IB Topics BKA

Mohandas Gandhi

• leader in the independence movements, advocating for nonviolence and non-cooperation movements.

• He opposed the 1957 partition of Indian and Pakistan because of its cultivation of violence.

• He was assassinated by a member of the RSS.

Jawaharlal Nehru

• closely aligned with Gandhi’s resistance

• INC president, first PM of india

• presided over pakistan-india partition and consolidation of tribal/princely states. shaped india as a secular, democratic state, wanted to form a collective unified identity

  • hesitant to divide states by language to prevent division, but the decision ultimately raised morale/hope of indians. still struggled with separtism tho and widespread tensions/violence

• zamindari abolition (50s) - created land ceilings to prevent zamindari (rich peasants who controlled land) and protections for tenant farmers against eviction (limited success, many loopholes)

• community development program (1952) - country divided into development blocks with allocated money & govt helpers (limited success, overreliance on state and state often used money for themselves)

• panchayati raj - enacted village councils in local govts, didn’t really help the poor tho bc it juts elected wealthy peasants who would use money for themselves

• introduced five year plans to promote agriculture, industrialization, economic growth, relatively successful

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

• initially part of INC, moved to Muslim League, advocating for muslim rights

• pushed for separate muslim homeland, known as founding father of Pakistan

• pakistan’s first governor general

Dr. BR Ambedkar

• father of indian constitution (outlined abolishment of untouchability, fundamental rights, reservations for scheduled castes/tribes)

• eventually rejected hinduism and converted to buddhism

Indira Gandhi

• only child of Nehru

• INC president but created her own separate branch (Congress-I) to consolidate independent authority from senior party leaders who wanted to be compliant

• 1969 - nationalized banks to redirect credit to agriculture and rural dev

• monsoon failure (1965/66) - risk of famine so went to US for help, stops industrial development to focus on food production

• green revolution (1967-68) - used high yielding seeds and agricultural modernizations (irrigation, machines, etc) to increase production/self sufficiency. but benefits unevenly distributed

  • goal of food self sufficiency messed up the balance of economy growth, undermining its efficiency

• 1971 - bangladesh won independence + india helped, huge influx of refugees put strain on india and had to turn to IMF. aggravated unrest

• the emergency rule (1975-1977) - court convicted her of electoral malpractice, declared nationwide state of emergency, suppressing civil liberties, jailing opposition, strict censorship

  • argued that it was necessary to develop economy, prevent corruption in govt and civilian violence/rebellion

• 1977 election - to legitimize rule, called elections and lost to Janata Coalition

• 1980 election - Congress-I wins

• operation blue star (1984) - ordered indian army to storm the Golden Temple (Sikh’s holiest site) to get rid of militant leader Bhindranwale

• assassinated by two of her sikh bodyguards

Sanjay Gandhi

• son of indira gandhi

• authority figure during emergency rule under indira

  • two “reforms” built resentment - slum clearance and forced sterilization/family planning system

• immediately succeed as pm after indira’s death but died shortly in airplane crash

Jayaprakash Narayan

• aka JP

• started JP movement with student protesters to call for free and fair elections, anti-corruption, transparency, accountability, human rights

• 1974 - JP had gained a lot of support and momentum, and called for total revolution

  • indira felt threatened →one factor that led to enacting of emergency rule

Rajiv Gandhi

• son of indira gandhi

• entered govt in 1980 after sanjay’s death

• 1984 elections - historic majority winning 415 out of 543 lok sabha seats

• laid foundation for india’s IT sector

• initiated industrial/economic liberalization to end poverty and backwardness, limited success →economy was weighed down by inefficient/restricted processes, his own party also thought it made india look not self sufficient

• had to go to IMF for relief - devalued rupee, abolished subsidies, lowered tariffs,etc

• further promoted panchayati raj to strengthen local village governance/representation by making quotas for 1/3 of council to be women, and have reserved seats for OBCs

• challenges like Bhopal gas disaster and Bofors corruption scandal contributed to defeat of his party in 1989 election

• assassinated by suicide bomber from Tamil Tigers

Congress Party

• center/center left political party

• ideology of liberalism, secularism, democracy, nationalism, socialism

• held power for about 30 consecutive years after independence

Muslim League

• protect social, education, political interests of muslims

• under Jinnah, transformed from an elitist movement into a mass political mobilization

• demanded separate muslim homelead, eventually leading to partition and creation of pakistan.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)

• right wing hindu nationalist volunteer organization

• objective was to unify hindu community and promote ideology of hindutva (belief that indian national identity was in hinduism)

• govt banned the RSS following the assassination of gandhi by one of its members, but was lifted later as the RSS pledged to become non political

• RSS was banned again during the emergency rule, but after indira/janata co collapse, it was reorganized in the BJP

Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS)

• formed in 1951 in close collaboration with the RSS

• combines with other parties under the Janata Party, succesfully winning the 1977 election

  • internal disputes eventually split the janata party, people objected to former Jan Sangh members maintaining ties with the RSS

  • the BJS faction breaks away and launches the BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

• dissidents from janata party established BJP after internal disputes regarding ties to RSS.

• strong hindu nationalist identity (hindutva)

• became the major alternative to INC, beat congress in 1998 with coalition

Swatantra Party

• meaning “free” or “independent” party, the only major secular, non communal right wing party

• advocated for market based economy, opposed permit/lisence regulations, didn’t like socialism/collectivization implemented by INC, favored pro western relations

• 1967 election - 44 lok sabha seats, the largest single opposition party to congress at the time

• ultimately weak and short lived due to lack of mass mobilization, death of its leader, other coalitions

Communist Party of India (CPI)

• CPI and other leftist parties won majority of seats in states like Kerala, focused on land reforms, education, labor rights

• opposition tried to obstruct efforts, CPI responded with police force and pass arrest

• opposition pressed central govt to dismiss CPI, nehru bowed to pressure and called emergency rule, dismissing them

• supported indira’s declaration of emergency, isolating it from support

• CPI’s goals of industry/agrarian base had tension wtih india’s shift towards economic liberalization

Socialist Party

• established as leftist sect of INC to push independence movement towards economic and social reform

• parted ways with congress after independence, forming the standalone socialist party

• believed in democratic socialism

Akali Dal Party

• party in power in punjab, represented sikhs

• had supported janata party, indira not very friendly to them bc of that

• biggest rival was bhindranwale, who led a movement demanding sikh independent state (khalistan)

Jammu and Kashmir

• one of the three holdouts during consolidation of the princely states - prince was hindu and wanted to join india but majority of its people were muslim

• india don’t want to concede to pakistan bc they want to show they can be a secular state, pakistan obv wants it bc it’s majorly muslim and thought it should have been part of their border in the first place.

• both sides send troops and refuse to remove them, no resolution to this day.

Zamindari abolition

• created land ceilings to prevent zamindari (rich peasants who controlled land) and protections for tenant farmers against eviction

• limited success, there were many loopholes for the rich, bc INC still wanted these people to vote for them

Community Development

• 1952- country divided into development blocks with allocated money & govt helpers

• limited success, overreliance on state and state often used money for themselves

Panchayati Raj (1950s and 1990s)

• under nehru - enacted village councils in local govts

  • didn’t really help the poor tho bc it juts elected wealthy peasants who would use money for themselves

• under rajiv - established quotas for the village councils, making 1/3 be women, and also reserved seats for other marginalized groups, allowing for minority representation.

  • pretty successful this time, women were able to actually make a dent in people’s lives, but still only in local govt and not in state (yet) or parliamet

5 Year Plans

• plans to promote agriculture, industrialization, economic growth, relatively successful

• plan 1 - agriculture focus and community development blocs

• plan 2 - industrial focus on heavy industries

• plan 3 - self sufficiency, decrease dependence on imports, govt institutionalization of economic sectors

Hindu Code Bill

• set of legislative initiatives created by Ambedkar and championed by Nehru to modernize hindu law and establish gender equality in marriage, divorce, inheritance, property

• due to intense opposition, was broken down and passed as four separate acts- Hindu marriage act, hindu succession act, hindu minority and guardianship act, hindu adoptions and maintenance act

Communalism

• political ideology that prioritizes the interests/identity of a specific religious group over national unity

• religious communities are distinct with incompatible interests

Scheduled Castes (Dalits, Hariyan, Untouchables)

• historically marginalized groups

• Ambedkar and Gandhi fought against caste system and untouchability

• untouchability eventually abolished under article 17, state also established reserved seats in jobs, education, legislative bodies to help integrate the SCs into mainstream civic life

Green Revolution

• used high yielding seeds and agricultural modernization (irrigation, machines, etc) to increase production/self sufficiency.

  • but benefits unevenly distributed

  • goal of food self sufficiency messed up the balance of economy growth, undermining its efficiency

JP Movement

• led by Jayaprakash Nayaran (JP)

• mobilized student protesters to call for free and fair elections, anti-corruption, transparency, accountability, human rights

Emergency Rule

• article 352 - national emergency, article 356 - state emergency

  • president can declare emergency when the security of india is threatened by war, aggression, armed rebellion

• natl emergency declares 3 times in india’s history: 1962 (sino indian war), 1971 (indo pakistani war) and 1975 (internal emergency)

• state emergency declared over 100 times (kerala is one such example)

Janata Coalition (1970s)

• 1st non congress coalition party

• coalition of leftist and rightists, came together cause they all hate indira

• focused on agricultural development and OBCs

• major bickering between different groups in coalition due to conflicting interests

Mandal Commission

• after survey finding how many OBCs there were in india, found they needed to increase reserved seats by 27%

• opposed by BJP and upper middle classes

• input at state level with a max of 50 percent reserved seats, and only some at fed level

Mandir Issue/Babri Mosque (Ram Temple) 

• hindus thought that rama was born where the mosque was and wanted to destroy it so that they could build the ram temple and make it a holy site for hindus

• obviously the muslims didn’t want this and were very mad

• large political rally of hindus results in the destruction of the mosque

Shah Bano Case & Response

• shah bano was a muslim woman getting divorced, under marriage law in muslims she was not supposed to be offered alimony, under secular law she was allowed to

• the supreme court ruled that she shouldn’t be discriminated against because she was muslim.

• Muslim Indians saw this as encroaching on their customs, and hindu were mad because they felt muslims were getting "special priveleges”

  • Gained support from middle classes and above who were opposed to things like the mandal commission

Liberalization

• minimal govt internvention in the economy, free markets ,private property

• india greatly liberalized near the latter half of the 20th century under the BJP