Chapter 12

India after Independence

A Constitution is Written

Between December 1946 and November 1949, three hundred Indians, after a series of meetings, decided on the formation of the Indian Constitution on 26 January, 1950.

The features of the Constitution were as follows:

The adoption of universal adult franchise.

Guaranteed equality before law to all the citizens, regardless of their caste and religion.

It offered special constitutional rights to the poorest and the most

disadvantaged Indian citizens. Along with the untouchables, the Scheduled Tribes were also granted reservation of seats and jobs.

The Constitution provided three lists of subjects for jurisdiction on various

subjects. There are as follows:

Union List: Centre

State List: States

Concurrent List: Both Centre and States could legislate.

However, the legislation made by the Centre would prevail.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was the chairman of the Drafting Committee and

under his guidance the document was finalised.

How Were States to be Formed?

A States Reorganisation Commission was set up, which recommended the redrawing of district and provincial boundaries to form compact provinces of Assamese, Oriya, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu speakers.

Hindi-speaking regions in north India were broken up into several states.

In 1960, the bilingual state of Bombay was divided into separate states for the Marathi and Gujarati speakers.

In 1966, the state of Punjab was divided into Punjab and Haryana, the former for the Punjabi speakers and the latter for the rest.

Planning for Development

A Planning Commission was set up by the government in 1950 to design and execute certain policies for economic development.

In 1956, the Second Five Year Plan was formulated which strongly focused on

the development of heavy industries such as steel and on building large dams.

The Nation, Sixty Years On

Since India’s Independence, thirteen general elections and hundreds of state and local elections have been held.

There is an independent judiciary and a free press.

Deep divisions persist. In spite of constitutional guarantees, the untouchables, now referred to as Dalits, still face violence and discrimination.

There have been clashes between religious groups in many states despite the secular ideals enshrined in the Constitution.

Economic disparity still persists.

Judged by the standards it set for itself after Independence, the Republic of India has not been a great success. However, it has not been a failure

either.