B-2 Ch-2 Era of One-party Dominance - Solutions

 CBSE Class 12 Political Science

(Politics in India since Independence)
NCERT Solutions
Chapter-2 Era of One Party Dominance

Q 1. Choose the correct option to fill in the blanks.

  1. The First General Elections in 1952 involved simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and............... (The President of India/State Assemblies/Rajya Sabha/The Prime Minister)
  2. The party that won these second largest number of Lok Sabha seats in the first elections was the.....................(Praja Socialist Party/Bharatiya Jana Sangh/Communist Party of India/(Bharatiya Janata Party)
  3. One of the guiding principles of the ideology of the Swatantra Party was................... (Working class interest/protection of Princely States/Economy free from State control/Autonomy of States within the Union)

Ans.

  1. State Assemblies
  2. Communist Party of India
  3. Economy free from state control.

Q 2. Match the following:

a. S.A. Dangei.  Bharatiya Jana Sangh
b. Shyama Mukherjeeii. Swatantra Party
c Minoo Masaniiii. Praja Socialist Party
d. Asoka Mehtaiv. Communist Party of India

Ans. 

  1. S.A. Dange - IV Communist Party of India
  2. Shyama Mukherjee - I Bharatiya Jana Sangh
  3. Minoo Masani - II Swatantra Party
  4. Asoka Mehta - III Praja Socialist Party

Q 3. Four statements regarding one-party dominance are given below. Mark each of them as true or false:

  1. One-party dominance is rooted in the absence of strong alternative political parties
  2. One-party dominance occurs because of weak public opinion.
  3. One-party dominance is linked to the nation’s colonial past.
  4. One-party dominance reflects the absence of democratic ideals in a country.

Ans.

  1. True
  2. False
  3. True
  4. False

Q 4. If Bharatiya Jana Sangh of 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.

Ans. The following are the three differences for both the parties with respect to which the policies of the government would have been different:

Bharatiya Jana Sangh: The policies of Bharatiya Jana Sangh were based on the following principles:

  1. It replaced secular concept by the ideaology of one country, one culture and one nation and believed that the country could become modern, progressive and strong on the basis of Indian culture and traditions. Thus, replacing the ideology of secularism.
  2. No cultural and educational rights as this party opposed the granting of concessions to religious and cultural minorities.

  3. It focused on the re-unity of India and Pakistan under the concept of Akhand Bharat.

Communist Party of India: The policies of the Communist Party of India would have been different on the basis of the following principles:

  1. It worked for proportional representation in the government.
  2. This party followed communist ideology in various policies. And, the basic question that troubled the party was the nature of Indian independence. 
  3. It emphasised on control over electronic mass media by an autonomous body or corporation.

Q 5. In what sense was the Congress an ideological coalition? Mention the various ideological currents present within Congress.

Ans. The Congress Party became a social and ideological coalition for it merged different social groups along with their identity holding different beliefs:

  1. It accommodated the revolutionary and pacifist, conservative and radical, extremist and moderate and the right, left and all shades of the centre.
  2. Congress became a ‘platform’ for numerous groups, interests and even political parties to take part in the national movement.

Ideological currents present within the Congress:

  1. In pre-Independence days, many organisations and parties with their own constitution and organisational structure were allowed to exist within the Congress.
  2. Some of these like Congress Socialist Party later separated from the Congress and became an opposition party. 

Q 6. Did the prevalence of a ‘one-party dominant system’ affect adversely the democratic nature of Indian politics?

Ans. No, the prevalence of one party dominance system did not affect adversely the democratic nature of Indian politics because:

  1. The key role of Congress in the freedom struggle gave it a head start over others.
  2. The Congress accommodated diversified interests, religion, beliefs and aspirations to strengthen democracy.
  3. The coalition-like character of Congress gave it an unusual strength. Congress party consisted of various factions inside itself, based on ideological considerations who never taught together or went out of Congress.
  4. Since there was room within the party for various factions to fight with each other, it meant that leaders representing different interests and ideologies remained within Congress rather than go out and form a new party. 
  5. The system of factions functioned as balancing mechanism within the ruling party. Political competition therefore took place within the Congress. 
  6. Most of the state units of the Congress were made up of numerous factions. The factions took different ideological positions making the Congress appear as a grand centrist party. 

Hence, on the basis of the above-mentioned criterion, it can be concluded that Congress strengthened ideals of democracy and held the unity and integrity of the country.

Q 7. Bring out three differences each between Socialist Parties and the Communist Party and between Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Swatantra Party.

Ans. 1. Differences between Socialist Parties and Communist Party:

Socialist Parties        Communist Parties
These parties believed in ideology of democratic socialism.This party believed in communism.
Socialist party criticised capitalism and for the establishment of socialistic state.Communist party was primarily secular, modern and also authoritarian.
Socialist party wanted more radical and egalitarian nature of congressCommunist party also wanted the radical nature of congress but went through violence to achieve its aims.

2. Differences between Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Swatantra party:

Bharatiya Jana SanghSwatantra Party
It emphasised on the ideology of one country, one culture and one nation.It emphasised on the free economy and less involvement of government in  
This called for a unity of India and Pakistan in Akhand Bharat.It was critical to the policy of non- alignment and favoured to have closer relations
It was a consistent advocate of India to develop nuclear weapons.This party criticised centralised planning nationalisation and one public sector.

Q 8. What would you consider as the main differences between Mexico and India
under one-party domination?

Ans. There was a difference between one-party dominance in India and Mexico. In Mexico, this was a one-party system only one dominance because:

  1. In India, the Congress party dominated behalf of popular consensus but Institutional Revolutionary Party ruled on behalf of perfect dictatorship.
  2. In India, free and fair elections took place where the loss of election was also fair but in Mexico, elections were based on malpractices, dominated by PRI.

Q 9. Take a political map of India (with State outlines) and mark:

  1. Two states where Congress was not in power at some point during 1952-67.
  2. Two states where Congress remained in power through this period.

Ans.

    1. Kerala (Travancore-Cochin)
    2. Madras (Travancore-Cochin)
    1. Punjab or U.P.
    2. Rajasthan or West Bengal.

Q 10. Read the following passage:

“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 be called upon to perform in the decades to follow,” —Rajni Kothari

  1. Why does the author think that Congress should not have been a cohesive and disciplined party?
  2. Give some examples of the elective role of the Congress party in the early years.
  3. Why does the author say that Gandhi’s view about Congress future was romantic?

Ans.

  1. The author thinks that Congress should not have been a cohesive and disciplined party because the author wanted to take  Congress away from its all-embracing character and turn it into a close-knit party of disciplined cadres.
  2. The examples of the elective role of the Congress Party in the early years are in the form of a social and ideological coalition of Congress:
    1. It provided a platform for numerous groups, interests and even political parties to participate in the national movement.
    2. Congress party represented a rainbow-like social coalition representing the diversity of India including various castes, religions and languages.
  3. The author said that Gandhi's view about Congress future was romantic because Gandhiji believed in hand-in-hand characteristic of a national movement led by Congress which attracted various sections groups and society to form a social and ideological coalition in Congress.