NOTES ON MODERN INDIA

INDIA AFTER INDEPENDENCE
1. Three main problems of the independent India
- The newly independent India faced three main problems in the very beginning. They were as follows:
i. The preparation of a constitution of independent India.
ii. The problem of the rehabilitation of the refugees.
iii. The problem of merging of Princely States in the Indian Federation.
2. Constitution of India:
- The constitution of India was framed by the Constituent Assembly.
- The Constituent Assembly was established as per the Cabinet Mission Plan.
- As per the Cabinet Mission Plan, elections were held in July 1946, Indian representatives were elected and they formed the Constituent Assembly which wrote the Constitution of India. It succeeded in writing the constitution by November 1949 and that constitution came into force on January 26, 1950.
3. Constituent Assembly:
a: Formation of Constituent Assembly:
- The Constituent Assembly was formed as per the Cabinet Mission Plan.
- The elections were held in July 1946 to elect the Indian representatives for the Constituent assembly.
- After the elections, the 296 elected member formed the Constitution Assembly.
- The prominent leaders of the Constitution Assembly were Jwahar Lal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Govind Vallabh Pant, Mulana Azad, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Barrister Jaykar and Kanhaiyalal Munshi.
- The prominent women members of the Assembly were Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Hansaben Mehta, Sarojini Naidu and others.
- The seventy three members of Muslim League headed by Barrister Jinnah did not participate in the proceedings of the Constitution Assembly.
- The Constitution Assembly had the representatives of Sikh and Muslim communities.
b: Structure of Constituent Assembly:
- There were 296 members of Constituent Assembly.
- There were representatives of Muslim and Sikh communities in the assembly.
- There were seven women representatives.
- The Muslim League did not participate in the proceedings of the Assembly.
- Dr. Rajindra Parsad was the elected President of the Constitution Assembly.
- There were eleven committees to work on different aspects of writing the constitution.
- Dr. Ambedkar headed the Draft Committee.
c: Completion of the Work:
- The Constitution Assembly completed its work on November 26, 1949 when it formed and accepted the constitution of India.
- The Assembly worked for 1082 days to write the Constitution of India.
- The Constitution of India came in force on January 26, 1950.
4. The Nature of the Constitution: (March 96)
a: Main Objectives achieved by the Indian Constitution:
- A democratic state based on the rule of law was established in India by the constitution for the first time in the history of India.
- The constitution gave a balanced consideration to the diversity of India.
b: Impact of Indian History on the Constitution: The Borrowed features of India: (March 96)
- Many provisions of the Government of India Act 1935 had been incorporated in the writing of the Indian constitution.
- The features of Federal structure, bicameral Legislature, state legislature, the Supreme Court and the list of the fundamental rights were influenced by the recommendations given in the Nehru Report of 1928.
- The values observed during the Indian national movement had been absorbed in the spirit of Indian Constitution.
c: A Lengthy Constitution: Lay out of the Contents: (March 96) (Oct. 96)
- The Indian Constitution is one of the longest constitutions of the world.
- It has 22 parts called chapters.
- It has 395 articles spread over 22 parts.
- It has presently 12 schedules regarding different matters.
5. The Special Features of the Indian Constitution: (Oct. 97; 99; 01)
a: The Preamble:
- The preamble to the Indian Constitution is one of its special feature.
- It is in the preamble that the declaration has been made that the people of India will secure in
the Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic of India,
Justice, Liberty, Equality etc.
b: Secularism: What is it? (Oct. 96) (March 96)
- The Indian Constitution has ensured to the people of Republic of India the freedom to follow their respective religious beliefs.
- The Indian Constitution has ensured that the aims and objectives of the Centre as well as the states will not be influenced by any religious ideology. It will not be a theocratic state.
c: Fundamental Rights:
- The Constitution of India has given a specific and detailed list of the Fundamental Rights which the India people will enjoy.
- The Constitution has empowered the Supreme Court and the High Courts of the states to safeguard the fundamental rights of the Indian citizens.
d: Directive Principles:
- The Directive Principles for the Central and State governments has been incorporated in the constitution with an objective to make the Indian State a Welfare State.
- The Central and State governments are expected to follow them though they are not legally bound to follow them.
e: Federal form of Government:
- The Republic of India is a federation of 28 states and 7 Union Territories.
- For the administrative purpose the legislative subjects have been divided into the Union List, the State List and the Concurrent List.
6. The Rehabilitation of the Refugees:
a: Coming of Refugees after the Independence:
- The partition of India was preceded by a horrifying communal riots.
- The riots continued even after the partition.
- Due to the riots after the partition nearly one and half crore refugees belonging to Hindu and Sikh community migrated to India.
b: The hardships of Refugees and the problem faced the government in their rehabilitation:
- The Hindu and Sikhs refugees who had arrived in India had suffered great hardships and massacre of their relatives and loss of their properties and livelihood during the riots.
- The Indian government was morally bound to provide them food, clothing, shelter, education, health services, employment and business.
- The Indian government was facing the resource crunch already and the added responsibility of the rehabilitation of the refugees pressurized the India trade, communication and industrial organisation.
c: The Programmes of Rehabilitation of the Refugees:
- The Central and State governments shared the responsibility of the refugees collectively.
- The refugees were settled in different parts of the country and gradually they were absorbed in local social life.
- The government provided them food and shelter immediately.
7. Assassination of Gandhiji:
a: Role of Mahatma Gandhi:
- The riots continued in India even after the partition.
- Gandhiji was great supporter of Hindu Muslim unity.
- He visited Bengal to stop the riots.
- Lord Mountbatten had called him “one man armies” because he tried to stop the riots without the help of any one as the rest of the leaders were jostling with the problem of establishing the power after the partition.
- He was assassinated on January 30, 1948 because he wanted to establish the Hindu Muslim unity in the riot areas and over whole of the country.
b: Contribution of Mahatma Gandhi:
- Gandhiji died while trying to establish the Hindu-Muslim unity.
- He had united all Indians through his ideology of non-violence and truth.
- He successfully fought the British imperialism.
- He had played the most significant role in the independence of India.
8. Integration of Princely States: (March 2001)
a: Danger of Independent Princely States after the independence of India.
- When India got independence on August 15, 1947, there existed the Princely States within the territories of India.
- The Princely states had also became independent along with India when the British ended their treaties with them.
- The existence of large number of Princely states became another danger for the newly independent India.
b: Role of Vallabhbhai Patel: Steps taken by the Indian Government. (March 2001)
- Vallabhbhai Patel was the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of the newly independent India.
- He was quick to recognise the grave danger of the existence of Princely states within the territorial limits of India.
- The Indian government drafted an agreement of integration which was to be signed with those Princely states.
- Vallabhbhai Patel persuaded most of the Kings, Nawabs and rulers of Princely states to sign the agreement of integration and managed to merge their territories within the Federation of India.
- He was helped by the support of the subjects of the Princely states themselves who desired to integrate with the Federation of India.
- However, three states namely, Hyderabad, Junagarh and Jammu and Kashmir presented a problem as their ruler resisted the integration with the Federation of India.
8A. Junagarh:
- Junagarh was a state in Saurashtra region of Gujarat.
- The people of the Junagarh state desired to join with India.
- The Nawab of Junagarh however started secret negotiation with Pakistan and kept his people and the Government of India in dark about his real objectives.
- Pakistan announced to the India that Junagarh was going to join with Pakistan.
- When the people of the state learned about it, they arose in strong opposition to the decision of their rulers.
- The neighbouring states also denounced the decision of the ruler of Junagarh.
- When Nawab and his Diwan found that they were being opposed from all the quarters, they fled India and took shelter with Pakistan.
- A referendum was held in Junagarh state and as per the result of the referendum, Junagarh state was integrated with India.
8B. Hyderabad: (Oct. 96; 98)
a: Nizam of Hyderabad adopted Anti-India stand:
- Nizam adopted anti-India stand on the independence of India.
- He decided to declare Hyderabad an independent state.
- He did not send the representatives of his state to the Constitution Assembly.
- In July 1947, he presented before Lord Mountbatten the demand to annex Madhya Prant and part of Berar which Lord Mountbatten refused to accept.
- In August 1947, he tried to make a deal with India on conditions but Vallabhbhai Patel refused to listen him before the integration of Hyderabad with India.
- Nizam did not accept the proposal of Lord Mountbatten to ascertain the view of public of Hyderabad State on the issue of integration with India under the supervision of English officers.
- He tried to dupe India and the Governor General Mountbatten by simultaneously undertaking secret negotiations with Pakistan when he was negotiating with Indian government.
b: Encouragement of Razakar to Nizam:
- Kasim Razvi, the leader of fundamentalist group Razakar encouraged Nizam to oppose India.
- Kasim Razvi suggested Nizam to continue his anti-Indian activities by advising him that India which was engaged in her own problems could not take any action against him.
- Nizam extended the loan of 20 crore to Pakistan under the encouragement of Kasim Razvi.
- Nizam also banned the Indian currency in his state.
- Kasim Razvi stepped up his anti-Indian propaganda.
- Kasim Razvi along with Nizam started oppressing people.
- Nizam organised attacks on the India trains.
c: Police Action of September 1948 by India against Hyderabad:
- India government was compelled to use force against due to the anti-India activities of Nizam of Hyderabad. (Oct. 01)
- On September 13, 1948, Indian government undertook a police action against the State of Hyderabad.
- On September 17, 1948, the forces of Nizam of Hyderabad surrendered to the Indian forces.
- After that Hyderabad was integrated with the Republic of India.
e: Andhra Pardesh and Reorganization of Sates Act of 1956:
- In 1956, the Indian Parliament passed the Reorganization of States Act and Andhra Pardesh was created out of the State of Hyderabad.
- The Telegu speaking regions were merged with Andhra Pardesh, the Kannada speaking regions were merged with Karnatak and Marathi speaking Marathwada was merged with Maharashtra.
8C. Jammu Kashmir:
a: King Hari Sigh of Kashmir decided to remain independent:
- The State of Kashmir was located at a very strategic place between India and Pakistan.
- It was a state with majority of Muslim population.
- The king of State of Kashmir was Hari Singh Dogra.
- Lord Mountbatten had suggested to Hari Singh to join either of the two countries for the peace of the region.
- However, King Hari Singh decided to remain independent.
b: Pakistan pressurized Kashmir:
- Pakistan pressurized Kashmir to join with Pakistan.
- Pakistan confiscated the trade material of Kashmir.
- Pakistan discontinued the supply of oil to Kashmir.
- Pakistan stopped the train between Siyalkot and Jammu.
- Pakistan sent infiltrators in Poonch and Baramullah section of Kashmir.
- Pakistan threatened to follow with an armed raid.
c: Hari Singh signed a treaty of merger with India:
- King Hari Singh of Kashmir was threatened and pressurized by Pakistan to merge with it.
- When Hari Singh faced with problem of tribal intruders sent by Pakistan, he signed treaty of integration of Kashmir with India.
- The people of Kashmir also wanted to integrate with India.
- Sheikh Abdullah of National Conference also worked for the integration of Kashmir with India.
d: Indian army saved Kashmir from Pakistan Attack:
- Kashmir signed treaty of integration with India.
- On October 27, 1947, the Indian army entered Kashmir to flush out the intruders from Kashmir.
- Nearly one hundred planes were pressed into service to bring troops and arms in Leh and Ladakh.
- The Indian soldiers fought the war at the height of 23900 feet.
- The armed forces officers like Major General Kalwant Singh, Major General Thimayya, Major General Atma Singh, Air Commander Meher Singh, Major Somnath Sharma, Brigadier Osman etc earned name and respect for their country and saved Kashmir.
- India also brought the matter before the United Nations.
- Under the supervision of the United Nations, the cease-fire was implemented on January 1, 1949.
- India was able to save 2/3 of the territory of Kashmir and integrated it with India.
- The rest of the territory of Kashmir is still under the illegal possession of Pakistan.
9. Merger of French and Portuguese Colonies:
9a: French Colonies in India:
- At the time of independence of India on August 15, 1947, France had in her possession some territories of India.
- Chandranagar, Pondicherry, Carical, Mahe and Yenam were under the control of France.
- France had observed the Indian National Movement and recognised the spirit of nationalism of Indians.
- France started negotiations with India for peaceful settlement of the Indian territories.
- It was decided to hold plebiscite in the French occupied Indian territories.
- In the Plebiscite the people of French occupied Indian territories decided in favour of merger with India. The result of the plebiscite was implemented and they were integrated with India.
9b. The Liberation of Goa:
bi: History of Portuguese colonies in India:
- Goa came in contact with Portugal in 15th century.
- It was in 1498, that Vasco de Gama came to India.
bii: The National Movement in Goa: T. N. Cunha and Goa Congress:
- The national movement in Goa for independence from the Portuguese rule started in 1928.
- T. B. Cunha founded Goa Congress Committee in 1928.
- In 1929, the Indian National Congress gave it recognition to Goa Congress as its own branch.
- The freedom movement in Goa got momentum in 1945 after the end of the Second World War.
biii: Oppression of Portuguese Rulers:
- In 1930, Portuguese passed the Colonies Act as per which the important rights of citizens were denied to the Goans.
- Dr. T. N. Cunha formed the Goa Youth League in Mumbai in 1945 and apprised the whole Indian nations about the oppression of Goans by the Portuguese rulers.
- Dr. Cunha gave held a meeting in Goa inspite of the ban and he was imprisoned for 8 years.
biv: Role of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia in Goa Liberation:
- Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia made a speech in Madgaon inspite of the ban.
bv: Role of Mohan Ranade:
- Mohan Ranade tried to organised an armed revolt against the Portuguese rule in 1948 after bringing unity among the Goans.
- The Portuguese rulers arrested Mohan Ranade and imprisoned him for 12 years.
c: Satyagraha and Armed Revolt for the Liberation of Goa:
- The Goans adopted the means of Satyagraha and Armed revolt to liberate Goa.
- They were helped by the Nationalist leaders of Maharashtra also.
ci: Liberation of Dadra and Nagarhaveli:
- The young members of Azad Gomantak Dal launched the armed attacked on Dadra and Nagarhaveli.
- Vishvanath Lavande, Rajabhau Vakankar, Sudhir Phadke, Kajrekar also took part in the armed revolt.
- Azad Gomantak Dal liberated Dadra and Nagarhaveli by an armed revolt in 1954.
cii: Satyagraha of 1954:
- In 1954, Satyagraha was launched in Goa.
- Nanasaheb Gore, Senapti Bapat, Peter Alvaris, Sudhatai Joshi and others presented Satyagraha in Goa.
- Nanasaheb and Senapti Bapat were beaten badly by the Portuguese police and thrown behind the bars.
ciii: Satyagraha of 1955 and Goa Liberation Movement:
- The different political parties sent more Satyagrahis to Goa.
- The Satyagrahis from Maharashtra and other different states of Goa also joined in Goa.
- Some of the known Satyagrahis were Hirve Guruji, Karnal Singh, Manda Yalgi, Kamila Upasani, Prabha Sathe, Shanta Rao became martyrs.
- With the martyrdom of Satyagrahis at the hands of oppressive Portuguese police the Goa Liberation Movement became more intense and more stained with blood.
cvi: Cautious Policy of the Government of India:
- The Goa Liberation movement had become very intense and stained with blood because of the atrocities of the Portuguese repressive policy.
- It seems that Portugal would not leave India unless some strong action was taken against them.
- There was danger that in case of using hard option like military, the problem of Goa could become internationalized.
- The Government of India did not want that the Goa problem should attract the international interference which would not have in the good interest of the newly born Republic of India.
cv: India finally used force and liberated Goa:
- The Government of India took every precaution to save the situation from becoming an international issue.
- All the peaceful efforts to dislodge the adamant Portugal from the Indian territory failed.
- Finally the Government of India used the military option.
- In December 1961, the Indian army entered Goa and recaptured Goa from the Portugal.
cvi: Goa became the integral part of India on December 19, 1961:
- The Indian army recaptured Goa in December 1961.
- On December 19, 1961, Goa became the integral part of India.