India Since Independence Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copy right

  Preface to the Revised Edition

  Acknowledgem ents

  Introduction

  The Colonial Legacy

  The National Movem ent and its Legacy

  The Evolution of the Constitution and Main Provisions

  The Architecture of the Constitution: Basic Features and Institutions

  The Initial Years

  Consolidation of India as a Nation (I)

  Consolidation of India as a Nation(II): The Linguistic Reorganization of the States

  Consolidation of India as a Nation(III): Integration of the Tribals

  Consolidation of India as a Nation(IV): Regionalism and Regional Inequality

  The Years of Hope and Achievem ent, 1951–1964

  Foreign Policy : The Nehru Era

  Jawaharlal Nehru in Historical Perspective

  Political Parties, 1947–1964: The Congress

  Political Parties, 1947–1965: The Opposition

  From Shastri to Indira Gandhi, 1964–1969

  The Indira Gandhi Years, 1969–1973

  The JP Movem ent and the Em ergency : Indian Dem ocracy Tested

  The Janata Interregnum and Indira Gandhi’s Second Com ing, 1977–1984

  The Raj iv Years

  Run-up to the New Millennium and After

  Politics in the States (I): Tam il Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Assam

  Politics in the States (II): West Bengal and Jam m u and Kashm ir

  The Punj ab Crisis

  Indian Econom y , 1947–1965: The Nehruvian Legacy

  Indian Econom y , 1965–1991

  Econom ic Reform s Since 1991

  The Indian Econom y in the New Millennium

  Land Reform s (I): Colonial Im pact and the Legacy of the National and Peasant Movem ents

  Land Reform s(II): Zam indari Abolition and Tenancy Reform s

  Land Reform s (III): Ceiling and the Bhoodan Movem ent

  Cooperatives and an Overview of Land Reform s

  Agricultural Growth and the Green Revolution

  Agrarian Struggles Since Independence

  Revival and Growth of Com m unalism

  Com m unalism and the Use of State Power

  Caste, Untouchability , Anti-caste Politics and Strategies

  Indian Wom en Since Independence

  The Postcolonial Indian State and the Political Econom y of Developm ent: An Overview

  Disarray in Institutions of Governance

  The Dawn of the New Millennium : Achievem ents, Problem s and Prospects

  Notes

  Select Bibliography

  A Note on Sty le

  1 m

  30

  n.’2

  A thorough and incisive introduction to contemporary India

  The story of the forging of India, the world’s largest dem ocracy , is a rich and inspiring one.

  This volum e, sequel to the best-selling India’s Struggle for Independence, analy ses the challenges India has faced and the successes it has achieved, in the light of its colonial legacy and century -

  long struggle for freedom .

  The book describes how the Constitution was fram ed, and also how the Nehruvian political and econom ic agenda and basics of foreign policy were evolved and developed. It dwells on the consolidation of the nation, exam ining contentious issues like party politics at the Centre and the states, the Punj ab problem , and anti-caste politics and untouchability .

  This revised edition offers a scathing analy sis of the growth of com m unalism in India and the use of state power in furthering its cause. It also docum ents the fall of the National Dem ocratic Alliance in the 2004 General Elections, the United Progressive Alliance’s subsequent rise to power and the Indo-US Nuclear Deal that served to unravel the political consensus at the Centre.

  Apart from detailed analy ses of Indian econom ic reform s since 1991 and wide-ranging land reform s and the Green Revolution, this new edition includes an assessm ent of the Indian econom y in the new m illennium . These, along with obj ective profiles of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Jay aprakash Naray an, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Raj iv Gandhi, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Atal Bihari Vaj pay ee and Manm ohan Singh, constitute a rem arkable overview of a nation on the m ove.

  ‘An outstanding book...the best of its kind. It is a m asterly overview of political and econom ic developm ents in India over the last fifty y ears.’ —Prof. Atul Kohli, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University

  ‘As an introduction to the history of post-Independence India, it is non-pareil.’ —M.V. Kam ath ‘The book fills a m aj or gap in the literature on contem porary history and is a m ust read for the general public, especially students of history , sociology , econom ics and politics.’ — The Tribune ‘A com prehensive volum e...These scholars have succeeded in presenting the story of an extrem ely difficult and challenging j ourney .’ —C.P. Bham bri, form er Professor of Political Science and Distinguished Scholar, Jawaharlal Nehru

  ‘Rewarding reading for students of Indian politics and econom y .’— Business Standard

  Cover photograph courtesy Dinodia Photo Library

  Cover illustration by Geetika Alok

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  INDIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE

  Bipan Chandra was born in Kangra, Him achal Pradesh. He was educated at Form an Christian College, Lahore, and at Stanford University , California. He was Professor of Modern History at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, where he is currently Professor Em eritus. He is also National Professor and Chairperson of the National Book Trust. Prof. Chandra is the author of several books on nationalism , colonialism , and com m unalism in m odern India.

  Mridula Mukherj ee was educated at Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi and at JNU. She is Professor of Modern Indian History at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU and Director, Nehru Mem orial Museum and Library . Her areas of special interest are agrarian history , peasant m ovem ents and the national m ovem ent.

  Adity a Mukherj ee was educated at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and at JNU. He is Professor of Contem porary Indian History at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU and Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study at Jawaharlal Nehru University . His research interests are in m odern business history and capitalist developm ent, and contem porary econom y and politics.

  India Since

  Independence

  Bipan Chandra

  Mridula Mukherjee Aditya Mukherjee

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd, 11 Com m unity Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110017, India Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Cam berwell Road, Cam berwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Group (South Africa) (Pty ) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published as India After Independence, 1947–2000 in Viking by Penguin Books India 1999

  Published in Penguin Books 2000

  Twelfth reprint 2007

  This revised edition published as India Since Independence by Penguin Bo
oks India 2008

  Copy right © Bipan Chandra, Mridula Mukherj ee, Adity a Mukherj ee 2008

  All rights reserved

  ISBN: 978-01-4310-409-4

  This Digital Edition published 2011. e-ISBN: 978-81-8475-053-9

  Digital conversion prepared by DK Digital Media, India.

  This e-book is sold subj ect to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a sim ilar condition including this condition being im posed on the subsequent purchaser and without lim iting the rights under copy right reserved above, no part of this publication m ay be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval sy stem , or transm itted in any form or by any m eans (electronic, m echanical, photocopy ing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written perm ission of both the copy right owner and the above-m entioned publisher of this e-book.

  To

  Late Professor V.D. Mahajan

  Contents

  Copy right

  Preface to the Revised Edition

  Acknowledgem ents

  1. Introduction

  2. The Colonial Legacy

  3. The National Movem ent and its Legacy

  4. The Evolution of the Constitution and Main Provisions

  5. The Architecture of the Constitution: Basic Features and Institutions

  6. The Initial Years

  7. Consolidation of India as a Nation (I)

  8. Consolidation of India as a Nation(II): The Linguistic Reorganization of the States

  9. Consolidation of India as a Nation(III): Integration of the Tribals

  10. Consolidation of India as a Nation(IV): Regionalism and Regional Inequality

  11. The Years of Hope and Achievem ent, 1951–1964

  12. Foreign Policy : The Nehru Era

  13. Jawaharlal Nehru in Historical Perspective

  14. Political Parties, 1947–1964: The Congress

  15. Political Parties, 1947–1965: The Opposition

  16. From Shastri to Indira Gandhi, 1964–1969

  17. The Indira Gandhi Years, 1969–1973

  18. The JP Movem ent and the Em ergency : Indian Dem ocracy Tested

  19. The Janata Interregnum and Indira Gandhi’s Second Com ing, 1977–1984

  20. The Raj iv Years

  21. Run-up to the New Millennium and After

  22. Politics in the States (I): Tam il Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Assam

  23. Politics in the States (II): West Bengal and Jam m u and Kashm ir

  24. The Punj ab Crisis

  25. Indian Econom y , 1947–1965: The Nehruvian Legacy

  26. Indian Econom y , 1965–1991

  27. Econom ic Reform s Since 1991

  28. The Indian Econom y in the New Millennium

  29. Land Reform s (I): Colonial Im pact and the Legacy of the National and Peasant Movem ents

  30. Land Reform s(II): Zam indari Abolition and Tenancy Reform s

  31. Land Reform s (III): Ceiling and the Bhoodan Movem ent

  32. Cooperatives and an Overview of Land Reform s

  33. Agricultural Growth and the Green Revolution

  34. Agrarian Struggles Since Independence

  35. Revival and Growth of Com m unalism

  36. Com m unalism and the Use of State Power

  37. Caste, Untouchability , Anti-caste Politics and Strategies

  38. Indian Wom en Since Independence

  39. The Postcolonial Indian State and the Political Econom y of Developm ent: An Overview

  40. Disarray in Institutions of Governance

  41. The Dawn of the New Millennium : Achievem ents, Problem s and Prospects

  Notes

  Select Bibliography

  A Note on Sty le

  P r e f a c e t o t h e R e v i s e d E d i t i o n

  This book was conceived as a sequel to our Struggle for India’s Independence, (1857-1947) which was very well received, selling over 100,000 copies in English and m any m ore in translations into Hindi and several other Indian languages. We were persuaded by David Davidar of Penguin, who had published this book, to write a com panion volum e covering the period from Indian independence to the end of the m illennium . We did m anage to finish the m anuscript by end of 1999 so that it could com e out in beginning of the new m illennium as the first edition of this book titled India After Independence: 1947-2000.

  We were persuaded to work on a second edition of this book for a num ber of reasons. The response the book got from the general public and especially students of history , sociology , econom ics, politics and contem porary affairs was very encouraging. It appeared to fill a m aj or gap in the literature on contem porary history with several universities and m anagem ent institutes adopting this work as a recom m ended text. This volum e too was translated into Hindi and several other Indian languages. In recent y ears we received repeated requests from both our readers and publishers to bring out a revised edition bringing the book up to date.

  Indeed, m any significant developm ents did take place since the book was written in 1999 and needed to be incorporated in the book. The econom y in the new m illennium was at the verge of a breakthrough registering unprecedented rates of growth. A paradigm change in India’s relationship with the outside world was being shaped not only by the m aj or econom ic strides India was taking but also by the prolonged negotiations on a changed nuclear status for India am ong the nuclear powers. On the other hand Indian politics saw som e unprecedented dips. The gravest threat to Indian dem ocracy since independence was witnessed during the Guj arat killings following the Godhra tragedy in 2002. The state governm ent, police and bureaucracy connived or rem ained silent spectators while thousands of Muslim s were m urdered or hounded and m ade hom eless. But then other segm ents of India’s civil society and state institutions stood up and fought. The period also saw a brazen attem pt to com m unalize our education sy stem at the school textbook-level with the Central governm ent’s active participation. This too was followed by nationwide protest. A change of governm ent in 2004 put a stop to this m ost dangerous trend. On the whole, though the period was characterized by spectacular econom ic growth it also was a period when the fruits of this growth did not spread very widely (with India’s ranking in the Hum an Developm ent Index actually falling) and the country faced a resurgence of the com m unal and caste divide.

  It therefore was a very agreeable push from Ravi Singh of Penguin which got us to work on revising the book. We have added three substantive chapters try ing to include som e of the m aj or events from 1999-2000 till 2007. There is a new chapter on The Indian Economy in the New Millennium which highlights the m ultiple dim ensions of the econom ic breakthrough that occurred in the period while em phasizing the critical challenges that still rem ain to be adequately addressed. Another new chapter called Communalism and the Use of State Power analy ses the Guj arat events and the issue of com m unalization of education in the context of state power being available to the com m unal forces to further their agenda. The third new chapter, Land Reforms: Colonial Impact and the Legacy of the National and Peasant Movements precedes three substantive chapters discussing land reform s in India since independence. This chapter shows the critical link between the colonial im pact on Indian agriculture and the position taken by the Indian national and peasant m ovem ents on the agrarian question for over half a century and the nature of land reform s post independence. A thoroughly revised and considerably expanded chapter titled Run up to the New Millennium and After analy ses the m ain political events and the m aj or foreign policy issues that em erged during the tum ultuous y ears following Raj iv Gandhi’s assassination which saw num erous governm ents representing virtually the entire m ainstream political spectrum of India right up to 2007. Additions and alterations have been m ade to a num ber of other chapters such as in the chapter called The Dawn of the New Millenni
um Achievements, Problems and Prospects, bringing them up to date.

  This work of contem porary history takes a holistic view of the political econom y of Indian developm ent since independence evaluating it in the context of the nearly two hundred y ears of colonial rule and a prolonged and powerful anti-im perialist m ass m ovem ent which gave birth to the independent Indian Republic. We are particularly happy to be able bring this work to our readers on the sixtieth anniversary of India’s independence.

  Bipan

  November 2007

  Chandra

  Mridula

  Mukherjee

  Aditya

  Mukherjee

  Acknowledgements

  In the m aking of this book, we have benefited im m ensely from our long-term interaction with and support of our colleagues at the Centre for Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi. Many friends—Mohit Sen, Kewal Varm a, V.P. Dutt, Barun De, Girish Mathur, Girish Mishra, Gopi Arora, S. Gopal, Rom ila Thapar, Irfan Habib, V.N. Datta, Ravinder Kum ar, C.P.

  Bham bri, Darshan and Shiela Bhalla, Am it Bhaduri, Arj un Sengupta, Shireen Moosvi, Arun Kum ar, Arj un Dev, K.P. Jain, G.M. Telang, Swadesh Mahaj an, Madhu Kishwar, Shekhar Singh, Shantha Sinha, Narinder Bedi Am rita Patel and Bodh Prakash—have over the y ears helped us grapple with the contem porary world, often through a great deal of polem ics and m any heated discussions and disagreem ents.

  A large num ber of colleagues and students—D.N. Gupta, Mohinder Singh, Sucheta Mahaj an, Visalakshi Menon, Antony Thom as, Sudhir Mathur, Neerj a Singh, Salil Mishra, Rakesh Bataby al, Bikash Chandra, Vikram Menon, Gy anesh Kudaisy a, John Zavos, Am it Mishra, Tulika Sharan, Dipa Sinha, Him angshu, Bhuvan Jha, Kaly ani and Am m an Madan—have contributed to evolving our ideas and have also been of assistance in several other way s, and have helped us keep our optim ism alive.

  The Japan Foundation enabled us (Adity a Mukherj ee and Mridula Mukherj ee) to be at the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Toky o, for a y ear since March 1999. A considerable part of the drafting and research for the book was done in Japan. Professor Asis Datta, Vice Chancellor, JNU, very kindly m ade it possible for us to avail of this opportunity to com plete our book. A large num ber of friends and colleagues m ade our visit in Japan extrem ely fruitful intellectually and otherwise. They include Professors Nariaki Nakazato, Haruka Yanagisawa, Tsukasa Mizushim a, Shingo Einoo, Toru Matsui, Nobuko Nagasaki, Takako Hirose, Hiroko Hara, Shigeru Akita, Fum iko Oshikawa, Mr Takashi Oishi, Dr Shuj i Uchikawa, Mr Shusaku Matsum oto, Professor and Mrs Hisashi Nakam ura, Mrs Em iko Kothari, Dr Ky oko Inoue, Um esh and Ruby Pawankar, Dr Malavika Karlekar, Chieko Mizushim a, Dr Jaishankar and Professor B.R.