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Unit 11: India Independent to 1964

• The council of ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha and has to resign as soon Notes
as it loses the confidence of the Lok Sabha.
• The prime minister is, in Nehru’s words, the ‘linchpin of Government’. Almost all the powers
formally vested in the President are in fact exercised by the prime minister, who is the link
between, the President, the cabinet, and, the parliament.
• Indira Gandhi was also so powerful after her election victory and the Bangladesh war in 1971
that the prime minister’s position within the political system acquired enormous weight. The
prime minister has full powers to choose ministers as well as recommend their dismissal. This
gives the prime minister enormous powers of patronage.
• The Indian parliament has two houses—the upper house being called the Rajya Sabha or the
Council of States and the lower house the Lok Sabha or the House of the People. The Rajya
Sabha has 250 members, of whom 238 are elected by elected members of the state legislative
assemblies or Vidhan Sabhas via a system of proportional representation by means of single
transferable vote, while another 12 are nominated by the President.
• The Lok Sabha is directly elected by the people for five years. It may be dissolved before its
term is over. In case an Emergency is in force, the Lok Sabha can extend its term for one year
at a time but not beyond six months after the Emergency has ended. In practice, only once
has the Lok Sabha’s term been extended for a year in 1976 when prime minister Indira
Gandhi had declared the Emergency.
• The constitution had envisaged reservations as a short-term measure lasting ten years; no
government has ever seriously considered not extending them every ten years, and it is now
nearly fifty years! On the contrary, demands for and acceptance of reservation have only
increased.
• The maximum number of seats in the Lok Sabha is 552. Of these, 550 represent territorial
constituencies, and two go to nominated members from the Anglo-Indian community.
Members must be at least twenty-five years of age. The Lok Sabha is chaired by the speaker,
and in his absence by the deputy speaker, both of whom are elected by members from
amongst themselves.
• The parliament has extensive legislative powers and bills may be introduced in any house.
To become law, bills must be passed by both houses, and then receive presidential assent.
• The constitution declares India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic.
Even though the terms secular (and socialist) were added only by the 42nd Amendment in
1976, the spirit embodying the constitution was secular.
• Nehru’s commitment to secularism was unsurpassed and all-pervasive. Communalism went
against his grain, and he fought it vigorously throughout his life. He helped secularism
acquire deep roots among the Indian people; and he prevented the burgeoning forth of
communalism when conditions were favourable for it.
• Nehru was one of the first to try to understand the socio-economic roots of communalism,
and he came to believe that it was primarily a weapon of reaction, even though its social base
was formed by the middle classes.
• a major lacuna in Nehru’s approach to the problem of communalism, which can be seen as
a certain economistic, deterministic and reductionist bias. Believing that planning and
economic development and the spread of education, science and technology would
automatically weaken communal thinking and help form a secular consciousness, he ignored
the need for struggle against communalism as an ideology.
• The entrenchment of democracy—an achievement which has endured so that it is now taken
for granted. The process had begun with the framing of the constitution after 1947 and its
promulgation on 26 January 1950. Democracy took a giant step forward with the first general
election held in 1951-52 over a four-month period.

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