infantry attack in Jammu & Kashmir, threatening India’s only road link with Kashmir.

❑ Shastri immediately ordered the Indian army to not only defend Kashmir but also to move across the border into Pakistan towards Lahore & Sialkot.

❑ Thus, the two countries were involved in war, though an undeclared one.

❑ The USA & Britain immediately cut off arms, food, & other supplies to both countries.

❑ China declared India to be an aggressor & made threatening noises.

❑ However, the Soviet Union, sympathetic to India, discouraged China from going to Pakistan's aid.

❑ Under pressure from the UN Security Council, both combatants agreed to a ceasefire that came into effect on 23 September.

❑ The only effective result was that 'invasion by infiltration' of Kashmir had been foiled.

❑ Indians were, however, euphoric over the performance of the Indian armed forces which recovered some of their pride, prestige & self-confidence lost in the India-China war.

❑ Moreover, India as a whole emerged from the conflict politically stronger & more unified. There were also several other satisfactory aspects.

❑ The infiltrators had not succeeded in getting the support of Kashmiri people. As a result of the war, Shastri became a national hero & a dominating political figure.

❑ Subsequent to the ceasefire agreement & under the good offices of the Soviet Union, General Ayub Khan, & Shastri met in Tashkent in Soviet Union on 4 January 1966 & signed the Tashkent Declaration.

❑ Under this Declaration, both sides agreed to withdraw from all occupied areas & return to their pre-war August positions.

❑ In case of India, this meant withdrawing from the strategic Haji Pir pass through which Pakistani infiltrators could again enter the Kashmir Valley & giving up other strategic gains in Kashmir.

❑ Shastri agreed to these unfavorable terms as the other option was the resumption of the mutually disastrous war; that would also have meant losing Soviet support on the Kashmir issue in the UN Security Council & in the supply of defence equipment, especially MiG planes & medium & heavy tanks.

Tashkent Declaration

❑ The Tashkent Conference had a tragic consequence. Shastri, who had a history of heart

trouble, died in Tashkent of a sudden heart attack on 10 January, having served as PM for

barely 19 months.

Indira Gandhi becomes PM

The growth of coalition era❑ The 1967 elections also initiated the dual era of short-lived coalition

governments & politics of defection.

❑ However, the elections broke Congress’s monopoly of power in the states.

❑ Congress was replaced not by a single party in any of the states but by a multiplicity of parties and groups and independents.

❑ Coalition governments were formed in all opposition-ruled states except in Tamil Nadu.

The growth of coalition era❑ Congress too formed coalition governments in some of the states where it

had been reduced to a minority, allying with independents & breakaway groups from the opposition parties.

❑ Except the DMK government in Tamil Nadu & the Swatantra-led government in Orissa, the coalition governments in all the other states, whether formed by Congress or the opposition, proved to be highly unstable and could not stay in power for long.

❑ All the coalition governments suffered from constant tensions and internal strains because of the heterogeneity of the partners.

❑ Parties, including Congress, would topple existing governments, change partners & form new governments.

❑ In between governments, a state would sometimes undergo a period of President’s Rule or even mid-term polls, which seldom changed the pattern of seats in the assembly.

❑ Thus, from the 1967 general elections to the end of 1970, Bihar had 7 governments, U.P. 4, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab & West Bengal 3 each and Kerala 2 governmental changes, with a total of 8 spells of President's Rule in the 7 states.

❑ The other important feature of the coalition governments of the

period was the beginning of the politics of defection.

❑ Many of the governmental changes in the northern states were

the result of defections or floor crossings by individual

legislators, both party members & independents.

❑ Corrupt legislators indulged in horse-trading and freely

changed sides, attracted mainly by lure of office or money. In

Haryana, where the defection phenomenon was first initiated,

defecting legislators began to be called Aya Ram & Gaya Ram

(in-coming Ram and out-going Ram).

❑ Consequently, except in the case of the 2 Communist parties &

Jan Sangh, party discipline tended to break down.

Politics of Defection

1969 Congress splits in two – one faction under Indira Gandhi, the other, Congress O, under K

Kamaraj

Seventies: The Rise, Fall And Rise Of

❑Indira is India, and India is Indira', said a Congress sycophant in the 1970s, a decade that-for good and for ill- will forever be identified with the country's first woman prime minister.

❑Politically speaking, the decade actually began in the second half of 1969, when Indira Gandhi split the Congress party, nationalized the banks, & set in motion the abolition of the princely order.

❑ Having refashioned herself as a messiah of the poor, Mrs Gandhi then fought and won the 1971 elections on the compelling slogan, 'GaribiHatao’.

❑ Before the year ended, she had won a more emphatic victory-in the battlefield- against Pakistan.

❑ Opposition politicians were now falling over one another to sing her praises.

❑ The luck, it seemed, was all running Mrs Gandhi's way-she could even take credit for the Green Revolution, which had actually been set in motion by her predecessor Lal Bahadur Shastri, who did not, however, live long enough to enjoy its fruits.

❑ Halfway through her term, Mrs Gandhi was truly the monarch of all she surveyed.

❑ Even Nehru in his heyday had not enjoyed such enormous & countrywide adulation.

❑ But then a veteran freedom-fighter named Jayaprakash Narayan abandoned social work to re-enter politics. Disgusted, he said, by the corruption & degeneration around him, he had decided to join the youth of his native Bihar in restoring, to public life, the values of the national movement.

❑ Through 1974, Bihar saw a series of strikes & processions, demanding the resignation of the Congress Government in the state.

❑One protest, in Gaya, provoked the police into firing on unarmed demonstrators; in another protest, in Patna, the police rained lathis on Narayan himself.

❑By now, the 'Bihar movement' had been renamed the 'JP Movement’.

❑To its banner flocked students of all stripes, & also the major Opposition parties.

❑No longer did it merely want a change of regime in Bihar; it demanded that Indira Gandhi herself vacate her chair & seek a fresh mandate from the people.

❑ In the second week of June, 1975, the JP Movement got a huge boost when a court in Allahabad ruled that Mrs Gandhi was guilty of electoral malpractice.

❑ The call for her resignation grew louder; instead, the Prime Minister imposed a state of Emergency on the nation.

❑ Opposition leaders were jailed, & the press censored. There was surprisingly little dissent.

❑ The trains ran on time. The rains that year were good, bringing down prices and inflation.

❑ Once more, it seemed that the Gods were smiling indulgently on Indira Gandhi.

❑ Under her benign care even the country's notoriously under-performing sportsmen were tasting success. India won the hockey World Cup towards the end of 1975; then, in early 1976, our cricketers beat the mighty West Indies.

❑ As the winning runs were scored in distant Port of Spain, All India Radio commentator credited the victory to the Prime Minister & her 20 point programme. 'Ye Indira Gandhi ka desh hai!', he shouted, 'Ye bis sutrikarikram ka desh hai!'

❑ Behind the facade of the mother's rule, a younger son was swiftly rising. ❑ Sanjay Gandhi had no time for democracy-' future generations will not

remember us by how many elections we had', he once said, 'but by the progress we made'.

❑ Progress, itself, he defined in rather narrow terms- the number of slums demolished, the number of young men sterilized. Following his instructions, bulldozers moved into Old Delhi, provoking a riot while teams of Government officials fanned into the North Indian countryside, pulling villagers into vans & driving them to the hospital.

❑ By its 2nd year, the Emergency had generated a great deal of fear & terror. ❑ Then, in January 1977, & without consulting Sanjay, the PM announced

that she was returning India to democratic rule.❑ In the elections held in March, her Congress party was trounced by a

merger, hastily cobbled together, of 4 older parties that called itself the Janta party.

❑ During Emergency, a series of Constitutional amendments had been introduced, centralising power in the office and person of the Prime Minister.

❑ Now the original provisions were restored.

❑ Directing the restoration were the new Prime Minister Morarji Desai & his hardworking Law Minister Shanti Bhushan.

❑ As historian Granville Austin has written, the Janata Government enjoyed a "remarkable success in repairing the Constitution from the Emergency's depredations, in reviving open parliamentary practice through its consultative style, & in restoring the judiciary's independence".

❑ Towards the end of 1979 the Janata Party collapsed under the weight of its contradictions. In the mid-term poll that resulted, the Congress returned to power.

❑ Thus ended a decade momentous in the history of the nation, and momentous also in the life of one particular individual.

❑ For between 1970 & 1980, Mrs Gandhi had tasted Kipling's two impostors, success & failure, in full & equal measure.

❑ The decade also saw the introduction of the dynastic principle.

❑ While Jawaharlal Nehru never wished or hoped that his daughter would become Prime Minister, Mrs Gandhi made it clear that Sanjay would, when the time came, succeed her.

❑ After he died, the succession was transferred by her to Rajiv. In time, the precedent set by India's oldest party was adopted by most others.

❑ That is the legacy of the decade of the 1970s, & of its pre-eminent political figure, Indira Gandhi.

❑ Discuss the major hurdles in unification of India after independence.

❑ The tenure of Shastri was small but eventful. Comment

❑ Compare the terms of Nehru & Indira as PM. Outline their successes & failures

Questions