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Era of One-party Dominance
Question
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What forced the Union Government of India to appoint the States Re-organization Commission in 1953? Mention its two main recommendations. Name any four new States formed after 1956.

OR

 Describe the various steps taken to hold the first general elections in India. How far these elections were successful?

Answer

The steps:

 (i) The Election commission of India was set up.

 (ii) Boundaries of the electoral constituencies were drawn.

 (iii) Electoral rolls of all the citizens eligible to vote were prepared.

 (iv) Officers and polling staff to conduct the elections were trained by Election Commission. The level of participation was encouraging-more than half the eligible voters turned out to vote on the day of elections. When the results were declared these were accepted as fair even by the losers. India’s general election of 1952 became a landmark in the history of democracy all the world. It proved that democracy could be practiced anywhere in the world.

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Some More Questions From Era of One-party Dominance Chapter

One of the guiding principles of the ideology of the Swatantra Party was ________ (Working class interests/ protection of Princely States/economy free from State control/Autonomy of States within the Union)

Match the following leaders listed in List A with the parties in List B:

Four statements regarding one-party dominance are given below. Mark each of them as true or false:

If Bharatiya Jana Sangh or the Communist Party of India had formed the government after the first election, in which respects would the policies of the government have been different ? Specify three differences each for both the parties.

In what sense was the Congress an ideological coalition ? Mention the various ideological currents present within the Congress.

Did the prevalence of a ‘one-party dominant system’ affect adversely the democratic nature of Indian politics ?

Bring out three differences each between Socialist parties and the Communist Party and between Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Swatantra Party.

What would you consider as the main differences between Mexico and India under one-party domination ?

Read the following passage and answer the questions below:

“Patel, the organisational man of the Congress; wanted to purge the Congress of other political groups and sought to make of it a cohesive and disciplined political party. He ...sought to take the Congress away from its all–embracing character and turn it into a close-knit party of disciplined cadres. Being a ‘realist’ he looked more for discipline than for comprehension. While Gandhi took too romantic a view of “carrying on the movement”, Patel’s idea of transforming the Congress into strictly political party with a single ideology and tight discipline showed an equal lack of understanding of the eclectic role that the Congress, as a government, was to he called upon to perform in the decades to follow.” — Rajni Kothari

(a) Why does the author think that Congress should not have been a cohesive and disciplined party?

(b) Give some examples of the eclectic role of the Congress party in the early years.

(c) Why does the author say that Gandhi’s view about Congress future was romantic ?

When did the Constitution of India come into effect ?