India after Independence History Chapter 10.pdf

This is a presentation of chapter based on India's state after independence

1. CLASS VIII

HISTORY

CHAPTER- 10

2. A New and Divided Nation
▪India got independence on 15th August 1947.
▪Soon after its independence, it faced a series of challenges.

❖Due to partition, nearly 8 million refugees had come into India. These people needed
homes and jobs.
❖Then there was the problem of the princely states, they were about 500 in number. So,
each Raja or Nawab was persuaded to join the nation.
❖A new political system was to be made in order to serve the country in a better way.

3. ▪In 1947, India’s population was large. There were almost 345 million people. They were
divided into various castes and religions; their language was different and so were their
food habits. It was not an easy thing to make them live together in one nation state.

▪A vast majority of Indians lived in the villages during independence. Farmers and
peasants depended on the monsoon for their survival. So did the non farm sector of the
rural economy. For example, if the crop failed, the barbers, carpenters and weavers
were not paid for their services. In cities, the factory workers lived in the slum areas
which were crowded and unhealthy. There was no access to education.

4. ▪So, Unity and development had to go hand in hand because if there was no unity
among different sections of society, it could result in costlier conflicts.

▪On the other hand, if development cannot reach everyone, it will create a division
between the rich and the poor.
▪So, due to such things, it was decided to write a constitution for the country.

5. A Constitution is Written
▪Almost three hundred meetings of the Constituent Assembly took place at New Delhi
between December 1946 and November 1949.
▪The participants at these meetings were from different political parties and from
different parts of the country.
▪These discussions resulted in the framing of the Constitution of India which came into
effect from 26 January 1950.

6. Features of the constitution
▪One feature- of the constitution was universal adult franchise, that is the right to vote was given to all
Indians who were above the age of 21. This was a revolutionary step. It allowed Indians to choose their
leaders.
▪The second feature- was that each and every citizen of India was equal before the law regardless of
caste or religion. Though many people wanted to run India as a Hindu state by pointing out that Pakistan
was formed in order to protect the Muslim rights, but the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru opined
that it could not and must not become a “Hindu Pakistan”.
▪The third feature- of the constitution was that it offered special privileges for the poorest and most
disadvantaged Indians. The practice of untouchability was abolished and entry of low castes into the
temples was allowed. The Constituent Assembly also recommended that a certain percentage of seats in the
legislature as well as in government jobs be reserved for members of low caste. Some people argued that
some Harijan candidates did not have enough grades to enter into the prestigious Indian Administrative
Services exam. To this H.J Khandekar replied that it was due to oppression by the high castes which had
continued for so many decades that they had lost the ability to think. Along with them, the Adivasis or
Scheduled Tribes were also granted reservations in seats and jobs.

7. Many days were spent in deciding the distribution of powers among the centre and state
governments. Some members were of the view that powers should be given to the provinces
also so as to manage the country well whereas some wanted it to be kept with the center.

To balance these claims, three lists of subjects were provided:

❑Union list: It had subjects such as taxes, defence and foreign affairs which were the exclusive
responsibility of the center.

❑State list: It had education and health which would be taken care of by the states.

❑Concurrent list: In this, subjects such as forests and agriculture were included which were the
joint responsibility of both the center and the state.
Division of Power among the State and Union
Government:

8. Concern was related to the
language
▪Many members wanted to replace English language with Hindi but some
members like T.T. Krishnamachari said that if Hindi would be imposed on
the South Indians, they would get separated from India.

▪Finally, a compromise was reached, in which Hindi was taken as the
“official language” of India and English was to be used in the courts, the
services, and communication between one state and another.

9. Though problems were being solved step by step but that doesn’t mean that they had ended.
The new question that arose was how to form states.
How were States to be
formed?
▪If we talk about 1920s, The Indian National Congress had promised to make
separate provinces for separate linguistic groups after gaining independence.
But when India got its independence, the congress didn’t do anything to fulfill
its promise. The riots and killings which were seen during partition were so
horrible that congress decided not to make further divisions on the basis of
language.

▪Both Prime Minister Nehru and Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel were
against the creation of linguistic states.
As Nehru said “disruptionist tendencies had come to the fore”; to check them, the nation had to be strong and
united” or as Patel added “… the first and last need of India at the present moment is that it should be made a
nation …Everything which helps the growth of nationalism has to go forward and everything which throws
obstacles in its way has to be rejected … We have applied this test to linguistic provinces also, and by this test,
in our opinion [they] cannot be supported.”

10. This really disappointed the Kannada speakers, Malayalam speakers and Marathi speakers
who had been looking forward to have their own state.
▪However, the strongest protest came from the Telugu speaking districts of
Madras Presidency who wanted a separate state named Andhra.

▪In 1952 general elections Nehru faced black flags and slogan of “we want
Andhra” during his campaigns.

▪In October 1952 veteran Gandhian named Potti Sriramulu went on a hunger
strike demanding the formation of Andhra. He died after fifty eight days of
strike, on 15 December 1952.

▪The news of his death widespread and it was so intense that the
government was forced to make a new state named Andhra Pradesh.

11. ▪After this, many other linguistic communities start demanding a separate state.
▪So, a States Reorganisation Commission was set up, which submitted its report in 1956,
recommending the redrawing of district and provincial boundaries to form compact provinces of
Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu speakers respectively.
▪The large Hindi speaking region of north Indian was also to be broken up into several states.
▪In 1960, the state of Bombay was divided on the basis of Marathi and Gujarati speakers.
▪In 1966, the state of Punjab was also divided into Punjab and Haryana in which Punjab was for
Punjabi speakers who were mostly Sikhs and the latter for the rest who spoke Haryanvi or Hindi.

12. After creating various states and delegating powers between the center and state, now the country decided
to develop itself. For this, rigorous planning was done in order to develop the country.
Planning for Development
▪The major objectives of the new nation were to lift India and Indians out of poverty.

▪also to build a modern technical and industrial base.

▪A planning commission was setup in 1950- to help in designing and executing suitable policies for
economic development.’

▪The country wanted to have development with the concept of mixed economy. [Now here mixed
economy means an economy where there is participation of both public (government) and private
sector for the development of the country.]

▪Both the state (government) and the (private sector) would play important and complementary
roles in increasing production and generating jobs. The roles mentioned here were what has to be
planned by the planning commission.

13. Five Year Plan
▪A five year plan - is a plan made by India for the next five years to
decide what type of development it wants to achieve for itself.

▪The first- five year plan was made in 1951-1956

▪In 1956, the second five year plan was formulated.

▪So, when the second five year plan was formulated, the main
focus was on the development of heavy industries such as steel
and on building large dams.

▪These sectors were kept under the control of the government.
The focus on heavy industry; and the effort of keeping economy
under the state regulation for the next few decades was
supported by many.

14. Second five year plan was not supported by many:
▪Though there were some opponents too. Some people felt that
the second five year plan had not put an adequate emphasis on
agriculture.

▪Others said that primary education was not given due
importance.

▪Some people thought that it had not taken account of the
environmental implications of the economic policies.

▪Mahatma Gandhi’s follower Mira Behan wrote in 1949 that
science and technology can earn huge income for a time but later
on if we don’t try to maintain nature’s balance, then we will not
be able to live a healthy and morally decent life.

15. India had to decide its foreign policy
▪In 1950-1960 world saw a Cold war between USA and USSR.

▪Both the powerful countries wanted to support from India.

▪Our then Foreign minister Nehru followed Non- Alignment policy.
It did not join any group.

▪It was done so because India had gained independence only a few
years back.

▪Hence, it was important for India to focus on development instead
of joining any war.

16. ❑So now we know that after attaining independence the Indian policy makers had to
go through so many details to frame various policies for Indians and not only this,
there were huge hurdles in their path. Somehow, they managed to make what was
good for the nation.

❑So what has the nation achieved after sixty years of its independence and what is
still left to be achieved.

❑Let’s discuss it now !!!.

17. The Nation, Sixty years on
▪India celebrated its 16 Independence Day on 15th August 2007.It is a
democratic country where government is by, of and for the people.

▪People's Point of view about India.

▪I will break into two parts on linguistic basis.

▪Will come under military rule.

▪But this has not happened as India is a democratic and United
country where people from different faiths and with different
languages stay together.

▪We have a free press and elections are conducted to choose State
and Central Government.

18. On the other hand there
are some contradiction too.
Sharp divisions among society:

▪Between rich and poor.

▪Between high and low caste, in rural areas they still face
discrimination.

▪Some live luxurious life and others are below poverty line.

19. At last we can say the country has developed itself into a democratic
economy which is focusing on growth but it still lacks behind as there
are many who do not get education, justice etc.