From plus 80 to partition chapter 9 part 5 The naruvian state and its policies
Although the results of the first election were not ambiguous in the First Past the
Post system, it was a commendable victory for Nehru and the Congress.
02:09:29
And this victorious journey continued for the next 3 elections in which the
Congress won about 45% of the votes, but 75% of the seats in Parliament. And until
1967, the Congress ruled in almost every state, with the only exceptions being
Jammu, and Kashmir, Kerala and Nagaland. Nehru and the Congress interpreted this
electoral verdict as an unquestionable mandate to proceed with their preferred
vision of the future trajectory of the nation.
02:10:00
And this future trajectory for Nehru, as many historians and political commentators
have argued, was towards modernity, the goal of the nation as Nehru defined that in
a 1963 article in Foreign Affairs, was to achieve political democracy and economic
justice. The massive exercise of the first election, he proudly announced had
already made India the largest functioning democracy in the world. In terms of
economy, Nehru argued, she strived to achieve socialism without adhering to any
doctorate definition of the word.
02:10:37
This meant effective planning through the democratic process for extensive land
reforms, industrialization and development of various infrastructural facilities
like power plants, transport projects, irrigation dams, etc. The result of this
policy of modernization as part strategy has argued, was the evolution of a
developmental state intervening in the economy, planning and guiding its growth and
trying directly to promote the welfare of the population. The idea of planning,
however, was not new.
02:11:12
As in 1938, the Congress had established its own national planning committee with
Nehru as the chairman. It functioned up to 1940 and then briefly in 1945, and
recommended that India's prime economic need was rapid. Industrialization.
02:11:29
It had also suggested that India should strive for economic development in a
planned way to achieve socialistic goals and thus prepare the grounds for the
setting Up of a planning commission After independence in 1950 with the Prime
Minister as its chairman. It formulated India's first 5 year plan for the period
19:51 to 19:50 to the 19:55 to 19:56. According to PC mahalanobis, the statistical
adviser to the planning commission and actually the chief architect of planning in
India, the main aim of planning was to be the eradication of poverty through
continuous economic development, by using scientific and technical knowledge.
02:12:12
Towards the end of the first 5 year plan period on 21st December 1950 for the Lok
Sabha, passed a resolution stating that the objective of our economic policy should
be a socialistic pattern of society and towards this and the tempo of economic
activity in general and industrial development in particular, should be stepped up.
To the maximum possible extent The Congress party at its annual session in January
1955, again, reiterated its faith in socialism. But what actual form this socialism
would take and how it would be achieved, was still matters of debate and
experimentation.
02:12:50
While the Gandhian idol of village economy was not completely or openly jettisoned,
the main focus of planning gradually move towards development of large capital
goods industries with the Mantra of import substitution in India, agriculture still
accounted for nearly half of the net national product and its backward state was a
major reason behind her. Mass poverty. At the time of independence out of a total
geographical area of 800 million acres, only about 300 million acres were annually
cultivated, and only 70% of the cultivated land was irrigated, while the rest was
entirely dependent on rainfall, while the quantum of yield per Acker varied
significantly between irrigated and unirated lands, the slightest failure of the
monsoon, resulted in acute food shortages and nearby farming conditions in many
areas, requiring import of food.
02:13:49
As the largest segment of the population depended on agriculture, the root cause of
rural poverty was uneven ownership of land. In an article in 1950, The Economist
Daniel thorna observed the typical Indian peasant now is not an independent
proprietor but a landless labourer or a death written tenant. About 40% of them
were wage labourers, and another 30% rented on one tiny batches of land while the
agricultural surplus was appropriated by a small group of absent landlords and
other intermediaries.
02:14:24
So the first drawing need of the day was effective land reform and for this
purpose. In December 1947, the Congress appointed an agrarian reforms committee,
which for a year, investigated the post-world go to a gradient situation in the
country and came up with a policy recommendation to eliminate intermediary
interests between the state and the tailors of land. This would increase the income
of the talent and would therefore work as an incentive to invest to increased
agricultural productivity, an advisory board of the planning commission formed in
August 1950 was to review the sagrarian policy, with a view to create economic
landholdings, examining the role of village panchayats.
02:15:06
Councils, and ensure the relationship between land reforms and agricultural
productivity. Nehru taught that the best way to move forward to enhance
agricultural productivity was through cooperative farming by peasants, holding 1 to
2 acres of land he did not like large-scale capital-intensive farming for the
collective firming model. Such efforts were to be coordinated through the community
development schemes or the Panchayati Raj on gandhiyan model.
02:15:35
As Nehru defined it, this meant decentralisation in favour of village elected
councils, which were to be given authority and resources to carry out schemes of
development. It was in 19, 59 that Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, first introduced
this decentralised system of local self-government with a threater institutional
setup. At the bottom was a village pantyer above, it was a samiti consisting of the
heads of a village panchayats covering an area inhabited by about 60000 people and
at the top was the Zilla parishad or district council consisting of committee
presidents.
02:16:14
The area of the Zilla parishad coincided with the area of the community development
blogs created under the first 5 year plan. Each block was assigned agriculture,
educational and social welfare officers who were supposed to collectively promote
development in villages within the blocks. By the early 1960, the scheme was
rapidly expanded to about half a million villages.
02:16:40
Although in most parts of the country, the panchayats continued to be dominated by
rich high caste landloads, in some areas, such local self-governing institutions
also provided for empowerment of the lower caste peasants, who, in some cases, even
came to control a few summities. But what rural development really needed was land
reform, particularly sealing on agricultural property holding, and the obstacles in
the path of such a gradient reform were many First, the Indian Constitution had
made the subject of agriculture and land reforms, the responsibility of the state
legislatures.
02:17:18
By early 1951 most of the states except West Bengal, had either introduced or
passed laws to reform the tenure structures. In Bombay and Madras, whether your
trial system prevailed, the laws were to protect the interests of the tenants.
Elsewhere bills were introduced to abolish the main Delhi, but it required close T
₹4 billion to pay compensation to the disposed land loans.
02:17:46
The Central government made it clear to the states that it could not provide any
financial assistance, and this delayed the implementation of the reforms. In the
meanwhile, the bills were challenged in courts as they allegedly violated the
fundamental right to own private property guaranteed by the Constitution. This led
to a long battle between the Judiciary and the legislators, while the Judiciary
used part free of the Constitution relating to fundamental rights, the government
evoked part 4 on directive principles of state policy to bring in the desired
nationalisation program.
02:18:22
To resolve the stand of the Nehru, government passed the Constitution First
Amendment act in 1951 to abend article 31 and introduced the 9 schedule to make all
land reform legislation immune from judicial review as Nehru boldly Put it the at
which received presidential assent on 18th June was simply. To take away and I say
so deliberately to take away the question of zameen, Dilli and land reform from the
purview of the courts. But even that did not solve the problem as implementation
was delayed and impeded by continued obstruction by the landowing classes who had
their influence over the administration, as well as on the political establishment.
02:19:07
Many of them avoided the land ceiling simply by transferring their excess lands to
other family members. Some surplus land was recovered through the Bhutan, a
voluntary land donation campaign initiated by the veteran Gandhian leader, Vinoba
Bhavi in 1951. In 1954, he started a gram campaign, encourageing people to donate
entire villages.
02:19:32
But in most cases, the poor peasants received the surplus barrel and unproductive
lands through such land redistribution campaigns, which they had to cultivate
without any infrastructural support or resources. This lack of land reforms was
accompanied by an investment in agriculture. The proportion of planned investment
in agriculture declined from 27% in the first plan to 18% in the third plan.
02:20:00
The decline continued until the mid 1960 when the economy reached its crisis point
the worst ever during the post-independence period with serious food shortages,
resulting in total dependence on food imports from the USA. The government sought
to handle the situation through the introduction of high yield variety, HIV seeds,
known as lyrical seeds, developed in Mexico and the Philippines, and through the
adoption of the new agricultural strategy as part of the forth year plan. The
experiment known as the green revolution was expected to solve India's problem of
food scarcity and produced a surplus.
02:20:41
During the first phase of its implementation between 1966 and 1971, it was a great
success as food production increased phenomenally and imports declined. But in the
second phase, between 1972 and 1975 food production began to decline due to bad
weather and picked up again in 1975 to 1976 on the whole, however, the growth rate
in food production over the entire green revolution period remained lower than the
phyv years. Additional public investment in agricultural infrastructure remained
marginal.
02:21:21
The new technology involved greater use of pesticides and predecides, with their
adverse environmental effects. Socially, it increased in inequality in the
countryside, as only the rich farmers could take advantage of the new technologies.
Moreover, the new seeds were more effective for the production of wheat and not for
other food.
02:21:43
Crops like rice, which was a staple diet in most other parts of India. And so the
weed growing areas like Punjab, Haryana and Western up, which were also better
irrigated, prospered more than the other areas. DJ green revolution does further
exacerbated the regional disparities in living standards and created a new powerful
interest group of rich farmers.
02:22:08
The planning commission's attention during all these years remained primarily
focused on industrialization. When India achieved independence, she had very few
industries. The only exception being the cotton textile industry, which alone
competed at the global level Less than 1% of the total population were employed in
modern factories.
02:22:30
But being rich in mineral resources, she has tremendous potential. She had the
world's largest deposits of iron, ore, virtual monopoly of micha Mining and ranked
seventh among the world's gold producing countries. But the first 5 year planned
19:51 to 19:56 had modest goals.
02:22:52
With an outlay of onl ₹20 billion in planned expenditure to generate economic
growth, it recognised the complementary of the private and the public sectors.
While its focus was more on manufacturing consumer goods rather than capital goods.
Some modern factories in the public sector some large river projects for irrigation
and power generation, and a few institutes for technological and scientific
research were established in comparison.
02:23:21
The second 5 year planned 1956 to 1961. Was really ambitious, as its aim was to
achieve full employment within 10 years and this could be achieved by investing in
heavy industries producing capital goods. As production of steel was considered to
be the index of development free steel plants, each producing more than a million
tonne of steel per year, and a heavy machine building industry were to be set up
within the plann period It was decided that on an average 30 to 35% of investment
should go to capital goods industries, providing import substitution, while the
present rate was only 10%.
02:24:03
Thus, the basic focus of India's economic development now shifted decisively from
the Gandhian model of village economy based on agriculture and small-scale
handicraft industries to luck.
02:24:51
Nahin.
02:25:17
Go to the volume.
02:27:40
Goodbye. Bye.
02:29:01
Gharwali, gira hoga.
02:33:56
A centre of investment should go to capital goods industries, providing import
substitution while the present rate was only 10%, thus the basic focus of India's
economic development now shifted decisively from the Gandhian model of village
economy based on agriculture and small-scale handicraft industries to large-scale
industrialization to be achieved with public investment through deficit financing,
indirect taxation and foreign aid. Socialism, however, continue to be the main
rhetoric of the discourse of economic planning.
02:34:32
There were many apparent contradictions in this discourse. The second plan, for
example, is reiterated that it would go by the industrial policy declaration of
1948, which had stipulated that the tasks of industrialization would be undertaken
within the public sector and recommended a strict licencing and regulatory regime.
However, the 1948 policy also left a wide space for the private sector by
announcing that India would have a mixed economy.
02:35:03
And state ownership would be limited to certain specific sectors only like
railways, audience, atomic energy, coal, iron and steel, aircraft, manufacturing,
ship, building telephone and telegraph materials and minerals. In 19, 51, the
industries development and control act was past establishing a regulatory regime
for private industries owned by both indigenous and foreign capital. But despite
such restrictions, the private sector in India dominated by small groups of
financials and businessmen often controlled by family groups was never squeezed out
of existence.
02:35:45
On the contrary, it actually flourished. The government's position on the private
sector was further defined in the second plan as the industrial policy resolution,
which accompanied the plan reiterated that only the basic and strategic industries
would be reserved for the public sector while in other areas, the private sector
would have a free hand. Private enterprise further benefited from the protectionist
policies of the government, characterised by import restrictions, foreign exchange
regulations and a licencing regime that prevented foreign competition in the name
of economic nationalism.
02:36:23
Some historians have therefore argued that the connection between socialism and
nairuvian economic planning was more tenuous and rhetorical than substantive. And
this did not bring in prosperity for the Indian people. By the time of the fourth 5
year plan, the weaknesses of this planning process became apparent.
02:36:43
While the private sector could not be properly regulated, the restrictive behaviour
of the licencing bureaucracy, discouraged new enterprise. The public sector
suffered from inefficiency. There was decline in public investment and too much
dependence on foreign aid.
02:37:00
The overall growth rate of the Indian economy was only 3.5%, between 1951 and 1980
often disparagingly called the Hindu rate of growth. And adjusted against
population growth, it was only a modest 1.3% per year, with significant regional
and sexual imbalances. Is pulling India out of poverty and under development was a
major challenge for the Nehru government, keeping India united was certainly
another after the Kashmir and Hyderabad issues were settled.
02:37:35
It had to deal with the remaining European colonial enclaves in India. The French
handed over its possession through persuasion, but the Portuguese proved to be more
intranicated. When passive resistance was started in Goa, in 1955 by Indian and
Goan Volunteers, the Portuguese unleashed repression, resulting in the killing of a
number of satte's.
02:37:58
Ultimately, the Indian Army intervened in 1961 and thus ended this last vestige of
European colonial rule in India. Anna's Nehru noted after that. The Independence of
India was complete.
02:38:12
But while territorial integration was achieved, maintaining the unity of India and
organising a pluralist society into an integrated administrative unit, now proved
to be a challenge as controversies over the issue of a national language and
linguistic regionalism, had Begun to raise their head side by side. While the
British had used English as the official language throughout the Empire at the time
of independence in 1947, there were 11 major languages in India, each spoken by
more than a million people.
02:38:45
In this pluralistic situation, the question now arose about having a national or
official language, replacing English and thus asserting India's cultural identity
and independence. For the sake of national integration, Gandhi had recommended the
use of Hindustani as the national language of the country. Nehru too, had
recognised the potential of Hindustani, not to sanskritis, not too personized to
become the national language.
02:39:14
After independence, however, the demand was to make the more sanskrities Hindi
spoken extensively in north India, the national language of the country. But the
proposal invited serious resentment and resistance from the nonlini, speaking,
southern and Eastern regions. Ultimately, the constituent assembly came up with a
compromise solution.
02:39:37
Hindi was to be the official language, but only after 15 years until then, English
was to continue as the language of the Union, while the provinces were free to use
their regional languages, which were to be listed in the eighth schedule of the
Constitution. The situation was further clarified by Parliament in 1963 through the
official languages, athlestated that Hindi was to become the official language in
India from 1965 are stipulated in the Constitution, but as a concession to THE loan
Hindi speakers also accorded the status of associate additional official language
to English.
02:40:15
But even this did not quell the suspicion and resistance of the nonindi speakers,
especially in south India, where riots broke out in late 1964 and the early 1965.
Ultimately, the issue was resolved through the official languages amendment act of
1967, which basically provided a bilingual English Hindi solution for any official
communication between the centre and the states and also a multilingual concession
by recognising regional languages in provincial administration and in public
service examinations.
02:40:51
But there were also other complexities arising from this linguistic pluralism. The
Congress in its 1920 session in Nagpur, has decided to recognise regional
linguistic identities and divided India into 21 linguistic units for its
organisational purposes. But the British had constituted administrative units
without any consideration for linguistic homogeneity, and as a result,
administrative units like the Madras presidency, contained 4 linguistic groups,
Tamil Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, leading to varying senses of domination and
relative deprivation.
02:41:30
Hence, when the constituent assembly met in 1946, there were demands for linguistic
recognition of the provinces. But now, the Congress, which in 1920, had recognised
the regional languages, opposed the demand for linguistic states in the interest of
the national unity. In June 1948A linguistic provinces commission was set up under
the chairmanship of SK, and it delivered its report in December.
02:41:59
What is significant, despite huge public support in favour of creating the 4
southern linguistic provinces of Andhra, Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, the dal
commission opposed such a move in the interest of national integration. In December
1948, the Congress established its own high-powered linguistic provinces committee
with Jawaharlal Nehru Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabi satanmaya as its members, its
report, which is known as the jvp report, also opposed the creation of linguistic
provinces for the sake of national unity Their preference was for composite states
with no particular parochial identities, but constituted on the basis of
administrative convenience and economic viability.
02:42:48
But they also recognise the popular pressures for linguistic provinces to which the
Central government had to ultimately give in The first demand for a linguistic
province was raised by the Telugu, speaking people of Andhra. On 16, August 1951
Swami Sitaram, a Gandhian leader, started a fast under death in support of the
demand for a separate Anna state. Why he broke his fast after 35 days?
02:43:16
The movement was renewed on 15 December 1952. And this time another Gandhian
leader, Moti Sriramulu, ultimately lost his life after fasting, for 56 days. This
caused a political furor and violent clashes broke out in several places.
02:43:35
On 19, December, the Government of India finally gave in and announced its decision
to create the new state of Andhra, which was inaugurated on 1st October 1953. But
despite linguistic unity Andhra was hardly a homogeneous region. As there was
significant economic, geographic and cultural differences between the coastal
districts known as the circus and the southern districts known as rayalaseema.
02:44:03
And when Hyderabad came in the Telugu, speaking, people of Telangana, could hardly
identify with the other regional groups and opposed the idea of vishalanadhara. In
other words, while a new state was inaugurated, the tensions within remained
unresolved. While the situation in Kerala and Karnataka were relatively
straightforward, in the case of Maharashtra, the Marathi, speaking, people of Vidal
were not comfortable about the idea of sanyukt, Maharashtra.
02:44:32
Under popular pressure, a state's recognition commission was constituted in 1953
While recommending the formation of sizable composite states with self-sustaining
economies, it ultimately gave in to the demand for linguistic states. But it did so
rather half-heartedly, as many linguistic demands were not considered The state's
recognization act of 1956 constituted 14 states, but many of these states still
contained sizable, linguistic minorities and regional economic imbalances. The
continued preference of the nairuvian government for a centralised administration,
provoked dissident voices of ethnic, regional and linguistic subnationalisms in
Punjab, Assam and Kashmir tribal insurgencies in the Northeast and cultural self-
assertion of the Tamils in the south.
02:45:25
There were fresh demands for the formation of new states. While until the 1970
linguistic demand continued to be the guiding principle for the creation of new
states later, ethnic identity and administrative and financial viability came to be
considered as the new criteria for state formation in 1960 Bombay was split into
Gujarat and Maharashtra. And in 1966, Punjab was reconstituted into Punjab, Haryana
and Himachal Pradesh, the issue of ethnic identity, became particularly significant
in Northeast India, where the nagas led the charge first by not voting in the first
general election, then by showing them back to the Prime Minister during his visit
in 1953 And finally, by starting an insurgency, forcing the Government of India to
concede to the demand for a separate state of Nagaland in 1960 inaugurated in 1963.
02:46:24
Other states in the Northeast, followed gradually, with more claims still remaining
unresolved. In 1972, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura were accorded statehood Mizoram
and aruntal pradesh being made union Territories to be made full-fledged states
later. In 2014, Telangana became the 29th state of the Indian union apart from the
7 union Territories, directly governed by the union government, with a relatively
greater acceptance of a federal spirit, more about that later, in the 1963 article
in Foreign Affairs, which we have already referred to Nehru had argued that the
policies had guided India since independence.
02:47:08
They were democratic planning for development at home and externally, a policy
which has come to be named rather inadequately non-alignment dot He define nonlight
as a policy of friendship toward all nations, uncompromised by adherence, to any
military banks. For him, non-alignment was rhetoric for asserting the identity of a
newly independent nation. In his words, essentially non-alignment is freedom of
action, which is a part of independence.
02:47:41
Hence, in terms of foreign policy on the Nehru's leadership, India tried to
position herself as the leader of the newly independent afroation nations that
could potentially form a third block. She took a prominent stand against the Dutch
reoccupation of Indonesia and supported indonesia's struggle for independence at
international Fora, like the UN. In 1948, she welcomed the independence of Sri
Lanka, then Silone and Myanmar, then Burma.
02:48:11
Nehru was also a champion of panishanism as he conveyed the conference of the Asian
nations in New Delhi in 1949, demanding that withdrawal from Indonesia. India was
supportive of freedom struggles in indocia, constituting Vietnam, Cambodia and
loose Malaysia and different parts of Africa, but there were also contradictions in
this position as Nehru was not favourably disposed towards the communists who were
giving him lots of trouble at home. Soon, in 1950, when the British and malaya
started their police action against the communists who were actually fighting for
their national freedom, India did not utter a word But on the other hand during the
Korean war in 1950 India played a significant mediating role between the Western
powers led by the US and the communists led by China.
02:49:04
In the Geneva conference of 1954, which ended French colonial rule in indoca, India
played a crucial role. Thus, by the early 1960 India emerged as the undisputed
leader of the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa, of course, barring
Pakistan, many of whom had accepted normalement as a statement of their independent
position on the global stage. Nehru defined this position in terms of 5 principles
or punticle, which included peaceful coexistence non aggression non-interference in
each others.
02:49:41
Internal affairs respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty and
equality and cooperation for mutual benefit. India in 1956. But not alignment was
not a policy of maintaining convenient equidistance from the to power blocks led by
the USA and USR in a cold water world.
02:50:03
India remained a member of the Commonwealth and depended on us, economic aid. On
the other hand she also cultivated a friendly relationship with the Russians,
particularly after 19:54, when the USA formed, a strategic alliance with Pakistan.
In 1956, while India expressed strong opposition to anger friendship defension,
Egypt after the nationalisation of the Suez canal, she remained rather ambevazlant
on Russian intervention in Hungary.
02:50:35
From the very beginning, India tried to build in cordial relation with Communist
China being one of the earliest nations to recognise the people's Republic of China
in December 1949. She did not protest almost approved when the Chinese army entered
Tibet in 1950 and in 1954 signed with China, an agreement on trade and intercourse
in the Tibet region of China in June 1954, the Chinese premier Ju nli visited New
Delhi high October Nehru, went to Beijing. Indo, Chinese friendship was celebrated
through the slogan of Hindi ji Bhai bhai.
02:51:15
But the euphoria did not last very long, and the relationship began to saw once
India offered a silent to the fugitive Tibetan religious leader, Dalai Lama and the
Tibetan refugees fleeing from Chinese crackdown. The Chinese saw it as a conscious
effort to undermine their whole over Tibet, and against this bathroom from 19, 59,
the 2500 miles of disputed boundary line between the 2 countries began to surface
in diplomatic discussions. While India wanted to stick to the magmaho line drawing
by the British in 1914 as the boundary between the 2 countries, China objected to
it.
02:51:54
Nehru misundersted, the new militant leftward course of the Chinese foreign policy
during this period and possibly overestimated the strength of the Indian Army.
Pressured by the opposition and a patriotic press at home, he took an aggressive
stance, resulting in a disastrous military engagement with China in October to
November 1960 to that ended in a complete humiliation for India. China easily
overwhelmed an eliquint Indian Army attended the conflict through a unilateral
declaration of ceasefire.
02:52:27
India's territory losses were minimal, but the loss of credibility on the world
stage was huge. Since the debacle of 1962 criticism of Nehru's leadership began to
mount both within and outside the Congress, and with feeling help, he could never
recover from this setback. After Nehru's death on 27th May 1964 Indira searched for
security and her endeavour, to equip her defence forces continued, and in this
respect, her policy of non-alignment was of little help.
02:53:00
She sought military assistance from the Western world, particularly from the US,
but did not get much response as the US now was already aligned with Pakistan. On
top of that, in 1964, China became a nuclear power. In this context, India's search
for security precipitated a drift towards the U, S, R, which provided her BG21
fighter planes and other weapons and diplomatic support at the UN security council.
02:53:31
After the second India, Pakistan war over Kashmir in 1965, which ended in a
stalemate, the USR offered to mediate at the Tashkent agreement of 1966 brought
back peace to the subcontinent, as the 2 parties agreed to restore status QO and D.
The third war with Pakistan in 1971 under the leadership of Nehru's Daughter, Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi, was in response to the Pakistani regime's genocide in east
Pakistan, resulting in about 10 million refugees moving into India. The subsequent
intervention of the Indian Army led to the breaking away of east Pakistan, which
emerged as the new nation state of Bangladesh.
02:54:15
But at this critical juncture, India found herself pitted against a powerful
alliance of Pakistan, USA and China, and this prompted Indira Gandhi to sign a semi
military friendship treaty with ussr in 1971. Non-alignment, as a preferred
principle of Indian foreign policy, was now finally abandoned if you like this
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