India after Independence 1947-1964: Notes and PYQs

The seventeen years between the transfer of power in August 1947 and the death of Jawaharlal Nehru in May 1964 decided the shape of the Indian republic. In that short span more than five hundred princely states were absorbed, provinces were redrawn on the basis of language, a Constitution was written and brought into force, the first general election on universal adult suffrage was held, planning became the instrument of economic policy and a foreign policy of non-alignment was built. Examiners draw heavily on this chapter because every milestone in it carries a date, a person and a place.

Integration of the princely states

The States Department was created in July 1947 with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as its minister and V. P. Menon as its secretary. The states were asked to sign an Instrument of Accession surrendering defence, external affairs and communications, and all but three signed before 15 August 1947.

Goa was freed from Portuguese rule by Operation Vijay in December 1961, while the French transferred Puducherry in 1954 and completed the transfer by treaty in 1962.

Reorganisation on the basis of language

The Dhar Commission of 1948 and the committee of Nehru, Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya, known as the JVP Committee, both advised against reorganising provinces by language. The death of Potti Sriramulu on 15 December 1952, after a fast of fifty-eight days, forced the government to create Andhra State on 1 October 1953, the first state formed on a linguistic basis. The States Reorganisation Commission was then appointed under Fazl Ali, with K. M. Panikkar and H. N. Kunzru as members, and its report led to the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, which left India with fourteen states and six union territories. Bombay State was divided into Maharashtra and Gujarat on 1 May 1960, and Nagaland became a state in 1963.

The Constitution, elections and the laws

The Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950, with Dr Rajendra Prasad as the first President. The First Amendment of 1951 added the Ninth Schedule to protect the laws abolishing the zamindari system. The first general election was held from October 1951 to February 1952 under Sukumar Sen, the first Chief Election Commissioner, and the Congress formed the government with Nehru as Prime Minister. The Hindu Code Bill, which B. R. Ambedkar had piloted and over which he resigned from the cabinet in 1951, was passed in parts as the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 and the Hindu Succession, Minority and Guardianship, and Adoptions and Maintenance Acts of 1956.

Planning and the economy

• The Planning Commission was set up by a cabinet resolution in March 1950 with the Prime Minister as its chairman, and the National Development Council, usually called the National Development Council of the states, followed in 1952.
• The First Five Year Plan, from 1951 to 1956, was based on the Harrod-Domar model and gave priority to agriculture, irrigation and the dams that Nehru called the temples of modern India, such as Bhakra Nangal and Hirakud.
• The Second Five Year Plan, from 1956 to 1961, followed the model of P. C. Mahalanobis and put heavy industry first; the public sector steel plants came up at Bhilai with Soviet help, Rourkela with West German help and Durgapur with British help.
• The Industrial Policy Resolutions of 1948 and 1956 reserved the core industries for the state and gave India its mixed economy.
• The Community Development Programme began on 2 October 1952, and the Balwantrai Mehta Committee of 1957 recommended the three-tier panchayat, which Nehru inaugurated at Nagaur in Rajasthan on 2 October 1959.
• Science and education grew through the Atomic Energy Commission of 1948 under Homi Bhabha, the first Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur in 1951 and the University Grants Commission of 1953.

Foreign policy and the last years

India stayed out of the two blocs of the Cold War. The five principles of Panchsheel were written into the agreement with China on Tibet signed on 29 April 1954, India took part in the Bandung Conference of 1955, and the first summit of the Non-Aligned Movement was held at Belgrade in 1961. The friendship with China collapsed after the Dalai Lama was given asylum in 1959 and the border dispute led to the war of October and November 1962, which exposed the weakness of Indian defences. The Kamaraj Plan of 1963 asked senior leaders to leave office for party work. Nehru died on 27 May 1964; Gulzarilal Nanda acted as Prime Minister and Lal Bahadur Shastri took office on 9 June 1964.