Page 182 - DHIS204_DHIS205_INDIAN_FREEDOM_STRUGGLE_HINDI

Unit 11: India Independent to 1964

Self-Assessment Notes
1. Choose the Correct option
(i) How many members are in Rajya Sabha?
(a) 250 (b) 255 (c) 260 (d) 274.
(ii) The president nominates ............... members in Rajya Sabha on the advice of the Government.
(a)5 (b)10 (c)12 (d)15
(iii) In case an Emergency in force, the Lok Sabha can extend its term for ............... at a time.
(a) 3 months (b) 6 months (c) 10 months (d) 1 year
(iv) The maximum numbers of seat in Lok Sabha is ............... .
(a) 550 (b) 552 (c) 555 (d) 556.
(v) The Lok Sabha member must be at least ............... of age.
(a) 18 years (b) 25 years (c) 30 years (d) 35 years

11.2 Jawaharlal Nehru’s Vision of a Developed Socialist Society

The vision of the founding fathers of the Republic went beyond national integration and political
stability. Indian society had to move towards social change. Article 36 of the constitution in the
section on the Directive Principles of State Policy states: ‘The state shall strive to promote the
welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as may be a social order in which
justice, economic and political, shall inform all institutions of the national life.’ This conception of
the new social order was encompassed in 1955 by the phrase ‘socialistic pattern of society’ officially
accepted by the Congress at its Avadi session and later incorporated as its objective in the Second
and Third Five Year Plans. Consequently, several important measures of social reforms, which some
have described as the beginning of a welfare state, were taken during the Nehru years. Very important
measures in this respect were those of land reforms, the initiation of planned economic development
and rapid expansion of the public sector. In addition far-reaching labour legislation was undertaken,
including recognition of collective bargaining, the right to form trade unions and to go on strike,
security of employment, and provision of health and accident insurance. There were also moves
towards a more equitable distribution of wealth through progressive and steep income tax and
excise tax policies. Expansion of education and health and other social services was also sought.
Nehru and other leaders were also keen to ensure that Indian social organization underwent
change, leading to the social liberation of the hitherto socially backward and suppressed sections
of society. As Nehru put it in 1956: ‘We have not only striven for and achieved a political revolution,
not only are we striving hard for an economic revolution but . . . we are equally intent on social
revolution; only by way of advance on these three separate lines and their integration into one
great whole, will the people of India progress.’
The constitution had already incorporated a provision abolishing untouchability. The government
supplemented this provision by passing the Anti-Untouchability Law in 1955 making the practice
of untouchability punishable and a cognizable offence. The government also tried to implement
the clauses of the constitution regarding reservations in educational institutions and government
employment in favour of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) and other weaker
sections of society. Other necessary measures were taken to raise their social status, such as the
provision of special facilities in the form of scholarships, hostels accommodation, grants, loans,
housing, healthcare and legal aid services. A Commissioner of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes was appointed to monitor the effective implementation of all such measures and constitutional
provisions. However, in spite of all these steps, the SCs and STs continued to be backward and caste
oppression was still widely prevalent, especially in rural areas, where the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes also formed a large part of the landless agricultural labour, and therefore also
suffered from class oppression. There was also hardly any effort to eradicate the ideology of the
caste system or to remove caste inequality and caste oppression so that casteism began to spread
from the upper castes to the backward castes and from the rural to the urban areas.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 177