week 3: “ indira is india, india is indira ” lecture 6
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Week 3: “ Indira is India, India is Indira ” Lecture 6. Prof Prerna Singh . After Nehru?. Pressing Problems . Foreign: War with Pakistan (1965). War with Pakistan. Pressing Problems . Foreign: War with Pakistan (1965) Domestic: Question of National Language . Pressing Problems . - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Week 3: “Indira is India, India is Indira”
Lecture 6
Prof Prerna Singh
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AfterNehru?
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Pressing Problems Foreign:
◦ War with Pakistan (1965)
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War with Pakistan
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Pressing Problems Foreign:
◦ War with Pakistan (1965)
Domestic:◦ Question of National Language
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Pressing Problems Foreign:
◦ War with Pakistan (1965)
Domestic:◦ Question of National Language◦ Problem of Food Shortages
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Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India, 1964-1966
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Indira Gandhi
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Why Indira? Vote getter
Could be controlled
Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, 1966-1977, 1980-1984
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Indira Gandhi
Forged direct link with masses Populist “socialist” initiatives
Split the Congress Party◦ Congress (Indira)
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Establishment of powerful connection with the masses
Drive towards personalization and centralization of power
“Indira is India, India is Indira”
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Highly Controversial Figure
Savior of the Masses or Tyrannical Villain
Amma or ‘Nazi Priestess’
Indira Gandhi
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Common Scholarly Assessment:
Deinstitutionalizing India◦ Weakening Congress party,
bureaucracy and other institutions
◦ Undermining Indian democracy
Revisionist Assessment: Situated Mrs Gandhi’s
problems in the context of the number and magnitude of the problems
Indira Gandhi
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Was Mrs Gandhi more a cause or consequence of the personalization and deinstitutionalization of the Indian polity?
Indira Gandhi
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Ashis Nandy: Psychoanalysis of
Indira, as a politician and Indian society
Indira Gandhi
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Mahatma Gandhi with a young Indira Nehru
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What kind of mass sentiments allow authoritarian politics to come to the fore?
Indira Gandhi
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Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦ Crisis of National Faith Rise of Post-Independence generation Cracks in the Nehruvian edifice are beginning to show
Humiliating defeat in Sino-Indian War Low economic growth Agricultural Problem High poverty Abysmal social services
Vast numbers of illiterate, rural, disgruntled poor Land grab programs Rise of Revolutionary Class Movements
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Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik
Against Gandhi, Nehru “Pure Politics” Gandhi as an aberration Tough politics for Tough Times Middle classes and intelligentsia cheered her on as a
“real leader”
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Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik◦ Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder
Economic problems Lack of growth Corruption
Social Unrest Protests, Strikes, Riots, bandhs
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Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik◦ Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder ◦ Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing
its appeal
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Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik◦ Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder ◦ Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing
its appeal Economic interests over civil liberties
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Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦Crisis of National Faith
◦Idea that India needed Realpolitik
◦Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder
◦Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing its appeal
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Samuel Huntington (1968): Importance of political institutions, esp
political parties Social mobilization in the absence of
strong political parties leads to political instability
Indira Gandhi
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Personalization and deinstitutionalization of Congress and other institutions
Personalization and Deinstitutionalization had begun before Mrs Gandhi Inherited weak, faction-ridden Congress
+ Economic distress Socio-political Mobilization
= Crisis of Governability
Indira Gandhi
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…product of the situationBUT greatly aggravated situation
Indira Gandhi
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Established direct link with votersBUTUndermined the party
Made electoral promisesBUT Party not strong enough to fulfill these
promises
Indira Gandhi
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Populist “socialist” initiatives:
Nationalization of banks
Abolition of privy purses
BUT left untouched:
Poverty Provision of
essential social services
Land redistribution
Indira Gandhi
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Personalization of Power and Politicization of Institutions
Party
Abandoned even nominal intra-party democracy
Made state party structures subservient to central high command
Appointed key functionaries
Promoted “yes men”
State Institutions: Civil Service Judiciary Parliament Constitution
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Next Week…Indira Gandhi’s Darkest Hours