B-2 Ch-2 Era of One-party Dominance - Revision Notes

 CBSE Class 12 Political Science

Revision Notes
Chapter-2
Era of One-Party Dominance

  1.  After independence, our leaders became conscious of critical role of politics in a democracy as they wanted to run politics as a method to sort out problems as well as to decide and pursue the public interest.
  2. Indian constitution was adopted on 26 november 1949 and signed on 24 january 1950.It came into effect on 26 january 1950.
  3. The Election Commission of India was set up in January 1950 and Sukumar Sen became the first Chief Election Commissioner of India to hold elections in the country. This commission required the drawing of the boundaries of electoral constituencies, electoral roll consisting eligible voters to hold free and fair elections.
  4. The first general election (1952) of lndia became a landmark due to its competitiveness, encouraging participation, fair results and proved its critics wrong not to hold elections in conditions of poverty.
  5. In the 1952 election, Congress party scored a big victory,it won 364 seats out of the 489 seats.But it was not in power in the states like Travancore-Cochin i.e. Kerala, Madras and Orissa. Congress dominated in India due to identification with freedom struggle, popular appeal of charismatic leaders, a broad manifesto including every section of society and consensus building role of party.
  6.  P.Jawaharlal Nehru become the Prime minister after the first general election.
  7. Congress was founded by Dr. A.O. Hume in 1885 as a view to express the feelings of discontentment changed to a political party in the form of social and ideological coalition by accommodating different social groups and individuals holding different beliefs and ideologies. Even in pre-independence days, many organisation and parties with their own constitutions and organisational structures were allowed to exist within the Congress.
  8. Factions are the groups formed inside the party. The coalition nature of the Congress Party encouraged various factions which were based on either ideological considerations or personal ambitions or rivalries.
  9.  Before the first General Election of 1952, some of the vibrant and opposite parties came into existence which gained as a token ofrepresentation only to maintain democratic character. These parties kept ruling party under check, prevented resentment, groomed leaders, alongwith a mutual respect and among Congress leaders as well as opposition parties leaders.
  10. The origin of the socialist party can be traced back to the mass movement stage of the Indian National Congress which was formed in 1934 by Acharya Narendra Dev and later on, it was separated to form socialist party in 1948 with ideology of democratic socialism and criticised capitalism.
  11. In the early 1920s communist groups emerged in different parts of India having a belief of communism. The Communist Party of lndia was primarily secular, modem and authoritarian.
  12. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was formed in l 951 by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee with the ideology of one country, one culture and one nation and called for a reunion of India and Pakistan in Akhand Bharat.
  13. Swatantra Party was formed in August 1959 after the Nagpur Resolution of the Congress which called for land ceilings. Its important leaders were C. Rajgopalachari, K.M. Munshi, N.G. Ranga, and Minoo Masani. Its ideology emphasised on the free economy and less involvement of government in controlling the economy and advocated closer relations with the USA.
  14. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh party was a consitant aduocate of India developing nuclear weapons especially after China carried out its atomic tests in 1964.