Class 12 NCERT political Chapter 1

      Challenges of Nation Building 

Challenges for the new nation 

• At the hour of midnight 14-15 August 1947, India attained independence .
• The first Prime minister of free India was Jawaharlal Nehru .
• After Independence , we shall run our country through democratic government; and two, that the government will be run for the good if all, particularly the poor and the socially disadvantage groups .
• Freedom came with the partition of the country. 
• The year 1947 was a year of unprecedented violence and trauma of displacement .
• It was in this situation that independence India started on its journey to achieve several objectives .

Three Challenges :

Independent India faced three kinds of challenges 
1  . The first and the immediate challenge was to shape a nation that         was united , yet accommodation of the diversity in our society .

• India was a land of continental size and diversity .

• The partition of the country appeared to prove everyone's worst fears.

2  . The second challenge was to establish democracy.

• India adopted representative democracy based on the parliamentary from government.

• A democratic constitution is necessary but not sufficient for establishing a democracy .

• The challenge was to develop democratic practices in accordance with the constitution .

3  . The third challenges was to ensure the development and well -           being of the entire society and not only of some sections .

• The constitution also set out in the directive principles of state policy the welfare good that democratic politics most achieve .

• The real challenge now was to evolve effective policies for economic development and eradication of poverty .

Partition: displacement and rehabilitation 

• On 14-15 August 1947 , not one but two nation sates came into existence - India and pakistan 
• Partition was the division of British India into India and pakistan .
• The 'two - nation theory ' advanced by the muslim league , India consisted of not one but two people, Hindus and Muslims .
• Pakistan had demanded separate country for the Muslims .
• The congress apposed this theory and the demand for pakistan .

Process of partition 

• It was decided to follow the principal of religious majorities .
• This basically means that areas where the Muslims were in majority would make up the territory of pakistan .

The idea might appear simple , but it presented all kinds of difficulties .

• First of all , There was no single belt of must majority areas in British India . 
• There were two areas of concentration one in the east .
• Secondly , not all Muslim majority areas wanted to be in Pakistan .
• Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the undisputed leader of the north western frontier province and known as frontier Gandhi , was staunchly opposed to the two nation theory .
• Third , Problem was that two of the Muslims majority provinces of British India, Punjab and Bengal , had vary large areas where the non- Muslims were in majority .
• This was related to the fourth and the most intractable of all the problems of partition .
• This was the problems of 'minorities' on both sides of the border.
• Lakes of Hindu and Sikhs in areas that were now in pakistan and an equally large no of Muslims on the India side found themselves trapped .

Consequences of partition 

• There were killing and atrocities on both sides of the border .
• In the name of religion people of one community ruthlessly killed and maimed people of the other community .
• Cities like Lahore , Amritsar and Kolkata became divided into communal zones .
• Minorities on both sides of the border field their home and often secured temporary shelter in' refuge camps ' 
• They travelled to the other side of the new border by all shorts of means , often by foot .
• Thousands of women were abducted on both sides of the border.
• In many cases women were killed by their own family members to preserve the family honour many children were separated from their parents .

• The Muslim population in India accounted for 12% of the total population in 1951 .

Mahatma Gandhi's sacrifice 

• On the 15th August 1947 mahatma Gandhi did not participate in any of the Independence day celebrations .
• He was in Kolkata in the areas which were torn by gruesome riots between Hindus and Muslims .
• Gandhi went of to persuade the Hindus and Muslims to give up violence .
• Gandhi's prayer meetings attracted large crowds But this was short lived as riots between Indus and pakistan erupted again and Gandhiji had to resort to a fast to bring peace .
• He was concerned about the relations between India and pakistan .
• He was unhappy with that he saw us the India government 's decision not to honour its financial commitments to Pakistan .

Integration of Princely states 

• British India was divided into the British India provinces and the princely states .
• The British India provinces were directly under the control of the british government  .
• Several large and small states rules by princes , called the princely states .
• This was called paramountcy or suzerainty of the british crown .

The Problem.

• The british government took the view that all these sates were free to join either India or Pakistan or remain Independent if they so wished .
• The decision was left not to the people but to the princely rulers of these states .

The problems started very soon:

• First of all , The ruler of travancore announced that the state had decided on Independence .
• The Nizam of Hyderabad made a similar announcement the next day.
• Rulers like Nawab of Bhopal were averse to joining the constituent assembly 
• The rulers of the princely stated meant that after India would get further divided into a number of small countries .

Government's approach 

• Sardar Patel was India's Deputy prime minister period immediately following Independence 
• He played a historic role in negotiating with the rulers of princely states firmly but diplomatic and bringing most of them into the Indian Union.

The governments approach was guided by three consideration 

• Firstly , the people of most of the princely states clearly wanted to become part of the India Union .
• Secondly , The government was prepared to be flexible in giving autonomy to some region .
• Thirdly , In the backdrop of partition which bought into focus the contest over democration of territory , the integration and consolidation of the territorial boundaries of the nation has assumed supreme importance.
• The rules of most of the states signed a document called the 'Instrument of Accession which meant that their state agreed to become a part of the Union of India.
• Accession of the princely states of junagadh, Hyderabad , Kashmir and Manipur proved more difficult than the rest .

Hyderabad 

• Hyderabad , the larger of the princely state was surrounded entirely by Indian territory.
• Its ruler carried the little , 'Nizam ' and he was one of the world 's richest men .
• The Nizam wanted an Independence status for Hyderabad .
• He entered into the standstill agreement with India in November 1947 for a year while negotiations with the Indian government  were going on .
• A movement of the people of Hyderabad state against the Nizam 's ruled gathered forced .
• The peasantry in the telangana region in the particular , was the victim of Nizam oppressive rule and rose against him .
• Women who had seen the worst of his oppression joined the movement in large numbers .
• Hyderabad town was the nerve centre of this movement .
• The communists and the Hyderabad congress were in the forefront of the movement .
• The Nizam responded by unleashing a para - military force known as the Razakars on the people .
• The atrocities and communal nature of the Razakars knew no bonds .
• They Murdered , maimed , raped and looted, targeting particularly the Non - Muslims .
• In September 1948 , India army moved in to control the Nizam's forces .

Manipur 

• A few days before Independence , the maharajah of manipur , Bodhachandra Singh , signed the Instrument of Accession with the India government on the assurance that the internal autonomy of manipur would be maintained .
• Under the pressure of public opinion , the maharajah held elections in Manipur in June 1948 and the state became a constitutional monarchy .
•  Manipur was the first part of India to hold an election based on universal adult franchises .
• In the legislative assembly of manipur there were sharp differences over the question of merger of manipur with India 
• The government of India succeeded in pressurizing the Maharajah into singing a merger Agreement in September 1949.

Re organisation of states 

• The process of nation - building did not come to an end with partition and integration of princely states .
• The boundaries had to be drawn in a way so that the linguistic and cultural .
• Plurality of the country could be reflected without affecting the unity of the nation .
• Our national movement had rejected these divisions as artificial and had promised the linguistic principal as the basis of formation of states.
•  Things changed after Independence and partition 
• Our leaders felt that carving out states on the basis of language might lead to disruption and disintegration .
• The central leadership decided to postpone matters.
• The need for postponement was also felt because the fate of the princely states had not been decided .
• Protests began in the Telugu speaking areas of the old Madras province , which included present day Tamil Nadu , parts of Andhra pradesh , Kerala and Karnataka .
• The Vishalandhra movement demanded that the Telugu speaking areas should be separated Andhra Province .
• The movement gathered momentum as a result of the central government 's vallication 
• The prime minister announced the formation of a separate Andhra state in December 1952 .
• The formation of Andhra pradesh spurred the struggle for making of other states on linguistic lines in other parts of the country 
• Struggle forced the central government into appointing a states recorganisation commission in 1953 
• The commission in its report accepted that the boundaries of the state should reflect the boundaries of different languages .
• On the basis of its report the states reorganization at was passed in 1956 . This led to the creation of 14 states and six union territories .
• The path to politics and power was now open to people other than the small English speaking elite .
• Linguistic reorganization also gave some uniform basis to the drawing of state boundaries 
• It did not lead to disintegration of the country as many had feared earlier , on the country it strengthened national unity .
• The linguistic states underlined the acceptance of the principle of diversity .