❇️️️️ India's Independence :-
🔹After almost 200 years of British slavery, India became independent on the midnight of 14-15 August 1947 . But with this independence the people of the country had to face the partition of the country. In the special session of the Constituent Assembly, the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave a speech in the name of 'The long-awaited meeting with Bhagyavadhu' or 'Tryst with Destiny '.
❇️️️ At the time of freedom struggle, everyone agreed on two things :-
1) After independence, the governance of the country will be run in a democratic way.
2) The government will work for all sections of the society.
❇️️️️ Challenges of the new nation of independent India :-
🔹There were mainly three types of challenges before India.
- (1) The challenge of unity and integrity
- (2) Establishment of democracy
- (3) Development based on equality
1) Challenge of unity and integrity :-
🔹India was equal to any continent in its size and diversity. Followers of different languages, cultures and religions lived here, the challenge was to unite them all.
2) Establishment of democracy :-
🔹India has adopted a representative democracy based on parliamentary rule. And in the Constitution of India, every citizen has been given fundamental rights and the right to vote.
3) Development based on equality :-
🔹Such development, which is for the welfare of the whole society, and not one class, that is, all should be treated equally and socially disadvantaged sections and religious cultural minority communities should be given special protection.
❇️️️️ Two-nation theory :-
🔹According to this principle, India was not a country of any one community but of two communities named 'Hindu' and 'Muslim' and for this reason Muslim League demanded a separate country for Muslims i.e. Pakistan.
❇️️️ Partition of India: -
🔹The Muslim League argued for adopting the 'two-nation theory' that India is not of any one community, but of two nations named 'Hindu and Muslim'. And for this reason the Muslim League demanded a separate country for the Muslims i.e. Pakistan.
🔹The basis of the partition of India was made on the basis of religious majority.
🔹On the basis of the population of Muslims, Pakistan will include two areas, West Pakistan and East Pakistan, and between them there will be a large expansion of Indian territory.
🔹Every Muslim-majority area was not ready to go to Pakistan. The leader of the North-West Frontier Province, Khan-Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as the 'frontier Gandhi', was totally against the 'two-nation theory'.
🔹The Muslim-majority provinces of 'British India' Punjab and Bengal had many parts with a majority non-Muslim population. In such a situation, the division of these provinces was done on the basis of religious majority on the basis of the administrative division of the district or lower level.
🔹India was partitioned on the basis of religion only. Therefore the minorities on both sides were in great confusion as to what would happen to them. He will be a citizen of Pakistan or of India from tomorrow.
❇️️️️ The main problem of partition :-
🔹It was not said in the plan of Partition of India that there would be displacement of minorities from both the parts. Even before the partition, Hindu-Muslim riots broke out in the dividing areas of both the countries.
🔹The minority non-Muslim people living in West Punjab had to leave their homes, land, property and come to East Punjab or India from there to save their lives. And likewise the Muslims had to go to Pakistan.
🔹In the process of partition, not only the land of India was divided but the wealth of India was also divided. Due to independence and partition, India got the problem of resettlement of refugees as a legacy.
🔹Provided practical form to the rehabilitation of the people in a very restrained manner. A Rehabilitation Ministry was first created for the resettlement of refugees.
❇️️️️ Result of division :-
- People were forced to leave their homes and cross the border.
- There was violence on a large scale.
- There were communal riots in Amritsar and Kolkata.
- People were forced to live in refugee camps.
- Women were kidnapped, forced to marry, had to change religion.
- In many cases, people themselves killed daughter-in-law of the house to save the honor of the family.
- Along with the financial assets, tables, chairs, typewriters and police were also divided.
- 80 lakh people had to leave their homes and come to their border.
- 5 to 10 lakh people lost their lives.
❇️️️️ Merger of princely states in India :-
🔹Before independence, India was divided into two parts – British India and princely state. The number of these princely states was about 565 .
🔹Sardar Patel (Home Minister) played a historical role in persuading the rulers of the princely states and he had persuaded most of the princely states to join the Indian Union.
❇️️️️ Problem in the merger of princely states :-
🔹Immediately before independence, the British said that India is going to be independent from British domination, so the princely states will also be freed and the princely states can join India if they want, either in Pakistan or can remain independent.
🔹This decision was to be taken by the king, the public had nothing to do with it.
🔹In such a situation, the unity and integrity of the country was under threat, if the princely states demanded separation, then do not know how many pieces of the country would have been broken.
🔹The king of Travancore first asked to liberate his kingdom. The next day the Nizam of Hyderabad did so. The Nawab of Bhopal did not want to join the Constituent Assembly.
❇️️️ Role of Patel ji in the merger of princely states :-
🔹There was a possibility of India becoming small and big pieces of the country, in such a situation the government took a tough decision. The Muslim League opposed this, people said that the princely states should be left to take the decision of their choice.
🔹Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, with his cleverness and understanding, included the princely states in the Indian Union.
❇️️️ Important things about the princely states :-
🔹Most of the princely states wanted to join the Indian Union.
🔹The Government of India was ready to give autonomy to some areas like – Jammu and Kashmir.
🔹In the background of partition, the question of demarcation of different areas was gaining momentum and in such a situation, the question of territorial unity and integrity of the country became the most important.
🔹The rulers of most of the princely states had signed a memorandum of understanding for their merger with the Indian Union, this agreement is called ' Instrument of Accession '.
🔹The merger of the princely states of Junagadh, Hyderabad, Kashmir and Manipur proved to be a bit difficult as compared to the rest of the princely states .
❇️️️️ Merger of Hyderabad :-
🔹The ruler of Hyderabad was called 'Nizam' . He made an agreement with the Government of India in November 1947 to restore the status quo for a year.
🔹Peasants and women led by Communist Party and Hyderabad Congress started agitation against Nizam. To crush this movement, the Nizam deployed a semi-military force (Razkar).
🔹In response to this, the Government of India forced the Nizam to surrender by military action in September 1948 . Thus the princely state of Hyderabad merged with the Indian Union.
❇️️️️ Merger of Manipur State :-
🔹A memorandum of understanding was signed between Maharaja Bodhchandra Singh and the Government of India to maintain the internal autonomy of Manipur.
🔹The election was conducted under public pressure, as a result of this election a constitutional monarchy was established.
Note: - Manipur is the first part of India where elections were held in June 1948 by adopting the principle of universal adult suffrage.
❇️️️️ Reorganization of States :-
🔹During the colonial rule, provinces were formed according to administrative convenience, but in independent India, there was a demand for the formation of states on the basis of linguistic and cultural plurality.
Note: - The political issue of the formation of provinces on the basis of language was included for the first time in the Nagpur session of the Congress (1920).
❇️️️️ Creation of Andhra Pradesh State :-
🔹The Telugu speaking people demanded that a new state of Andhra Pradesh should be carved out of the Telugu speaking areas of Madras province.
🔹Potti Sri Ramulu, a senior Congress leader during the movement, died after a hunger-strike of about 56 days .
🔹Due to this, the government had to announce the creation of a separate state named Andhra Pradesh in December 1952 . Thus Andhra Pradesh became the first state formed on the basis of language .
❇️️️️ State Reorganization Commission (SRC) :-
🔹In 1953 , the Central Government constituted a three-member States Reorganization Commission under the chairmanship of former Supreme Court judge Fazal Ali .
❇️️️ The main recommendations of the commission :-
🔹The three-tier (Part ABC) state system should be abolished.
🔹Leaving only 3 union territories ( Andaman and Nicobar, Delhi, Manipur ), the rest of the union territories should be merged with their neighboring states.
🔹Determination of the boundaries of the states should be the language spoken there.
❇️️️️ Result :-
🔹This commission presented its report in 1955 and on the basis of this, the States Reorganization Act 1956 was passed in the Parliament and the country was divided into 14 states and 6 union territories.
❇️️️️ Union Territories which later became states :-
- Mizoram
- Manipur
- Tripura
- Goa etc.
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History – Themes
in Indian History |
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Pol
Science – Contemporary World Politics |
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– Politics
in India since Independence |
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Geography – Indian
People and Economy |
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– Fundamental of Human Geography |
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Chapter 1: - Population: Distribution, Density, Growth
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Chapter 12: - Geographical Perspective on Selected
Issues and Problems |
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