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Challenges of Nation Building
Question
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“The accommodation of regional demands and the formation of linguistic states were also seen as more democratic”. Justify the statement with any three suitable arguments.

OR

Examine the different areas of agreement and disagreement with respect to the model of economic development to be adopted in India after independence.

Answer

Arguments for justification:

i. It is almost 60 years that the formation of Linguistic States have changed the nature of democratic politics in a positive and constructive way.

ii. Formation on the basis of language became a uniform basis for drawing the state boundaries. It has united the country rather than leading to disintegration.

iii. Regional aspirations when fulfilled, give strength to the people and make democracy a success. Many a regional aspirations are being accommodated to strengthen the democracy.

OR

Areas of agreement:

i. Development of India should mean both economic growth and social and economic justice.

ii. The matter of development can not be left to businessmen, industrialists and farmers only but the government should play a key role.

iii. The task of poverty alleviation and social and economic redistribution was being seen as the primary responsibility of Government.

Areas of disagreement:

i. Disagreement on the kind of role to be played by the government.

ii. Disagreement over the importance attached to the needs of justice if it differed from the economic growth.

iii. Disagreement on the issue of giving priority to Industries v/s Agriculture & private v/s public sector.

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Some More Questions From Challenges of Nation Building Chapter

Match the principles with the instances:

Take a current political map of India (showing outlines of states) and mark the location of the following Princely States:

(a) Junagadh (b) Manipur

(c) Mysore (d) Gwalior

Here are two opinions –

Bismay : “The merger with the Indian State was an extension of democracy to the people of the Princely. States”.

Inderpreet: “I am not so sure, there was force being used. Democracy comes by creating consensus”.

What is your own opinion in the light of accession of Princely States and the responses of the people in these parts ?

Read the following very different statements made in August 1947 :

“Today you have worn on your heads a crown of thorns. The seat of power is a nasty thing. You have to remain ever wakeful on that seat...... you have to he more humble and forbearing... now there will be no end to your being tested. ” – M.K Gandhi

“... India will awake to a life of freedom....we step out from the old to the new...we end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity... ” – Jawaharlal Nehru

Spell out the agenda of nation building that flows from these two statements. Which one appeals more to you and why ?

What are the reasons being used by Nehru for keeping India secular ? Do you think these reasons were only ethical and sentimental ? Or were there some prudential reasons as well ?

Bring out two major differences between the challenge of nation building for eastern and western regions of the country at the time of independence.

What was the task of the States Reorganisation Commission ? What was its most salient recommendation ?

It is said that the nation is to a large extent an “imagined community” held together by common beliefs, history, political aspirations and imaginations. Identify the features that make India a nation.

Read the following passage and answer the questions below:

“In the history of nation-building only the Soviet experiment bears comparison with the Indian. There too, a sense of unity had to be forged between many diverse ethnic groups, religious, linguistic communities and social classes. The scale – geographic as well as demographic – was comparably massive. The raw material the state had to work with was equally unpropitious : a people divided by faith and driven by debt and disease. ”

—Ramachandra Guha

(a) List the commonalities that the author mentions between India and Soviet Union and give one example for each of these from India.

(b) The author does not talk about dissimilarities between the two experiments. Can you mention two dissimilarities ?

(c) In retrospect which of these two experiments worked better and why ?

Which famous speech did Jawaharlal Nehru deliver in 1947 and where?