KIRAN UPSC MAINS GS PAPER 1st (1).pdf

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UPSC MAINS

GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL HISTORY, MODERN HISTORY, POST INDEPENDENCE, WORLD HISTORY, ART & CULTURE, PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, LOCATION OF INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES, SOCIAL ISSUES, SOCIETY VIKAS SANGWAN IPS 2017 BATCH Rank 123

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More At @Aj_ebooks NEW EDITION The copyright of this book is entirely with the Kiran Institute of Career Excellence Pvt. Ltd. The reproduction of this book or a part of this will be punishable under the Copyright Act. All disputes subject to Delhi jurisdiction. Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and authors cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or any of the authors.

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Foreword I have great pleasure in placing this book before the Civil Services aspirants. The book covers short-notes for General Studies to cover most of the hot topics which are in news in the past 2-3 years. This comprehensive volume would enable students to acquire a complete and detailed understanding of question pattern asked by UPSC, related topics and how notes can be prepared on them. I have prepared these notes by covering daily newspapers, monthly magazines, online portals and government websites like PIB PRS MHA. I used Evernote (a free application) on my laptop to create notes for all GS papers and kept updating them on a daily basis. The benefit of web-based notes is that one can easily edit/update notes at comfort. Though similar can be achieved in paper notes with little less ease. These notes will be helpful for aspirants who are following newspaper on a daily basis as they could easily relate to topics mentioned in the short notes. Though almost all topics give a short background, mention arguments in favour and against and have a conclusion to give a sense of completion. This should be the ideal approach even while attempting the UPSC GS papers in exam. General Studies-1 volume Covers topics related to Indian History, Art and Culture, World History, Geography and Society. These notes can be supplemented with standard books recommended for various GS-1 topics for quick revision and enhancing marks in Overall GS. General Studies-2 volume covers topics related to Indian Constitution, Governance and Social Justice, International Relations. An effort has been made to make the contents of this book relevant, short and up-to-date. General Studies-3 volume covers topics related to Indian Economy, Infrastructure ( Energy, Transport, Communication), Agriculture and food processing, Science and Technology, Environment, Disaster Management, Internal Security, Defence and Space developments. An effort has been made to make the contents of this book relevant, short and up-to-date. General Studies-4 volume covers short notes on various terms, definitions, relevant examples. An approach to solving case studies has also been discussed. A glossary of ethical terms is also listed to enhance aptitude towards greater understanding of the syllabus. My sincere thanks to Shri S. N. Prasad of Kiran Institute of Career Excellence (KICX) Pvt Ltd for their unstinted cooperation in bringing out these notes.

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CONTENTS : GS-1 INDIAN HERITAGE AND CULTURE, HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD AND SOCIETY ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL HISTORY ......... 25 t Prehistoric Period: Paleolithic Age, Mesolithic Age, and Chalcolithic Age

t Gupta and Post Gupta p Guptas p Harshavardhana & Harshacharita

p Paleolithic Age Art

p The Pallavas, Chalukyas and Pulakeshin

p Mesolithic period Art:

p Buildings, Paintings and Books

p Chalcolithic period Art: t Indus Valley Civilization

t Early Medieval India p Rajput Kingdoms

p Features of Indus Valley Civilization

p Arab Conquest of Sind (712 A.D.)

p Indus Valley Sites and Specialties

p Mahmud of Ghazni and his Invasions

p Harappa

p Mahmud of Ghazni (A.D. 997-1030)

p Mohenjodaro

p Muhammad Ghori

p Chanhudaro

p The Battle of Tarain (1191-1192)

p Kalibangan

p Causes for the failure of Hindu kingdoms

p Lothal

t Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526)

p Ropar

p Slave Dynasty

p Banawali

p Qutbuddin Aibak (1206-1210)

p Dholavira

p Iltutmish (1211-1236)

p Religion of Indus Valley People

p Raziya (1236-1240)

p Indus Valley Society and Culture

p Era of Balban (1246-1287)

p Reasons for Decline of Indus Valley Civilization

p Alauddin Khalji (1296-1316)

t Buddhism and Jainism p Buddhism

p Military Campaigns p The Tughlaq Dynasty (1320-1414) p Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1325-1351)

p Jainism

Transfer of Capital

p The sangha

Token Currency

p Monasteries

Taxation in Doab

p System of ashramas

Agricultural Reforms

t Maurya and Post Maurya p Asoka, The Emperor p Ruling the empire p Ashoka’s dhamma p Villages and Towns p Traders, Kings and Pilgrims p Silk Route & Kushans p Spread of Buddhism p Bhakti

Rebellions p Firoz Tughlaq (1351-1388) Military Campaigns Administrative Reforms p Sayyids (1414-1451) p Lodis (1451-1526) t India Under The Delhi Sultanate p Administration p Central Government

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p Local Administration

p Art and Architecture

p Economy

p Paintings and Music

p Social Life

p Language and Literature t The Marathas

p Art and Architecture p Music

p The Rise of the Marathas

p Literature

p Shivaji (1627-1680): His Life and Conquests

t Bhakti And Sufi Movement p Brahminism vs Buddhism/Jainism vs Devotional Paths (Bhaktism, Sufism, and Sikhism)

p Shivaji’s Administration p The Peshwas (1713-1818) Balaji Viswanath (1713-1720)

p Bhakti cult

Baji Rao I (1720-1740)

p Nayanars and Alvars

Balaji Baji Rao (1740-1761)

p Philosophy and Bhakti

t The Coming Of Europeans

p Basavanna’s Virashaivism

p The Portuguese

p Saints of Maharashtra

p The Dutch

p Nathpanthis, Siddhas, and Yogis

p The English

p Saint Kabir

p The French

p Sufi Movement and Islam

p Anglo-French Rivalry

p Baba Guru Nanak (1469-1539) and Sikhism

p The Carnatic Wars

t Vijayanagar And Bahmani Kingdoms

p Establishment of British Power in Bengal t Land Revenue Systems under British Rule

p Vijayanagar Empire

p Before British Rule

p Krishna Deva Raya (1509 – 1530)

p Zamindari System

p Bahmani Kingdom

p Ryotwari System

p Mahmud Gawan

p Mahalwari System

t The Mughal Empire

p Land Reforms in India After Independence

p Babur (1526-1530)

MODERN HISTORY .................................... 83

p Humayun (1530-1540)

t India in the Eighteenth Century

p Sur dynasty Interregnum (1540-1555)

p Bahadur Shah 1 (1707-12)

p Humayun (1555-1556)

p Jahandar Shah (1712-13)

p Akbar (1556-1605)

p Farrukh Siyar (1713-19)

p Jahangir (1605-1627)

p Muhammad Shah ‘Rangeela’ (1719-1748)

p Shah Jahan (1627-1658)

p Nadir Shah’s Invasion (1738)

p Aurangazeb (1658-1707)

p Ahmed Shah Abdali

p Causes for the Downfall of the Mughals

p Shah Alam II 1759

t India Under The Mughals

p Decline of the Mughal Empire

p Economic and Social Life

p Hyderabad and the Carnatic

p Mughal Nobility

p Bengal

p Rural Masses

p Awadh

p Agriculture

p Mysore

p Growth of Trade

p Kerala

p Cultural Development under the Mughals

p Rajput States

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p Jats

t Gandhi’s early career and activism

p Sikhs

p Champaran Satyagraha (1917)

p Marathas

p Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918)

t Saranjami system : Administrative Organization of the British ...........................

p Kheda Satyagraha (1918) t Non Co-operation Movement

p Army

t Peasant Movements

p Police

t The Working Class Movements

p Judiciary p Civil Cases

t Struggles for Gurudwara Reform and Temple Entry

p Criminal Cases

t The years of Stagnation

p William Bentinck

t Bhagat Singh

p Spread of Modern Education

t Events Timeline

p Major drawbacks of the English education system:

t Simon Commission (1927)

p Development of Education t Indian Natinoal Movement t Revolt of 1857 t Civil Rebellions and Tribal Uprisings t Peasant Uprisings t Why did national movement arise? t Rise of Indian National Congress t Indian National Congress t Contribution of early nationalists Methods of work of early nationalists t Socio-religious reforms t Economical Analysis of British India t Freedom of Press t B G Tilak t Executive Council t The Swadeshi Movement: 1903-1908 t Partition of Bengal t The Swadeshi Movement t Revolutionary Terrorism t The Split in the Congress t Morley-Minto Reforms, 1909 t Growth of Communalism t Muslim League t Muslim Nationalists t World War I and Indian Nationalism t The Home Rule Movement t Lucknow Pact (1916) t Rowlatt Act

t Civil Disobedience Movement t The Quit India Movement and the INA t INA t August Offer (1940) t CR Formula t Freedom and Partition POST INDEPENDENCE ........................... 133 t India, Just after Independence t Partition and Its Aftermath t Plan of Consolidation t Indian Constitution t Challenges before Independent state of India t Patel's Diplomacy t Junagadh t Jawahar Lal Nehru: The First Prime Minister of India t Linguistic Reorganisation of Indian States after Independence t Shah Commission t Tribal Integration t Roots of India Tribal Policy t Reasons for dismal performance of Tribal Policy t Positive Development happened due to state's Initiative t Issues of Language t The British Policy p The debate in the period 1941-1951

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks t Green Revolution in India

p The Constituent Assembly Debate

p Impact or the Effects of Green Revolution

p The Debate in 1951-1957 p Regionalism in Post-independent India t Economic Imbalances & Regionalism p Sons of Soil Doctrine

p Limitations of the Green Revolution t Naxalism in India: The beginning of "biggest internal security threat" in India t Government's Failure to Understand the Reasons behind the Naxalite Movement

p Issue of J & K, Punjab p Root - Cause of the Problem

t Origins of Discontent

t Punjab Issue p Road to Peace

t Left Wing Politics Took Up the Cause of the Exploited

p Problems with North-East Region t Establishment of Planning Commission t National Development Council t Niti Aayog: The replacement of Planning Commission in 2014 t Regionalism, regional inequalities and National Consolidation t Foreign Affairs t Foreign Policy under Jawahar Lal Nehru t Relations with China t Non-Align Movement (NAM) t NAM's Objectives p What is Relevance of NAM today?

t Naxalite Movement in Kolkata p Subsequent Government Measures in Fighting the Naxalites p Operation Green Hunt p Precursor of Operation Green Hunt t Land Reforms in Independent India t Bhoodan-Gramdan Movement p What is 'Land Reforms'? p Objectives of land ref orms after independence t Zamindari Abolition Acts t Land Ceilings Act

p How can NAM be Strengthened?

p Outcomes of Land Reforms

p Indus Water Treaty

p Drawbacks of Land Reforms

p Revisiting the Treaty

t Indira Gandhi: The first woman Prime Minister of India 187

p Sino-India War 1962 p Important facts on Indo-Sino war 1962 t Forward Policy t Demise of India's First Prime Minister: Jawahar Lal Nehru's Death t Legacy of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru t Lal Bahadur Shastri: The man of Turbulent Times p Foreign Policy of India under Lal Bahadur Shastri

p Initial years of Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister t Abolition of Privy Purse p Nationalisation of Banks p Objectives Behind Nationalisation of Banks in India p Demerits, Limitations - Bank Nationalisation in India

t 1965 Indo-Pak War p Foreign Powers during the 1965 War

t Background of 1971 Indo-Pakistan War

t The Tashkent Declaration

t Emergency Period during the Prime-minister ship of Indira Gandhi

t Mystery of Shastri's Death t Operation Flood: Beginning of India's White Revolution t Achievements of the White Revolution t Impact of New Agricultural Strategy

t Shimla Agreement

t Years Preceding the Emergency t Protests in Northern India p Disqualification of Indira Gandhi as an MP p Proclamation of Emergency

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p What occurred during the emergency? p Excesses during the Emergency p Was the Emergency justified? t The End of Emergency and After t Punjab Insurgency: The origin of Khalistan Movement t Background of Punjab Insurgency

t Kashmir Issue during Narasimha Rao Government t India Passes Kashmir Resolution p Pakistan tables the resolution at UN p How Shrewdly PV Narasimha Rao Played the Cards p The Smart Moves Behind the Stage

p Operation Blue Star: The encounter of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale

t General Election of 1996 p The Political Scenario p 11th Lok Sabha Results

p Operation Black Thunder

WORLD HISTORY ..................................... 236

p Immediate Causes

t What was Anandpur Sahib Resolution? t Comparison with Operation Blue Star p Assassination of Indira Gandhi

t Renaissance t Characteristic of Renaissance p Humanism

p Nuclear Program of India

p Art

p Foreign Policy under Indira Gandhi

p Science

p Relations with Foreign Countries p Relations with Neighbouring Countries t Economic Relations p Maritime Boundary Dispute t Indira Gandhi Years: Significant Time Period for Indian wildlife Conservation

t Major Ideas of Enlightenment p Rousseau's p Immanuel Kant p American Revolution p Nature and Character of American Colony

t Rajiv Gandhi Years

p Nature and Character of British Rule in .. America

t Bhopal Gas Tragedy

p Urges and Aspirations of American People

t Operation Cactus, 1988

p Immediate Cause of Revolution

t India-Srilanka Peace Accord p Background of the Accord

t French Revolution t Different Phases of Revolution

p Provisions of the Peace Accord

p Estates-General

p Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War

p National Assembly (1789-1791)

p Conflict with the LTTE and returning of Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) t Shah-Bano Case

p Legislative Assembly and National ......... Convention (1792-1795) p The Directory (1795-1799) p The Consulate and Empire (1799-1815)

t PV Narasimha Rao (1991-1996)

t Reforms made by Napoleon

t Economic Reform of 1991

t Wars of Napoleon

p The Crisis of 1991 and the Reforms

p War of the First Coalition

p The Emergence of New Reforms

p War of the Second Coalition

p Liberalisation

p War of the Third Coalition

t Privatisation

p War of the Fourth Coalition

t Globalization

p War of the Fifth Coalition

t Foreign Policy of Narasimha Rao Government t Babri Masjid Demolition

p War of the Sixth Coalition p War of the Seventh Coalition

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks t The successes of the League of Nations

t "THE SPANISH ULCER" t Legacy of French Revolution p The Declaration of the Rights of Man p Inspiring Other Political Revolutions in ... Europe, Paving the way to Democracy .. t Industrial Revolution t First Reformation Act of 1832

p The Aaland Islands (1921) p Upper Silesia (1921) p Greece and Bulgaria (1925) p The failures of the League of Nations p Italy (1919) p Teschen (1919) p Vilna (1920) t The invasion of the Ruhr (1923) t Italy and Albania (1923)

p Chartist Movement p Demands of the People's Charter p The National Convention

t World War II t Main causes of World War-II t Effects of the Treaty of Versailles

p Outcome p Failure of Chartist Movement p Legacy of Chartist Movement p Italian Unification

t Failure of the League of Nations t Rise of Fascism & the Nazi Party

p German Unification

t The Nazis Assume Power

p Austro-Prussian War (1866)

t Germany Remilitarizes

t Rise of Nationalism in the 19th Century

t Russian Revolution

t The Anschluss

t The February 1917 Revolution

t The Munich Conference

p Provisional Government vs. The Petrograd Soviet

t The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

p Lenin Returns From Exile

t The Invasion of Poland

p The October 1917 Revolution

t Consequences of World War-II

p Civil War

t War Crime

t Anti-Comintern Pact and Tripartite Pact

t Fascist counter Revolution in Italy

t The United Nation

t Mussolini and the rise of Fascism in Italy

t Occupation

t Chinese Revolution of 1949

t Territorial Changes

t First World War and Second World War as Total War

t Peace Treaties t Reconstruction

p First World War

t New Super Power

p Mutual Defense Alliances

t Women Right

t Immediate Cause: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

t Cold War p Causes of the Cold War in 1945

p Impact of World War-I

p The Iron Curtain

p The Political Impact of World War-I

p The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan

t The Economic Impact Of World War-I

t NATO

t Social Impact of World War-I

t The Korean War

p Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye

t The Warsaw Pact

t The "Fourteen Points"

t The Suez Crisis, 1956

p Treaty of Versailles

t The Cuban Missile Crisis

p League of Nation p The organisation of the League of Nations

t The Malta Summit 1989

t Emergence of Third World and NAM

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks t Evolution of Third World p Positive Aspect of NAM

t Prehistoric Rock Paintings in India p Paleolithic Age Art

t Relevance of Non-Alignment in Today's World

p Mesolithic period Art:

t Disintegration of Soviet Union

p Chalcolithic period Art

t Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost and Perestroika

t Some of the general features of Prehistoric paintings

t The Revolutions of 1989 and the Fall of the

t Arts of Indus Valley Civilization

t The Origins and Evolution of the Soviet State

Soviet Union t Consolidation and Expansion of European Union

t Materials used: Stone, Bronze, Terracotta, Clay etc. p Stone Statues:

t The Modern-Day EU

p Terracotta:

t Latin America- Simon Bolivar

p Seals:

t 'El Libertador' t Later Years, Death and Legacy t South Africa- Apartheid t Birth of Apartheid t Apartheid Becomes Law t Apartheid and Separate Development t Opposition to Apartheid t Apartheid Comes to an End t Vietnam War p Ho Chi Minh Comes Home

p Pottery: p Beads, Ornaments and Cosmetics: t Arts of the Mauryan Period t Pillars t Lion Capital, Sarnath t Yakshas and Yakshinis t Didarganj Yakshi t Rock cut Architectures t Lomus Rishi Cave, Barabar Hills t Stupas and Chaityas: t Depiction of Buddha in Chaityas

p France Steps Out, U.S. Steps In

t Indian Architecture after the Mauryan Period

p First U.S. Ground Troops Sent to Vietnam

t Places where important sculptures are seen

p Johnson's Plan for Success

t Barhut

p Surprise Attack

t Sanchi

p Nixon's Plan for "Peace with Honor" p The Paris Peace Accords

t Mathura, Sarnath, Amaravati and Gandhara Schools

p Reunification of Vietnam

t Seated Buddha at Sarnath, UP:

t Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945-1960

t Buddha Head, Taxila, Gandhara:

ART & CULTURE ...................................... 293

t Amaravati stupa, Andhra Pradesh:

t Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites Remains Act (2017 amendment)

t Cave tradition in western India

t Champaran 1917 (first CDM under Gandhi)

t Ellora

t Paika rebellion -Odisha t Rabindranath Tagore t Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya (Mahamana) t Women Freedom fighters and their contribution in later half of 20th century t Role of foreign women in freedom struggle

t Ajanta t Elephanta caves and other sites: t Cave tradition in Eastern India t Early Temples t Later Mural Traditions t Badami: t Murals under Pallava, Pandava and Chola kings:

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks t Vijayanagara Mural

p Kuchipudi

t Kerala Mural

p Kathakali

t Temple Architecture and Sculpture – Hindu, Buddhist and Jain

p Mohiniattam

t The Nagara or North Indian Temple Architecture

p Sattriya

t Central India

p Hindustani and Carnatic Music

t West India

p Theatre Forms in India:

t East India

p KOODIYATTAM

t Assam:

p Bhand Pather

t Bengal

p Swang

t Odisha (Kalingia Architecture)

p Nautanki

t The Dravida or South Indian Temple Architecture

p Raasleela

t Pallavas

p Maach

t The shore temple at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu

p Jatra

t The Vesara or the Deccan Temple Architecture

p Tamaasha

t Buddhist and Jain Architectural Developments

p Mudiyettu

t Bronze sculptures of India

p Dashavatar

t Indo-Islamic Architecture

p Manipuri

p Bhavai

p Bhaona

p Yakshagaana

t Indian Philosophy: Orthodox and Heterodox Schools p Difference between Astik schools and Nastik schools

p Oja-Pali t Puppetry in India p String puppets: p Shadow puppets

p Six Orthodox Schools p Sankhya Philosophy

p Rod Puppets

p Yoga Philosophy

p Glove Puppets

p Nyaya Philosophy

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY ......................... 340

p Vaisheshik Philosophy

Lithosphere

p Purva mimansa (mimansa)

t Interior of earth

p Uttara Mimamsa (Vedanda)

t Structure of earth

p Three Heterodox Schools of Indian Philosophy

t Earth Movements

p Carvaka

t Rock Formation

p Jain Philosophy

t Rock Formation

p Ajivika Philosophy

t Mountain Types

p Buddhist Philosophy

t Plateau Types

p Buddhist Councils

t Plain Types

t Origin of classical dances

t Earthquakes

t Rocks

p Bharatnatyam

t Wave types

p Kathak

t Shadow zone

p Odissi

t Earthquake zoning

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks t Volcanoes

t La Nina:

p Types of lava

t Tropical cyclones

p Examples in India

t Tsunamis (harbour waves):

p Types of volcano (on frequency)

t Soils of India: Characteristics

p Classification on Mode of Eruption: p Intrusive Volcanic Land Formations p Extrusive Volcanic Land Formations (Volcanic Types) p Location of Volcanoes

Classif ication

p Soil Classification – Urvara vs Usara p Soil Classification – Agencies involved : Alluvial soil: t Major classification of Indian soils

t Soil Formation

p Red soil:

t Geysers

p Alluvial soil:

t Hot springs or thermal springs

p Red soil:

t Fumaroles:

p Black soil / regur soil:

t Geomorphic Process - Weathering, Mass movt

p Laterite soil: p Desert / arid soil:

p Chemical weathering

p Peaty / marshy soil:

p Physical/Mechanical weathering

p Forest soil:

p Bio weathering/Organic weathering

p Mountain soil:

p Mass movement: t Soils p Soil Classification t Landforms Running Water/River system p Drainage pattern: p River erosion and transportation: p Erosional landforms: p Depositional Landforms ......................... t Ground Water p Karst Topography p Erosional Landforms p Depositional Landforms t Glaciers p Erosional landforms p Depositional Landforms t Deserts (action of wind)

and

t Composition and Structure of the Earth’s Atmosphere p Composition of the atmosphere p Carbon dioxide: p Ozone gas: p Water Vapour p Dust Particles p Structure of the atmosphere p Troposphere p Stratosphere p Mesosphere p Thermosphere p Exosphere t Cloud and its types t Distribution of Temperature in the Earth’s Atmosphere p Difference between heat and temperature

p Erosional landforms

p Distribution of Temperature

p Depositional landforms

p Horizontal Distribution of Temperature

t Lakes t Coastal landforms t Distribution of Ocean and Continents

p Horizontal Distribution of Temperature in January

t Atmosphere

p Horizontal Distribution of Temperature in July

t Hydrosphere

p Vertical Distribution of Temperature

t El Nino:

p Inversion of Temperature

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks t Movements of ocean water: Waves, Tides and

p Role of Women

Ocean Currents

p Women in India

p Waves

p Role of Women in Prehistoric Time

p Tides

p The Age of the Upanishads

p Flow Tide and Ebb Tide

p In the Age 600 BC to 320 AD

p Types of Tides

p Period of 320 to 750 A D

p Magnitude of Tides

p Women in Early Medieval Period

p Effects of tides

p Women in Medieval India

p Ocean Currents

p Women in the Bhakti Movement

p Gyre, Drift, and Stream

p Women in Modern India

p Types of Ocean Currents:

p Status of women in India during the British

p Factors influencing the origin and nature of ocean currents

Period p Women's Organization in India

LOCATIONS OF INDUSTRIES

p Pre-Independence

AND RESOURCES .................................... 379

p Period of Post-Independence t Impact of Globalisation on India

t Location Factors

p Globalization and India ..................... 405

p Footloose industries

t Impacts Of Globalisation In India

p Tea Industry p Palm Oil

p Economic Impact

p Lumbering industries

p Socio-Cultural Impact on Indian Society p Psychological Impact on Indian Society

t Cash crops

t Effects of Globalisation on Indian Society

Jute Industry t Fisheries

p Aspects of Globalisation in India

t Power/Energy

p Concept of Globalisation

p Thermal Power plants

p Challenges of Globalization and Its Effects

p Hydro-power

p Technological and Cultural impact of ..... Globalization in India

p Shale Oil and Gas / Fracking

p Impact of globalization on education in India

t Minerals

t Social Empowerment, Communalism, Regionalism & Secularism

p Rare Earth Metals p Reserves

p Regionalism

p Aluminum Industry t Pharma/ IT/ Automobile/Other modern

•

Introduction

industries

p Regionalism Within Nation

p Pharma Industry

p Regionalism in India

p Automobile Industry

•

Why Regional Disparity Still Persists?

p IT industry/MNC - consists of IT services

•

Why son of the soil?

p Linguistic Reorganization of States

and BPO. SOCIAL ISSUES ........................................ 388

p Demand for Dravida Nadu

t Role of Women and Women's Organization

p Telangana Movement

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p Shiv Sena against Kannadigas p Bodoland Demand within Assam p Khalistan Movement p Attacks on Bihar Labourers by the ULFA p The MNS Targeting North Indians p Inter-State Disputes

t Stages in Indian Communalism and How it Spread t Divide and Rule p Causes of Communal Violence in Independent India p Infamous communal violence in India ....

p Creation of new States in 2000

•

Partition of India,1947

p Impact of Regionalism in India

•

Anti-Sikh Nots, 1984

•

Ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu

•

Positive

•

Negative

p Nationalism and Regionalism

Pundits in 1989

•

Ayodhya,1992

p Federalism and Regionalism p Why diversity of India is Supreme Guarantee of Democracy? p Regionalism in International Arena

Babri masjid demolition in

•

Assam Communal Violence, 2012

•

Muzaffarnagar Violence, 2013

p Consequences of communalism / Impact

p OLD Regionalism

of Communalism

p NEW Regionalism

•

Communal Violence

p Impact of Regionalism on the World

•

What State has done?

p Conclusion p Secularism

p Definition of Communal Violence

•

Why a law needed?

•

What Is Secularism

•

More Arguments for a Separate Law

•

Opposes inter-religious Domination

•

But Caveats Exist

p Secular State

p Steps Required

p Need of a Secular State t The Western Model of Secularism

p Challenge of Social Media and Freedom of Expression

t The Indian Model of Secularism

p Conclusion

p What makes Indian Secularism Distinctive?

p Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005

•

First Difference

•

Objective

•

Second Difference

•

Features in the Draft Bill

•

Third Difference

•

Communal Violence Bill, 2011

•

The Draft Law Features

•

Some Issues with the Draft

•

Conclusion

t Criticisms of Indian Secularism p Questions p Kemal Ataturk's Secularism p Nehru on Secularism' p Communalism

•

Introduction

•

What is Communalism?

•

Evolution of communalism in Indian .

p Role of Caste in Indian Society p Caste in Politics p Reservation Policy p Reservations for SCs and STs p Reservations for the OBCs

Society UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p Importance of Woman's Reservation

p Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya, 1992 p Assam Communal Violence, 2012

t Regionalism p What is Regionalism?

p Muzaffarnagar Violence, 2013

p Factors Responsible for Regionalism in

p Causes of Communalism p Effects of Communalism

India

p Steps that have been taken

p Geographical Factors

p Steps that are Further Required

•

Historical Factors

•

Linguistic Factors

•

Religious Factors

p Introduction

•

Political Factors

p Secularism in India

•

Economic Factors

p How is secularism in India Different?

•

Ethnic Factors

•

Cultural Factors

p Features of Western Concept of Secularism

•

Caste System

t Secularism

p Differences in Indian Secularism p Secularism as Philosophy of the Constitution

p Impact of Regionalism in India

•

Positive

•

Negative

•

Solutions to Contain Regionalism

p Some Current Issues

t Communalism

p Criticism of Indian Secularism SOCIETY .................................................. 470

p Introduction

t Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India

p What is Communalism?

t Role of women and women’s organization

p History of communalism in Indian Society

t Population and associated issues

p Stages in Indian Communalism

t Poverty and developmental issues

p Some Episodes of Communalism in India

•

Partition of India, 1947

t Urbanization, their problems and their remedies

•

Anti-Sikh Riots, 1984

t Effects of globalization on Indian society

•

Ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindu

t Social Empowerment

Pundits in 1989

t Communalism, Regionalism & Secularism

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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INDIAN HERITAGE AND CULTURE, HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD AND SOCIETY HISTORY: ART & CULTURE GS1 Syllabus Topic: Salient aspects of Art, Architecture, literature from Ancient to Modern Times Safeguarding the Indian art heritage is the need of the moment. Comment

2018

Assess the importance of the accounts of the Chinese and Arab travellers in the reconstruction of the history of India.

2018

The Bhakti movement received a remarkable re-orientation with the advent of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Discuss.

2018

How do you justify the view that the level of excellence of Gupta numismatic art is not at all noticeable in later times?

2017

Early Buddhist Stupa-art, while depicting folk motifs and narratives successfully expounds Buddhist ideals. Elucidate.

2016

Krishnadeva Raya, the King of Vijayanagar, was not only an accomplished scholar himself but was also a great patron of learning and literature. Discuss.

2016

The ancient civilization in Indian sub-continent differed from those of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece in that its culture and traditions have been preserved without a breakdown to the present day. Comment.

2015

Mesolithic rock cut architecture of India not only reflects the cultural life of the times but also a tine aesthetic sense comparable to modem painting. Critically evaluate this comment.

2015

To what extent has the urban planning and culture of the Indus Valley Civilization provided inputs to the present day urbanization? Discuss.

2014

Gandhara sculpture owed as much to the Romans as to the Greeks. Explain.

2014

Taxila university was one of the oldest universities of the world with which were associated a number of renowned learned personalities of different disciplines. Its strategic location caused its fame to flourish, but unlike Nalanda, it is not considered as a university in the modern sense. Discuss.

2014

Sufis and medieval mystic saints failed to modify either the religious ideas and practices or the outward structure of Hindu / Muslim societies to any appreciable extent. Comment.

2014

Though not very useful from the point of view of a connected political history of South India, the Sangam literature portrays the social and economic conditions of its time with remarkable vividness. Comment.

2013

Discuss the Tandava dance as recorded in the early Indian inscriptions.

2013

Chola architecture represents a high watermark in the evolution of temple architecture. Discuss. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

2013

More At @Aj_ebooks HISTORY: INDIA BEFORE INDEPENDENCE GS1 Syllabus Topic: Mid-18th century – Present (significant events, personalities, issues); Freedom Struggle (various stages, important contributors from different parts of the country) Throw light on the significance of the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi in the present times. Why indentured labour was taken by the British from India to their colonies?

2018

have they been able to preserve their cultural identity over there? Clarify how mid-eighteenth century India was beset with the spectre of a

2018

fragmented polity. Why did the ‘Moderates’ fail to carry conviction with the nation about their

2017

proclaimed ideology and political goals by the end of the nineteenth century?

2017

Examine how the decline of traditional artisanal industry in colonial India crippled the rural economy.

2017

The women’s questions arose in modern India as a part of the 19th century social reform movement. What were the major issues and debates concerning women in that period? Highlight the importance of the new objectives that got added to the vision of

2017

Indian independence since twenties of the last century. Explain how the Uprising of 1857 constitutes an important watershed in the

2017

evolution of British policies towards colonial India. Discuss the role of women in the freedom struggle especially during the

2016

Gandhian phase.

2016

Highlight the differences in the approach of Subhash Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi in the struggle for freedom.

2016

How different would have been the achievement of Indian independence without Mahatma Gandhi? Discuss.

2015

It would have been difficult for the Constituent Assembly to complete its historic task of drafting the Constitution for Independent India in just three years but for the experience gained with the Government of India Act, 1935. Discuss. The third battle of Panipat was fought in 1761. Why were so many empire-shaking

2015

battles fought at Panipat? Examine critically the various facets of economic policies of the British in India

2014

from mid-eighteenth century till independence. In what ways did the naval mutiny prove to be the last nail in the coffin of

2014

British colonial aspirations in India?

2014

Defying the barriers of age, gender and religion, the Indian women became the torch bearer during the struggle for freedom in India. Discuss.

2013

Several foreigners made India their homeland and participated in various movements. Analyze their role in the Indian struggle for freedom.

2013

In many ways, Lord Dalhousie was the founder of modern India. Elaborate.

2013

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks HISTORY: INDIA AFTER INDEPENDENCE GS1 Syllabus Topic: Post-Independence (consolidation and reorganisation within country) Discuss whether formation of new states in recent times is beneficial or not for the economy of India.

2018

Critically discuss the objectives of Bhoodan and Gramdan movements initiated by Acharya Vinoba Bhave and their success.

2013

Write a critical note on the evolution and significance of the slogan 2013

“Jai Jawana Jai Kisan”. Discuss the contribution of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to pre-and post-independent India.

2013

Analyze the circumstances that led to Tashkent Agreement in 1966. Discuss the highlights of the agreement.

2013

Critically examine the compulsions which prompted India to play a decisive roles in the emergence of Bangladesh.

2013

HISTORY: WORLD GS1 Syllabus Topic: 18th century events (e.g. Industrial revolution, WWs, redrawn boundaries, colonisation, decolonisation); Political philosophies (e.g. communism, capitalism, socialism) and their effect on society What problems were germane to the decolonization process of Malay Peninsula.

2017

The anti-colonial struggles in West Africa were led by the new elite of Western-educated Africans. Examine.

2016

Why did the industrial revolution first occur in England? Discuss the quality of life of the people there during the industrialization. How does it compare with that in India at present?

2015

To what extent can Germany be held responsible for causing the two World Wars? Discuss critically

2015

What were the major political, economic and social developments in the world which motivated the anti-colonial struggle in India?

2014

What were the events that led to the Suez Crisis in 1956? How did it deal a final blow to Britain’s self-image as a world power?

2014

The New Economic Policy – 1921 of Lenin had influenced the policies adopted by India soon after independence. Evaluate.

2014

“Latecomer” Industrial revolution in Japan involved certain factors that were markedly different from what west had experience.

2013

Africa was chopped into states artificially created by accident of European competition. Analyse.

2013

American Revolution was an economic revolt against mercantilism. Substantiate.

2013

What policy instruments were deployed to contain the great economic depression?

2013

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks [BLOCK-2] SOCIAL SCIENCE SOCIAL SCIENCE: CASTE, RELIGION, REGION, GLOBALIZATION GS1 Syllabus Topic: l Communalism, Regionalism, Secularism; Social Empowerment l Salient features of Indian Society; Diversity of India; How the Indian concept of secularism different from the western model of secularism? Discuss. ‘Communalism arises either due to power struggle or relative deprivation.’

2018

Argue by giving suitable illustrations. The spirit tolerance and love is not only an interesting feature of Indian society

2018

from very early times, but it is also playing an important part at the present. Elaborate.

2017

Distinguish between religiousness/religiosity and communalism giving one example of how the former has got transformed into the latter in independent India. In the context of diversity of India, can it be said that the regions form cultural

2017

units rather than the States? Give reasons with examples for your viewpoint. What are the two major legal initiatives by the State since Independence,

2017

addressing discrimination against Scheduled Tribes (STs)? Has the formation of linguistic States strengthened the cause of Indian Unity?

2017 2016

Why are the tribals in India referred to as the Scheduled Tribes? Indicate the major provisions enshrined in the Constitution of India for their upliftment.

2016

What is the basis of regionalism? Is it that unequal distribution of benefits of development on regional basis eventually promotes regionalism? Substantiate your answer.

2016

Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, despite having divergent approaches and strategies, had a common goal of amelioration of the downtrodden. Elucidate.

2015

Describe any four cultural elements of diversity in India and rate their relative significance in building a national identity.

2015

Debate the issue of whether and how contemporary movements for assertion of Dalit identity work towards annihilation of caste.

2015

How do the Indian debates on secularism differ from the debates in the West? Growing feeling of regionalism is an important factor in the generation of demand

2014

for a separate state. Discuss.

2013

SOCIAL SCIENCE: POVERTY, POPULATION, GLOBALIZATION GS1 Syllabus Topic: Poverty, Population; Development and associated issues ‘Despite implementation of various programmes for eradication of poverty by the government in India, poverty is still existing’. Explain by giving reasons.

2018

Mention core strategies for the transformation of aspirational districts in India and explain the nature of convergence, collaboration and competition for its success.

2018 UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks “An essential condition to eradicate poverty is to liberate the poor from deprivation.” Substantiate this statement with suitable examples

2016

Critically examine whether growing population is the cause of poverty OR poverty is the main cause of population increase in India.

2015

Discuss the changes in the trends of labour migration within and outside India in the last four decades.

2015

The life cycle of a joint family depends on economic factors rather than social values. Discuss.

2014

SOCIAL SCIENCE: GLOBALIZATION GS1 Syllabus Topic: Globalisation (effects on Indian society) ‘Globalisation is generally said to promote cultural homogenisation but due to this cultural specificities appear to be strengthened in the Indian society.’ Elucidate.

2018

Discuss the positive and negative effects of globalization on women in India. (2013, Asked about Globalization effect on Elderly)

2015

To what extent globalization has influenced the core of cultural diversity in India? Explain.

2016

Critically examine the effects of globalization on the aged population in India.

2013

SOCIAL SCIENCE: WOMEN l GS1 Syllabus Topic: Role of women and women’s organisation; l Although some of the following questions fall under population-globalization categories, but if a person cultivates habit of noting down women related topics under one head, it’ll benefit in both GS1, GS2 and Essay. “Caste system is assuming new identities and associational forms. Hence, caste system cannot be eradicated in India.” Comment.

2018

‘Women’s movement in India has not addressed the issues of women of lower social strata.’ Substantiate your view.

2018

How do you explain the statistics that show that the sex ratio in Tribes in India is more favourable to women than the sex ratio among Scheduled Castes?

2015

How does patriarchy impact the position of a middle class working woman in India?

2014

Discuss the various economic and socio-cultural forces that are driving increasing feminization of agriculture in India.

2014

Why do some of the most prosperous regions of India have an adverse sex ratio for women? Give your arguments.

2014

Male membership needs to be encouraged in order to make women’s organization free from gender bias. Comment. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

2013

More At @Aj_ebooks [BLOCK-3] GEOGRAPHY GEOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL GS1 Syllabus Topic: Salient Features of World Physical Geography; Important Geophysical phenomena (earthquakes, tsunami, volcanoes, cyclones); Geographical features and location; Define mantle plume and explain its role in plate tectonics. How does the Juno Mission of NASA help to understand the origin and evolution of the Earth? “The Himalayas are highly prone to landslides.” Discuss the causes and suggest suitable measures of mitigation. Explain the formation of thousands of islands in Indonesian and Philippines

2018 2017 2016

archipelagos. 2014 Why are the world’s fold mountain systems located along the margins of continents? Bring out the association between the global distribution of Fold Mountains and the earthquakes and volcanoes. 2014 What do you understand by the theory of continental drift? Discuss the prominent evidences in its support. 2013 There is no formation of deltas by rivers of the Western Ghat. Why? 2013 Major hot deserts in northern hemisphere are located between 20-30 degree north and on the western side of the continents. Why? Bring out the causes for more frequent landslides in the Himalayas than in

2013

Western Ghats

2013

GEOGRAPHY: CLIMATE, DISASTER RELATED GS1 Syllabus Topic: Critical geographical features, flora, fauna (changes and effects thereof) Why is Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) needed? How does it help in navigation?

2018

In spite of adverse environmental impact, coal mining is still inevitable for development.” Discuss.

2017

Mention the advantages of the cultivation of pulse because of which the year 2016 was declared as the International Year of Pulses by the United Nations.

2017

How does the cryosphere affect global climate?

2017

Account for variations in oceanic salinity and discuss its multi-dimensional effects. 2017 In what way can flood be converted into a sustainable source of irrigation and all-weather inland navigation in India?

2017

What characteristics can be assigned to monsoon climate that succeeds in feeding more than 50 percent of the won population residing in Monsoon Asia?

2017

Discuss the concept of air mass and explain its role in macro-climatic changes.

2016

Explain the factors responsible for the origin of ocean currents. How do they influence regional climates, fishing and navigation?

2015

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks How far do you agree that the behavior of the Indian monsoon has been changing due to humanizing landscapes? Discuss.

2015

Tropical cyclones are largely confined to South China Sea, Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Mexico. Why?

2014

Most of the unusual climatic happenings are explained as an outcome of the El-Nino effect. Do you agree?

2014

Bring out the relationship between the shrinking Himalayan glaciers and the symptoms of climate change in the Indian sub-continent.

2014

The recent cyclone on the east coast of India was called “Phailin”. How are the tropical cyclones named across the world?

2013

Bring out the causes for the formation of heat islands in the urban habitat of the world.

2013

What do you understand by the phenomenon of temperature inversion in meteorology? How does it affect the weather and the habitants of the place?

2013

GEOGRAPHY: RESOURCES DISTRIBUTION GS1 Syllabus Topic: Distribution of key Natural Resources (world, S. Asia, Indian subcontinent) Why is India taking keen interest in the Arctic region?

2018

What are the consequences of spreading of ‘Dead Zones’ on marine ecosystem?

2018

“The ideal solution of depleting ground water resources in India is water harvesting system.” How can it be made effective in urban areas?

2018

Defining blue revolution, explain the problems and strategies for pisciculture development in India.

2018

The effective management of land and water resources will drastically reduce the human miseries. Explain

2016

South China Sea has assumed great geopolitical significance in the present context. Comment.

2016

Present an account of the Indus Water Treaty and examine its ecological, economic and political implications in the context of changing bilateral relations.

2016

Enumerate the problems and prospects of inland water transport in India.

2016

In what way micro-watershed Development projects help in water conservation in drought prone and semi-arid regions of India.

2016

What are the economic significances of discovery of oil in Arctic Sea and its possible environmental consequences?

2015

India is well endowed with fresh water resources. Critically examine why it still suffers from water scarcity.

2015

The states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand reaching the limits of their ecological carrying capacity due to tourism. Critically evaluate.

2015

Critically evaluate the various resources of the oceans which can be harnessed to meet the resource crisis in the world.

2014

How does India see its place in the economic space of rising natural resource rich Africa? UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

2014

More At @Aj_ebooks With growing scarcity of fossil fuels, the atomic energy is gaining more and more significance in India. Discuss the availability of raw material required for the generation of atomic energy in India and in the world. 2013 It is said the India has substantial reserves of shale oil and gas, which can feed the needs of country for quarter century. However, tapping of the resources doesn’t appear to be high on the agenda. Discuss critically the availability and issues involved.

2013

GEOGRAPHY: FACTORS AFFECTING INDUSTRIAL LOCATIONS GS1 Syllabus Topic: Factors responsible for location of Industries (primary, secondary, tertiary; India, world) What is the significance of Industrial Corridors in India? Identifying industrial corridors, explain their main characteristics.

2018

Petroleum refineries are not necessarily located nearer to crude oil producing areas, particularly in many of the developing countries. Explain its implications.

2017

Whereas the British planters had developed tea gardens all along the Shivaliks and Lesser Himalayas from Assam to Himachal Pradesh, in effect they did not succeed beyond the Darjeeling area. Explain.

2014

Account for the change in the spatial pattern of the Iron and Steel industry in the world.

2014

Why did the Green Revolution in India virtually by-pass the eastern region despite fertile soil and good availability of water?

2014

Do you agree that there is a growing trend of opening new sugar mills in the Southern states of India? Discuss with justification

2013

Analyze the factors for highly decentralized cotton textile industry in India

2013

GEOGRAPHY: URBANIZATION GS1 Syllabus Topic: Urbanization: problems and remedies The growth of cities as I.T. hubs has opened up new avenues employment but has also created new problems. Substantiate this statement with examples. 2017

Urbanization With a brief background of quality of urban life in India, introduce the objectives and strategy of the ‘Smart City Programme’.

2016

Major cities of India are becoming more vulnerable to flood conditions. Discuss.

2016

Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are the three mega cities of the country but the air pollution is much more serious problem in Delhi as compared to the other two. Why is this so?

2015

Smart cities in India cannot sustain without smart villages. Discuss this statement in the backdrop of rural urban integration.

2015

Discussion the various social problems which originated out of the speedy process of urbanization in India.

2013

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL HISTORY 1. Prehistoric Period: Paleolithic Age, Mesolithic Age, and Chalcolithic Age 2. Indus Valley Civilisation 3. Buddhism and Jainism 4. Maurya and Post Maurya 5. Gupta and Post Gupta 6. Early Medieval India 7. Delhi Sultanate 8. India Under Delhi Sultanate 9. Bhakti and Sufi Movement 10. Vijaynagar and Bahmani Kingdoms 11. Mughal Empire 12. India under Mughals 13. Marathas 14. Coming of Europeans 15. Land Revenue Systems under British Rule

PREHISTORIC PERIOD: PALEOLITHIC AGE, MESOLITHIC AGE, AND CHALCOLITHIC AGE 1. Paleolithic Age Art l

The prehistoric period in early development of human beings is commonly known as ‘Old Stone Age’ or ‘Palaeolithic Age’.

Subjects of early works confined to simple human figures, human activities, geometric designs, and symbols.

In India, remnants of rock paintings have been found on the walls of caves situated in several districts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Bihar, and Uttarakhand.

Some of the examples of sites early rock paintings are Lakhudiyar in Uttarakhand, Kupgallu in Telangana, Piklihal and Tekkalkotta in Karnataka, Bhimbetka and Jogimara in Madhya Pradesh etc.

Paintings found here can be divided into three categories: Man, Animal, and Geometric symbols.

Some of the characteristics of these early paintings are: p Human beings are represented in a stick-like form. p A long-snouted animal, a fox, a multi-legged lizard are main animal motifs in the early paintings (later many animals were drawn). p Wavy lines, rectangular filled geometric designs and a group of dots also can be seen. p Superimposition of paintings – earliest is Black, then red and later White. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p In the late historic, early historic and Neolithic period the subjects of paintings developed and figures like Bulls, Elephants, Sambhars, Gazelles, Sheep, Horses, styled human beings, tridents and rarely vegetal motifs began to see. p The richest paintings are reported from Vindhya range of Madhya Pradesh and their Kaimurean extension into U.P. p These hills are fully Palaeolithic and Mesolithic remains. p There are two major sites of excellent prehistoric paintings in India:(1) Bhimbetka Caves, Foothills of Vindhya, Madhya Pradesh.(2) Jogimara caves, Amarnath, Madhya Pradesh. Bhimbetka Caves l

Continuous occupation of the caves from 100,000 B.C– 1000 A.D

Thus, it is considered as an evidence of long cultural continuity.

Consists of nearly 400 painted rock shelters in five clusters.

One of the oldest paintings in India and the world.

Paintings are linear representations, in green and dark red, of huge animal figures, such as Bisons, Tigers, Elephants, Rhinos and Boars beside stick-like human figures.

Mostly they are filled with geometric patterns.

Green paintings are of dances and red ones of hunters.

2. Mesolithic period Art: l

The largest number of paintings belongs to this period.

Themes multiply but the paintings are small in size.

Hunting scenes predominate

Hunters in groups armed with barbed spears pointed sticks, arrows, and bows.

Trap and snares used to catch animals can be seen in some paintings.

Mesolithic people loved to point animals.

In some pictures, animals are chasing men and in others, they are being chased by hunter men.

Animals painted in a naturalistic style and humans were depicted in a stylistic manner.

Women are painted both in nude and clothed.

Young and old equally find places in paintings.

Community dances provide a common theme.

Sort of family life can be seen in some paintings (woman, man, and children).

3. Chalcolithic period Art: l

Copper age art.

The paintings of this period reveal the association, contact and mutual exchange of requirements of the cave dwellers of this area with settled agricultural communities of the Malwa Plateau.

Pottery and metal tools can be seen in paintings.

Similarities with rock paintings: Common motifs (designs/patterns like cross-hatched squares, lattices etc)

The difference with rock paintings: Vividness and vitality of older periods disappear from these paintings.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Other features: l

Used colours, including various shades of white, yellow, orange, red ochre, purple, brown, green and black.

But white and red were their favourite.

The paints used by these people were made by grinding various coloured rocks.

They got red from haematite (Geru in India).

Green prepared from a green coloured rock called Chalcedony.

White was probably from Limestone.

Some sticky substances such as animal fat or gum or resin from trees may be used while mixing rock powder with water.

Brushes were made of plant fiber.

It is believed that these colours remained thousands of years because of the chemical reaction of the oxide present on the surface of rocks.

Paintings were found both from occupied and unoccupied caves.

It means that these paintings were sometimes used also as some sort of signals, warnings etc.

Many rock art sites of the new painting are painted on top of an older painting.

In Bhimbetka, we can see nearly 20 layers of paintings, one on top of another.

It shows the gradual development of the human being from period to period.

The symbolism is inspiration from nature along with slight spirituality.

Expression of ideas through very few drawings (representation of men by the stick like drawings).

Use of many geometrical patterns.

Scenes were mainly hunting and economic and social life of people.

The figure of flora, fauna, human, mythical creatures, carts, chariots etc can be seen.

More importance for red and white colours.

INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION It was the first major civilization in south Asia, which spread across a vast area of land in present day India and Pakistan. Estimated between BC. 2700- BC.1900 ie. for 800 years. Features of Indus Valley Civilization l

BC. 2700- BC.1900 ie for 800 years.

On the valleys of river Indus.

Also known as Harappan Civilization.

Beginning of city life.

City was divided into Citadel (west) and Lower Town (east).

Red pottery painted with designs in black.

Stone weights, seals, special beads, copper tools, long stone blades etc.

Copper, bronze, silver, gold present. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l

Specialists for handicrafts.

Import of raw materials.

Plough was used.

Bodies were buried in wooden coffins and later in painted burial urns.

Sugar cane not cultivated, horse, iron not used.

Indus Valley Sites and Specialties: Harappa l

Seals out of stones

Citadel outside on banks of river Ravi

Mohenjodaro l

Great Bath, Great Granary, Dancing Girl, Man with Beard, Cotton, Assembly hall

Term means “Mound of the dead”

On the bank of river Indus

Believed to have been destructed by flood or invasion(Destruction was not gradual).

Chanhudaro l

Bank of Indus river.

Only cite without citadel.

Kalibangan l

At Rajasthan on the banks of river Ghaggar

Fire Altars

Bones of camel

Evidence of furrows

Horse remains ( even though Indus valley people didn’t use horses).

Known as third capital of Indus Empire.

Lothal l

At Gujarat near Bhogava river

Fire Altars

Beside the tributary of Sabarmati

Store house

Dockyard and earliest port

double burial

Ropar l

Punjab, on the banks of river Sutlej.

Dog buried with humans.

Banawali l

Haryana

On banks of lost river Saraswathi

Barley Cultivation.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Dholavira l

Biggest site in India, until the discovery of Rakhigarhi.

3 parts + large open area for ceremonies

Large letters of the Harappan script.

Religion of Indus Valley People l

Pashupathi Mahadev (Proto Siva)

Mother goddess

Nature/ Animal worship

Unicorn, Dove, Peepal Tree, Fire

Amulets

Idol worship was practiced ( not a feature of Aryans)

Did not construct temples.

Similarity to Hindu religious practises. (Hinduism in its present form originated later)

No Caste system.

Indus Valley Society and Culture l

Systematic method of weights and measures ( 16 and its multiples).

Pictographic Script, Boustrophedon script – Deciphering efforts by I. Mahadevan

Equal status to men and women

Economic Inequality, not an egalitarian society

Textiles – Spinning and weaving

3 types – burial, cremation and post cremation were there, though burial was common.

Reasons for Decline of Indus Valley Civilization: Though there are various theories, the exact reason is still unknown. l

A weaker monsoon might have been the cause of decline of Indus Valley Civilization.

Environmental changes.

There might be resource shortage to sustain the population, and then people moved towards south India.

Aryan Invasion

Tectonic Movements/ Flood

Change of course of river Indus

BUDDHISM AND JAINISM l

Due to Mahajanapadas, cities were flourishing and lifestyles were changing in villages.

Now here, many thinkers were trying to understand these changes in society. They want to know true meaning of life

Buddhism l

Buddha belonged to a small gana known as the Sakya gana, and was a kshatriya.

He finally decided to find his own path to realisation, and meditated for days under a peepal tree at UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Bodh Gaya in Bihar, where he attained enlightenment. After that, he was known as the Buddha or the Wise One. l

Sarnath, near Varanasi, where he taught for the first time.

He passed away at Kusinara.

The Buddha taught that life is full of suffering and unhappiness. This is caused because we have cravings and desires.

The Buddha described this as thirst or tanha. He taught that this constant craving could be removed by following moderation in everything.

He also taught people to be kind, and to respect the lives of others, including animals.

He believed that the results of our actions (called karma), whether good or bad, affect us both in this life and the next.

Taught in the language of the ordinary people, Prakrit.

He also encouraged people to think for themselves.

After the death of Buddha, different Buddhist Councils were conveyed to discuss Buddhist doctrines.

Jainism l

Most famous thinker of the Jainas, Vardhamana Mahavira was a contemporary of Buddha.

He was a kshatriya prince of the Lichchhavis, a group that was part of the Vajji sangha.

He taught a simple doctrine: men and women who wished to know the truth must leave their homes.

They must follow very strictly the rules of ahimsa, which means not hurting or killing living beings.

It was very difficult for most men and women to follow these strict rules like remain nude or maitaining celibacy eg: farmers find it difficult to follow because they cant weed out insects.

Ordinary people could understand the teachings because in Prakrit language.

Jainism was supported mainly by traders.

The sangha l

Both the Mahavira and the Buddha felt that only those who left their homes could gain true knowledge. They arranged for them to stay together in the sangha, an association of those who left their homes.

The rules made for the Buddhist sangha were written down in a book called the Vinaya Pitaka.

Men and women who joined the sangha led simple lives.

Those who joined the sangha included brahmins, kshatriyas, merchants, labourers, barbers, courtesans, children and slaves.

Monasteries l

The only time both Buddhists and Jainists stayed in one place was during the rainy season, when it was very difficult to travel.

These shelters were called viharas.

The earliest viharas were made of wood, and then of brick. Some were even in caves that were dug out in hills, especially in western India.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks System of ashramas l

Same time of Buddha and Jain, brahmins developed this ashramas.

It is used as for a stage of life instead of people live and meditate.

Four ashramas were recognised: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and samnyasa.

Generally, women were not allowed to study the Vedas, and they had to follow the ashramas chosen by their husbands.

MAURYA AND POST MAURYA Asoka, The Emperor l

The Mauryas were a dynasty, more than 2300 years ago, with three important rulers — Chandragupta [founder], his son Bindusara, and Bindusara’s son, Ashoka.

Chandragupta was supported by a wise man named Chanakya or Kautilya. Many of Chanakya’s ideas were written down in a book titled Arthashastra.

Megasthenes was an ambassador who was sent to the court of Chandragupta by the Greek ruler of West Asia named Seleucus Nicator.

Ashoka was one of the greatest rulers known to history and on his instructions inscriptions were carved on pillars, as well as on rock surfaces.

Most of Ashoka’s inscriptions were in Prakrit and were written in the Brahmi script.

People in different parts of the empire spoke different languages.

Ruling the empire l

As the empire was so large, different parts were ruled differently.

The area around Pataliputra was under the direct control of the emperor. This meant that officials were appointed to collect taxes.

Spies were kept a watch on the officials.

Other areas or provinces was ruled from a provincial capital such as Taxila or Ujjain.

Here Royal Princes were often send as governors, local customs and rules were followed.

Ashoka’s dhamma l

After Kalinga[current coastal Odisha] he gave up war.

He started to execute Dhamma[prakrit term for Dharma]

Ashoka’s dhamma did not involve worship of a god, or performance of a sacrifice. He felt its his duty to instruct his subjects through teachings of Budhha.

He appointed officials, known as the dhamma mahamatta who went from place to place teaching people about dhamma.

Besides, Ashoka got his messages inscribed on rocks and pillars, instructing his officials to read his message to those who could not read it themselves.

Also sent messengers to spread ideas about dhamma to other lands, such as Syria, Egypt, Greece and Sri Lanka. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Villages and Towns l

The use of iron began in the subcontinent around 3000 years ago.

The kings and kingdoms could not have existed without the support of flourishing villages.

Some of the earliest works in Tamil, known as Sangam literature, were composed around 2300 years ago. These texts were called Sangam because they were supposed to have been composed and compiled in assemblies (known as sangams) of poets that were held in the city of Madurai.

Jatakas were stories that were probably composed by ordinary people, and then written down and preserved by Buddhist monks.

We have hardly any remains of palaces, markets, or of homes of ordinary people. Perhaps some are yet to be discovered by archaeologists.

Another way of finding out about early cities is from the accounts of sailors and travellers who visited them.

Crafts include extremely fine pottery, known as the Northern Black Polished Ware. It is generally found in the northern part of the subcontinent, so the name. It is usually black in colour, and has a fine sheen.

Many crafts persons and merchants now formed associations known as shrenis.

These shrenis of crafts persons provided training, procured raw material, and distributed the finished product.

Shrenis also served as banks.

Traders, Kings and Pilgrims l

Sangam poems mention the muvendar. This is a Tamil word meaning three chiefs, used for the heads of three ruling families, the Cholas, Cheras, and Pandyas. They became powerful in south India around 2300 years ago.

Each of the three chiefs had two centres of power: one inland, and one on the coast. Of these six cities, two were very important: Puhar or Kaveripattinam, the port of the Cholas, and Madurai, the capital of the Pandyas.

The chiefs did not collect regular taxes. Instead, they demanded and received gifts from the people.

Around 200 years later a dynasty known as the Satavahanas became powerful in western India.

The most important ruler of the Satavahanas was Gautamiputra Shri Satakarni.

He and other Satavahana rulers were known as lords of the dakshinapatha, literally the route leading to the south.

Silk Route & Kushans l

Some people from China who went to distant lands on foot, horseback, and on camels, carried silk with them. The paths they followed came to be known as the Silk Route.

Some kings tried to control large portions of the route. This was because they could benefit from taxes, tributes and gifts that were brought by traders travelling along the route. In return, they often protected the traders who passed through their kingdoms from attacks by robbers.

The best-known of the rulers who controlled the Silk Route were the Kushanas, who ruled over central Asia and north-west India around 2000 years ago.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l

Their two major centres of power were Peshawar and Mathura. Taxila was also included in their kingdom.

During their rule, a branch of the Silk Route extended from Central Asia down to the seaports at the mouth of the river Indus, from where silk was shipped westwards to the Roman Empire.

The Kushanas issued gold coins. These were used by traders along the Silk Route.

Spread of Buddhism l

The most famous Kushana ruler was Kanishka, who ruled around 1900 years ago.

He organised a Buddhist council, where scholars met and discussed important matters.

Ashvaghosha, a poet who composed a biography of the Buddha, the Buddhacharita, lived in his court. He and other Buddhist scholars now began writing in Sanskrit.

A new for m of Buddhism, known as Mahayana Buddhism, now developed.

Here it got 2 distinct features: p earlier, the Buddha’s presence was shown in sculpture by using certain signs. Now statues are made. From Mathura and Taxila. p regarded with belief in Bodhisattvas. Earlier once they attained Enlightenment they could live in complete isolation and meditate in peace. Now they remained in the world to teach and help other people. This type of worship prvailed throughout Central Asia, China, and later to Korea and Japan.

Traders probably halted in cave monasteries during their travels.

The older form of Buddhism, known as Theravada Buddhism was more popular in areas like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, and other parts of Southeast Asia including Indonesia.

The famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrims were Fa Xian, who came to the subcontinent about 1600 years ago, Xuan Zang came around 1400 years ago and I-Qing, who came about 50 years after Xuan Zang.

Bhakti l

The worship of certain deities, which became a central feature of later Hinduism, gained in importance were the contemporaries of other religion

Anybody, whether rich or poor, belonging to the so-called ‘high’ or ‘low’ castes, man or woman, could follow the path of Bhakti.

The idea of Bhakti is present in the Bhagavad Gita.

Those who followed the system of Bhakti emphasised devotion and individual worship of a god or goddess, rather than the performance of elaborate sacrifices

Once this idea gained acceptance, artists made beautiful images of these deities.

GUPTA AND POST GUPTA Guptas l

Information about their history through inscriptions and coins.

Changragupta was followed by Samudragupta.

Samudragupta, Gupta ruler (1700 years ago, ie AD 300). Harisena was his court poet.

Chandragupta, his father, was the first ruler of the Gupta dynasty to adopt the grand title of maharajadhiraja, a title that Samudragupta also used. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l

“Prashasti” = inscription ‘in praise of’. Prashasti about Samudragupta was inscribed on the Asokan piller at Allahabad (Prayag).

Four different kinds of rulers in different parts of India/Nepal/Srilanka either surrendered to him or made alliances. (Eg: Aryavartha, Dakshinapatha, gana sanghas etc).

Main centers of Guptas: Prayag (Allahabad, UP), Ujjain (Avanti, MP) and Pataliputra (Patna, Bihar).

Samudragupta’s son = Chandragupta II. Kalidasa and Aryabhata adorned his court. He overcame the last Sakas.

Harshavardhana & Harshacharita l

Information about their history through biographies.

He belonged to Pushyabhuti Dynasty when Gupta dynasty was fading.

His court poet, Banabhatta, wrote his biography, the Harshacharita, in Sanskrit.

Xuan Zang, spent a lot of time at Harsha’s court and left a detailed account of what he saw.

Harsha took over the kingdom of Kanauj, and then led an army against the ruler of Bengal.

Although he was successful in the east, and conquered both Magadha and Bengal, he was not as successful elsewhere.

He tried to cross the Narmada to march into the Deccan, but was stopped by a ruler belonging to the Chalukya dynasty, Pulakeshin II.

The Pallavas, Chalukyas and Pulakeshin l

The Pallavas and Chalukyas were the most important ruling dynasties in south India during this period.

The kingdom of the Pallavas around their capital, Kanchipuram, to the Kaveri delta, while that of the Chalukyas [Aihole, the capital ] was centred around the Raichur Doab, between the rivers Krishna and Tungabhadra.

The Pallavas and Chalukyas frequently raided one another’s lands which were properous ones.

The best-known Chalukya ruler was Pulakeshin II. We know about him from a prashasti, composed by his court poet Ravikirti.

Ultimately, both the Pallavas and the Chalukyas gave way to new rulers belonging to the Rashtrakuta and Chola dynasties.

Land revenue remained important for these rulers, and the village remained the basic unit of administration

There were military leaders who provided the king with troops whenever he needed them. These men were known as samantas.

The inscriptions of the Pallavas mention a number of local assemblies. These included the sabha, which was an assembly of brahmin land owners.

And the nagaram was an organisation of merchants.

The Chinese pilgrim Fa Xian noticed the plight of those who were treated as untouchables by the high and mighty.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Buildings, Paintings and Books l

Iron pillar – during the time of Chandra – Gupta.

Stupas (mound) – Relic casket may contain bodily remains of the Buddha or his followers or the things they used. Pradakshina patha was laid around the stupa. (Eg: Sanchi, Amaravathi)

Cave temples.

Rock cut temples.

Hindu temples: Garbhagriha = place where the image of the chief diety was placed. Shikara = tower made on the top of garbhagriha to mark this out as a sacred place. Mandapa = hall where people could assemble.

Examples of early temples : Bhitargaon, UP (AD 500) – made of baked brick and stone, Mahabalipuram – monolithic temples, Aihole Durga temple (AD 600).

PS: Association of ivory worked paid for one the beautiful gateways at Sanchi.

Jain monastery in Orissa.

Paintings – Ajanata caves – Buddhist monks.

Books – Silappadikaram (by Ilango Adikal, AD 200) and Manimekalai (by Sattanar, AD 600), Meghaduta (by Kalidasa).

Puranas – were meant to be heard by every body. Believed to be compiled by Vyasa.

Jataka and Panchatantra stories

EARLY MEDIEVAL INDIA l

After the death of Harsha, there was no political unity in north India for about five centuries. The country was split up into a number of states which were constantly fighting and changing their frontiers.

The important kingdoms in north India were Kashmir, Gandhara, Sind, Gujarat, Kanauj, Ajmir, Malwa, Bengal and Assam. In the early eighth century Kashmir was dominant. Then, the Palas of Bengal reigned supreme till the Pratiharas became the most powerful rulers of north India.

But in the tenth century, the Rashtrakutas of Deccan tried to extend their power in north India but ultimately failed in their attempt.

Rajput Kingdoms l

The dominance of Rajputs began from the seventh and eighth centuries and lasted till the Muslim conquest in the twelfth century. Even after that, many Rajput states continued to survive for a long time. p In the period of Muslim aggression, the Rajputs were the main defenders of the Hindu religion and culture.

There are several theories about the origin of Rajputs. p They were considered as the descendents of the foreign invaders and the Indian Kshatriyas. The foreign invaders were Indianized and absorbed into Indian society. Many legends of Rajputs support this theory. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p Therefore, it can be said that diverse elements constitute in the shaping of the Rajput clan. They became homogenous by constant intermarriage and by adopting common customs. p They made war as their chief occupation. However, trade and agriculture also prospered. The Arab travellers refer to the prosperity of the land and the great trade of the cities. They built strong forts. l

The Gurjara-Pratiharas were the earliest of the Rajput rulers. p Its first great leader was Harischandra. He conquered extensive territory in Rajaputana and ruled with his capital at Bhinmal. p The Gurjaras were in different branches. One branch ruled Gujarat and another at Avanthi. p The Pratiharas involved themselves in a three cornered contest with the Palas of Bengal and the Rashtrakutas of Deccan. p Later the Pratiharas became weak.

The Chauhans, the most valiant of the Rajput races, ruled Ajmir. p Vigraharaj was their most important king, who occupied Delhi. Therefore the Chauhans faced the onslaught of the Muslims under Muhammad of Ghori.

The Paramaras were also important Rajput rulers of this period. The most important king was Bhoja. His military conquests as well as cultural contributions remain notable in the history of Rajputs.

Constant fighting weakened the Rajputs. Also, they never united against a common enemy. Their lack of political foresight and constant rivalries prevented any combined opposition to the Muslim invaders.

Arab Conquest of Sind (712 A.D.) l

The religion Islam was born at Mecca in Arabia. Its founder was Prophet Muhammad. But his teachings made the wealthy people of Mecca his enemies. p Therefore, he migrated to Medina in 622 A.D., which was the starting point of the Muslim calendar and the Muslim era called hijra. After eight years he returned to Mecca with his followers. He died in 632 A.D.

The followers of Muhammad set up an empire called the Caliphate. The Umayyads and the Abbasids were called the caliphs. They expanded their rule by conquests and spread their religion Islam. p In 712 A.D., Muhammad bin Qasim invaded Sind. He was the commander of the Umayyad kingdom. p Qasim defeated Dahir, the ruler of Sind and killed him in a well-contested battle. His capital Aror was captured. p Qasim extended his conquest further into Multan. Qasim organized the administration of Sind. p The people of Sind were given the status of zimmis (protected subjects). There was no interference in the lives and property of the people. p Soon, Qasim was recalled by the Caliph.

However, Sind continued to be under the Arabs. But the Muslims could not expand their authority further into India due to the presence of the powerful Pratihara kingdom in western India.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p Although the conquest of Sind did not lead to further conquests immediately, it had resulted in the diffusion of Indian culture abroad. p Many Arab travelers visited Sind. Indian medicine and astronomy were carried to far off lands through the Arabs. p The Indian numerals in the Arabic form went to Europe through them. Since Sind was a part of the Arab empire, the inflow of Indian knowledge was great. Mahmud of Ghazni and his Invasions l

By the end of the ninth century A.D., the Abbasid Caliphate declined. The Turkish governors established independent kingdoms and the Caliph became only a ritual authority. p One among them was Alptigin whose capital was Ghazni. His successor and son in-law Sabuktigin wanted to conquer India from the north-west. p He succeeded in capturing Peshawar from Jayapala. But his raids did not produce a lasting effect. He was succeeded by his son, Mahmud.

Mahmud of Ghazni (A.D. 997-1030) l

Mahmud is said to have made seventeen raids into India. At that time, North India was divided into a number of Hindu states. p On the frontier of India, there existed the Hindu Shahi kingdom which extended from the Punjab to Kabul.

The other important kingdoms of north India were Kanauj, Gujarat, Kashmir, Nepal, Malwa and Bundelkhand.

The initial raids were against the Hindu Shahi kingdom in which its king Jayapala was defeated in 1001. After this defeat, Jayapala immolated himself because he thought that his defeat was a disgrace.

His successor Anandapala fought against Mahmud but he was also defeated in the Battle of Waihind, the Hind Shahi capital near Peshawar in 1008. p In this battle, Anandapala was supported by the rulers of Kanauj and Rajasthan. As a result of his victory at Waihind, Mahmud extended his rule over most of the Punjab.

The subsequent raids of Mahmud into India were aimed at plundering the rich temples and cities of northern India. p In 1011, he raided Nagarkot in the Punjab hills and Thaneshwar near Delhi. p In 1018, Mahmud plundered the holy city of Mathura and also attacked Kanauj. The ruler of Kanauj, Rajyapala abandoned Kanauj and later died. p Mahmud returned via Kalinjar with fabulous riches. His next important raid was against Gujarat. p In 1024, Mahmud marched from Multan across Rajaputana, defeated the Solanki King Bhimadeva I, plundered Anhilwad and sacked the famous temple of Somanatha. p Then, he returned through the Sind desert. This was his last campaign in India. Mahmud died in 1030 A.D.

Mahmud was not a mere raider and plunderer of wealth. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p He built a wide empire from the Punjab in the east to the Caspian sea on the west and from Samarkand in the north to Gujarat in the south. p The Ghaznavid empire roughly included Persia, Trans-oxyana, Afghanistan and Punjab. p His achievements were due to his leadership and restless activity. Mahmud was considered a hero of Islam by medieval historians. l

He also patronized art and literature. p Firdausi was the poet-laureate in the court of Mahmud. He was the author of Shah Namah. p Alberuni stayed in Mahmud’s court and wrote the famous Kitab-i-Hind, an account on India.

His conquest of Punjab and Multan completely changed the political situation in India. p He paved the way for the Turks and Afghans for further conquests and make deeper incur-

sions into the Gangetic valley at any time. p He drained the resources of India by his repeated raids and deprived India of her manpower.

The exhaustion of India’s economic resources and man power had its adverse effect on the political future of India. p The Hindu Shahi kingdom was guarding the gates of India against foreign invaders. Mahmud

destroyed it and thus India’s frontiers became defenceless. p The inclusion of Punjab and Afghanistan in Ghazni’s kingdom made the subsequent Muslim

conquests of India comparatively easy. Muhammad Ghori l

The Ghoris started as vassals of Ghazni but became independent after the death of Mahmud. Taking advantage of the decline of the Ghaznavid empire, Muizzuddin Muhammad popularly known as Muhammad Ghori brought Ghazni under their control.

Having made his position strong and secure at Ghazni, Muhammad Ghori turned his attention to India. Unlike Mahmud of Ghazni, he wanted to conquer India and extend his empire in this direction. p In 1175, Muhammad Ghori captured Multan and occupied whole of Sind in his subsequent

expeditions. p In 1186 he attacked Punjab, captured it from Khusru Malik and annexed it to his dominions. p The annexation of Punjab carried his dominion eastward to the Sutlej and led his invasion of

the Chauhan kingdom. The Battle of Tarain (1191-1192) l

Realising their grave situation, the Hindu princes of north India formed an confederacy under the command of Prithiviraj Chauhan. p Prithviraj rose to the occasion, and defeated Ghori in the battle of Tarain near Delhi in 1191

A.D. Muhammad Ghori felt greatly humiliated by this defeat. l

To avenge this defeat he made serious preparations and gathered an army of 1,20,000 men. He came with this large force to Lahore via Peshawar and Multan. p He sent a message to Prithviraj asking him to acknowledge his supremacy and become a

Muslim.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p Prithviraj rejected this proposal and prepared to meet the invader. He gathered a large force

consisting of 3,00,000 horses, 3000 elephants and a large body of foot soldiers. Many Hindu rajas and chieftains also joined him. l

In the ensuing Second Battle of Tarain in 1192, Muhammad Ghori thoroughly routed the army of Prithiviraj, who was captured and killed. p The second battle of Tarain was a decisive battle. It was a major disaster for the Rajputs. Their

political prestige suffered a serious setback. The whole Chauhan kingdom now lay at the feet of the invader. p The first Muslim kingdom was thus firmly established in India at Ajmer and a new era in

the history of India began. l

After his brilliant victory over Prithiviraj at Tarain, Muhammad Ghori returned to Ghazni leaving behind his favourite general Qutb-uddin Aibak to make further conquests in India. p Aibak consolidated his position in India by occupying places like Delhi and Meerut. p In 1193 he prepared the ground for another invasion by Muhammad Ghori. This invasion was

directed against the Gahadavala ruler Jayachandra. p Muhammad routed Jayachandra’s forces. Kanauj was occupied by the Muslims after the battle

of Chandawar. The Battles of Tarain and Chandawar contributed to the establishment of Turkish rule in India. Causes for the failure of Hindu kingdoms The causes for the downfall of Hindu states have to be analysed historically. l

The most important cause was that they lacked unity. They were divided by factions. The Rajput princes exhausted one another by their mutual conflicts.

Secondly, many Hindu states were declining in power. Their military methods were out of date and far inferior to those of Muslims. Indians continued to rely on elephants while the Muslims possessed quick-moving cavalry. The Muslims soldiers had better organization and able leaders. p Their religious zeal and their greed for the greater wealth of India provided stimulus to them.

Among the Hindus, the duty of fighting was confined to a particular class, the Kshatriyas. l

Moreover, the Hindus were always on the defensive, which was always a weak position.

DELHI SULTANATE(1206-1526) l

The Muslim invasions into India had ultimately resulted in the establishment of Delhi Sultanate which existed from A.D. 1206 to 1526.

Five different dynasties – the Slave, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyids and Lodis – ruled under the Delhi Sultanate. Not only they extended their rule over North India, but also they penetrated into the Deccan and South India. p Their rule in India resulted in far-reaching changes in society, administration and cultural life.

Slave Dynasty The Slave dynasty was also called Mamluk dynasty. Mamluk was the Quranic term for slave. The Slave dynasty ruled Delhi from A.D. 1206 to 1290. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks In fact, three dynasties were established during this period. They were 1. Qutbi dynasty (1206-1211) founded by Qutbuddin Aibak. 2. First Ilbari dynasty (1211- 1266) founded by Iltutmish. 3. Second Ilbari dynasty (1266-1290) founded by Balban. Qutbuddin Aibak (1206-1210) l

Qutbuddin Aibak was a slave of Muhammad Ghori, who made him the Governor of his Indian possessions.

He set up his military headquarters at Indraprasta, near Delhi.

He raised a standing army and established his hold over north India even during the life time of Ghori.

After the death of Ghori in 1206, Aibak declared his independence. He severed all connections with the kingdom of Ghori and thus founded the Slave dynasty as well as the Delhi Sultanate.

He assumed the title Sultan and made Lahore his capital. His rule lasted for a short period of four years.

Muslim writers call Aibak Lakh Baksh or giver of lakhs because he gave liberal donations to them. Aibak patronized the great scholar Hasan Nizami.7) He also started the construction of after the name of a famous Sufi saint Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakthiyar. It was later completed by Iltutmish.

Aibak died suddenly while playing chaugan (horse polo) in 1210.

He was succeeded by his son Aram Baksh, who was replaced by Iltutmish after eight months.

Iltutmish (1211-1236) l

Iltutmish belonged to the Ilbari tribe and hence his dynasty was named as Ilbari dynasty. His half brothers sold him as a slave to Aibak, who made him his-son-in law by giving his daughter in marriage to him. p Later Aibak appointed him as iqtadar of Gwalior.

In 1211 Iltutmish defeated Aram Baksh and became Sultan.

He shifted his capital from Lahore to Delhi.

During the first ten years of his reign he concentrated on securing his throne from his rivals.

In the meantime, Temujin popularly known as Chengiz Khan, the leader of the Mongols, started invading Central Asia. p He defeated Jalaluddin Mangabarni, the ruler of Kwarizam. Mangabarni crossed the river Indus

and sought asylum from Iltutmish. p Iltutmish refused to give him shelter in order to save his empire from the onslaught of the

Mongols. p Fortunately for Iltutmish, Chengiz Khan retuned home without entering into India. In fact, the

Mongol policy of Iltutmish saved India from the wrath of Chengiz Khan. l

Iltutmish marched against Bengal and Bihar and reasserted his control over them. He also annexed Sind and Multan into the Delhi Sultanate.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p He suppressed the Rajput revolts and recovered Ranthampur, Jalor, Ajmer and Gwalior. p He led an expedition against the Paramaras of Malwa but it was not successful. l

Iltutmish was a great statesman. p He received the mansur, the letter of recognition, from the Abbasid Caliph in 1229 by which he

became the legal sovereign ruler of India. p Later he nominated his daughter Raziya as his successor. Thus the hereditary succession to

Delhi Sultanate was initiated by Iltutmish. p He patronized many scholars and a number Sufi saints came to India during his reign. Minhaj-

us-Siraj, Taj-ud-din., Nizam-ul-mulk Muhammad Janaidi, Malik Qutbud-din Hasan and FakhrulMulk Isami were his contemporary scholars who added grandeur to his court. p Apart from completing the construction of Qutb Minar at Delhi, the tallest stone tower in

India (238 ft.), he built a magnificent mosque at Ajmer. l

Iltutmish introduced the Arabic coinage into India and the silver tanka weighing 175 grams became a standard coin in medieval India. p The silver tanka remained the basis of the modern rupee.

Iltutmish had also created a new class of ruling elite of forty powerful military leaders, the Forty.

Raziya (1236-1240) l

Although Iltutmish nominated his daughter Raziya as his successor, the Qazi of Delhi and Wazir put Ruknuddin Feroz on the throne. p When the governor of Multan revolted, Ruknuddin marched to suppress that revolt. p Using this opportunity, Raziya with the support of Amirs of Delhi seized the throne of Delhi

Sultanate. l

She appointed an Abyssinian slave Yakuth as Master of the Royal Horses. Also, Raziya discarded the female apparel and held the court with her face unveiled. p She even went for hunting and led the army. This aroused resentment among the Turkish

nobles. p In 1240, Altunia, the governor of Bhatinda revolted against her. p She went in person to suppress the revolt but Altunia killed Yakuth and took Raziya prisoner. l

In the meantime, the Turkish nobles put Bahram, another son of Iltutmish on the throne. However, Raziya won over her captor, Altunia, and after marrying him proceeded to Delhi.

But she was defeated and killed.

The fall of Raziya paved the way for the ascendancy of the Forty. p In the next six years, Bahram and Masud ruled Delhi. There ensued a struggle for supremacy

between the Sultans and the nobles. l

In 1246 Balban succeeded in putting Nasiruddin Mahmud, a younger son of Iltutmish, as Sultan.

Era of Balban (1246-1287) l

Ghiyasuddin Balban, who was also known as Ulugh Khan, served as Naib or regent to Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p He also strengthened his position by marrying his daughter to the Sultan. l

Balban was all powerful in the administration but he had to face the intrigues of his rivals in the royal court. He had overcome all the difficulties. p In 1266 Nasiruddin Mahmud died without issues and Balban ascended the throne. p Balban’s experience as the regent made him to understand the problems of Delhi Sultanate. p He knew that the real threat to the monarchy was from the nobles called the Forty.

He was convinced that only by enhancing the power and authority of the monarchy he could face the problems. p According to Balban the Sultan was God’s shadow on earth and the recipient of divine grace. p Balban introduced rigorous court discipline and new customs such as prostration and kissing

the Sultan’s feet to prove his superiority over the nobles. p He also introduced the Persian festival of Nauroz to impress the nobles and people with his

wealth and power. p He stood forth as the champion of Turkish nobility. l

At the same time he did not share power with other nobles. p Indian Muslims were not given important post in the government. p He appointed spies to monitor the activities of the nobles.

Balban was determined to break the power of the Forty, the Turkish nobles. He spared only the most obedient nobles and eliminated all others by fair or foul means. p Malik Baqbaq, the governor of Badaun, was publicly flogged for his cruelty towards his ser-

vants. p Haybat Khan, the governor of Oudh, was also punished for killing a man who was drunk. p Sher Khan, the governor of Bhatinda was poisoned. l

Instead of expanding his kingdom, Balban paid more attention to the restoration of law and order. p He established a separate military department - diwan-i-arz – and reorganized the army. p The outskirts of Delhi were often plundered by the Mewatis. Balban took severe action against

them and prevented such robberies. Robbers were mercilessly pursued and put to death. As a result, the roads became safe for travel. l

In 1279, Tughril Khan, the governor of Bengal revolted against Balban. It was suppressed and he was beheaded.

In the northwest the Mongols reappeared and Balban sent his son Prince Mahmud against them. But the prince was killed in the battle and it was a moral blow to the Sultan. Balban died in 1287. p He was undoubtedly one of the main architects of the Delhi Sultanate. He enhanced the power

of the monarchy. p However, he could not fully safeguard India from the Mongol invasions. l

When Balban died, one of his grandsons Kaiqubad was made the Sultan of Delhi.

After four years of incompetent rule, Jalaluddin Khalji captured the throne of Delhi in 1290.The Khalji Dynasty (1290-1320)

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l

The advent of the Khalji dynasty marked the zenith of Muslim imperialism in India. p The founder of the Khalji dynasty was Jalaluddin Khalji. He was seventy years old when he

came to power. He was generous and lenient. p Malik Chhajju, nephew of Balban was allowed to remain the governor of Kara. His leniency

was misunderstood as weakness. When Chhajju revolted, it was suppressed but he was pardoned. p When the thugs (robbers) looted the country, they were allowed to go after a severe warning. l

In 1292 when Malik Chhajju revolted for the second time, he was replaced by his son-in-law, Alauddin Khalji. p In 1296 Alauddin Khalji took an expedition to Devagiri and returned to Kara.

During the reception there, Alauddin Khalji treacherously murdered his father-inlaw Jalaluddin Khalji and usurped the throne of Delhi. Alauddin Khalji (1296-1316) l

Alauddin Khalji made enormous gifts to the hostile nobles and Amirs of Delhi to win over them to his side. p Those who still opposed him accession were punished severely.

He framed regulations to control the nobles. p He was convinced that the general prosperity of the nobles, intermarriages between noble

families, inefficient spy-system and drinking liquor were the basic reasons for the rebellions. p Therefore, he passed four ordinances. He confiscated the properties of the nobles. p The intelligence system was reorganized and all the secret activities of the nobles were imme-

diately reported to the Sultan. p The public sale of liquor and drugs was totally stopped. Social gatherings and festivities

without the permission of Sultan were forbidden. l

By such harsh measures his reign was free from rebellions.Reforms of Alauddin Khalji

Alauddin Khalji maintained a large permanent standing army and paid them in cash from the royal treasury. p According the Ferishta, he recruited 4,75,000 cavalrymen.

He introduced the system of dagh (branding of horses) and prepared huliya (descriptive list of soldiers). p In order to ensure maximum efficiency, a strict review of army from time to time was carried

out. l

The introduction of paying salaries in cash to the soldiers led to price regulations popularly called as Market Reforms. p Alauddin Khalji established four separate markets in Delhi, one for grain; another for cloth,

sugar, dried fruits, butter and oil; a third for horses, slaves and cattle; and a fourth for miscellaneous commodities. p Each market was under the control of a high officer called Shahna-i- Mandi. p The supply of grain was ensured by holding stocks in government store-houses. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p Regulations were issued to fix the price of all commodities. l

A separate department called Diwani Riyasat was created under an officer called Naib-i-Riyasat. p Every merchant was registered under the Market department. p There were secret agents called munhiyans who sent reports to the Sultan regarding the

functioning of these markets. p The Sultan also sent slave boys to buy various commodities to check prices.

Violation of regulations was severely punished. p Harsh punishment was given if any shopkeeper charged a higher price, or tried to cheat by

using false weights and measures. p Even during the famine the same price was maintained. We are not sure whether the market

regulations in Delhi were also applied in the provincial capitals and towns. l

Apart from market reforms, Alauddin Khalji took important steps in the land revenue administration. p He was the first Sultan of Delhi who ordered for the measurement of land. p Even the big landlords could not escape from paying land tax.

Land revenue was collected in cash in order to enable the Sultan to pay the soldiers in cash. p His land revenue reforms provided a basis for the future reforms of Sher Shah and Akbar.

Military Campaigns l

Alauddin Khalji sent his army six times against the Mongols. p The first two was successful. But the third Mongol invader Khwaja came up to Delhi but they

were prevented from entering into the capital city. p The next three Mongol invasions were also dealt with severely. Thousands of Mongols were

killed. p The northwestern frontier was fortified and Gazi Malik was appointed to as the Warden of

Marches to protect the frontier. l

The military conquests of Alauddin Khalji include his expedition against Gujarat, Mewar and the Deccan. p He sent Nusrat Khan and Ulugh Khan to capture Gujarat in 1299. The king and his daughter

escaped while the queen was caught and sent to Delhi. p Kafur, an eunuch, was also taken to Delhi and later he was made the Malik Naib – military

commander. l

Then in 1301, Alauddin marched against Ranthampur and after a three month’s siege it fell. The Rajput women committed jauhar or self-immolation.

Alauddin next turned against Chittor. It was the powerful state in Rajasthan. The siege lasted for several months. p In 1303 Alauddin stormed the Chittor fort. Raja Ratan Singh and his soldiers fought valiantly

but submitted. p The Rajput women including Rani Padmini performed jauhar. p This Padmini episode was graphically mentioned in the book Padmavath written by Jayasi.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l

Alauddin Khalji’s greatest achievement was the conquest of Deccan and the far south. p This region was ruled by four important dynasties – Yadavas of Devagiri, Kakatiyas of

Warangal, Hoysalas of Dwarasamudra and the Pandyas of Madurai. p Alauddin sent Malik Kafur against the ruler of Devagiri, Ramachandra Deva, who submitted

and paid rich tributes. p In 1309 Malik Kafur launched his campaign against Warangal. Its ruler Pratabarudra Deva

was defeated and enormous booty was collected from him. p Malik Kafur’s next target was the Hoysala ruler Vira Ballala III. He was defeated and a vast

quantity of booty was seized and sent to Delhi. p Kafur next marched against the Pandyas. Vira Pandya fled the capital Madurai and Kafur seized

enormous wealth from the Pandya kingdom and returned to Delhi. l

Alauddin Khalji died in 1316. Although the Sultan was illiterate, he patronized poets like Amir Khusrau and Amir Hasan. p He also built a famous gateway known as Alai Darwaza and constructed a new capital at Siri.

Mubarak Shah and Khusru Shah were the successors of Alauddin Khalji. p Ghazi Malik, the governor of Dipalpur, killed the Sultan Khusru Shah and ascended the throne

of Delhi under the title of Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq in 1320. The Tughlaq Dynasty (1320-1414) l

The founder of the Tughlaq dynasty was Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq. p Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq sent his son Juna Khan to fight against Warangal. He defeated

Pratabarudra and returned with rich booty. l

Ghiyasuddin laid the foundation for Tughlaqabad near Delhi.

Ulugh Khan was said to have treacherously killed his father and ascended the throne with the title Muhammad bin Tughlaq in 1325.

Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1325-1351) l

He was a very attractive character in the history of medieval India owing to his ambitious schemes and novel experiments. p His enterprises and novel experiments ended in miserable failures because they were all far

ahead of their time. l

He was very tolerant in religious matters.

He maintained diplomatic relations with far off countries like Egypt, China and Iran.

He also introduced many liberal and beneficial reforms. But all his reforms failed.

Contemporary writers like Isami, Barani and Ibn Battutah were unable to give a correct picture about his personality.

But, Muhammad bin Tughlaq was the only Delhi Sultan who had received a comprehensive literary, religious and philosophical education. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Transfer of Capital l

Muhammad bin Tughlaq wanted to make Devagiri his second capital so that he might be able to control South India better.

In 1327 he made extensive preparations for the transfer of royal household and the ulemas and Sufis from Delhi to Devagiri, which was renamed as Daulatabad.

When they resisted the Sultan enforced his orders ruthlessly and caused great hardship of the population of Delhi. The distance between these two places was more than 1500 kilometres.

Many people died during the rigorous journey in the summer. After two years, the Sultan abandoned Daulatabad and asked them to return to Delhi.

Token Currency l

In 1329-30 Muhammad bin Tughlaq introduced a token currency.

There was a shortage of silver through out the world in the fourteenth century. Kublai Khan issued paper money in China.

In the same manner, Muhammad bin Tughlaq issued copper coins at par with the value of the silver tanka coins.

But he was not able to prevent forging the new coins. p The goldsmiths began to forge the token coins on a large scale. Soon the new coins were not

accepted in the markets. l

Finally, Muhammad bin Tughlaq stopped the circulation of token currency and promised to exchange silver coins for the copper coins.

Many people exchanged the new coins but the treasury became empty. According the Barani, the heap of copper coins remained lying on roadside in Tughlaqabad.

Taxation in Doab l

The failure of these two experiments affected the prestige of the Sultan and enormous money was wasted. In order to overcome financial difficulties, Muhammad bin Tughlaq increased the land revenue on the farmers of Doab (land between Ganges and Yamuna rivers).

It was an excessive and arbitrary step on the farmers. A severe famine was also ravaging that region at that time. It had resulted in a serious peasant revolts. They fled from the villages but Muhammad bin Tughlaq took harsh measures to capture and punish them. The revolts were crushed.

Agricultural Reforms l

However, the Sultan realized later that adequate relief measures and the promotion of agriculture were the real solution to the problem.

He launched a scheme by which takkavi loans (loans for cultivation) were given to the farmers to buy seed and to extend cultivation.

A separate department for agriculture, Diwan- i- Kohi was established.

Model farm under the state was created in an area of 64 square miles for which the government spent seventy lakh tankas. This experiment was further continued by Firoz Tughlaq.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Rebellions l

The latter part of Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s reign witnessed a spate of rebellions by the nobles and provincial governors. p The rebellion of Hasan Shah resulted in the establishment of the Madurai Sultanate. p In 1336 the Vijayanagar kingdom was founded. p In 1347 Bhamini kingdom was established.

The governors of Oudh, Multan and Sind revolted against the authority of Muhammad bin Tughlaq. p In Gujarat Taghi rose in revolt against the Sultan who spent nearly three years in chasing him.

Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s health became worse and he died in 1351. p According to Baduani, the Sultan was freed from his people and the people from the Sultan. p According to Barani, Muhammad bin Tughlaq was a mixture of opposites. His reign marked

the beginning of the process of its decline. Firoz Tughlaq (1351-1388) l

After the death of Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq in 1351, Firoz Tughlaq had the unique distinction of being chosen as sultan by the nobles. p He appointed Khan-i-Jahan Maqbal, a Telugu Brahmin convert as wazir (prime minister). p The wazir helped the Sultan in his administration and maintained the prestige of the Sultanate

during this period. Military Campaigns l

After his accession Firoz had to face the problem of preventing the disintegration of the Delhi Sultanate. He tried to safeguard his authority over north India instead of reasserting his authority over the Deccan and south India. p He led two expeditions to Bengal but they were not successful. Bengal became free from the

control of Delhi Sultanate. p Firoz led a campaign against Jajnagar (modern Orissa). He returned with rich booty acquired

from the temples. Hemarched against Nagarkot and made its ruler to pay tributes. l

During this campaign the Sultan collected 1300 Sanskrit manuscripts from the Jawalamukhi temple library and got them translated into Persian. Firoz next marched against Thatta in the Sind region and crushed a rebellion there.

Administrative Reforms l

The reign of Firoz Tughlaq was more notable for his administration. He strictly followed the advice of the ulemas in running the administration.

He pleased the nobles and assured hereditary succession to their properties. Thus the iqta system was not only revived but also it was made hereditary.

As per the Islamic law he levied the taxes. Jiziya was strictly imposed on nonMuslims.4) He was the first Sultan to impose irrigation tax. But at the same time he dug irrigation canals and wells. p The longest canal was about 200 kilometres from Sutlej to Hansi. p

Another canal was between Yamuna and Hissar. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l

There were about 1200 fruit gardens in and around Delhi yielding more revenue.

The special tax on 28 items was abolished by him since they were against the Islamic law.

He also developed royal factories called karkhanas in which thousands of slaves were employed.

About 300 new towns were built during his reign. The famous among them was Firozabad near Red Fort in Delhi, now called Firoz Shah Kotla. p Old monuments like Jama Masjid and Qutb-Minar were also repaired.

A new department called Diwan-i-Khairat was created to take care of orphans and widows. Free hospitals and marriage bureaus for poor Muslims were also established.

Firoz patronized scholars like Barani and Afif. p As he was guided by the ulemas, he was intolerant towards Shia Muslims and Sufis. p He treated Hindus as second grade citizens and imposed Jiziya. p In this respect he was the precursor of Sikandar Lodi and Aurangazeb.

Also he increased the number of slaves by capturing the defeated soldiers and young persons. p In his regime the number of slaves had increased to one lakh eighty thousand.

When Firoz died in 1388 the struggle for power between the Sultan and the nobles started once again. His successors had to face the rebellion of the slaves created by Firoz.

In the following years, the Delhi Sultanate had disintegrated further. Many provinces like Malwa and Gujarat declared their independence. p The invasion of Timur in 1398 had worsened the situation. When Timur entered Delhi there

was no opposition and he sacked Delhi for three days murdering thousands of people and looting enormous wealth.b) He withdrew from India in 1399 and his invasion in fact delivered a death blow to the Tughlaq dynasty. Sayyids (1414-1451) Before his departure from India, Timur appointed Khizr Khan as governor of Multan. l

He captured Delhi and founded the Sayyid dynasty in 1414. He tried to consolidate the Delhi Sultanate but in vain.

He died in 1421 and was succeeded by his son, Mubarak Shah. Muhammad Shah who succeeded him was always busy against conspirators and gradually lost control over his nobles.

Buhlul Khan Lodi dominated everything. Muhammad Shah died in 1445 and was succeeded by his son Alam Shah (1445-1451) the weakest of the Sayyid princes. He handed over the throne to Buhlul Lodi and retired to Badaun.

Lodis (1451-1526) l

The Lodis, who succeeded Sayyids, were Afghans. Buhlul Lodi was the first Afghan ruler while his predecessors were all Turks. He died in 1489 and was succeeded by his son, Sikandar Lodi.

Sikandar Lodi (1489-1517) was the greatest of the three Lodi sovereigns. p He brought the whole of Bihar under his control, many Rajput chiefs were defeated. p He attacked Bengal and forced its ruler to conclude a treaty with him, and extended his empire

from the Punjab to Bihar.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l

He was a good administrator. p Roads were laid and many irrigational facilities were provided for the benefit of the peasantry.

Despite certain laudable qualities, he was a bigot. He destroyed many Hindu temples and imposed many restrictions on the Hindus. Yet, he was one of the great Lodi sultans who made the sultanate strong and powerful.

Sikandar Lodi was succeeded by his eldest son Ibrahim Lodi who was arrogant. p He insulted his nobles openly in court and humiliated them. Those nobles who revolted were

put to death. p His own uncle, Alauddin revolted.c) Daulat Khan Lodi, the governor of the Punjab was insulted

and disaffection between king and courtier became very common. l

Greatly displeased by the arrogance of Ibrahim, Daulat Khan Lodi invited Babur to invade India.

Babur marched against Delhi and defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi in the first battle of Panipat (1526). The Afghan kingdom lasted for only seventy-five years.

INDIA UNDER THE DELHI SULTANATE Administration l

The establishment and expansion of the Delhi Sultanate led to the evolution of a powerful and efficient administrative system. At its zenith the authority of Delhi Sultan had extended as far south as Madurai.

Although the Delhi Sultanate had disintegrated, their administrative system made a powerful impact on the Indian provincial kingdoms and later on the Mughal system of administration.

The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic state with its religion Islam. The Sultans considered themselves as representatives of the Caliph. They included the name of the Caliph in the khutba or prayer and inscribed it on their coins. p Although Balban called himself the shadow of God, he continued to practice of including the

name of Caliph in the khutba and coins. p Iltutmish, Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Firoz Tughlaq obtained mansur or letter of permis-

sion from the Caliph. l

The office of the Sultan was the most important in the administrative system. p He was the ultimate authority for the military, legal and political activities. p There was no clear law of succession during this period. p All the sons had equal claim to the throne. Iltutmish even nominated his daughter in preference

to his sons. p But such nominations or successions were to be accepted by the nobles.

Sometimes ulemas played crucial role in accepting the succession to the throne. p However, the military superiority remained the main factor in matters of succession.

Central Government l

The Sultan was assisted by a number of departments and officials in his administration. The post of Naib was the most powerful one. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p The Naib practically enjoyed all the powers of the Sultan and exercised general control over all

the departments. l

Next to him was the Wazir who was heading the finance department called Diwani Wizarat.

The military department was called Diwan i Arz. It was headed by Ariz-imumalik. p He was responsible for recruiting the soldiers and administering the military department. p He was not the commander-in-chief of the army. The Sultan himself was the commander-in-

chief of the army. p The military department was first set up by Balban and it was further improved by Alauddin

Khalji under whom the strength of the army crossed three lakh soldiers. p Alauddin introduced the system of branding of the horses and payment of salary in cash. p Cavalry was given importance under the Delhi Sultanate. l

Diwani Rasalat was the department of religious affairs. It was headed by chief Sadr. p Grants were made by this department for the construction and maintenance of mosques,

tombs and madrasas. l

The head of the judicial department was the chief Qazi. p Other judges or qazis were appointed in various parts of the Sultanate. p Muslim personal law or sharia was followed in civil matters. p The Hindus were governed by their own personal law and their cases were dispensed by the

village panchayats. p The criminal law was based on the rules and regulations made by the Sultans. l

The department of correspondence was called Diwani Insha. All the correspondence between the ruler and the officials was dealt with by this department.

Local Administration l

The provinces under the Delhi Sultanate were called iqtas. They were initially under the control of the nobles. p But the governors of the provinces were called the muqtis or walis. p They were to maintain law and order and collect the land revenue.

The provinces were divided into shiqs and the next division was pargana. p The shiq was under the control of shiqdar. p The pargana comprising a number of villages was headed by amil. p The village remained the basic unit of the administration. The village headman was known as

muqaddam or chaudhri. p The village accountant was called patwari.

Economy l

After consolidating their position in India, the Delhi Sultans introduced reforms in the land revenue administration.

The lands were classified into three categories:

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p iqta land – lands assigned to officials as iqtas instead of payment for their services. p khalisa land – land under the direct control of the Sultan and the revenues collected were

spent for the maintenance of royal court and royal household. p inam land – land assigned or granted to religious leaders or religious institutions. l

The peasantry paid one third of their produce as land revenue, and sometimes even one half of the produce. p They also paid other taxes and always led a hand-to-mouth living. Frequent famines made

their lives more miserable. p However, Sultans like Muhammad bi Tughlaq and Firoz Tughlaq took efforts to enhance

agricultural production by providing irrigational facilities and by providing takkavi loans. p They also encouraged the farmers to cultivate superior crop like wheat instead of barley. p Firoz encouraged the growth of horticulture. p Muhammad bin Tughlaq created a separate agricultural department, Diwani Kohi. l

During the Sultanate period, the process of urbanization gained momentum. p A number of cities and towns had grown during this period. Lahore, Multan, Broach, Anhilwara,

Laknauti, Daulatabad, Delhi and Jaunpur were important among them. Delhi remained the largest city in the East. p The growth of trade and commerce was described by contemporary writers. India exported a

large number of commodities to the countries on the Persian Gulf and West Asia and also to South East Asian countries. p Overseas trade was under the control of Multanis and Afghan Muslims. p Inland trade was dominated by the Gujarat Marwari merchants and Muslim Bohra merchants. p Construction of roads and their maintenance facilitated for smooth transport and communica-

tion. Particularly the royal roads were kept in good shape. Sarais or rest houses on the highways were maintained for the convenience of the travelers. l

Cotton textile and silk industry flourished in this period. Sericulture was introduced on a large scale which made India less dependent on other countries for the import of raw silk. p Paper industry had grown and there was an extensive use of paper from 14th and 15th centu-

ries. Other crafts like leather-making, metal-crafts and carpet-weaving flourished due to the increasing demand. p The royal karkhanas supplied the goods needed to the Sultan and his household.

They manufactured costly articles made of gold, silver and gold ware. The nobles also aped the life style of Sultans and indulged in luxurious life. They were well paid and accumulated enormous wealth. l

The system of coinage had also developed during the Delhi Sultanate. p Iltutmish issued several types of silver tankas. One silver tanka was divided into 48 jitals

during the Khalji rule and 50 jitals during the Tughlaq rule. p Gold coins or dinars became popular during the reign of Alauddin Khalji after his South

Indian conquests. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p Copper coins were less in number and dateless. p Muhammad bin Tughlaq had not only experimented token currency but also issued several

types of gold and silver coins. They were minted at eight different places. At least twenty five varieties of gold coins were issued by him. Social Life l

There was little change in the structure of the Hindu society during this period. Traditional caste system with the Brahmins on the upper strata of the society was prevalent. The subservient position of women also continued and the practice of sati was widely prevalent.

The seclusion of women and the wearing of purdah became common among the upper class women. The Arabs and Turks brought the purdah system into India and it became widespread among the Hindu women in the upper classes of north India.

During the Sultanate period, the Muslim society remained divided into several ethnic and racial groups. p The Turks, Iranians, Afghans and Indian Muslims developed exclusively and there were no

intermarriages between these groups. p Hindu converts from lower castes were also not given equal respect. p The Muslim nobles occupied high offices and very rarely the Hindu nobles were given high

position in the government. p The Hindus were considered zimmis or protected people for which they were forced to pay a

tax called jiziya. In the beginning jiziya was collected as part of land tax. Firoz Tughlaq separated it from the land revenue and collected jiziya as a separate tax. Sometimes Brahmins were exempted from paying jiziya. Art and Architecture l

The art and architecture of the Delhi Sultanate period was distinct from the Indian style. The Turks introduced arches, domes, lofty towers or minarets and decorations using the Arabic script. They used the skill of the Indian stone cutters. p They also added colour to their buildings by using marbles, red and yellow sand stones.

In the beginning, they converted temples and other structures demolished into mosques. For example, the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque near Qutub Minar in Delhi was built by using the materials obtained from destroying many Hindu and Jain temples.

But later, they began to construct new structures. The most magnificent building of the 13th century was the Qutub Minar which was founded by Aibek and completed by Iltutmish. This seventy one metre tower was dedicated to the Sufi saint Qutbuddin Bakthiyar Kaki. p The balconies of this tower were projected from the main building and it was the proof of the

architectural skills of that period. p Later, Alauddin Khalji added an entrance to the Qutub Minar called Alai Darwaza.

The dome of this arch was built on scientific lines. l

The buildings of the Tughlaq period were constructed by combining arch and dome. They also used the cheaper and easily available grey colour stones. The palace complex called Tughlaqabad

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks with its beautiful lake was built during the period of Ghyasuddin Tughlaq.a) Muhammad bin Tughlaq built the tomb of Ghyasuddin on a high platform. The Kotla fort at Delhi was the creation of Firoz Tughlaq. l

The Lodi garden in Delhi was the example for the architecture of the Lodis.

Music l

New musical instruments such as sarangi and rabab were introduced during this period.

Amir Khusrau introduced many new ragas such as ghora and sanam. He evolved a new style of light music known as qwalis by blending the Hindu and Iranian systems. p The invention of sitar was also attributed to him.

The Indian classical work Ragadarpan was translated into Persian during the reign of Firoz Tughlaq.

Pir Bhodan, a Sufi saint was one of the great musicians of this period.

Raja Man Singh of Gwalior was a great lover of music. He encouraged the composition of a great musical work called Man Kautuhal.

Literature l

The Delhi Sultans patronized learning and literature. Many of them had great love for Arabic and Persian literature. Learned men came from Persia and Persian language got encouragement from the rulers. Besides theology and poetry, the writing of history was also encouraged.

Some of the Sultans had their own court historians. The most famous historians of this period were Hasan Nizami, Minhaj-us-Siraj, Ziauddin Barani, and Shams-Siraj Afif. Barani’s Tarikhi- Firoz Shahi contains the history of Tughlaq dynasty. Minhajus-Siraj wrote Tabaqat-i- Nasari, a general history of Muslim dynasties up to 1260.

Amir Khusrau (1252-1325) was the famous Persian writer of this period. He wrote a number of poems. He experimented with several poetical forms and created a new style of Persian poetry called Sabaqi- Hind or the Indian style. He also wrote some Hindi verses. p Amir Khusrau’s Khazain-ul-Futuh speaks about Alauddin’s conquests. p His famous work Tughlaq Nama deals with the rise of Ghyiasuddin Tughlaq.

Sanskrit and Persian functioned as link languages in the Delhi Sultanate. p Zia Nakshabi was the first to translate Sanskrit stories into Persian. p The book Tutu Nama or Book of the Parrot became popular and translated into Turkish and

later into many European languages. l

The famous Rajatarangini written by Kalhana belonged to the period of Zainul-Abidin, the ruler of Kashmir.

In Arabic, Alberuni’s Kitab-ul-Hind is the most famous work.

Regional languages also developed during this period. p Chand Baradi was the famous Hindi poet of this period. p Bengali literature had also developed and Nusrat Shah patronized the translation of

Mahabaratha into Bengali. p The Bakthi cult led to development of Gujarati and Marathi languages. p The Vijayanagar Empire patronized Telugu and Kannada literature. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks BHAKTI AND SUFI MOVEMENT Brahminism vs Buddhism/Jainism vs Devotional Paths (Bhaktism, Sufism, and Sikhism) l

Brahminism based on caste-system was prominent during the Medieval period. But there was opposition to the same as well.

Many people were uneasy with such ideas and turned to the teachings of the Buddha or the Jainas according to which it was possible to overcome social differences and break the cycle of rebirth through personal effort.

Others felt attracted to the idea of a Supreme God who could deliver humans from such bondage if approached with devotion (or bhakti). This idea, advocated in the Bhagavadgita, grew in popularity in the early centuries of the Common Era.

Intense devotion or love of God is the legacy of various kinds of bhakti and Sufi movements that have evolved since the eighth century. The idea of bhakti became so popular that even Buddhists and Jainas adopted these beliefs.

Bhakti cult Bhakti was accepted as a means to attain moksha along with jnana and karma. The development of this cult took place in South India when the Nayanars and Alwars moved against the austerities propagated by the Buddhist and Jain schools and professed that ultimate devotion to god was the means to salvation. People were no longer satisfied with a religion which emphasized only ceremonies. The cult is the combined result of the teachings of various saints, through the then times. Each of them had their own views, but the ultimate basis of the cult was a general awakening against useless religious practices and unnecessary strictness. The cult also emerged as a strong platform against casteism. Some of the important leaders of the movement are: l Namadeva and Ramananda (Maharashtra and Allahabad) – Both of them taught the concept of bhakti to all the four varnas and disregarded the ban on people of different castes cooking together and sharing meals. l Sankara and Ramanuja – The propounders of Advaita (non-duality) and vishishta adw aitha (qualified non-duality) respectively. They believed god to be nirguna parabrahma and satguna parabrahma respectively. l Vallabhacharya – propounder of shuddha adwaitha or pure non-duality. l Chaitanya (Bengal) – relied on the use of music, dance and bhajans to get in touch with God. ‘love’ was the watchword of the chaitanya cult. l Kabir – was a disciple of Ramananda, and was raised by a Muslim weaver. He stood for doing away with all the unnecessary customs and rituals in both religions and bringing union between these religions. l Guru Nanak. l Nimbakacharya – founder of the Radha-Krishna cult. He expressed this relation to substantiate the importance of marriage. It was also used as an example of God’s love to the people.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Nayanars and Alvars l In South India 7th to 9th centuries saw the emergence of new religious movements, led by the Nayanars (saints devoted to Shiva) and Alvars (saints devoted to Vishnu) who came from all castes including those considered “untouchable” like the Pulaiyar and the Panars. l They were sharply critical of the Buddhists and Jainas. l They drew upon the ideals of love and heroism as found in the Sangam literature (Tamil literature). l Between 10th and 12th centuries the Chola and Pandya kings built elaborate temples around many of the shrines visited by the saint-poets, strengthening the links between the bhakti tradition and temple worship. Philosophy and Bhakti l Shankara, from Kerala in the 8th century, salvation .was an advocate of Advaita or the doctrine of the oneness of the individual soul and the Supreme God which is the Ultimate Reality. l He taught that Brahman, the only or Ultimate Reality, was formless and without any attributes. l He considered the world around us to be an illusion or maya, and preached renunciation of the world and adoption of the path of knowledge to understand the true nature of Brahman salvation. l Ramanuja, from Tamil Nadu in the 11th century, propounded the doctrine of Vishishtadvaita or qualified oneness in that the soul, even when united with the Supreme God, remained distinct. l Ramanuja’s doctrine inspired the new strand of bhakti which developed in north India subsequently. Basavanna’s Virashaivism l This movement began in Karnataka in the 12th century which argued for the equality of all human beings and against Brahmanical ideas about caste and the treatment of women. l They were also against all forms of ritual and idol worship. Saints of Maharashtra l The most important among them were Janeshwar, Namdev, Eknath and Tukaram as well as women like Sakkubai and the family of Chokhamela, who belonged to the “untouchable” Mahar caste. l This regional tradition of bhakti focused on the Vitthala (a form of Vishnu) temple in Pandharpur, as well as on the notion of a personal god residing in the hearts of all people. l These saint-poets rejected all forms of ritualism, outward display of piety and social differences based on birth. l It is regarded as a humanist idea, as they insisted that bhakti lay in sharing others’ pain. Nathpanthis, Siddhas, and Yogis l Criticised the ritual and other aspects of conventional religion and the social order, using simple, logical arguments. l They advocated renunciation of the world. l To them, the path to salvation lay in meditation on the formless Ultimate Reality and the realization of oneness with it. l To achieve this they advocated intense training of the mind and body through practices like yogasanas, breathing exercises and meditation. l These groups became particularly popular among “low” castes. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Saint Kabir l Probably lived in the 15th-16th centuries. l We get to know of his ideas from a vast collection of verses called sakhis and pads said to have been composed by him and sung by wandering bhajan singers. l Some of these were later collected and preserved in the Guru Granth Sahib, Panch Vani, and Bijak. l Kabir’s teachings were based on a complete, rejection of the major religious traditions and caste systems. He believed in a formless Supreme God and preached that the only path to salvation was through bhakti or devotion. l The language of his poetry was simple which could even be understood by ordinary people. l He sometimes used cryptic language, which was difficult to follow. l He drew his followers from among both Hindus and Muslims. Sufi Movement and Islam The word Sufi means wool. The preachers from Arabia wore wool to protect themselves from dust winds. The Sufi movement is believed to have begun in Persian countries against the highly puritan Islamic culture. Later, it spread into India and adopted various things like yogic postures, dance and music into it, and turned itself into a pantheistic movement. The Sufi orders were of two types – ba-shara and be-shara, where shara stood for the Islamic law. The former obeyed the laws while the latter was more liberal. The saints organized themselves into twelve silsilas or orders. The important among them were the Chisti and Suhrawardi silsilas, both of which belonged to the ba-shara order. The Chisti Silsila was begun by Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti who came to India around 1192. None of his records remain, and he is widely known through the writings of his disciples and followers. The most famous of the Chisti saints were Nizamuddin Auliya and Naziruddin chirag-i-Delhi. They mingled freely with people of low classes, even Hindus. The chistis didn’t want anything to do with the administration or money. They led simple austere lives. This was just the opposite in the case of the suhrawardi saints who were rich, and often held positions in the government. Bahauddin Zachariah suhrawardi is a famous saint from this silsila. There were two streams in general – wahdat-ul-wujud (doctrine of the unity of god) and wahdat-ulshuhud (philosophy of apprenticism). The latter was found only in the nakshbandi silsila, which was a highly puritan Islamic silsila. Things to note: l Sufis were Muslim mystics and who composed poems. l They adopted many ideas of each other[religions]. l They rejected outward religiosity and emphasized love and devotion to God and compassion towards all fellow human beings. l Silsilas, a genealogy of Sufi teachers, each following a slightly different method (tariqa) of instruction and ritual practice.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l Islam propagated strict monotheism or submission to one God. Muslim scholars developed a holy law called Shariat. l The Sufis often rejected the elaborate rituals and codes of behaviour demanded by Muslim religious scholars. Baba Guru Nanak (1469-1539) and Sikhism l Established a centre at Kartarpur named Dera Baba Nanak on the river Ravi. l The sacred space thus created by Guru Nanak was known as dharmsal. It is now known as Gurdwar. l Before his death Guru appointed Lehna also known as Guru Angad as his successor. l Guru Angad compiled the compositions of Guru Nanak, to which he added his own in a new script known as Gurmukhi. l The three successors of Guru Angad also wrote under the name of “Nanak” and all of their compositions were compiled by Guru Arjan [5th Guru who was executed by Jehangir]in 1604. l The compilation was added with the writings of other figures like Shaikh Farid, Sant Kabir, Bhagat Namdev and Guru Tegh Bahadur. l In 1706 this compilation was authenticated by Guru Gobind Singh. It is now known as Guru Granth Sahib. l Due to Guru Nanak’s insistence that all the followers should adopt productive and useful occupations had received wider support during 16th century and followers increased, henceforth. l By the beginning of the 17th century, the town of Ramdaspur (Amritsar) had developed around the central Gurdwara called Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple). It was virtually self-governing and also referred as ‘a state within the state’ community. This fumed Mughal emperor Jahangir which led to the execution of Guru Arjan in 1606. l The Sikh movement began to get politicized in the 17th century, a development which culminated in the institution of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 and this entity is called as Khalsa Panth. l Guru Nanak’s idea of equality had social and political implications because his idea of liberation was not that of a state of inert bliss but rather the pursuit of active life with a strong sense of social commitment. Conclusion: The coming of the Turks to the Indian sub-continent led to a revamp of culture, religion, architecture and almost all fields of life. This was due to the two strongly established religious views that confluence here. The strong Islamic views of the Turks combined with the established Hinduistic culture already prevalent in India. Both Sufism and Bhakti cult were out-of-the-box thoughts on religion. They were mainly against the common religious views, and most importantly, they both were strongly against the caste system.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks VIJAYANAGAR AND BAHMANI KINGDOMS VIJAYANAGAR EMPIRE Sources l The history of Vijayanagar Empire constitutes an important chapter in the history of India. Four dynasties – Sangama, Saluva, Tuluva and Aravidu – ruled Vijayanagar from A.D. 1336 to 1672. l The sources for the study of Vijayanagar are varied such as literary, archaeological and numismatics. p Krishnadevaraya’s Amukthamalyada, Gangadevi’s Maduravijayam and Allasani Peddanna’s Manucharitam are some of the indigenous literature of this period. l Many foreign travelers visited the Vijayanagar Empire and their accounts are also valuable. The Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta, Venetian traveler Nicolo de Conti, Persian traveler Abdur Razzak and the Portuguese traveler Domingo Paes were among them who left valuable accounts on the socio-economic conditions of the Vijayanagar Empire. l The copper plate inscriptions such as the Srirangam copper plates of Devaraya II provide the genealogy and achievements of Vijayanagar rulers. l The Hampi ruins and other monuments of Vijayanagar provide information on the cultural contributions of the Vijayanagar rulers. l The numerous coins issued by the Vijayanagar rulers contain figures and legends explaining their tittles and achievements. Political History l Vijayanagar was founded in 1336 by Harihara and Bukka of the Sangama dynasty. They were originally served under the Kakatiya rulers of Warangal. l Then they went to Kampili where they were imprisoned and converted to Islam. Later, they returned to the Hindu fold at the initiative of the saint Vidyaranya. p They also proclaimed their independence and founded a new city on the south bank of the Tungabhadra river. It was called Vijayanagar meaning city of victory. l The decline of the Hoysala kingdom enabled Harihara and Bukka to expand their newly founded kingdom. p By 1346, they brought the whole of the Hoysala kingdom under their control. l The struggle between Vijayanagar and Sultanate of Madurai lasted for about four decades. p Kumarakampana’s expedition to Madurai was described in the Maduravijayam. p He destroyed the Madurai Sultans and as a result, the Vijayanagar Empire comprised the whole of South India up to Rameswaram. l The conflict between Vijayanagar Empire and the Bahmani kingdom lasted for many years. p The dispute over Raichur Doab, the region between the rivers Krishna and Tungabhadra and also over the fertile areas of Krishna-Godavari delta led to this long-drawn conflict. l The greatest ruler of the Sangama dynasty was Deva Raya II. But he could not win any clear victory over the Bahmani Sultans. After his death, Sangama dynasty became weak. l The next dynasty, Saluva dynasty founded by Saluva Narasimha reigned only for a brief period (1486-1509).

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Krishna Deva Raya (1509 – 1530) l The Tuluva dynasty was founded by Vira Narasimha. The greatest of the Vijayanagar rulers, Krishna Deva Raya belonged to the Tuluva dynasty. l He possessed great military ability. His imposing personality was accompanied by high intellectual quality. p His first task was to check the invading Bahmani forces. By that time the Bahmani kingdom was replaced by Deccan Sultanates. p The Muslim armies were decisively defeated in the battle of Diwani by Krishna Deva Raya. p Then he invaded Raichur Doab which had resulted in the confrontation with the Sultan of Bijapur, Ismail Adil Shah. But, Krishna Deva Raya defeated him and captured the city of Raichur in 1520. p From there he marched on Bidar and captured it. l Krishna Deva Raya’s Orissa campaign was also successful. p He defeated the Gajapathi ruler Prataparudra and conquered the whole of Telangana. l He maintained friendly relations with the Portuguese. Albuquerque sent his ambassadors to Krishna Deva Raya. l Though a Vaishnavaite, he respected all religions. He was a great patron of literature and art and he was known as Andhra Bhoja. p Eight eminent scholars known as Ashtadiggajas were at his royal court. p Allasani Peddanna was the greatest and he was called Andhrakavita Pitamaga. His important works include Manucharitam and Harikathasaram. p Pingali Suranna and Tenali Ramakrishna were other important scholars. l Krishna Deva Raya himself authored a Telugu work, Amukthamalyadha and Sanskrit works, Jambavati Kalyanam and Ushaparinayam. l He repaired most of the temples of south India. He also built the famous Vittalaswamy and Hazara Ramaswamy temples at Vijayanagar. p He also built a new city called Nagalapuram in memory of his queen Nagaladevi. Besides, he built a large number of Rayagopurams. l After his death, Achutadeva and Venkata succeeded the throne. During the reign of Rama Raya, the combined forces of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golkonda and Bidar defeated him at the Battle of Talaikotta in 1565. This battle is also known as Raksasa Thangadi. p Rama Raya was imprisoned and executed. The city of Vijayanagar was destroyed. l This battle was generally considered to mark the end of the Vijayanagar Empire. However, the Vijayanagar kingdom existed under the Aravidu dynasty for about another century. Thirumala, Sri Ranga and Venkata II were the important rulers of this dynasty. p The last ruler of Vijayanagar kingdom was Sri Ranga III. Administration l The administration under the Vijayanagar Empire was well organized. The king enjoyed absolute authority in executive, judicial and legislative matters. He was the highest court of appeal. p The succession to the throne was on the principle of hereditary. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p Sometimes usurpation to the throne took place as Saluva Narasimha came to power by ending the Sangama dynasty. l The king was assisted by a council of ministers in his day to day administration. l The Empire was divided into different administrative units called Mandalams, Nadus, sthalas and finally into gramas. p The governor of Mandalam was called Mandaleswara or Nayak. p Vijayanagar rulers gave full powers to the local authorities in the administration. l Besides land revenue, tributes and gifts from vassals and feudal chiefs, customs collected at the ports, taxes on various professions were other sources of income to the government. p Land revenue was fixed generally one sixth of the produce. The expenditure of the government includes personal expenses of king and the charities given by him and military expenditure. p In the matter of justice, harsh punishments such as mutilation and throwing to elephants were followed. l The Vijayanagar army was well-organized and efficient. It consisted of the cavalry, infantry, artillery and elephants. High-breed horses were procured from foreign traders. p The top-grade officers of the army were known as Nayaks or Poligars. p They were granted land in lieu of their services. These lands were called amaram. p Soldiers were usually paid in cash. Social Life l Allasani Peddanna in his Manucharitam refers the existence of four castes – Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras - in the Vijayanagar society. l Foreign travelers left vivid accounts on the splendour of buildings and luxurious social life in the city of Vijayanagar. Silk and cotton clothes were mainly used for dress. Perfumes, flowers and ornaments were used by the people. p Paes mentions of the beautiful houses of the rich and the large number of their household servants. p Nicolo Conti refers to the prevalence of slavery. Dancing, music, wrestling, gambling and cock-fighting were some of the amusements. l The Sangama rulers were chiefly Saivaites and Virupaksha was their family deity. But other dynasties were Vaishnavites. p Srivaishnavism of Ramanuja was very popular. l But all kings were tolerant towards other religions. p Borbosa referred to the religious freedom enjoyed by everyone. Muslims were employed in the administration and they were freely allowed to build mosques and worship. p A large number of temples were built during this period and numerous festivals were celebrated. The Epics and the Puranas were popular among the masses. l The position of women had not improved. However, some of them were learned. p Gangadevi, wife of Kumarakampana authored the famous work Maduravijayam. Hannamma and Thirumalamma were famous poets of this period.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p According to Nuniz, a large number of women were employed in royal palaces as dancers, domestic servants and palanquin bearers. The attachment of dancing girls to temples was in practice. p Paes refers to the flourishing devadasi system. Polygamy was prevalent among the royal families. p Sati was honoured and Nuniz gives a description of it. Economic Condition l According to the accounts of the foreign travelers, the Vijayanagar Empire was one of the wealthiest parts of the world at that time. p Agriculture continued to be the chief occupation of the people. p The Vijayanagar rulers provided a stimulus to its further growth by providing irrigation facilities. New tanks were built and dams were constructed across the rivers like Tunghabadra. p Nuniz refers to the excavation of canals. l There were numerous industries and they were organized into guilds. p Metal workers and other craftsmen flourished during this period. p Diamond mines were located in Kurnool and Anantapur district. l Vijayanagar was also a great centre of trade. p The chief gold coin was the varaha but weights and measures varied from place to place. p Inland, coastal and overseas trade led to the general prosperity.c) There were a number of seaports on the Malabar coast, the chief being Cannanore. p Commercial contacts with Arabia, Persia, South Africa and Portugal on the west and with Burma, Malay peninsula and China on the east flourished. p The chief items of exports were cotton and silk clothes, spices, rice, iron, saltpeter and sugar. p The imports consisted of horses, pearls, copper, coral, mercury, China silk and velvet clothes. p The art of shipbuilding had developed. Cultural Contributions l The temple building activity further gained momentum during the Vijayanagar rule. p The chief characteristics of the Vijayanagara architecture were the construction of tall Raya Gopurams or gateways and the Kalyanamandapam with carved pillars in the temple premises. p The sculptures on the pillars were carved with distinctive features. The horse was the most common animal found in these pillars. p Large mandapams contain one hundred pillars as well as one thousand pillars in some big temples. These mandapams were used for seating the deity on festival occasions. p Also, many Amman shrines were added to the already existing temples during this period. l The most important temples of the Vijayanagar style were found in the Hampi ruins or the city of Vijayanagar. p Vittalaswamy and Hazara Ramaswamy temples were the best examples of this style. p The Varadharaja and Ekamparanatha temples at Kanchipuram stand as examples for the magnificence of the Vijayanagara style of temple architecture. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p The Raya Gopurams at Thiruvannamalai and Chidambaram speak the glorious epoch of Vijayanagar. They were continued by the Nayak rulers in the later period. l The metal images of Krishna Deva Raya and his queens at Tirupati are examples for casting of metal images. l Music and dancing were also patronized by the rulers of Vijayanagar.5) Different languages such as Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil flourished in the regions. p There was a great development in Sanskrit and Telugu literature. p The peak of literary achievement was reached during the reign of Krishna Deva Raya. He himself was a scholar in Sanskrit and Telugu. His famous court poet Allasani Peddanna was distinguished in Telugu literature. Thus the cultural contributions of the Vijayanagar rulers were many-sided and remarkable. Bahmani Kingdom l The founder of the Bahmani kingdom was Alauddin Bahman Shah also known as Hasan Gangu in 1347. Its capital was Gulbarga. l There were a total of fourteen Sultans ruling over this kingdom. Among them, Alauddin Bahman Shah, Muhammad Shah I and Firoz Shah were important. l Ahmad Wali Shah shifted the capital from Gulbarga to Bidar. l The power of the Bahmani kingdom reached its peak under the rule of Muhammad Shah III. It extended from the Arabian sea to the Bay of Bengal. On the west it extended from Goat to Bombay. On the east, it extended from Kakinada to the mouth of the river Krishna. p The success of Muhammad Shah was due to the advice and services of his minister Mahmud Gawan. Mahmud Gawan l The Bahmani kingdom reached its peak under the guidance of Mahmud Gawan. He was a Persian merchant. He came to India at the age of forty two and joined the services of Bahmani kingdom. Slowly he became the chief minister due to his personal qualities. He remained loyal to the kingdom. l He lived a simple life and was magnanimous. He was also a learned person. He possessed a great knowledge of mathematics. He made endowments to build a college at Bidar which was built in the Persian style of architecture. l He was also a military genius. He waged successful wars against Vijayanagar, Orissa and the sea pirates on the Arabian sea. His conquests include Konkan, Goa and Krishna-Godavari delta. Thus he expanded the Bahmani Empire through his conquests. l His administrative reforms were also important. They were aimed to increase the control of Sultan over the nobles and provinces. p Royal officers were appointed in each province for this purpose. Most of the forts were under the control of these officers. p Allowances were reduced to the nobles who shirked their responsibility.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks This was disliked by the nobles. So, the Deccani nobles organised a plot against Gawan. They induced the Sultan to punish him with death sentence. After the execution of Gawan, the Bahmani kingdom began to decline. l Muhammad Shah was succeeded by weak Sultans. During this period the provincial governors declared their independence. l By the year 1526, the Bahmani kingdom had disintegrated into five independent sultanates. p They were Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Berar, Golkonda and Bidar and known as Deccan Sultanates.

THE MUGHAL EMPIRE Babur (1526-1530) l Babur was the founder of the Mughal Empire in India. His original name was Zahiruddin Muhammad. He was related to Timur from his father’s side and to Chengiz Khan through his mother. l Babur succeeded his father Umar Shaikh Mirza as the ruler of Farghana. But he was soon defeated by his distant relative and as a result lost his kingdom. l He became a wanderer for sometime till he captured Kabul from one of his uncles. Then, Babur took interest in conquering India and launched four expeditions between 1519 and 1523. Military Conquests l On the eve of Babur’s invasion of India, there were five prominent Muslim rulers – the Sultans of Delhi, Gujarat, Malwa, Bengal and the Deccan – and two prominent Hindu rulers – Rana Sangha of Mewar and the Vijayanagar Empire. l Once again by the end of 1525, Babur started from Kabul to conquer India. He occupied Lahore easily by defeating its governor, Daulat Khan Lodi. l Then he proceeded against Delhi where Ibrahim Lodi was the Sultan. On 21st April 1526 the first Battle of Panipat took place between Babur and Ibrahim Lodi, who was killed in the battle. Babur’s success was due his cavalry and artillery. l Babur occupied Delhi and sent his son Humayun to seize Agra. Babur proclaimed himself as “Emperor of Hindustan”. l His subsequent victories over Rana Sangha and the Afghans secured his position as the ruler of India. Rana Sangha of Mewar was a great Rajput warrior. He marched against Babur and in the Battle of Khanua (near Agra) held in 1527 Babur won a decisive victory over him. Babur assumed the title Ghazi. l In 1528, Babur captured Chanderi from another Rajput ruler Medini Rai. l In the next year, Babur defeated the Afghans in the Battle of Gogra in Bihar. l By these victories, Babur consolidated his power in India. Babur died at Agra in 1530 at the age of forty seven. Estimate of Babur l Babur was a great statesman and a man of solid achievements. He was also a great scholar in Arabic and Persian languages. Turki was his mother tongue. l He wrote his memoirs, Tuzuk-i-Baburi in Turkish language. It provides a vivid account of India. He frankly confesses his own failures without suppressing any facts. l He was also a naturalist and described the flora and fauna of India. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Humayun (1530-1540) l Humayun was the eldest son of Babur. Humayun means “fortune” but he remained the most unfortunate ruler of the Mughal Empire. l Humayun had three brothers, Kamran, Askari and Hindal. Humayun divided the empire among his brothers but this proved to be a great blunder on his part. Kamran was given Kabul and Kandahar. Sambhal and Alwar were given to Askari and Hindal. l

When Humayun was busy with fighting the Afghans in the east, he got the news that Bahadur Shah of Gujarat was advancing towards Delhi. Therefore, he hastily concluded a treaty with the Afghan leader Sher Khan (later Sher Shah) and proceeded towards Gujarat.

l Humayun captured Gujarat from Bahadur Shah and appointed Askari as its governor. But soon Bahadur Shah recovered Gujarat from Askari who fled from there. l In the meantime Sher Khan became powerful in the east. Humayun marched against him and in the Battle of Chausa, held in 1539, Sher Khan destroyed the Mughal army and Humayun escaped from there. l Humayun reached Agra to negotiate with his brothers. But as they were not cooperative, Humayun was forced to fight with Sher Khan alone in the Battle of Bilgram in 1540. This battle was also known as Battle of Kanauj. Humayun was thoroughly defeated by Sher Khan. l After losing his kingdom, Humayun became an exile for the next fifteen years. Sur dynasty Interregnum (1540-1555) l The founder of the Sur dynasty was Sher Shah, whose original name was Farid. He was the son of Hasan Khan, a jagirdar of Sasaram in Bihar. Later, Farid served under the Afghan ruler of Bihar, who gave him the title Sher Khan for his bravery.

Sher Shah Sur (1540-1545) l Sher Shah waged extensive wars with the Rajputs and expanded his empire. l His conquests include Punjab, Malwa, Sind, Multan and Bundelkhand. l His empire consisted of the whole of North India except Assam, Nepal, Kashmir and Gujarat. Sher Shah’s Administration Although his rule lasted for five years, he organized a brilliant administrative system. The central government consisted of several departments. The king was assisted by four important ministers: 1. Diwan –i- Wizarat – also called as Wazir - in charge of Revenue and Finance. 2. Diwan-i-Ariz – in charge of Army. 3. Diwan-i-Rasalat- Foreign Minister. 4. Diwan-i-Insha- Minister for Communications. l Sher Shah’s empire was divided into forty seven sarkars. Chief Shiqdar (law and order) and Chief Munsif (judge) were the two officers in charge of the administration in each sarkar. l Each sarkar was divided into several parganas. Shiqdar (military officer), Amin (land revenue), Fotedar (treasurer), Karkuns (accountants) were in charge of the administration of each pargana. l There were also many administrative units called iqtas.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l The land revenue administration was well organized under Sher Shah. p Land survey was carefully done. p All cultivable lands were classified into three classes – good, middle and bad. p The state’s share was one third of the average produce and it was paid in cash or crop. p His revenue reforms increased the revenue of the state. l Sher Shah introduced new silver coins called “Dam” and they were in circulation till 1835.6) Sher Shah had also improved the communications by laying four important highways. They were: 1. Sonargaon to Sind 2. Agra to Burhanpur 3. Jodhpur to Chittor and 4. Lahore to Multan. p Rest houses were built on the highways for the convenience of the travelers. l Police was efficiently reorganized and crime was less during his regime. l The military administration was also efficiently reorganized and Sher Shah borrowed many ideas like the branding of horses from Alauddin Khalji. Estimate of Sher Shah l Sher Shah remained a pious Muslim and generally tolerant towards other religions. He employed Hindus in important offices. l He was also a patron of art and architecture. He built a new city on the banks of the river Yamuna near Delhi. Now the old fort called Purana Qila and its mosque is alone surviving. He also built a Mausoleum at Sasaram, which is considered as one of the master pieces of Indian architecture. l Sher Shah also patronized the learned men. Malik Muhammad Jayasi wrote the famous Hindi work Padmavat during his reign. After Sher Shah’s death in 1545 his successors ruled till 1555 when Humayun reconquered India. Humayun (1555-1556) l When Humayun left India in 1540, he married Hamida Banu Begum on his way to Sind. When they stayed in Amarkot, a Hindu kingdom ruled by Rana Prasad, Akbar was born in 1542. l Humayun then proceeded to Iran and sought help from its ruler. He later defeated his brothers, Kamran and Askari. In the meantime the Sur dynasty in India was declining rapidly. l In 1555, Humayun defeated the Afghans and recovered the Mughal throne. After six months, he died in 1556 due to his fall from the staircase of his library. l Although Humayun was not a good General and warrior, he was kind and generous. He was also learned and a student of mathematics, astronomy and astrology. He also loved painting and wrote poetry in Persian language. Akbar (1556-1605) l Akbar was one of the greatest monarchs of India. He succeeded the throne after his father Humayun’s death. But his position was dangerous because Delhi was seized by the Afghans. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l Their commander-in-Chief, Hemu, was in charge of it. In the second Battle of Panipat in 1556, Hemu was almost on the point of victory. But an arrow pierced his eye and he became unconscious. His army fled and the fortune favoured Akbar. The Mughal victory was decisive. l During the first five years of Akbar’s reign, Bairam Khan acted as his regent. He consolidated the Mughal empire. After five years he was removed by Akbar due to court intrigues and sent to Mecca. But on his way Bairam was killed by an Afghan. l Akbar’s military conquests were extensive. He conquered northern India from Agra to Gujarat and then from Agra to Bengal. He strengthened the northwest frontier. Later, he went to the Deccan. Relations with Rajputs l The Rajput policy of Akbar was notable. He married the Rajput princess, the daughter of Raja Bharamal. It was a turning point in the history of Mughals. Rajputs served the Mughals for four generations. p Many of them rose to the positions of military generals. Raja Bhagawan Das and Raja Man Singh were given senior positions in the administration by Akbar. One by one, all Rajput states submitted to Akbar. l But the Ranas of Mewar continued to defy despite several defeats. p In the Battle of Haldighati, Rana Pratap Singh was severely defeated by the Mughal army led by Man Singh in 1576. p Following the defeat of Mewar, most of the leading Rajput rulers had accepted Akbar’s suzerainty. l Akbar’s Rajput policy was combined with a broad religious toleration. He abolished the pilgrim tax and later the jiziya. p The Rajput policy of Akbar proved to be beneficial to the Mughal state as well as to the Rajputs. The alliance secured to the Mughals the services of the bravest warriors. p On the other hand it ensured peace in Rajasthan and a number of Rajputs who joined the Mughal service rose to important positions. Religious Policy l Akbar rose to fame in the pages of history due to his religious policy. Various factors were responsible for his religious ideas. p The most important among them were his early contacts with the sufi saints, the teachings of his tutor Abdul Latif, his marriage with Rajput women, his association with intellectual giants like Shaikh Mubarak and his two illustrious sons – Abul Faizi and Abul Fazl – and his ambition to establish an empire in Hindustan. l In the beginning of his life, Akbar was a pious Muslim. Soon after marrying Jodh Bai of Amber, he abolished the pilgrim tax and in 1562, he abolished jiziya. He allowed his Hindu wives to worship their own gods. l Later, he became a skeptical Muslim. In 1575, he ordered for the construction of Ibadat Khana (House of worship) at his new capital Fatepur Sikri. Akbar invited learned scholars from all religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism. He disliked the interference of the Muslim Ulemas in political matters.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l In 1579, he issued the “Infallibility Decree” by which he asserted his religious powers. l In 1582, he promulgated a new religion called Din Ilahi or Divine Faith. It believes in one God. p It contained good points of all religions. Its basis was rational. It upholds no dogma. p It was aimed at bridging the gulf that separated different religions. However, his new faith proved to be a failure. It fizzled out after his death. p Even during his life time, it had only fifteen followers including Birbal. p Akbar did not compel anyone to his new faith. Land Revenue Administration l Akbar made some experiments in the land revenue administration with the help of Raja Todar Mal. l The land revenue system of Akbar was called Zabti or Bandobast system. It was further improved by Raja Todar Mal. It was known as Dahsala System which was completed in 1580. By this system, Todar Mal introduced a uniform system of land measurement. l The revenue was fixed on the average yield of land assessed on the basis of past ten years. l The land was also divided into four categories – Polaj (cultivated every year), Parauti (once in two years), Chachar (once in three or four years) and Banjar (once in five or more years). l Payment of revenue was made generally in cash. Mansabdari System l Akbar introduced the Mansabdari system in his administration. Under this system every officer was assigned a rank (mansab). The lowest rank was 10 and the highest was 5000 for the nobles. Princes of royal blood received even higher ranks. l The ranks were divided into two – zat and sawar. Zat means personal and it fixed the personal status of a person. p Sawar rank indicated the number of cavalrymen of a person who was required to maintain. Every sawar had to maintain at least two horses. l The mansab rank was not hereditary. All appointments and promotions as well as dismissals were directly made by the emperor. Jahangir (1605-1627) l When Akbar died, Prince Salim succeeded with the title Jahangir (Conqueror of World) in 1605. l Jahangir’s rule witnessed a spate of rebellions. His son Khusrau revolted but was defeated and imprisoned. One of his supporters, Guru Arjun, the fifth Sikh Guru, was beheaded. Nur Jahan l In 1611, Jahangir married Mehrunnisa who was known as Nur Jahan (Light of World). l Her father Itimaduddauala was a respectable person. He was given the post of chief diwan. Other members of her family also benefited from this alliance. l Nur Jahan’s elder brother Asaf Khan was appointed as Khan-i-Saman, a post reserved for the nobles. l In 1612, Asaf Khan’s daughter, Arjumand Banu Begum (later known as Mumtaj), married Jahangir’s third son, prince Khurram (later Shah Jahan). UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l It was believed by some historians that Nur Jahan formed a group of “junta” and this led to two factions in the Mughal court. l This drove Shah Jahan into rebellion against his father in 1622, since he felt that Jahangir was completely under Nur Jahan’s influence. p However, this view is not accepted by some other historians. p Till Jahangir became weak due to ill health, he only took important political decisions. It is revealed from his autobiography. l However, it is clear that Nur Jahan dominated the royal household and set new fashions based on Persian traditions. p She encouraged Persian art and culture in the court. She was a constant companion of Jahangir and even joined him in his hunting. l The rise of Shah Jahan was due to his personal ambitions. He rose in revolt against his father who ordered him to go to Kandahar. This rebellion distracted the activities of the empire for four years. p After Jahangir’s death in 1627, Shah Jahan reached Agra with the support of the nobles and the army. Nur Jahan was given a pension and lived a retired life till her death eighteen years later. Shah Jahan (1627-1658) l Shah Jahan launched a prolonged campaign in the northwest frontier to recover Kandahar and other ancestral lands. The Mughal army lost more than five thousand lives during the successive invasions between 1639 and 1647. Then Shah Jahan realized the futility of his ambition and stopped fighting. l His Deccan policy was more successful. p He defeated the forces of Ahmadnagar and annexed it. p Both Bijapur and Golkonda signed a treaty with the emperor. p Shah Jahan carved four Mughal provinces in the Deccan – Khandesh, Berar, Telungana and Daulatabad. p They were put under the control of his son Aurangazeb. War of Succession l The last years of Shah Jahan’s reign were clouded by a bitter war of succession among his four sons – Dara Shikoh (crown prince), Shuja (governor of Bengal), Aurangazeb (governor of Deccan) and Murad Baksh (governor of Malwa and Gujarat). p Towards the end of 1657, Shah Jahan fell ill at Delhi for some time but later recovered. But the princes started fighting for the Mughal throne. l Aurangazeb emerged victorious in this struggle. p He entered the Agra fort after defeating Dara. He forced Shah Jahan to surrender. p Shah Jahan was confined to the female apartments in the Agra fort and strictly put under vigil. But he was not ill-treated. p Shah Jahan lived for eight long years lovingly nursed by his daughter Jahanara. p He died in 1666 and buried beside his wife’s grave in the Taj Mahal.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Aurangazeb (1658-1707) l Aurangazeb was one of the ablest of the Mughal kings. He assumed the title Alamgir, World Conqueror. l His military campaigns in his first ten years of reign were a great success. He suppressed the minor revolts. l But he faced serious difficulties in the latter part of his reign. The Jats and Satnamis and also the Sikhs revolted against him. These revolts were induced by his harsh religious policy. Deccan Policy l The Deccan policy of the Mughals started from the reign of Akbar, who conquered Khandesh and Berar. l Jahangir fought against Malik Amber of Ahmadnagar. l During the Shah Jahan’s reign, Aurangazeb, as governor of Deccan, followed an aggressive Deccan policy. l When he became the Mughal emperor, for the first twenty five years, he concentrated on the northwest frontier. p At that time, the Maratha ruler, Sivaji carved out an independent Maratha kingdom in the territories of north and south Konkan. l To contain the spread of the Marathas, Aurangazeb decided to invade Bijapur and Golkonda. p He defeated Sikandar Shah of Bijapur and annexed his kingdom. p Then, he proceeded against Golkonda and eliminated the Kutb Shahi dynasty. It was also annexed by him. l In fact, the destruction of the Deccan kingdoms was a political blunder on the part of Aurangazeb. p The barrier between the Mughals and the Marathas was removed and there ensued a direct confrontation between them. p Also, his Deccan campaigns exhausted the Mughal treasury. According to J.N. Sarkar, the Deccan ulcer ruined Aurangazeb. Religious Policy l Aurangazeb was a staunch and orthodox Muslim in his personal life. His ideal was to transform India into an Islamic state. p He created a separate department to enforce moral codes under a highpowered officer called Muhtasib. p Drinking was prohibited. Cultivation and use of bhang and other drugs were banned. l Aurangazeb forbade music in the Mughal court. He discontinued the practice of Jarokhadarshan. p He also discontinued the celebration of Dasarah and royal astronomers and astrologers were also dismissed from service. l Initially Aurangazeb banned the construction of new Hindu temples and repair of old temples. Then he began a policy of destroying Hindu temples. p The celebrated temples at Mathura and Benares were reduced to ruins. p In 1679, he reimposed jiziya and pilgrim tax. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l He was also not tolerant of other Muslim sects. p The celebration of Muharram was stopped. p His invasions against the Deccan sultanates were partly due to his hatred of the Shia faith. l He was also against the Sikhs and he executed the ninth Sikh Guru Tej Bahadur. p This had resulted in the transformation of Sikhs into a warring community.6) His religious policy was responsible for turning the Rajputs, the Marathas and Sikhs into the enemies of Mughal empire. p It had also resulted in the rebellions of the Jats of Mathura and the Satnamis of Mewar. Therefore, Aurangazeb was held responsible for the decline of the Mughal empire. Personality and Character of Aurangazeb l In his private life, Aurangazeb was industrious and disciplined. He was very simple in food and dress. He earned money for his personal expenses by copying Quran and selling those copies. He did not consume wine. l He was learned and proficient in Arabic and Persian languages. He was a lover of books. He was devoted to his religion and conducted prayers five times a day. He strictly observed the Ramzan fasting. l In the political field, Aurangazeb committed serious mistakes. He misunderstood the true nature of the Maratha movement and antagonized them. Also, he failed to solve the Maratha problem and left an open sore. His policy towards Shia Deccan Sultanates also proved to be a wrong policy. l His religious policy was also not successful. Aurangazeb was an orthodox Sunni Muslim. But his move to apply his religious thought rigidly in a non-Muslim society was a failure. p His antagonistic policies towards non-Muslims did not help him to rally the Muslims to his side. On the other hand it had strengthened political enemies of the Mughal Empire. Causes for the Downfall of the Mughals l The Mughal Empire declined rapidly after the death of Aurangazeb. The Mughal court became the scene of factions among the nobles. l The weakness of the empire was exposed when Nadir Shah imprisoned the Mughal Emperor and looted Delhi in 1739. l The causes for the downfall of the Mughal Empire were varied. p To some extent, the religious and Deccan policies of Aurangazeb contributed to its decline. p The weak successors and demoralization of the Mughal army also paved the way for it. The vastness of the empire became unwieldy. p The financial difficulties due to continuous wars led to the decline.d) The neglect of the sea power by the Mughals was felt when the Europeans began to settle in India. p Further, the invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali weakened the Mughal state. Thus the decline and downfall of the Mughal Empire was due to the combination of political, social and economic factors.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks INDIA UNDER THE MUGHALS Economic and Social Life l The Mughal period saw important social and economic developments. During this period, many European travelers and traders came to India and their accounts contain a mine of information about the socio-economic conditions of India. l In general, they described the wealth and prosperity of India and also the luxurious life of the aristocratic classes. l On the other side, they also mentioned the poverty and sufferings of the ordinary people such as peasants and artisans. Mughal Nobility l The nobles of the Mughal period formed a privileged class. Most of them were foreigners such as Turks and Afghans. But there was tussle between them throughout this period. p However, many of them settled down in India and made it their permanent home. They readily assimilated themselves into the Indian society and culture. At the same time they retained some of their personal traits. l From the time of Akbar, the Hindus, particularly the Rajputs were included in the nobility. p For example, mention may be made about Raja Man Singh, Raja Birbal and Raja Todar Mal. Later, the Marathas also joined the Mughal service and rose to the position of nobles. l The Mughal nobles were paid high salaries but their expenses were also very high. Each noble maintained a large number of servants, horses, elephants, etc. p The nobles tried follow the luxurious life style of the Mughal emperors. They wore fine clothes and ate imported fruits. Costly jewels were worn by men and women. They also made costly presents to the emperors. Rural Masses l While the wealthy people wore silk and cotton clothes, the poor people wore the minimum cloths. They suffer from insufficient clothing even during the winter. Nikitin observed that the people of Deccan were bare-footed. It might be due to high cost of leather.2) Rice, millets and pulses were the staple food of the common people. Fish was popular on the coastal region. While ghee and oil were cheaper, salt and sugar were more expensive. As plenty of cattle were kept by the rural people, milk and milk products were available in plenty. Agriculture l An estimate claims that the population of India at the beginning of the seventeenth century was about 125 million. As plenty of land was available for cultivation, agriculture was prosperous. l A large variety of crops such as wheat, rice, gram, barley, pulses were cultivated. Commercial crops such as cotton, indigo, sugarcane and oil-seeds were also cultivated. l During the seventeenth century two new crops, namely, tobacco and maize were added. p Potato and red chillies came later in the eighteenth century. l But, no new agricultural technique was introduced during this period. However, India was able to export food items like rice and sugar to the neighbouring countries. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Growth of Trade l The Indian trading classes were large in numbers and spread throughout the country. They were well organized and highly professional. p Seth, bohra traders specialized in long distance trade while local traders were called banik. p Another class of traders was known as banjaras, who specialized in carrying bulk goods. The banjaras used to move to long distances with their goods on the back of oxen. Bulk goods were also taken through rivers on boats. l The trading community did not belong to one caste or religion. The Gujarathi merchants included the Hindus, Jains and Muslims. In Rajasthan, Oswals, Maheshwaris and Agarwals came to be called the Marwaris. Multanis, Khatris and Afghanis conducted trade with central Asia. In south India, the Chettis on the Coramandal coast and the Muslim merchants of Malabar were the most important trading communities. l Bengal exported sugar, rice as well as delicate muslin and silk. The Coramandal coast became a centre of textile production. Gujarat was an entry point of foreign goods. From there, fine textiles and silk were taken to north India. Indigo and food grains were exported from north India through Gujarat. p It was also the distribution centre for the luxury products of Kashmir such as shawls and carpets. l The major imports into India were certain metals such as tin and copper, war horses and luxury items such as ivory. p The balance of trade was maintained by the import of gold and silver. The growth of foreign trade had resulted in the increased import of gold and silver in the seventeenth century. l The Dutch and English traders who came to Gujarat during the seventeenth century, found that Indian traders were alert and brisk. Cultural Development under the Mughals l The Mughal period witnessed a significant and widespread development in cultural activity. It was manifest in the sphere of art and architecture, painting, music and literature. l In this cultural development, Indian traditions were blended with Turko-Iranian culture which was brought into India by the Mughals. Art and Architecture l The architecture of the Mughals includes the magnificent forts, palaces, public buildings, mosques and mausoleums. The Mughals were fond of laying gardens with running water. p Some of the Mughal gardens such as the Nishat Bagh in Kashmir, the Shalimar Bagh at Lahore and the Pinjore garden in the Punjab have survived even today. l During the reign of Sher Shah, the mausoleum at Sasaram in Bihar and the Purana Qila near Delhi were built. These two monuments are considered as the architectural marvels of medieval India. l Large scale construction of buildings started with the advent of Akbar. p He built many forts and the most famous one was the Agra Fort. It was built in red sandstone. His other forts are at Lahore and Allahabad. p The climax of fort-building reached its climax during the reign of Shah Jahan. The famous Red Fort at Delhi with its Rang Mahal, Diwan-i-Am and Diwan-iKhas was his creation.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l Akbar also built a palace cum- fort complex at Fatepur Sikri (City of Victory), 36 kilometres from Agra. Many buildings in Gujarathi and Bengali styles are found in this complex. Gujarathi style buildings were probably built for his Rajput wives. p The most magnificent building in it is the Jama Masjid and the gateway to it called Buland Darwaza or the Lofty Gate. The height of the gateway is 176 feet. It was built to commemorate Akbar’s victory over Gujarat. p Other important buildings at Fatepur Sikri are Jodh Bai’s palace and Panch Mahal with five storeys. l During Akbar’s reign, the Humayun’s tomb was built at Delhi and it had a massive dome of marble. p It may be considered the precursor of the Taj Mahal. p Akbar’s tomb at Sikandara near Agra was completed by Jahangir. l Nur Jahan built the tomb of Itimaddaulah at Agra. p It was constructed wholly of white marble with floral designs made of semiprecious stones on the walls. p This type of decoration was called pietra dura. This method became more popular during the reign of Shah Jahan. p The pietra dura method was used on a large scale in the Taj Mahal by Shah Jahan. l Taj Mahal is considered a jewel of the builder’s art. It contains all the architectural forms developed by the Mughals. p The chief glory of the Taj is the massive dome and the four slender minarets. p The decorations are kept to the minimum. l Mosque building had reached its peak during Shah Jahan’s reign. p The Moti Masjid at Agra was built entirely in white marble. p The Jama Masjid at Delhi was built in red stone. The Mughal architectural traditions continued in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Their influence in the provincial kingdoms is clearly visible. Many features of Mughal tradition can be seen in the Golden Temple at Amritsar. Paintings and Music l The contribution of Mughals to the art of painting was remarkable. The foundation for the Mughal painting was laid by Humayun when he was staying in Persia. He brought with him two painters – Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdal Samad to India. These two painters became famous during Akbar’s reign. l Akbar commissioned the illustrations of several literary and religious texts. He invited a large number of painters from different parts of the country to his court. Both Hindus and Muslims joined in this work. Baswan, Miskina and Daswant attained great positions as Akabar’s court artists. l Illustrations of Persian versions of Mahabharata and Ramayana were produced in miniature form. p Many other Indian fables became the miniature paintings in the Art Studio established by Akbar. p Historical works such as Akbar Nama also remained the main themes of Mughal paintings. p The most important work is Hamznama, which consisted 1200 paintings. p Indian colours such as peacock blue, Indian red began to be used. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l Mughal paintings reached its climax during the reign of Jahangir. p He employed a number of painters like Abul Hasan, Bishan Das, Madhu, Anant, Manohar, Govardhan and Ustad Mansur. p Apart from painting the scenes of hunting, battles and royal courts, progress was made in portrait painting and paintings of animals. p Many albums containing paintings and calligraphy were produced during the Mughal period. p Later, the influence of European painting could be seen. Music had also developed under the Mughals. Akbar patronized Tansen of Gwalior. Tansen composed many ragas. Jahangir and Shah Jahan were also fond of music. Language and Literature l Persian language became widespread in the Mughal Empire by the time of Akbar’s reign. Abul Fazl was a great scholar and historian of his period. He set a style of prose writing and it was followed by many generations. Many historical works were written during this period. p They include Ain-i-Akbari and Akabar Nama authored by Abul Fazl. p The leading poet of that period was his brother Abul Faizi. The translation of Mahabharata into the Persian language was done under his supervision. p Utbi and Naziri were the two other leading Persian poets.2) Jahangir’s autobiography, Tuzuki-Jahangiri was famous for its style. He also patronized many scholars like Ghiyas Beg, Naqib Khan and Niamatullah. l Shah Jahan also patronized many writers and historians like Abdul Hamid Lahori, author of Padshah Nama and Inayat Khan who wrote Shah Jahan Nama. l His son Dara Shikoh translated the Bhagavat Gita and Upanishads into the Persian language. Many historical works were written during the reign of Aurangazeb. l Famous dictionaries of the Persian language were also compiled during the Mughal period. l Regional languages such as Bengali, Oriya, Rajasthani and Gujarathi had also developed during this period. Many devotional works including the Ramayana and Mahabharata were translated into regional languages. l From the time of Akbar, Hindi poets were attached to the Mughal court. The most influential Hindi poet was Tulsidas, who wrote the Hindi version of the Ramayana, the Ramcharitmanas.

THE MARATHAS The Rise of the Marathas l Various factors contributed to the rise of Marathas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. p The physical environment of the Maratha country shaped certain peculiar qualities among the Marathas. p The mountainous region and dense forests made them brave soldiers and adopt guerilla tactics. They built a number of forts on the mountains. p The spread of the Bhakti movement in Maharashtra inculcated a spirit of religious unity among them. The spiritual leaders like Tukkaram, Ramdas, Vaman Pandit and Eknath fostered social unity.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p The political unity was conferred by Shivaji. p The Marathas held important positions in the administrative and military systems of Deccan Sultanates of Bijapur and Ahmadnagar. p There were a number of influential Maratha families such as the Mores and Nimbalkers. But the credit of establishing a powerful Maratha state goes to Shahji Bhonsle and his son Shivaji. Shivaji (1627-1680): His Life and Conquests l Shivaji was born at Shivner in 1627. His father was Shahji Bhonsle and mother Jija Bai. He inherited the jagir of Poona from his father in 1637. After the death of his guardian, Dadaji Kondadev in 1647, Shivaji assumed full charge of his jagir. p Even before that he conquered Raigarh, Kondana and Torna from the ruler of Bijapur. l He captured Javli from a Maratha chief, Chanda Rao More. This made him the master of Mavala region. p In 1657, he attacked the Bijapur kingdom and captured a number of hill forts in the Konkan region. The Sultan of Bijapur sent Afzal Khan against Shivaji. But Afzal Khan was murdered by Shivaji in 1659 in a daring manner. l Shivaji’s military conquests made him a legendary figure in the Maratha region. Many came forward to join his army. l The Mughal emperor Aurangazeb was anxiously watching the rise of Maratha power under Shivaji. p He sent the Mughal governor of the Deccan, Shaista Khan against Shivaji. Shivaji suffered a defeat at the hands of the Mughal forces and lost Poona. p But Shivaji once again made a bold attack on Shaista Khan’s military camp at Poona in 1663, killed his son and wounded Khan. p This daring attack affected the prestige of Khan and he was recalled by Aurangazeb. p In 1664, Shivaji attacked Surat, the chief port of the Mughals and plundered it. l This time Aurangazeb sent Raja Jai Singh of Amber to fight against Shivaji. p He made elaborate preparations and succeeded in besieging the Purander fort where Shivaji lodged his family and treasure. p Shivaji opened negotiations with Jai Singh and the Treaty of Purander was signed in 1665. According to the treaty, Shivaji had to surrender 23 forts to the Mughals out of 35 forts held by him. p The remaining 12 forts were to be left to Shivaji on condition of service and loyalty to Mughal empire. p On the other hand, the Mughals recognized the right of Shivaji to hold certain parts of the Bijapur kingdom. p As Shivaji asked to exempt him from personal service to the Mughals, his minor son Shambaji was granted a mansab of 5000. l Shivaji visited Agra in 1666 but he was imprisoned there. p But, he managed to escape from prison and made military preparations for another four years. Then he renewed his wars against the Mughals. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p Surat was plundered by him for the second time in 1670. He also captured all his lost territories by his conquests. l In 1674 Shivaji crowned himself at Raigarh and assumed the title Chatrapathi. Then he led an expedition into the Carnatic region and captured Ginjee and Vellore. l After his return from this expedition, Shivaji died in 1680. Shivaji’s Administration l Shivaji was also a great administrator. He laid the foundations of a sound system of administration. l The king was the pivot of the government. He was assisted by a council of ministers called Ashtapradhan. p However, each minister was directly responsible to Shivaji. 1. Peshwa – Finance and general administration. Later he became the prime minister. 2. Sar-i-Naubat or Senapati – Military commander, a honorary post. 3. Amatya – Accountant General. 4. Waqenavis – Intelligence, posts and household affairs. 5. Sachiv – Correspondence. 6. Sumanta – Master of ceremonies. 7. Nyayadish – Justice. 8. Panditarao – Charities and religious administration. l Most of the administrative reforms of Shivaji were based on the practices of the Deccan sultanates. For example, Peshwa was the Persian title. l The revenue system of Shivaji was based on that of Malik Amber of Ahmadnagar. p Lands were measured by using the measuring rod called kathi. p Lands were also classified into three categories – paddy fields, garden lands and hilly tracks. p He reduced the powers of the existing deshmuks and kulkarnis. l He appointed his own revenue officials called karkuns. l Chauth and sardeshmukhi were the taxes collected not in the Maratha kingdom but in the neighbouring territories of the Mughal empire or Deccan sultanates. p Chauth was one fourth of the land revenue paid to the Marathas in order to avoid the Maratha raids. p Sardeshmukhi was an additional levy of ten percent on those lands which the Marathas claimed hereditary rights. l Shivaji was a man of military genius and his army was well organized. p The regular army consisted of about 30000 to 40000 cavalry supervised by havaildars. p They were given fixed salaries. p There were two divisions in the Maratha cavalry – 1. bargirs, equipped and paid by the state; and 2. silahdars, maintained by the nobles.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks p In the infantry, the Mavli foot soldiers played an important role. p Shivaji also maintained a navy. l The forts played an important role in the military operations of the Marathas. p By the end of his reign, Shivaji had about 240 forts. p Each fort was put under the charge of three officers of equal rank as a precaution against treachery. Shivaji was really a constructive genius and nation-builder. His rise from jagirdar to Chatrapathi was spectacular. He unified the Marathas and remained a great enemy of the Mughal empire. He was a daring soldier and a brilliant administrator. Successors of Shivaji l There ensued a war of succession after the death of Shivaji between his sons, Shambaji and Rajaram. l Shambaji emerged victorious but later he was captured and executed by the Mughals. l Rajaram succeeded the throne but the Mughals made him to flee to the Ginjee fort. He died at Satara. l He was succeeded by his minor son Shivaji II with his mother Tara Bai as regent. l The next ruler was Shahu in whose reign the Peshwas rose to power. The Peshwas (1713-1818) Balaji Viswanath (1713-1720) l Balaji Viswanath began his career as a small revenue official and became Peshwa in 1713. As Peshwa, he made his position the most important and powerful as well as hereditary. l He played a crucial role in the civil war and finally made Shahu as the Maratha ruler. He sought the support of all Maratha leaders for Shahu. l In 1719, Balaji Viswanath got certain rights from the then Mughal emperor, Farukh Siyar. p First, the Mughal emperor recognized Shahu as the Maratha king. p Second, he allowed Shahu to collect Chauth and Sardeshmukhi from the six Mughal provinces of the Deccan including the Carnatic and Mysore. Baji Rao I (1720-1740) l Baji Rao was the eldest son of Balaji Viswanath. He succeeded his father as Peshwa at the age young age of twenty. The Maratha power reached its zenith under him. l He initiated the system of confederacy among the Maratha chiefs. Under this system, each Maratha chief was assigned a territory which could be administered autonomously. l As a result, many Maratha families became prominent and established their authority in different parts of India. They were the Gaekwad at Baroda, the Bhonsle at Nagpur, the Holkars at Indore, the Scindias at Gwalior, and the Peshwas at Poona.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Balaji Baji Rao (1740-1761) l Balaji Baji Rao succeeded his father as Peshwa at the young age of nineteen. The Maratha king Shahu died in 1749 without issue. His nominated successor Ramraja was imprisoned by the Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao at Satara. p The full control of the Maratha kingdom came under the Peshwa. l Peshwa entered into an agreement with the Mughal Emperor in 1752. p According to it the Peshwa gave assurance to the Mughal Emperor that he would protect the Mughal Empire from internal and external enemies for which the Chauth of the northwest provinces and the total revenue of the Agra and Ajmer provinces would be collected by the Marathas. l Thus when Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded India, it became the responsibility of the Marathas to protect India. p The Marathas fought very bravely against Ahmad Shah Abdali in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. But they got defeated. Many Maratha leaders and thousands of soldiers died in this battle. p Balaji Baji Rao also died on hearing the sad end of this battle. Also, this battle gave a death blow to the Maratha power. Thereafter, the Maratha confederacy weakened due to internal conflicts among the Maratha chiefs. After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the Marathas emerged a great power in India but they could not succeed in preventing the establishment of British power in India. The important causes for the downfall were that there was lack of unity among the Maratha chiefs like Holkar, Scindia and Bhonsle. Also, the superiority of the British army and fighting methods ultimately won.

THE COMING OF EUROPEANS l The commercial contacts between India and Europe were very old via the land route either through the Oxus valley or Syria or Egypt. But, the new sea route via the Cape of Good Hope was discovered by Vasco da Gama in 1498. l Thereafter, many trading companies came to India and established their trading centres. They entered India as traders at the outset but by the passage of time indulged in the politics of India and finally established their colonies. l The commercial rivalry among the European powers led to political rivalry. Ultimately, the British succeeded in establishing their rule India. The Portuguese l The Portuguese traveler Vasco da Gama reached the port of Calicut on 17 May 1498 and he was warmly received by Zamorin, the ruler of Calicut. He returned to Portugal in the next year. l Pedro Alvarez Cabral arrived in 1500 and Vasco da Gama also made a second trip in 1502. They established trading stations at Calicut, Cannanore and Cochin.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l The first governor of the Portuguese in India was Francis de Almeida. Later in 1509 Albuquerque was made the governor of the Portuguese territories in India. l In 1510, he captured Goa from the ruler of Bijapur. Thereafter, Goa became the capital of the Portuguese settlements in India. Albuquerque captured Malacca and Ceylon. He also built a fort at Calicut. He encouraged his countrymen to marry Indian women. Albuquerque died in 1515 leaving the Portuguese as the strongest naval power in India. l The successors of Albuquerque established Portuguese settlements at Daman, Salsette and Bombay on the west coast and at San Thome near Madras and Hugli in Bengal on the east coast. However, the Portuguese power declined in India by the end of the sixteenth century. They lost all their possessions in India except Goa, Diu and Daman in the next century. The Dutch l The Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The merchants of this company came to India and established their settlements at Masulipattinam, Pulicat, Surat, Karaikal, Nagapattinam, Chinsura and Kasimbazar. l In the seventeenth century they won over the Portuguese and emerged the most dominant power in European trade in the East. p Pulicat was their main centre in India and later it was replaced by Nagapattinam. l In the middle of the seventeenth century the English began to emerge as a big colonial power. The Anglo-Dutch rivalry lasted for about seven decades during which period the Dutch lost their settlements to the British one by one. The English l The English East India Company was established in 1600 and the Charter was issued by Queen Elizabeth of England. Captain Hawkins arrived at the royal court of Jahangir in 1609 to seek permission to establish English trading centre at Surat. But it was refused by the Mughal Emperor due to Portuguese pressure. p Later in 1612, Jahangir issued a farman (permission letter) to the English and they established a trading factory at Surat in 1613. l Sir Thomas Roe came to India as ambassador of James I, the king of England to the Mughal court in 1615. He obtained permission from Jahangir to establish English trading factories in different parts of India. l The English established their factories at Agra, Ahmadabad, Baroda and Broach by 1619. The English East India Company acquired Bombay from Charles II, the then king of England. l In 1639, Francis Day founded the city of Madras where the Fort St. George was built. In 1690, an English factory was established at a place called Sutanuti by Job Charnock. Later it developed into the city of Calcutta where Fort William was built. l Later, Calcutta became the capital of British India. Thus Bombay, Madras, Calcutta became three presidency towns of the English settlements in India. The French l The French East India Company was formed in 1664 by Colbert, a Minister under Louis XIV. The first French factory in India was established at Surat by Francis Caron. Later, Maracara set up a factory at Masulipattinam. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l Francois Martin founded Pondicherry in 1673. Other French factories in India were Chandranagore, Mahe and Karaikal. Francois Martin was the first governor of Pondicherry, the headquarters of the French possessions in India.The Danes p Denmark also established trade settlements in India. Their settlement at Tranquebar was founded in 1620. Another important Danish settlement in India was Serampore in Bengal. p Serampore was their headquarters in India. They failed to strengthen themselves in India and they sold all their settlement in India to the British in 1845. Anglo-French Rivalry l In the beginning of the eighteenth century, the English and the French were competing with each other to establish their supremacy in India. Both of them used the political turmoil prevalent in India as a result of the decline of the Mughal Empire in their favour and indulged in internal politics. l The Anglo-French rivalry in India was manifest in the Carnatic region and in Bengal. The Carnatic Wars l The downfall of the Mughal Empire led to the independence of Deccan under Nizam-ul-Mulk. The Carnatic region also formed part of the Nizam’s dominion. The ruler of the Carnatic accepted the suzerainty of the Nizam. l In 1740, the Austrian War of Succession broke out in Europe. In that war England and France were in the opposite camps. p They came into conflict in India also. The French governor of Pondicherry, Dupleix opened attack on the English in 1746 and thus began the First Carnatic War (1746-1748). The English sought help from the Nawab of Carnatic, Anwar Uddin. But the French concluded a treaty with his rival Chanda Sahib. p The English army crushed a defeat on the French in the Battle of Adyar, near Madras. In the meantime, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle was concluded in 1748 to end the Austrian Succession War. Thus the First Carnatic War came to an end. l But the English and French continued to take opposite sides in the internal politics of India. This had resulted in the Second Carnatic War (1749-1754). Dupleix supported the cause of Muzafar Jang, who wanted to become the Nizam of Hyderabad and Chanda Sahib, an aspirant for the throne of Arcot. p The troops of these three defeated Anwar Uddin, who was with the British in the First Carnatic War, and killed him in the Battle of Ambur in 1749. After this victory, Muzafar Jung became the Nizam and Chanda Sahib the Nawab of Arcot. p Muhammad Ali, son of Anwar uddin escaped to Tiruchirappalli. The English sent troops in support of him. p In the meantime, the British commander Robert Clive captured Arcot. He also inflicted a severe defeat on the French at Kaveripakkam. p Chanda Sahib was captured and beheaded in Tanjore. Meanwhile Dupleix was replaced by Godeheu as the French governor. The war came to an end by the Treaty of Pondicherry in 1754.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks l The outbreak of the Seven Years War (1756-1763) in Europe led to the Third Carnatic War (17581763). Count de Lally was the commander of the French troops. p The British General Sir Eyre Coote defeated him at Wandiwash in 1760. In the next year, Pondicherry was captured and destroyed by the British troops. p The Seven Years War came to an end by the Treaty of Paris in1763. The Third Carnatic War also ended. The French agreed to confine its activities in Pondicherry, Karaikkal, Mahe and Yenam. Thus the Anglo-French rivalry came to a close with British success and French failure. The causes for the French failure can be summed up as follows: p Commercial and naval superiority of the English. p Lack of support from the French government. p French had support only in the Deccan but the English had a strong base in Bengal. p English had three important ports – Calcutta, Bombay and Madras but French had only Pondicherry. p Difference of opinion between the French Generals. p England’s victory in the European wars decided the destiny of the French in India. Establishment of British Power in Bengal l Bengal remained one of the fertile and wealthy regions of India. The English ascendancy in Bengal proved to be the basis for the expansion of English rule in India. The conflict between the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daula and the English led to the Battle of Plassey held on 23 June 1757. p Robert Clive, the Commander of the British troops emerged victorious by defeating the Nawab’s army. p The easy English victory was due to the treachery of Mir Jabar, the Commander of Nawab’s army. However, the victory of the British in the Battle of Plassey marked the foundation of the British rule in India. l In 1764, the English once again defeated the combined forces of the Nawab of Oudh, the Mughal Emperor and the Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Buxar. p The English military superiority was decisively established. p In 1765, Robert Clive was appointed as the Governor of Bengal. p In the same year, the Treaty of Allahabad was concluded by which the Mughal Emperor granted the Diwani rights to the English East India Company. Thus the British power in India was thoroughly established.

LAND REVENUE SYSTEMS UNDER BRITISH RULE Before British Rule Tax from the land was a major source of revenue for the kings and emperors from ancient times. But the ownership pattern of land had witnessed changes over centuries. During Kingship, land was divided into Jagirs, Jagirs were alloted to Jagirdars, these Jagirdars split the land they got and allocated to sub-ordinate Zamindars. Zamindars made peasants cultivate the land, in-return collected part of their revenue as tax. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Land Revenue Systems in British India Three major systems of land revenue collection existed in India. They were – Zaminidari, Ryotwari and Mahalwari. Zamindari System l Zamindari System was introduced by Cornwallis in 1793 through Permanent Settlement Act. l It was introduced in provinces of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Varanasi. l Also known as Permanent Settlement System. l Zamindars were recognized as owner of the lands. Zamindars were given the rights to collect the rent from the peasants. l The realized amount would be divided into 11 parts. 1/11 of the share belongs to Zamindars and 10/11 of the share belongs to East India Company. Ryotwari System l Ryotwari System was introduced by Thomas Munro in 1820. l Major areas of introduction include Madras, Bombay, parts of Assam and Coorgh provinces of British India. l In Ryotwari System the ownership rights were handed over to the peasants. British Government collected taxes directly from the peasants. l The revenue rates of Ryotwari System were 50% where the lands were dry and 60% in irrigated land. Mahalwari System l Mahalwari system was introduced in 1833 during the period of William Bentick. l It was introduced in Central Province, North-West Frontier, Agra, Punjab, Gangetic Valley, etc of British India. l The Mahalwari system had many provisions of both the Zamindari System and Ryotwari System. l In this system, the land was divided into Mahals. Each Mahal comprises one or more villages. l Ownership rights were vested with the peasants. l The villages committee was held responsible for collection of the taxes. Land Reforms in India After Independence: l Zamindari Abolition Act was passed by UP, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, etc. l Surplus lands were confiscated from zamindars. l Later Land Ceilings Act was passed by different states, fixing an upper limit for private land holdings of a family. p p p

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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MODERN HISTORY INDIA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Bahadur Shah 1 (1707-12) l

Muzam succeeded Aurungzeb after latter’s death in 1707

He acquired the title of Bahadur Shah.

Though he was quite old (65) and his rule quite short there are many significant achievements he made

He reversed the narrow minded and antagonistic policies of Aurungzeb

Made agreements with Rajput states

Granted sardeshmukhi to Marathas but not Chauth

Released Shahuji (son of Sambhaji) from prison (who later fought with Tarabai)

Tried to make peace with Guru Gobind Sahib by giving him a high Mansab. After Guru’s death, Sikhs again revolted under the leadership of Banda Bahadur. This led to a prolonged war with the Sikhs.

Made peace with Chhatarsal, the Bundela chief and Churaman, the Jat chief.

State finances deteriorated

Jahandar Shah (1712-13) l

Death of Bahadur Shah plunged the empire into a civil war

A noted feature of this time was the prominence of the nobles

Jahandar Shah, son of Bahadur Shah, ascended the throne in 1712 with help from Zulfikar Khan

Was a weak ruler devoted only to pleasures

Zulfikar Khan, his wazir, was virtually the head of the administration

ZK abolished jizyah

Peace with Rajputs: Jai Singh of Amber was made the Governor of Malwa. Ajit Singh of Marwar was made the Governor of Gujarat.

Chauth and Sardeshmukh granted to Marathas. However, Mughals were to collect it and then hand it over to the Marathas.

Continued the policy of suppression towards Banda Bahadur and Sikhs

Ijarah: (revenue farming) the government began to contract with revenue farmers and middlemen to pay the government a fixed amount of money while they were left free to collect whatever they could from the peasants

Jahandhar Shah defeated in January 1713 by his nephew Farrukh Siyar at Agra

Farrukh Siyar (1713-19) l

Owed his victory to Saiyid Brothers: Hussain Ali Khan Barahow and Abdullah Khan

Abdullah Khan: Wazir, Hussain Ali: Mir Bakshi

FS was an incapable ruler. Saiyid brothers were the real rulers. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Saiyid Brothers p

Known the Indian History as King Makers

adopted the policy of religious tolerance. Abolished jizyah (again?). Pilgrim tax was abolished from a number of places

Marathas: Granted Shahuji swarajya and the right to collect chauth and sardeshmukhi of the six provinces of the Deccan

They failed in their effort to contain rebellion because they were faced with constant political rivalry, quarrels and conspiracies at the court.

Nobles headed by Nizam-ul-Mulk and Muhammad Amin Khan began to conspire against them

In 1719, the Saiyid Brothers killed and overthrew FS.

This was followed by placing, in quick succession, of two young princes who died of consumption

Murder of the emperor created a wave of revulsion against the SB. They were looked down as ‘namak haram’

Now, they placed 18 year old Muhammad Shah as the emperor of India

In 1720, the nobles assassinated Hussain Ali Khan, the younger of the SB. Abdullah Khan was also defeated at Agra

Muhammad Shah ‘Rangeela’ (1719-1748) l

Weak-minded, frivolous and over-fond of a life of ease

Neglected the affairs of the state

Intrigued against his own ministers

Naizam ul Mulk Qin Qulich Khan, the wazir, relinquished his office and founded the state of Hyderabad in 1724 p

“His departure was symbolic of the flight of loyalty and virtue from the Empire”

Heriditary nawabs arose in Bengal, Hyderabad, Awadh and Punjab

Marathas conquered Malwa, Gujarat and Bundelkhand

1738: Invasion of Nadir Shah

Nadir Shah’s Invasion (1738) l

Attracted to India by its fabulous wealth. Continual campaigns had made Persia bankrupt

Also, the Mughal empire was weak.

Didn’t meet any resistance as the defense of the north-west frontier had been neglected for years

The two armies met at Karnal on 13th Feb 1739. Mughal army was summarily defeated. MS taken prisoner

Massacre in Delhi in response to the killing of some of his soldiers

Plunder of about 70 crore rupees. Carried away the Peacock throne and Koh-i-noor

MS ceded to him all the provinces of the Empire west of the river Indus

Significance: Nadir Shah’s invasion exposed the hidden weakness of the empire to the Maratha sardars and the foreign trading companies

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks Ahmed Shah Abdali l

One of the generals of Nadir Shah

Repeatedly invaded and plundered India right down to Delhi and Mathura between 1748 and 1761. He invaded India five times.

1761: Third battle of Panipat. Defeat of Marathas.

As a result of invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah, the Mughal empire ceased to be an allIndia empire. By 1761 it was reduced merely to the Kingdom of Delhi

Shah Alam II 1759 l

Ahmed Bahadur (1748-54) succeeded Muhammad Shah

Ahmed Bahadur was succeeded by Alamgir II (1754-59) p

1756: Abdali plundered Mathura

Alamgir II was succeeded by Shah Jahan III

Shah Jahan III succeeded by Shah Alam II in 1759

Shah Alam spent initial years wandering for he lived under the fear of his wazir

In 1764, he joined forces with Mir Qasim of Bengal and Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh in declaring a war upon the British East India company. This resulted in the Battle of Buxar

Pensioned at Allahabad

Returned to Delhi in 1772 under the protection of Marathas

Decline of the Mughal Empire l

After 1759, Mughal empire ceased to be a military power.

It continued from 1759 till 1857 only due to the powerful hold that the Mughal dynasty had on the minds of the people of India as a symbol of the political unity of the country

In 1803, the British occupied Delhi

From 1803 to 1857, the Mughal emperors merely served as a political front of the British.

The most important consequence of the fall of the Mughal empire was that it paved way for the British to conquer India as there was no other Indian power strong enough to unite and hold India.

Succession States l

These states arose as a result of the assertion of autonomy by governors of Mughal provinces with the decay of the central power

Bengal, Awadh, Hyderabad

Hyderabad and the Carnatic l

Founded by Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah in 1724

Tolerant policy towards Hindus p

A Hindu, Puran Chand, was his Dewan.

Established an orderly administration in Deccan on the basis of the jagirdari system on the Mughal pattern UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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He died in 1748

Nawab of Carnatic freed himself of the control of the Viceroy of the Deccan and made his office hereditary p

Saadutullah Khan of Carnatic made his nephew Dost Ali his successor

Bengal l

1700: Murshid Quli Khan made the Dewan of Bengal

Freed himself of the central control

Freed Bengal of major uprisings p

Three major uprisings during his time: Sitaram Ray, Udai Narayan and Ghulam Muhammad, and then by Shujat Khan, and finally by Najat Khan

Carried out fresh revenue settlement. Introduced the system of revenue-farming.

Revenue farming led to the increased distress of the farmers

Laid the foundations of the new landed aristocracy in Bengal

MQK died in 1727. Succeeded by Shuja-ud-din.

1739: Alivardi Khan killed and deposed Shuja-ud-din’s son, Sarfaraz Khan, and made himself the Nawab

All three Nawabs encouraged merchants, both Indian and foreign.

Safety of roads and rivers. Thanas and Chowkies at regular intervals.

Maintained strict control over the foreign trading companies

They, however, did not firmly put down the increasing tendency of the English East India Company to use military force, or to threaten its use, to get its demands accepted.

They also neglected to build a strong army

Awadh l

1722: Saadat Khan Burhan-ul-Mulk

Suppressed rebellions and disciplined the Zamindars

Fresh revenue settlement in 1723

Did not discriminate between Hindus and Muslims. The highest post in his government was held by a Hindu, Maharaja Nawab Rai

Died in 1739. Succeeded by Safdar Jung.

SJ’s reign was an era of peace

made an alliance with the Maratha sardars

Carried out warfare against Rohelas and Bangash Pathans

Organized an equitable system of justice

Distinct culture of Lucknow developed during his period

Mysore l

Haidar Ali, in 1761, overthrew Nanjaraj and established his own authority over Mysore

1755: Established a modern arsenal at Dindigal with the help of French experts

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Conquered Bidnur, Sunda, Sera, Canara and Malabar

He conquered Malabar because he wanted access to the Indian Ocean

First and Second Anglo-Mysore War

1782: Succeeded by Tipu Sultan

TS was an innovator. Introduced a new calendar, a new system of coinage and new scales of weights and measures.

Keen interest in French Revolution p

Planted a ‘tree of liberty’ at Srirangapatnam and became a member of the Jacobin Club

Made efforts to build a modern navy

Mysore flourished economically under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan

Sent missions to France, Turkey, Iran and Pegu Myanmar to develop foreign trade

Some historians say that Tipu was a religious fanatic. But facts don’t support this assertion.

Kerala l

Divided into large number of feudal chiefs in the 18th century

Four important states p

Calicut (under Zamorin), Chirakkal, Cochin and Travancore

In 1729, Travancore rose to prominence under King Martanda Varma

Conquered Quilon and Elayadam, and defeated the Dutch

From 1766 Haidar Ali invaded Kerala and annexed northern Kerala up to Cochin

Revival of Malyalam literature p

Trivandram became a famous centre of Sanskrit scholarship

Rajput States l

Rajputana states continued to be divided as before

Raja Sawai Jai Singh of Amber was the most outstanding ruler of the era p

Founded the city of Jaipur

Made Jaipur a great seat of science and art

Astronomer. Erected observatories at Jaipur, Ujjain, Varanasi, and Mathura

Drew up a set of tables, entitled Zij Muhammadshahi, to enable people to make astronomical observations

Translated Euclid’s “Elements of Geometry” into Sanskrit

Social reformers. Reduce lavish marriage expenditures.

Jats l

Jat peasants revolted in 1669 and 1688

Jat state of Bharatpur set up by Churaman and Badan Singh

Reached its highest glory under Suraj Mal, who ruled from 1756 to 1763 UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Sikhsim transformed into a militant religion during Guru Hargobind (1606-45), the sixth guru.

Guru Gobind Singh waged constant war against the armies of Aurangzeb and the hill rajas

After Guru Gobind Singh’s death (1708), leadership passed to Banda Singh (Banda Bahadur)

He struggled with the Mughal army for 8 years

Put to death in 1715

Banda Bahadur failed because p

Mughal centre was still strong

Upper classes and castes of Punjab joined forces against him

He could not integrate all the anti-Mughal forces because of his religious bigotry

After the withdrawal of Abdali from Punjab, Sikhs were again resurgent

Between 1765 and 1800 they brought the Punjab and Jammu under their control

They were organized into 12 misls

Ranjit Singh p

Chief of the Sukerchakia Misl

Captured Lahore (1799) and Amritsar (1802)

Conquered Kashmir, Peshawar and Multan

Possessed the second best army in Asia

Tolerant and liberal

Fakir Azizuddin and Dewan Dina Nath were his important ministers

“known to step down from his throne to wipe the dust off the feet of Muslim mendicants with his long grey beard”

Negative point: He did not remove the threat of British. He only left it over to his successors. And so, after his death, when his kingdom was torn by intense internal struggle, English conquered it.

Marathas l

Maratha Families p

Peshwa – Pune

Gaekwad – Baroda

Bhosle – Nagpur

Holkar – Indore

Scindia - Gwalior

The most powerful of the succession states

Could not fill the political vacuum because p

Maratha Sardars lacked unity

Lacked the outlook and programme which were necessary for founding an all-India empire

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Shahuji p

Son of Sambhaji

Imprisoned by Aurungzeb

Released in 1707

Civil war between Shahu and his aunt Tarabai who ruled in the name of her infant son Shivaji II

p l

The conflict gave rise to a new era of Maratha leadership, the era of Peshwa leadership

Balaji Vishwnath p

1713: Peshwa of King Shahu

Induced Zulfikar Khan to grant the chauth and sardeshmukhi of the Deccan

Helped the Saiyid brothers in overthrowing Farukh Siyar

Maratha sardars were becoming individually strong but collectively weak

Died in 1720. Succeeded by his son Baji Rao I

Baji Rao I p

the greatest extent of guerrilla tactics after Shivaji

Vast areas ceded by the Mughals

Marathas won control over Malwa, Gujarat and parts of Bundelkhand

Rivalry with Nizam ul Mulk

Compelled the Nizam to grant chauth and sardeshmukhi of the Deccan provinces

1733: Campaign against Sidis of Janjira and the Portuguese (Salsette and Bassein)

Died in 1740

Captured territories but failed to lay the foundations of an empire

Succeeded by Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb)

Balaji Baji Rao (1740-61) p

Shahu died in 1749. Peshwas became the de facto rulers

Shifted the capital to Poona

Captured Orissa

Mysore forced to pay tributes

In 1752, helped Imad-ul-Mulk to become the wazir

Brought Punjab under their control and expelled the agent of Ahmad Shah Abdali u

This led AS Abdali to come to India to settle accounts with Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat

Third Battle of Panipat u

ASA formed an alliance with Najib-ud-daulah of Rohilkhand and Shuja-ud-daulah of Awadh.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Saranjami system : Administrative Organization of the British Army Army fulfilled four important functions: 1. Instrument to conquer Indian powers 2. Defended the British Empire in India against foreign rivals 3. Safe-guarded against internal revolt 4. Chief instrument for extending and defending the British Empire in Asia and Africa. Bulk of the army consisted of Indians. In 1857, of the total strength of 311400, about 265900 were Indians. Highest Indian rank was that of Subedar. British could conquer and control India through a predominantly Indian army because: 1. There was absence of modern nationalism at that time 2. The company paid its soldiers regularly and well, as opposed to the Indian rulers and chieftains. Police Cornwallis was responsible for the creation of a modern police system in India. He established a system of Thanas (or circles) headed by a daroga. The police: 1. Prevented organization of a large-scale conspiracy against foreign control 2. Was used to suppress the national movement. Judiciary Though started by Hastings, the system was stabilized by Cornwallis. Civil Cases District: Diwani Adalat (civil court) presided over by the District Judge Provincial Court: Appeal from civil court Sardar Diwani Adalat: Highest appeal There were also, below the District Court, Registrar’s Court (headed by Europeans) and subordinate courts headed by Indians known as munsifs or amins. Criminal Cases 4 divisions of Bengal presidency. Each had a Court of Circuit presided over by the civil servants. Appeals could be made to Sardar Nizamat Adalat. William Bentinck u

Abolished the provincial courts of appeal and circuit

Their work was assigned to District Collectors

Raised the status and power of Indians in the Judicial service.

In 1865, High Courts were established at Madras, Calcutta and Bombay. British brought about uniformity in the system of law. In 1833, the government appointed Law Commission headed by Macaulay to codify Indian Laws. This eventually resulted in the Indian Penal Code, Code of Civil and Criminal Procedures and other codes of laws. Spread of Modern Education

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1781: Hastings set up the Calcutta Madrasah for the study and teaching of Muslim law and related subjects

1791: Jonathan Duncan started a Sanskrit College at Varanasi for the study of Hindu law and philosophy.

1813: Charter of 1813 directed the Company to spend Rs. 1 lakh for promoting modern sciences in the country. This sum was however made available only in 1823.

1835: Macaulay’s minute. English was made the medium of instruction in schools. Education of masses was however neglected. British advocated the ‘downward filtration theory’ for education. As per this theory, since the allocated funds could educate only a handful of Indians, it was decided to spend them in educating a few persons from the upper and middle classes who were expected to assume the task of educating the masses and spreading modern ideas among them.

1844: Compulsion for applicants for government employment to possess knowledge of English. This made the English medium schools more popular.

1854: Wood’s Dispatch asked the government of India to assume responsibility for the education of the masses. It thus repudiated the ‘downward filtration theory’. As a result, Departments of Education were instituted in all provinces and universities were setup in 1857 at Madras, Calcutta and Bombay.

The main reason why British adopted some measures towards education in India was because: 1. They needed educated people to man their system of administration. It was not possible to get enough Englishmen to man all the posts. 2. Another important motive was the belief that educated Indians would help expand the market for British manufactures in India. 3.

Lastly, it was expected to reconcile the people of India to British rule.

Major drawbacks of the English education system: 1. Neglect of mass education. Mass literacy in India was hardly better in 1921 than in 1821. High fees in schools and colleges led to the education becoming a monopoly of the rich. 2. Almost total neglect of the education of girls. As late as 1921 only 2 percent Indian women could read and write. 3. Neglect of scientific and technical education. 4. The government was never willing to spend more than a scanty sum on education. Development of Education l

Charter act of 1813 p

Sanctioned 1 lakh rupees annually for promoting education and modern sciences

Not made available till 1823

Orientalist-Anglicist Controversy

Lord Macaulay’s minute (1835)

Wood’s Despatch (1854) p

Rejected the downward filtration theory

Asked the government of India to assume the responsibility of education of the masses UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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English as medium for higher studies and vernaculars at school level

1857: University of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras

Hunter Commission (1882-83) p

State care required for promotion and spread of primary and secondary education

Transfer control of primary education to district and municipal boards

Raleigh Commission, 1902

Universities Act 1904

Saddler Education Commission (1917-19)

School course should cover 12 years

Less rigidity in framing university regulations

Hartog Committee (1929) p

No hasty expansion or compulsion of education

Wardha Scheme of basic education (1937) p

Vocation based education

INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT Introduction l

Indian national movement: One of the biggest. Inspired many others.

Gandhian Political Strategy very important.

Elements of Gandhian Strategy can be seen in the Solidarity Movement in Poland by Lech Walesa WHY IS THE INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT UNIQUE

In the Indian national movement, the Gramscian perspective of war of position was successfully practiced.

It provides the only historical example of a semi-democratic or democratic type of political structure being successfully replaced or transformed.

State power was not seized in a moment of revolution, but through prolonged popular struggle on moral, political and ideological reserves.

It is also an example of how the constitutional space offered by the existing structure could be used without getting coopted by it.

Diverse perspectives and ideologies

Why Study National Movement? l

The path that India has followed since 1947 has deep roots in the struggle for independence.

Outstanding Features Of The Freedom Struggle l

Values and modern ideals on which it was based

Vision of the leaders: democratic, civil libertarian and secular India, based on a self-reliant, egalitarian social order and an independent foreign policy

The movement popularized democratic ideas and institutions in India

The strong civil libertarian and democratic tradition of the national movement was reflected in the constitution of independent India.

Pro-poor orientation

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Secular

A non-racist, anti-imperialist outlook which continues to characterize Indian foreign policy was the part of the legacy of the anti-imperialist struggle.

India’s freedom struggle was basically the result of fundamental contradiction between the interests of the Indian people and that of British colonialism.

Revolt of 1857 l

During the Governor-General Lord Canning

May 11, 1857. The Meerut incident. Capture of Delhi. Proclaiming B S Jazar as the emperor.

Almost half the Company’s sepoy strength of 232224 opted out of their loyalty to their regimental colours.

Kanpur: Nana Saheb; Lucknow: Begum Hazrat Mahal; Bareilly: Khan Bahadur; Jagdishpur (Ara): Kunwar Singh; Jhansi: Rani Lakshmi Bai

Only the Madras army remained totally loyal. Sikh regiment as well remained largely loyal.

Causes for the revolt The revolt was a result of the accumulated grievances of the people against Company’s administration and a loathing for the character and policies of the colonial rule. The causes can be classified as social, economic, religious and military. Why Did The Sepoys Revolt? l

The conditions of service in the Company’s army and cantonments increasingly came into conflict with the religious beliefs and prejudices of the sepoys.

The unhappiness of the sepoys first surfaced in 1824 when the 47th Regiment of Barrackpur was ordered to go to Burma. To the religious Hindu, crossing the sea meant loss of caste. The sepoys refused. The regiment was disbanded and those who led the opposition were hanged.

The rumors about the Government’s secret designs to promote conversions to Christianity further exasperated the sepoys.

The greased cartridges

They were also unhappy with the emoluments

Discrimination and racism

Misery brought to the peasants by the British rule. E.g. the land revenue system imposed in Oudh, where about 75000 sepoys came from, was very harsh.

The civilians also participated

After the capture of Delhi, a letter was issued to the neighboring states asking for support.

A court of administrators was established in Delhi

Ill-equipped, the rebels carried on the struggle for about a year

The country as a whole was not behind them. The merchants, intelligentsia and Indian rulers not only kept aloof but actively supported the British.

Almost half the Indian soldiers not only did not revolt but fought against their own countrymen.

Apart from a commonly shared hatred for alien rule, the rebels had no political perspective or definite vision of the future UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Delhi fell on September 20, 1857.

Rani of Jhansi died fighting on June 17, 1858

Nana Saheb escaped to Nepal hoping to revive the struggle.

Kunwar Singh died on May 9, 1958

Tantia tope carried on guerrilla warfare until April 1959 after which he was betrayed by a zamindar, captured and put to death.

Important Persons relating to the Revolt Bahadur Shah Zafar: BSZ was the last Mughal emperor of India. Nana Saheb Rani Lakshmi Bai Kunwar Singh Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Birjis Qadr: The son of Wajid Ali Shah and the leader of the revolt in Lucknow. Shah Mal: He belonged to a clan of Jat cultivators in parganan Barout in UP. During the revolt, he mobilized the headmen and cultivators of chaurasee des (84 villages: his kinship area), moving at night from village to village, urging people to rebel against the British. Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah: Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah was one of the many maulvis who played an important part in the revolt of 1857. 1856, he was seen moving from village to village preaching jehad (religious war) against the British and urging people to rebel. he was elected by the mutinous 22nd Native Infantry as their leader. He fought in the famous Battle of Chinhat in which the British forces under Henry Lawrence were defeated. Begum Hazrat Mahal Civil Rebellions and Tribal Uprisings l

The backbone of the rebellions, their mass base and striking power came from the rack-rented peasants, ruined artisans and demobilized soldiers

Causes l

The major cause of the civil rebellions was the rapid changes the British introduced in the economy, administration and land revenue system.

The revenues were enhanced by increasing taxes.

Thousands of zamindars and poligars lost control over their land and its revenue either due to the extinction of their rights by the colonial state or by the forced sale of their rights over land because of their inability to meet the exorbitant land revenue demanded.

The economic decline of the peasantry was reflected in twelve major and numerous minor famines from 1770 to 1857

The new courts and legal system gave a further fillip to the dispossessors of land and encouraged the rich to oppress the poor.

The police looted, oppressed and tortured the common people at will.

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The ruin of Indian handicraft industries pauperized millions of artisans

The scholarly and priestly classes were also active in inciting hatred and rebellion against foreign rule.

Very foreign character of the British rule

Rebellions l

From 1763 to 1856, there were more than forty major rebellions apart from hundreds of minor ones.

Sanyasi Rebellion: (1763-1800)

Chuar uprising (1766-1772 & 1795-1816); Rangpur and Dinajpur (1783); Bishnupur and Birbhum (1799); Orissa zamindars (1804-17) and Sambalpur (1827-40) and many others

Why Failed? l

These rebellions were local in their spread and were isolated from each other.

They were the result of local causes and grievances, and were also localized in their effects.

Socially, economically and politically, the semi-feudal leaders of these rebellions were backward looking and traditional in outlook.

The suppression of the civil rebellions was a major reason why the revolt of 1857 did not spread to South India and most of Eastern and Western India.

Tribal Uprisings : Causes l

The colonial administrators ended their relative isolation and brought them fully within the ambit of colonialism.

Introduced new system of land revenue and taxation of tribal products

Influx of Christian missionaries into the tribal areas

They could no longer practice shifting agriculture

Oppression and extortion by police officials

The complete disruption of the old agrarian order of the tribal communities provided the common factor for all the tribal uprisings

Uprisings l

Santhals

Kols of Chhotanagpur (1820-37)

Birsa Munda (1899-1900)

Peasant Uprisings l

Many dispossessed peasants took to robbery and dacoity.

Indigo Revolt of 1859-60

By the end of 1860 indigo cultivation was virtually wiped out from the districts of Bengal

A major reason for the success of the Indigo revolt was the tremendous initiative, cooperation, organization and discipline of the ryots.

Another was the complete unity among Hindu and Muslim peasants UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Another significant feature was the role of intelligentsia of Bengal which organized a powerful campaign in support of the rebellious peasantry.

The government’s response to the revolt was rather restrained and not as harsh as in the case of civil rebellions and tribal uprisings.

The government appointed the Indigo Commission to enquire into the problems of indigo cultivation. The report of the commission exposed the coercion and corruption in indigo cultivation

The government issued a notification in November 1960 that ryots could not be compelled to sow indigo and all disputes were to be settled by legal means.

Why did national movement arise? l

Indian nationalism rose to meet the challenges of foreign domination

The British rule and its direct and indirect consequences provided the material and the moral and intellectual conditions for the development of a national movement in India.

Clash of interest between the interests of the Indian people with British interests in India

Increasingly, the British rule became the major cause of India’s economic backwardness

Every class gradually discovered that their interests were suffering at the hands of the British p

Peasant: Govt took a large part of produce away as land revenue. Laws favoured the Zamindars

Artisans: Foreign competition ruined the industry

Workers: The government sided with the capitalists

Intelligentsia: They found that the British policies were guided by the interests of British capitalists and were keeping the country economically backward. Politically, the British had no commitment of guiding India towards self-government.

Indian capitalists: the growth of Indian industries was constrained by the unfavourable trade, tariff, taxation and transport policies of the government.

Zamindars, landlords and princes were the only ones whose interests coincided with those of the British. Hence they remained loyal to them.

Hence, it was the intrinsic nature of foreign imperialism and its harmful effect on the lives of the Indian people that led to the rise of the national movement. This movement could be called the national movement because it united people from different parts of the country as never before for a single cause.

What factors strengthened and facilitated the national movement? l

Administration and Economic Unification of the country p

Introduction of modern trade and industries on all-India scale had increasingly made India’s economic life a single whole and interlinked the economic fate of people living in different parts of the country.

Introduction of railways, telegraph and unified postal system brought together different parts of the country and promoted contact among people like never before.

This unification led to the emergence of the Indian nation

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Western Thought and Education p

A large number of Indians imbibed a modern rational, secular, democratic and nationalist political outlook

They began to study, admire and emulate the contemporary nationalist movements of European nations

The western education per se did not create the national movement. It only enabled the educated Indians to imbibe western thought and thus to assume the leadership of the national movement and to give it a democratic and modern direction

Modern education created a certain uniformity and community of outlook and interests among the education Indians.

Role of Press and Literature p

Large number of nationalist newspapers appeared in the second half of the 19th century

They criticized the policies of the British government and put forth the Indian point of view

National literature in form of essays, novels and poetry also played an important role. Bamkin Chandra, Tagore: Bengali; Bhartendu Harishchandra: Hindi; Lakshmikanth Bezbarua: Assamese; Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar: Marathi; Subramanya Bharti: Tamil; Altaf Husain Hali: Urdu

Rediscovery of India’s past p

The British had lowered the self confidence of the Indian through the propaganda that Indians are incapable of self-government

Nationalist leaders referred to the cultural heritage of India to counter this propaganda. They referred to political achievements of rulers like Ashoka, Chandragupta Vikramaditya and Akbar.

However, some nationalists went to the extent of glorifying the past uncritically. They emphasized on the achievements of ancient India and not medieval India. This encouraged the growth of communal sentiments.

Racial arrogance of the rulers p

Englishmen adopted a tone of racial superiority in their dealings with the Indians

Failure of justice whenever an Englishman was involved in a dispute with an Indian.

Indians kept out of European clubs and often were not permitted to travel in same compartment as Englishmen

Rise of Indian National Congress Predecessors of INC l

East India Association p

By Dadabhai Naoroji in 1866 in London

To discuss the Indian question and to influence the British public men to discuss Indian welfare

Branches of the association in prominent Indian cities

Indian Association p

Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose in 1876, Calcutta UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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The aim of creating strong public opinion in the country on political questions and the unification of the Indian people on a common political programme

Poona Sarvajanik Sabha p

Madras Mahajan Sabha p

Viraraghavachari, Anand Charloo, G Subramanian Aiyer, 1884

Bombay Presidency Association p

Justice Ranade, 1870

Pherozshah Mehta, K T Telang, Badruddin Tyabji, 1885

These organizations were narrow in their scope and functioning. They dealt mostly with local questions and their membership were confined to a few people belonging to a single city or province

Indian National Congress l

Indian National Congress was founded on 28 December 1885 by 72 political workers. A O Hume was the first secretary and was instrumental in establishing the Congress

First session in Bombay. President: W C Bonnerjee

With the formation of INC, the Indian National Movement was launched in a small but organized manner

The Congress itself was to serve not as a party but as a movement

Congress was democratic. The delegates to INC were elected by different local organizations and groups

Sovereignty of the people

In 1890, Kadambini Ganguli, the first woman graduate of Calcutta University addressed the Congress session

Safety Valve Theory p

The INC was started under the official direction, guidance and advice of Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy, to provide a safe, mild, peaceful and constitutional outlet or safety valve for the rising discontent among the masses, which was inevitably leading towards a popular and violent revolution.

Does the safety valve theory explain the formation of Congress? l

The safety valve theory is inadequate and misleading

INC represented the urge of the Indian educated class to set up a national organization to work for their political and economic development

A number of organizations, as mentioned above, had already been started by the Indians towards that end

Hume’s presence in Congress was used to allay official suspicions

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Vernacular Press Act, 1878

Ilbert Bill (1883) which would allow Indian judges to try Europeans was opposed by the European community and was finally enacted in a highly compromised state in 1884.

The Indians realized that they could not get the Ilbert bill passed because they were not united on all India level. Hence need for INC was felt.

In order to give birth to the national movement p

Creation of national leadership was important

Collective identification was created

Aims of INC l

Promotion of friendly relations between nationalist political workers from different parts of the country

Development and consolidation of the feeling of national unity irrespective of caste, religion or province

Formulation of popular demands and their presentation before the government

Training and organization of public opinion in the country

The first major objective of the Indian national movement was to promote weld Indians into a nation, to create an Indian identity

Fuller development and consolidation of sentiments of national unity p

Efforts for unity: In an effort to reach all regions, it was decided to rotate the congress session among different parts of the country. The President was to belong to a region other than where the congress session was being held.

To reach out to the followers of all religions and to remove the fears of the minorities, a rule was made at the 1888 session that no resolution was to be passed to which an overwhelming majority of Hindu or Muslim delegates objected.

In 1889, a minority clause was adopted in the resolution demanding reform of legislative councils. According to the clause, wherever Parsis, Christians, Muslims or Hindus were a minority their number elected to the councils would not be less than their proportion in the population.

p l

To build a secular nation, the congress itself had to be intensely secular

The second major objective of the early congress was to create a common political platform or programme around which political workers in different parts of the country could gather and conduct their political activities. p

Due to its focus solely on political issues congress did not take up the question of social reform.

Since this form of political participation was new to India, the arousal, training, organization and consolidation of public opinion was seen as a major task by the congress leaders. p

Going beyond the redressal of immediate grievances and organize sustained political activity.

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Early nationalists believed that a direct struggle for the political emancipation of the country was not yet on the agenda of history. On agenda was: p

Creation of public interest in political questions and the organization of public opinion

Popular demands had to be formulated on a country-wide basis

National unity had to be created. Indian nationhood had to be carefully promoted.

Early national leaders did not organize mass movement against the British. But they did carry out an ideological struggle against them. (Important from a Gramscian perspective)

Economic critique of imperialism

Economic critique of imperialism was the most important contribution of the early nationalists

They recognized that the essence of British economic imperialism lay in the subordination of the Indian economy to the British economy

They complained of India’s growing poverty and economic backwardness and the failure of modern industry and agriculture to grow

They wanted the government to promote modern industries through tariff protection and direct government aid

Popularized the idea of swadeshi and the boycott of British goods

They propounded the ‘drain of wealth’ theory and demanded that this drain be stopped

Demanded reduction of taxes and land revenue

Condemned the high military expenditure

Constitutional reforms p

They were extremely cautious. From 1885 to 1892 they demanded the expansion and reform of the Legislative Councils

Due to their demands, the British passed the Indian Councils Act of 1892

They failed to broaden the base of their democratic demands. Did not demand the right to vote for the masses or for women

Administrative and other reforms p

They demanded Indianisation of the higher grades of the administrative services.

They had economic political reasons for this. Economically, appointment of British only to ICS made Indian administration costly because they were paid very high. Politically, appointment of Indians would make the administration more responsive to Indian needs

Demanded separation of the judicial from executive powers so that the people might get some protection from the arbitrary acts of the police and the bureaucracy.

Urged the government to undertake and develop welfare activities and education

Defense of Civil Rights

Methods of work of early nationalists l

Dominated by moderates till 1905

Method of moderates: Constitutional agitation within the four walls of the law, and slow, orderly political progress. Their work had two pronged direction:

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To build a strong public opinion in India to arouse the political consciousness and national spirit of the people, and to educate and unite them on political questions

They wanted to persuade the British government and British public opinion to introduce reforms along directions laid down by the nationalists.

In 1889, a British Committee of the INC was founded. In 1890 this committee started a journal called India.

What about the role of the masses? l

The basic weakness of the early national movement lay in its narrow social base.

The leaders lacked political faith in the masses.

Hence, masses were assigned a passive role in the early phase of the national movement.

Evaluation l

The basic objectives of the early nationalist leaders were to lay the foundations of a secular and democratic national movement, to politicize and politically educate the people, to form the headquarters of the movement, that is, to form an all-India leadership group, and to develop and propagate an anti-colonial nationalist ideology.

Very few of the reforms for which the nationalists agitated were introduced by the government

It succeeded in creating a wide national awakening and arousing the feeling of nationhood. It made the people conscious of the bonds of common political, economic and social interests and the existence of a common enemy in imperialism

They exposed the true character of the British rule through their economic critique.

All this was to become a base for the national movement in the later period.

Why Hume ? l

The leaders assumed that the rulers would be less suspicious and less likely to attack a potentially subversive organization if its chief organizer was a retired British civil servant.

Gokhale himself stated explicitly in 1913 that if any Indian had started such a movement the officials wouldn’t have let it happen.

Socio-religious reforms l

The socio-religious reforms are also referred to as the Indian renaissance

The socio-cultural regeneration in nineteenth century India was occasioned by the colonial presence, but not created by it.

Formation of the Brahmo Samaj in 1828.

Paramhansa Mandali, Prathna Samaj, Arya Samaj, Kayasth Sabha: UP, Sarin Sabha: Punjab, Satya Sodhak Samaj: Maharashtra, Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Sabha: Kerala

Ahmadiya and Aligarh Movements: Muslims, Singh Sabha: Sikhs, Rehnumai Mazdeyasan Sabha: Parsees

Their attention was focused on worldly existence.

The idea of otherworldliness and salvation were not a part of their agenda. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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At that time the influence of religion and superstition was overwhelming. Position of priests strong; that of women weak.

Caste was another debilitating factor

Neither a revival of the past nor a total break with tradition was contemplated.

Rationalism and religious universalism influenced the reform movement.

Development of universalistic perspective on religion

Lex Loci Act propsed in 1845 and passed in 1850 provided the right to inherit ancestral property to Hindu converts to Christianity.

The culture faced a threat from the colonial rule.

Apart from the Brahmo Samaj , which has branches in several part s of the country, the Paramahansa Mandali and the Prarthana Samaj in Maharashtra and the Arya Samaj in Punjab and North India were some of the prominent movement s among the Hindus. There were several other regional and caste movements like the Kayasth Sabha in Uttar Pradesh and the Sarin Sabha in Punjab. The backward castes al so started the work of reformat ion with the Satya Sodhak Samaj in Maharashtra and the Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Sabha in Kerala. The Ahmadiya and Aligarh movements, the Singh Sabha and the Rehnumai Mazdeyasan Sabha represented the spirit of reform among the Muslims, the Sikhs and the Parsees respectively.

Rejecting supernatural explanations, Raja Rammohan Roy affirmed the principle of causality l inking the whole phenomenal universe. To him demonstrability was the sole criterion of truth.

In the Brahmo Samaj, it led to the repudiation of the infallibility of the Vedas, and in the Aligarh Movement, to the reconciliation of the teachings of Islam with the needs of the modern age.

In advocating widow marriage and opposing polygamy and child marriage, Akshay Kumar was not

Concerned about religious sanction or whether they existed in the past . His argument s were mainly based on their effect s on society. Instead of depending on the scriptures, he cited medical opinion against child marriage.

To Gopal Hari Deshmukh, popularly known as Lokahitavadi, whether social reforms had the sanction of religion was immaterial. If religion did not sanction these, he advocated that religion itself should be changed as it was made by man and what was laid down in the scriptures need not necessarily be of contemporary relevance.

Raja Rammohan Roy considered different religions as national embodiment s of universal theism. The Brahmo Samaj was initially conceived by him as a Universalist church. He was a defender of the basic and universal principles of all religions — the monotheism of the Vedas and the unitarianism of Christianity — and at the same time at tacked polytheism of Hinduism and the trinitarianism of Christianity. Syed Ahmed Khan echoed the same idea: all prophets had the same din (faith) and every country and nation had different prophets.

Ranade, Dayanand and Vivekananda denounced the existing system of caste in no uncertain terms. While the reform movement s generally stood for its abolition, Dayanand gave a utopian explanation for chaturvarna (four-fold varna division of Hindu society) and sought to maintain it on the basis of virtue. ‘He deserves to be a Brahman who has acquired the best knowledge and character,’ and an ignorant person is fit to be classed as a shudra,’ he argued.

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Understandably the most virulent opposition to caste came from lower caste movements.

Jyotiba Phule and Narayana Guru were two unrelenting critics of the caste system and its consequences. A conversation between Gandhi ji and Narayana Guru is significant. Gandhi ji , in an obvious reference to Chaturvarna and the inherent differences in quality between man and man, observed that all leaves of the same tree are not identical in shape and texture. To this Narayana Guru pointed out that the difference is only superficial, but not in essence: the juice of all leaves of a particular tree would be the same in content.

It was he who gave the call — ‘one religion, one caste and one God for mankind’ which one of his disciples, Sahadaran Ayyapan, changed into ‘no religion, no caste and no God for mankind.’

But the reformers were aiming at modernization rather than westernization.

The general resentment against the Lex-Loci Act. (The Act proposed in 1845 and passed in 1850 provided the right to inherit ancestral property to Hindu convert s to Christianity).

Economical Analysis of British India l

First, the Indian intellectuals co-operated with the British in the hope that British would help modernize India.

However, the reality of social development in India failed to conform to their hopes.

Three people who carried out the economic analysis of British India: p

Dadabhai Naoroji: the grand old man of India. Born in 1825, he became a successful businessman but devoted his entire life and wealth to the creation of national movement in India

Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade: He taught an entire generation of Indians the value of modern industrial development.

Romesh Chandra Dutt: a retired ICS officer, published The Economic History of India at the beginning of the 20th century in which he examined in minute detail the entire economic record of colonial rule since 1757.

They concluded that colonialism was the main obstacle to India’s economic development.

Three aspects of domination of British: trade, industry, finance

The problem of poverty was seen as a problem of national development. This approach made poverty a broad national issue and helped to unite, instead of divide, different regions and sections of Indian society.

The early nationalists accepted that the complete economic transformation of the country on the basis of modern technology and capitalist enterprise was the primary goal of their economic policies.

Because their whole-ted devotion to the cause of industrialization, the early nationalists looked upon all other issues such as foreign trade, railways, tariffs, finance and labour legislations in relation to this paramount aspect. (and hence the obsession of Nehru with industrialization)

However great the need of India for industrialization, it had to be based on Indian capital and not foreign capital.

The early nationalists saw foreign capital as an unmitigated evil which did not develop a country but exploited and impoverished it. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Expenditure on railways could be seen as Indian subsidy to British industries.

A major obstacle in the process of industrial development was the policy of free trade

High expenditure on the army

Drain theory was the focal point of nationalist critique of colonialism.

A large part of India’a capital and wealth was being transferred or drained to Britain in the form of salaries and pensions of British civil and military officials working in India, interest on loans taken by the Indian government, profits of British capitalists in India, and the Home Charges or expenses of the Indian Government in Britain.

This drain amounted to one-half of government revenues, more than the entire land revenue collection, and over one-third of India’s total savings.

The Drain theory was put forward by Dadabhai Naoroji. He declared that the drain was the basic cause of India’s poverty.

Through the drain theory, the exploitative character of the British rule was made visible.

The drain theory possessed the merit of being easily grasped and understood by a nation of peasants. No idea could arouse people more than the thought that they were being taxed so that others in far off lands might live in comfort.

This agitation on economic issues contributed to the undermining of the ideological hegemony of the alien rulers over Indian minds.

The nationalist economic agitation undermined the moral foundations inculcated by the British that foreign rule is beneficial for India.

Freedom of Press l

On 29th January 1780, the Hickey’s Bengal Gazette or the Calcutta General Advertizer was published. It was the first English newspaper to be printed in the Indian sub-continent.

The press was the chief instrument of forming a nationalist ideology

The resolutions and proceedings of the Congress were propagated through press. Trivia: nearly one third of the founding fathers of congress in 1885 were journalists.

Main news papers and editors p

The Hindu and Swadesamitran: G Subramaniya Iyer

Kesari and Mahratta: BG Tilak

Bengalee: S N Banerjea

Amrita Bazar Patrika: Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh

Sudharak: GK Gokhale

Indian Mirror: N N Sen

Voice of India: Dadabhai Naoroji

Hindustani and Advocate: GP Varma

Tribune and Akhbar-i-Am in Punjab

Indu Prakash, Dnyan Prakahs, Kal and Gujarati in Bombay

Som Prakash, Banganivasi and Sadharani in Bengal

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Newspaper was not confined to the literates. It would reach the villages and would be read by a reader to tens of others.

Reading and discussing newspaper became a form of political participation.

Nearly all the major political controversies of the day were conducted through the Press.

‘Oppose, oppose, oppose’ was the motto of the Indian press.

The section 124A of the IPC was such as to punish a person who evoked feelings of disaffection to the government.

The Indian journalists remained outside 124A by adopting methods such as quoting the socialist and anti-imperialist newspapers of England or letters from radical British citizens

The increasing influence of the newspapers led the government to pass the Vernacular Press Act of 1978, directed only against Indian language newspapers. p

It was passed very secretively

The act provided for the confiscation of the printing press, paper and other materials of a newspaper if the government believed that it was publishing seditious materials and had flouted an official warning.

p l

Due to the agitations, it was repealed in 1881 by Lord Ripon.

SN Banerjee was the first Indian to go to jail in performance of his duty as a journalist.

B G Tilak l

The man who is most frequently associated with the struggle for the freedom of Press during the nationalist movement is Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

In 1881, along with G G Agarkar, he founded the newspapers Kesari and Mahratta.

In 1893, he started the practice of using the traditional religious Ganapati festival to propagate nationalist ideas through patriotic songs and speeches.

In 1896, he started the Shivaji festival to stimulate nationalism among young Maharashtrians.

He brought peasants and farmers into the national movement.

He organized a no-tax campaign in Maharashtra in 1896-97

Plague in Poona in 1897.

Popular resentment against the official plague measures resulted in the assassination of Rand, the Chairman of the Plague Committee in Poona, and Lt. Ayerst by the Chaphekar brothers on 27 June 1898.

Since 1894, anger had been rising against the government due to the tariff, currency and famine policy.

Tilak was arrested and sentenced to 18 month rigorous imprisonment in 1897. This led to country wide protests and Tilak was given the title of Lokmanya.

Tilak was again arrested and tried on 24 June 1908 on the charge of sedition under article 124A. He was sentenced to 6 years of transportation. This led to nationwide protests and closing down of markets for a week. Later, in 1922 Gandhi was tried on the same act and he said that he is proud to be associated with Tilak’s name. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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The Indian Councils Act of 1861 enlarged the Governor-General’s Executive Council for the purpose of making laws.

The GG could add 6-12 members to the Executive Council. This came to be known as the Imperial Legislative Council. It didn’t have any powers.

‘Despotism controlled from home’ was the fundamental feature of British rule in India.

The Indians nominated to the council were not representative of the nationalist movement.

Despite the early nationalists believing that India should eventually become self-governing, they moved very cautiously in putting forward political demands regarding the structure of the state, for they were afraid of the Government declaring their activities seditious and disloyal and suppressing them.

Till 1892, they only demanded reforms in the council.

The Swadeshi Movement: 1903-1908 Nationalist Movement 1905-1918 Reasons for the growth of militant nationalism (this is different from revolutionary terrorism) Disillusionment of the nationalists with moderate policies l

The moderates thought that the British could be reformed from within

Politically conscious Indians were convinced that the purpose of the British rule was to exploit India economically

The nationalists realized that Indian industries could not flourish except under an Indian government

Disastrous famines from 1896 to 1900 took a toll of over 90 lakh lives

The Indian Councils Act of 1892 was a disappointment

The Natu brothers were deported in 1897 without trial

In 1897 B G Tilak was sentenced to long term imprisonment for arousing the people against the government

In 1904, the Indian Official Secrets Act was passed restricting the freedom of the Press

Primary and technical education was not making any progress

Thus, increasing number of Indians were getting convinced that self-government was essential for the sake of economic, political and cultural progress of the country

Growth of Self-respect and self-confidence l

Tilak, Aurobindo and Pal preached the message of self-respect

They said to the people that remedy to their condition lay in their own hand and they should therefore become strong

Swami Vivekananda’s messages

Growth of education and unemployment International Influences l

Rise of modern Japan after 1868

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Defeat of the Italian army by the Ethiopians in 1896 and of Russia by Japan in 1905 exploded the myth of European superiority

Existence of a Militant Nationalist School of Thought Partition of Bengal l

With the partition of Bengal, Indian National Movement entered its second stage

On 20 July, 1905, Lord Curzon issued an order dividing the province of Bengal into two parts: Eastern Bengal and Assam with a population of 31 mn and the rest of Bengal with a population of 54 mn.

Reason given: the existing province of Bengal was too big to be efficiently administered by a single provincial government

The partition expected to weaken the nerve centre of Indian Nationalism, Bengal.

The partition of the state intended to curb Bengali influence by not only placing Bengalis under two administrations but by reducing them to a minority in Bengal itself as in the new proposed Bengal proper was to have seventeen million Bengali and thirty seven million Oriya and Hindi speaking people.

The partition was also meant to foster division on the basis of religion.

Risley, Home Secretary to the GoI, said on December 6, 1904 – ‘one of our main objects is to split up and thereby weaken a solid body of opponents to our rule.’

the nationalists saw it as a deliberate attempt to divide the Bengalis territorially and on religious grounds

The Swadeshi Movement l

The Swadeshi movement had its genesis in the anti-partition movement which was started to oppose the British decision to partition Bengal.

Mass protests were organized in opposition to the proposed partition.

Despite the protests, the decision to partition Bengal was announced on July 19, 1905

It became obvious to the nationalists that their moderate methods were not working and that a different kind of strategy was needed.

Several meetings were held in towns such as Dinajpur Pabna, Faridpur etc. It was in these meetings that the pledge to boycott foreign goods was first taken.

The formal proclamation of the Swadeshi movement was made on 7 August 1905 in a meeting held in the Calcutta town hall. The famous boycott resolution was passed.

The leaders like SN Banerjee toured the country urging the boycott of Manchester cloth and Liverpool salt.

The value of British cloth sold in some of the districts fell by five to fifteen times between September 1904 and September 1905.

The day the partition took effect – 16 October 1905 – was declared a day of mourning throughout Bengal.

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The movement soon spread to the entire country.

Militant nationalists p

The extremists were in favor of extending the movement to the rest of India and carrying it beyond the programme of just Swadeshi and boycott to a full fledged political mass struggle. The moderates were not as willing to go that far.

The differences between the extremists and moderates came to had in 1907 Surat session where the party split with serious consequences for the Swadeshi Movement.

In Bengal, the extremists acquired a dominant influence over the Swadeshi movement.

They proposed the technique of extended boycott which included, apart from boycott of foreign goods, boycott of government schools and colleges, courts, titles and government services and even the organization of strikes.

Aurobindo Ghose: Political freedom is the lifebreath of a nation.

Boycott and public burning foreign cloth, picketing of shops selling foreign goods, became common in remote corners of Bengal as well as in many towns across the country.

The militant nationslists, however, failed to give a positive leadership to the people. They also failed to reach the real masses of the country, the peasants.

The movement also innovated with considerable success different forms of mass mobilization such as public meetings, processions and corps of volunteers.

The Swadesh Bandhab Samiti set up by Ashwini Kumar Dutt, a school teacher, in Barisal was the most well known volunteer organization.

During the Swadeshi period, traditional festivals were used to reach out to the masses. The Ganapati and Shivaji festivals were popularized by Tilak. Traditional folk theatres such as jatras were also used.

Another important aspect was the great emphasis given to self-reliance or Atmasakti as a necessary part of the struggle against the government.

Self-reliance was the keyword. Campaigns for social reforms were carried out.

In 1906, the National Council for Education was setup to organize the education system.

Self-reliance also meant an effort to set up Swadeshi or indigenous enterprises.

Marked impact in the cultural sphere p

The songs composed by Rabindranath Tago, Mukunda Das and others became the moving spirit for nationalists.

Rabindranath’s ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’, written at that time, was to later inspire the liberation struggle of Bangladesh and was adopted as the national anthem of the country in 1971.

Nandalal Bose, who left a major imprint on Indian art, was the first recipient of a scholarship offered by the Indian Society of Oriental Art founded in 1907.

The social base of the national movement was now extened to include certain zamindari section, lower middle class and school and college students. Women also participated in large numbers.

Drawback: Was not able to garner the support of the mass of Muslims, especially the muslim peasantry. The British policy of communalism responsible for this.

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By mid-1908, the movement was almost over. The main reasons were: p

The government, seeing the revolutionary potential of the movement, came down with a heavy hand.

The split of the congress in 1907 had weakened the movement.

The movement lacked an effective organization and party structure.

The movement decline dpartially because of the logic of the mass movements itself – they cannot be endlessly sustained at the same pitch of militancy and self-sacrifice.

The anti-partition movement, however, marked a great revolutionary leap forward for Indian nationalism.

The decline of Swadeshi engendered the rise of revolutionary terrorism.

Assessing the movement p

Cultural impact

Social Impact

Economic impact

Role of students and Women

All India aspect of the movement

From passive protest to active boycott

Revolutionary Terrorism l

Revolutionary young men did not try to generate a mass revolution. Instead they followed the strategy of assassinating unpopular officials

1904: VD Savarkar organized Abhinav Bharat

Newspapers like The Sandhya and Yugaantar in Bengal and the Kal in Maharashtra advocated revolutionary ideology

Kingsford Incident: In 1908, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki threw bomb at a carriage they believed was carrying Kingsford, the unpopular judge of Muzaffarpur.

Anushilan Samiti threw a bomb at the Viceroy Lord Hardinge

Centres abroad

In London: led by VD Savarkar, Shyamaji Krishnavarma and Har Dayal

In Europe: Madam Cama and Ajit Singh

They gradually petered out. It did not have any base among the people

The Split in the Congress l

Moderates were successful to some extent.

Moderates failed in many aspects. Why? p

They could not acquire any roots among common people.

They believed that they could persuade the rulers to change their policies. However, their achievement in this regard was meager.

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They could not keep pace with the events. They failed to meet the demands of the new stage of the national movement.

The British were keen on finishing the Congress because: p

However moderate the leaders were, they were still nationalists and propagators of anticolonialist ideas.

The British felt that moderates led congress could be finished off easily because it did not have a popular base

In the swadeshi movement, all sections of INC united in opposing the Partition p

However, there was much difference between the moderates and the extremists about the methods and scope of the movement

The extremists wanted to extend the Swadeshi and Boycott movement from Bengal to the rest of the country and to boycott every form of association with the colonial government

The moderates wanted to confine the boycott movement to Bengal and even there to limit it to the boycott of foreign goods

After the Swadeshi movement the British adopted a three pronged approach to deal with congress. Repression-conciliation-suppression. p

The extremists were reppressed

The moderates were conciliated thus giving them an impression that their further demands would be met if they disassociated from the extremists. The idea was to isolate the extremists.

Once the moderates and extremists were separate the extremists could be suppressed through the use of state force while the moderates could later be ignored.

The congress session was held on December 26, 1907 at Surat, on the banks of the river Tapti. p

The extremists wanted a guarantee that the four Calcutta resolutions will be passed.

They objected to the duly elected president of the year, Rash Behari Ghose.

There was a confrontation with hurling of chairs and shoes.

The government launched a massive attack on the extremists. Newspapers were suppressed. Tilak was sent to Mandalay jail for six years.

The extremists were not able to organize an effective alternative party or to sustain the movement.

After 1908 the national movement as a whole declined.

The moderates and the country as a whole were disappointed by the 1909 Minto-Morley reforms p

The number of indirectly elected members of the Imperial and provincial legislative councils was increased.

Separate electorates for Muslims were introduced.

With the split of Congress revolutionary terrorism rose.

In 1904 V D Savarkar organized Abhinav Bharat as a secret society of revolutionaries

In April 1908, Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose threw a bomb at a carriage which they believed was occupied by Kingsford the unpopular judge at Muzzafarpur.

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Anushilan Samity and Jugantar were two most important revolutionary groups.

An assessment of the split p

The split did not prove useful to either party

The British played the game of divide and rule

To placate the moderates they announced the Morley-Minto reforms which did not satisfy the demands of the nationalists. They also annulled the partition of Bengal in 1911.

Morley-Minto Reforms, 1909 l

Increased the number of elected members in the Imperial Legislative Council and the provincial council

However, most of the elected members were elected indirectly

The reformed councils still enjoyed no real power, being merely advisory bodies.

Introduced separate electorates under which all Muslims were grouped in separate constituencies from which Muslims alone could be elected. This was aimed at dividing the Hindus and Muslims. It was based on the notion that the political and economic interests of Hindus and Muslims were separate.

This later became a potent factor in the growth of communalism

It isolated the Muslims from the Nationalist Movement and encouraged separatist tendencies

The real purpose of the reforms was to confuse the moderate nationalists, to divide nationalist ranks and to check the growth of unity among Indians

Response of Moderates p

They realized that the reforms had not granted much

However, they decided to cooperate with the government in working the reforms

This led to their loss of respect among the nationalists and masses

Growth of Communalism l

Definition p

Communalism is the belief that because a group of people follow a particular religion they have, as a result, common secular, that is, social, political and economic interests.

Second stage: Secular interests of followers of one religion are dissimilar and divergent from the interests of the followers of another religion

Third stage: The interests of the followers of different religions or of different religious communities are seen to be mutually incompatible, antagonistic and hostile.

Communalism is not a remnant of the medieval period. It has its roots in the modern colonial socioeconomic political structure.

Divide and Rule p

After 1857, British initially suppressed Indian muslims. However, after the publishing of Hunter’s book ‘The Indian Mussalman’ they actively followed the policy of divide and rule and hence started supporting the Muslims. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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They promoted provincialism by talking of Bengal domination

Tired to use the caste structure to turn the non-brahmins against Brahmins and the lower caste against the higher castes.

p l

It readily accepted communal leaders as authentic representatives of all their co-religionists.

Reasons for growth of communal tendencies in Muslims p

Relative backwardness: educationally and economically

Muslim League l

1906 by Aga Khan, the Nawab of Dhaka, and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk

It made no critique of colonialism, supported the partition of Bengal and demanded special safeguards for the Muslims in government services.

ML’s political activities were directed not against the foreign rulers but against the Hindus and the INC.

Their activities were not supported by all Muslims p

Arhar movement was founded at this time under the leadership of Maulana Mohamed Ali, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Hasan Imam, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, and Mazhar-ul-Haq. They advocated participation in the militant nationalist movement.

Muslim Nationalists l

The war between Ottoman Empire and Italy created a wave of sympathy for Turkey

During the war between Ottoman empire and Italy, India sent a medical mission headed by MA Ansari to help Turkey.

As the British were not sympathetic to Turkey, the pro-Caliph sentiments in India became antiBritish

However, the militant nationalists among muslims did not accept an entirely secular approach to politics

The most important issue they took up was not political independence but protection of the Turkish empire.

This approach did not immediately clash with Indian nationalism. However, in the long run it proved harmful as it encouraged the habit of looking at political questions from a religious view point.

Hindu Communalism l

Some Hindus accepted the colonial view of Indian history and talked about the tyrannical Muslim rule in the medieval period

Over language they said that Hindi was the language of Hindus and Urdu that of Muslims.

Punjab Hindu Sabha was founded in 1909. Its leaders attached the INC for trying to unite Indians into a single nation.

The first session of the All India Hindu Mahasabha was held in April 1915 under the presidentship of the Maharaja of Kasim Bazar.

It however remained a weak organization because the colonial government gave it few concessions and little support.

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Increasing number of Indians from Punjab were emigrating to North America.

The British government thought that these emigrants would be affected by the idea of liberty. Hence, they tried to restrict emigration.

Tarak Nath Das, an Indian student in Canada, started a paper called Free Hindustan.

The Hindi Association was setup in Portland in May 1913.

Under the leadership of Lala Har Dayal, a weekly paper, The Ghadar was started and a headquarters called Yugantar Ashram was set up in San Fransisco.

On November 1, 1913, the first issue of Ghadar was published in Urdu and on December 9, the Gurumukhi edition.

In 1914, three events influenced the course of the Ghadar movement: p

The arrest and escape of Har Dayal

The Komagata Maru incident

Outbreak of the first world war

Gharadites came to India and made several attempts to instill the Indian population to revolt. However, this was of no avail.

The Ghadar movement was very secular in nature.

Ghadar militants were distinguished by their secular, egalitarian, democratic and non-chauvinistic internationalist outlook.

The major weakness of the Ghadar leaders was that they completely under-estimated the extent and amount of preparation at every level – organizational, ideological, strategic, tactical, financial – that was necessary before an attempt at an armed revolt could be organized.

It also failed to generate an effective and sustained leadership that was capable of integrating the various aspects of the movement.

Another weakness was its almost non-existent organizational structure.

Some important leaders: Baba Gurmukh Singh, Kartar Singh Saraba, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Rahmat Ali Shah, Bhai Parmanand and Mohammad Barkatullah.

Inspired by the Ghadar Party, 700 soldiers at Singapore revolted under the leadership of Jamadar Chisti Khan and Subedar Dundey Khan. The rebellion was crushed.

Other revolutionaries: Jatin Mukharjee, Rash Bihari Bose, Raja Mahendra Pratab, Lala Hardayal, Abdul Rahim, Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi, Champakaraman Pillai, Sardar Singh Rana and Madame Cama

The Home Rule Movement l

After being released in 1914, Tilak sought re-entry into Congress. Annie Besant and Gokhale supported. But finally Pherozshah Mehta won and Tilak was not admitted.

Tilak and Besant decided to start the home rule movement on their own.

In early 1915, Annie Besant (and S Subramaniya Iyer) launched a campaign through her two newspapers, New India and Commonweal, and organized public meetings and conferences to demand that India be granted self-government on the lines of the White colonies after the War. From April 1915, her tone became more peremptory and her stance more aggressive. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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At the annual session of the Congress in December 1915 it was decided that the extremists be allowed to rejoin the Congress. The opposition from the Bombay group has been greatly weakened by the death of Pherozshah Mehta.

Tilak and Annie Besant set up two different home rule leagues.

Tilak’s league was to work in Maharashtra (excluding Bombay city), Karnataka, the central provinces and Berar and Annie Besant’s league was given the charged of the rest of India.

Tilak was totally secular in nature. There was no trace of religious appeal. The demand for Home Rule was made on a wholly secular basis. p

“Home rule is my birthright, and I will have it”

The British were aliens not because they belonged to another religion but because they did not act in the Indian interest

Tilak’s league was organized into six branches, one each in Central Maharashtrra, Bombay city, Karnataka, and Central Provinces, and two in Berar.

On 23rd July 1916, on Tilak’s sixtieth birthday the government sent a notice asking him to show cause why he should not be bound over for good behavior for a period of one year and demanding securities of Rs 60000

Tilak was defended by a team of lawyers led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He won. Tilak used the opportunity to further the Home Rule movement.

In Besant’s league, the main thrust of activity was directed towards building up an agitation around the demand for Home Rule. This was to be achieved by promoting political education and discussion.

Lucknow Pact: 1916 in the Congress Session at Lucknow. Also known as Congress League Pact. Extremists were accepted back in congress. An agreement was reached between Muslim League and Congress.

The turning point in the movement came with the arrest of Annie Besant in June 1917

There was wide agitation and many leaders joined the league.

The government agreed to grant self rule but the timing for such a change was to be decided by the government alone.

After the great advance in 1917, the movement gradually dissolved. p

The moderates were pacified by the government’s assurance of reforms after Besant’s release.

The publication of scheme of government reforms in July 1918 further created divisions. Many rejected it while others were for giving it a trial.

Later, Tilak went to England to fight a case. With Besant unable to give a firm lead, and Tilak away in England, the movement was left leaderless.

Achievements of the movement p

The achievement of the Home Rule movement was that it created a generation of ardent nationalists who formed the backbone of the national movement in the coming years.

The Home rule leagues also created organizational links between town and country which were to prove invaluable in later years.

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By popularizing the idea of self-government, it generated a widespread pro-nationalist atmosphere in the country.

The movement set the right mood for the entry of Mahatma Gandhi and take the leadership.

Lucknow Pact (1916) l

Nationalists saw that their disunity was affecting their cause

Two important developments at the Lucknow Session of Congress p

The two wings of the Congress were again united

The Congress and the Muslim League sank their old differences and put up common political demands before the government.

INC and ML passed the same resolutions at their sessions, put forward a joint scheme of political reforms based on separate electorates, and demanded that the British Government should make a declaration that it would confer self-government on India at an early date.

The pact accepted the principle of separate electorates

Main clauses of the pact p

There shall be self-government in India.

Muslims should be given one-third representation in the central government.

There should be separate electorates for all the communities until a community demanded joint electorates.

A system of weightage should be adopted.

The number of the members of Central Legislative Council should be increased to 150.

At the provincial level, four-fifth of the members of the Legislative Councils should be elected and one-fifth should be nominated.

The size of provincial legislatures should not be less than 125 in the major provinces and from 50 to 75 in the minor provinces.

All members, except those nominated, should be elected directly on the basis of adult franchise.

No bill concerning a community should be passed if the bill is opposed by three-fourth of the members of that community in the Legislative Council.

The term of the Legislative Council should be five years.

Members of Legislative Council should themselves elect their president.

Half of the members of Imperial Legislative Council should be Indians.

The Indian Council must be abolished.

The salaries of the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs should be paid by the British government and not from Indian funds.

Of the two Under Secretaries, one should be Indian.

The Executive should be separated from the Judiciary. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Evaluation p

As an immediate effect, the unity between the two factions of the congress and between INC and ML aroused great political enthusiasm in the country

However, it did not involve Hindu and Muslim masses and was based on the notion of bringing together the educated Hindus and Muslims as separate political entities without secularization of their political outlook

The pact therefore left the way open to the future resurgence of communalism in Indian politics.

Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms p

Provincial LC enlarged. More elected members

Dyarchy u

Some subjects were reserved and remained under the direct control of the Governor; others such as education, public health and local self-government were called transferred subjects and were to be controlled by the ministers responsible to the legislature.

At the centre, there were two houses of legislature.

Response of nationalists u

INC condemned the reforms as disappointing and unsatisfactory

Some others , led by Surendranath Banerjea, were in favour of accepting the government proposals. They left the Congress at this time and founded the Indian Liberal Federation

Evaluation u

The governor could overrule the ministers on any grounds that he considered special

The legislature had virtually no control over the Governor-General and his Executive Council.

The central government had unrestricted control over the provincial governments

Rowlatt Act l

March 1919

It authorized the Government to imprison any person without trial and conviction in a court of law.

Gandhi’s early career and activism l

Gandhi was the first Indian barrister to have come to South Africa.

He was faced with various racial discriminations within days of his arrival in SA.

He led the Indian struggle in SA.

The first phase of Gandhi’s political activities from 1894-1906 may be classified as the ‘moderate’ phase.

He set up the Natal Indian Congress and started a paper called Indian Opinion.

By 1906, Gandhiji, having fully tried the ‘Moderate’ methods of struggle, was becoming convinced that these would not lead anywhere.

The second phase, begun in 1906, was characterized by the use of passive resistance, Satyagraha. There was no fear of jails.

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South Africa prepared Gandhiji for leadership of the Indian national struggle: p

He had the invaluable experience of leading poor Indian labourers.

SA built up his faith in the capacity of the Indian masses to participate in and sacrifice for a cause that moved them.

Gandhiji also had the opportunity of leading Indians belonging to different religions.

South Africa provided Gandhiji with an opportunity for evolving his own style of politics and leadership.

Gandhi returned to India on January 9, 1915

He founded the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad in 1916

Initially he was politically idle. He spent his time studying the situation of the country.

He was deeply convinced that the only viable method of political struggle was satyagraha.

During the course of 1917 and early 1918, he was involved in three significant struggles – in Champaran in Bihar, in Ahmedabad and in Kheda in Gujarat. The common feature of these struggles was that they related to specific local issues and that they were fought for the economic demands of the masses.

Champaran Satyagraha (1917)

Peasantry on the indigo plantations in Champaran, Bihar was excessively oppressed by the Eurpoean planters.

On the invitation of the peasants he went to Champaran and began to conduct a detailed inquiry into the condition of the peasantry

The government was forced to set up a committee with Gandhi as one of the members. The sufferings of the peasants was reduced.

Others in this movement: Rajendra Prasad, Mazhar-ul-Haq, J B Kriplani, Narhari Parekh and Mahadev Desai.

Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918) p

Dispute between workers and mill owners

Gandhi advised workers to go on a non-violent strike. He himself took to fast

Owners yielded and gave a 35 percent increase in wages to the workers

Kheda Satyagraha (1918) p

Despite crop failure in Kheda the government insisted on full land revenue

Gandhi advised the peasants to withhold payment.

Govt issued instructions that revenue should be collected from only those farmers who could afford to pay

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played a major role in this satyagraha.

Impact of these early experiences p

Brought Gandhiji in close contact with the masses

He identified his life and manner of living with the life of the common people

He had three main aims p

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Fight against untouchability

Raising the social status of the women

Gandhiji’s first major nation-wide protest was against the Rowlatt Bills in 1919. He formed the Satyagraha Sabha whose members took a pledge to disobey the Act and thus to court arrest and imprisonment.

Satyagraha was launched. The form of protest finally decided was the observance of a nationwide hartal accompanied by fasting and prayer.

However, protests were generally accompanied by violence and disorder.

In Punjab, the situation was particularly violent. Genral Dyer was called to control the situation. On 13 April, Baisakhi Day, General Dyer ordered to open fire on unarmed crowd in Jallianwala Bagh. The government estimate was 379 dead, other estimates were considerably higher.

Gandhiji, overwhelmed by the total atmosphere of violence, withdrew the movement on 18 April.

Difference between earlier methods of struggle and satyagraha p

Earlier, the movement had confined its struggle to agitation. They used to hold meetings, demonstrate, boycott etc

Through Satyagraha they could act now.

The new movement relied increasingly on the political support of the peasants, artisans and urban poor.

p l

Gandhiji increasingly turned the face of nationalism towards the common man

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre p

On April 13, 1919 a large crowd had gathered in Amritsar to protest against the arrest of their leaders, Dr. Saifudding Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal

General Dyer opened fire

Widespread criticism. Tagore returned his knighthood.

Non Co-operation Movement l

Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms 1919: Dyarchy

In a system called "dyarchy," the nation-building departments of government — agriculture, education, public works, and the like — were placed under ministers who were individually responsible to the legislature. The departments that made up the "steel frame" of British rule — finance, revenue, and home affairs — were retained by executive councillors who were nominated by the Governor.

The Hunter Committee report praised the actions of general Dyer.

Khilafat Movement p

For support of Turkey

Khilafat Committee formed under the leadership of Ali Brothers, Maulana Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Hasrat Mohani

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The promises made to the Khilafat Committee were not kept after the World War.

The All-India Khilafat Conference held at Delhi in November 1919 decided to withdraw all cooperation from the government if their demands were not met.

On June 9 1920, the Khilafat Committee at Allahabad unanimously accepted the suggestion of non-cooperation and asked Gandhiji to lead the movement.

Khilafat movement cemented Hindu-Muslim unity p

Gandhiji looked upon the Khilafat agitation as “an opportunity of uniting Hindus and Mohammedans as would not arise in a hundred years”

The non-cooperation movement was launched on August 1, 1920. Lokmanya Tilak passed away on the same day.

People countrywide observed hartal and took out processions.

The congress met in September at Calcutta and accepted non-co-operation as its own.

The programme of non-cooperation included: p

Surrender of titles and honors

Boycott of government affiliated schools and colleges, law courts, foreign cloth and could be extended to resignation from government services.

Mass civil disobedience including the non-payment of taxes.

National schools and colleges were to be set up

Panchayats were to be established to settle disputes

Hand-spinning and weaving was encouraged

People were asked to maintain Hindu-Muslim unity, give up untouchability and observe strict non-violence.

Changes in Congress to attain the new objective: p

At the Nagpur session in 1920 changes in the Constitution of Congress were made.

The goal of congress was changed from the attainment of self-government by constitutional and legal means to the attainment of Swaraj by peaceful and legitimate means.

The Congress now had a Working Committee of fifteen members to look after its day to day affairs.

Provincial congress committees were now organized on a linguistic basis.

Mahalla and ward committees were formed.

The membership fee was reduced to 4 annas a years to enable poor to become members.

This was not without opposition however. Some members still believed in the traditional methods. Leaders like Jinnah, GS Khaparde, Bipin Chandra Pal and Annie Besant left congress during this time.

Gandhiji, along with the Ali brother, undertook a nationwide tour to address people.

Thousands of students left government schools and joined national schools.

The most successful item of the programme was the boycott of foreign cloth. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Picketing of toddy shops was also very popular.

Students let government schools and colleges. It was during this time that Jamia Milia Islamia of Aligarh, the Bihar Vidyapith, the Kashi Vidyapith and the Gujarat Vidyapith came into existence.

Lawyers such as Deshbandhu CR Das, Motilal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Saifudiin Kitchlew, C Rajagopalachari, Sardar Patel, T Prakasam and Asaf Ali gave up their legal practice.

Tilak Swarajya Fund was started to finance the NCM.

In 1921, Khilafat Committee issued a resolution that no muslim should serve in the British Indian army.

The visit of the Prince of Wales on 17th November 1921 was observed as a day of hartal all over the country.

The Congress Volunteer Corps emerged as a powerful parallel police.

By December 1921, the government felt that things were going too far and announced a change of policy by declaring the volunteer corps illegal and arresting all those who claimed to be its members.

Thousands of peasants and tenants participated in the movement.

In Punjab, the Akali movement to remove corrupt mahants from the Gurudwaras was started.

Assam: Tea plantation workers went on strike. Midnapore: peasants refused to pay Union Board taxes. Guntur (Chirala): Agitation led by Duggirala Gopalakrishayya Malabar: Mohlahs (muslim peasants) created a powerful anti-zamindari movement.

As the government refused to yield, Gandhiji announced that mass civil disobedience would begin in Bardoli taluqa of Surat.

However, in Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur on 5 February 1922 crowd set fire on a police station and killed some policemen. On hearing this, Gandhiji decided to withdraw the movement.

The congress working committee ratified his decision. Thus, on February 12, 1922, the noncooperation movement came to an end.

Assessing the Withdrawal: p

Some scholars say that Gandhiji withdrew the movement because he wanted to protect the interests of the propertied class.

Some argue that there was no logic why a small incident should lead to withdrawal of the movement itself.

However, government could use Chauri Chaura to justify its repression of the movement.

If movement was started at that time, it would have been defeated due to the repression of the government.

Gandhiji was protecting the movement from likely repression, and the people from demoralization.

Mass movements tend to ebb in some time. Hence, withdrawal is a part of the strategy of mass movements.

Gandhiji was tried in 1922 and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. p

He invited the court to award him “the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime, and what appears to be the highest duty of a citizen”.

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Positives out of the non-cooperation movement: p

Congress started commanding the support and sympathy of vast sections of the Indian people.

Millions of Indians became politically involved. Women were drawn into the movement.

Muslims participated heavily and communal unity was maintained.

Strengthened the national movement. Nationalist sentiments and the national movement had reached the remotest corners of the land.

People gained tremendous self-confidence and self-esteem.

Peasant Movements l

Three important peasant movements of the early twentieth century: p

Kisan Sabha and Eka movements in Avadh in UP

Mappila rebellion in Malabar

Bardoli Satyagrah in Gujarat

The UP Kisan Sabha was set up in February 1918 through the efforts of Gauri Shankar Mishra and Indra Narain Dwivedi with the support of Madan Mohan Malviya.

By June 1919, it had established about 450 branches in 173 tehsils of the province.

In August 1921, Mappila (Muslim) tenants rebelled. Their grievances related to lack of any security of tenure, renewal fees, high rents and other oppressive landlord exactions.

The no-tax movement was launched in Bardoli taluq of Surat district in Gujarat in 1928.

The Working Class Movements l

There were some working class movements in second half of 19th century. However, they were impulsive and not very well organized.

The early nationalists had a lukewarm attitude towards the question of workers. This war because initially Congress wanted to focus on issues, which were of common concern to all the people of India.

There was a difference in attitude of the nationalists towards workers in indigenous and European enterprises.

The most important feature of the labour movement during the Swadeshi days was the shift from agitation and struggles on purely economic questions to the involvement of the worker with the wider political issues of the day.

The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded in 1920.

In 1918 Gandhi founded the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association.

The AITUC in November 1927 took a decision to boycott the Simon Commission and many workers participated in the massive Simon boycott demonstrations.

Alarmed by worker’s movement, the government enacted repressive laws like the Public Safety Act and Trade Disputes Acts and arrested the entire radical leadership of the labour movement and launched the Meerut Conspiracy Case against them.

The labour movement suffered a major setback partially due to this government offensive and partially due to a shift in stance of the communist led wing of the movement. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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From the end of 1928, the communists stopped aligning them with the national movement.

Communists got isolated within the AITUC and were thrown out in the split of 1931.

By 1934, the communists re-entered the mainstream nationalist politics.

The working class of Bombay held an anti-war strike on 2 October, 1939.

With the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, the communists changed their policy and asked the people to support the allied forces instead of holding anti-war strikes.

The communists dissociated themselves from the Quit India movement launched in 1942.

The last years of colonial rule also saw a remarkably sharp increase in strikes on economic issues all over the country – the all India strike of the post and telegraph department employees being the most well known among them.

Struggles for Gurudwara Reform and Temple Entry l

The Akali movement

The movement arose with the objective of freeing the Gurudwaras from the control of ignorant and corrupt priests (mahants).

Apart from the mahants, after the British annexation of Punjab in 1849, some control over the Gurudwaras was exercised by Government-nominated managers and custodians, who often collaborated with mahants.

The government gave full support to the mahants. It used them to preach loyalism to the Sikhs and to keep them away from the rising nationalist movement.

The agitation for the reform of Gurudwaras developed during 1920 when the reformers organized groups of volunteers known as jathas to compel the mahants and the government appointed managers to hand over control of the Gurudwaras to the local devotees.

Tens of Gurudwaras were liberated within an year.

To manage the control of Golden Temple and othe rGurudwaras the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee was formed in November 1920.

Feeling the need to give the reform movement a structure, the Shiromani Akali Dal was established in December 1920.

The SGPC and Akali Dal accepted complete non-violence as their creed.

There was a clash between the mahant and the Akalis over surrendering the gurudwara at Nanakana. This led to killing of about 100 akalis.

The Nankana tragedy led to the involvement of Sikhs on a large scale in the national movement.

Keys Affair: In October 1921, the government refused to surrender the possession fo the keys of the Toshakhana of the golden temple of the Akalis. This led to protests. Leaders like Baba Kharak Singh and Master Tara Singh were arrested. Later, the government surrendered the keys to keep the Sikhs from revolting.

Guru ka Bagh gurudwara in Ghokewala was under dispute as the mahant there claimed that the land attached to it was his personal possession. When few akalis cut down a tree on that land they were arrested on the complain of the mahant. Seeing this thousands of akalis came and started

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More At @Aj_ebooks cutting down the trees. About 4000 akalis were arrested. Later, the government didn’t arrest but started beating them up severly. But the alakis kept turning up. Ultimately the government had to surrender. l

The akali movement made a huge contribution to the national awakening of Punjab.

However, the movement encouraged a certain religiously which would be later utilized by communalism.

In 1923, the Congress decided to take active steps towards the eradication of untouchability.

The basic strategy it adopted was to educate and mobilize opinion among caste hindus.

Immediately after the Kakinada session, the Kerala Provincial Congress Committee (KPCC) took up the eradication of untouchability as an urgent issue.

KPCC adeiced to organize an procession on the temple roads in Vaikom, a village in Travancore, on 30 March 1924.

During the processions, the satyagrahis were arrested and sentenced to imprisonment.

On the death of Maharaja in August 1924, the Maharani released the Satyagrahis.

Gandhiji visited Kerala to discuss the opening of temple with Maharani. A compromise was reached whereby all roads except for the ones in the Sankethan of the temple were opened to the harijans.

In his Kerala tour, Gandhi didn’t visit a single temple because avarnas were kept out of them.

The weakness of the anti-caste movement was that through it aroused people against untouchability it lacked a strategy of ending the caste system itself.

The years of Stagnation l

Gandhiji was arrested in 1922 and sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment. The result was the spread of disintegration, disorganization and demoralization in the nationalist ranks.

After a defeat of their resolution of ‘either mending or ending’ in the Congress, CR Das and Motilal Nehru resigned and formed the Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party in December 1922. p It was to function as a group within the congress

How to carry on political work in the movements’ non-active phases. The swarajists said that work in the council was necessary to fill the temporary political void. The no-changers believed otherwise.

Major no-changers: Sardar Patel, Dr Ansari, Rajendra Prasad

The no-changers opposed council-entry mainly on the ground that parliamentary work would lead to the neglect of constructive and other work among the masses , the loss of revolutionary zeal and political corruption.

Despite the differences, he two groups had a lot in common. o The need for unity was very strongly felt by all the Congressmen after the 1907 debacle. o Both realized that the real sanctions which would compel the government to accept the national demands would be forged only by a mass movement. o Both groups fully accepted the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.

In the session held in 1923, the congressmen were permitted to stand as candidates and exercise their franchise in the forthcoming elections. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Gandhiji was released on February 5, 1924. He did not agree with the Swarajists. However, slowly he moved towards an accommodation with the swarajists.

On 6 November 1924, Gandhiji brought the strife between the Swarajists and no-changers to an end, by signing a joint statement with Das and Motilal that the Swarajists Party would carry on work in the legislatures on behalf of the Congress and as an integral part of the Congress. This decision was endorsed in Belgaum.

The Swarajists did well in the elections and won 42 out of 101 seats in the Central Legislative Assembly.

In March 1925, Vithalbhai J Patel was elected as he President (speaker) of the Central Legislative Assembly.

The achievement of the Swarajists lay in filling the political void at a time when the national movement was recouping its strength. o They also exposed the hollowness of the reforms of 1919

After the petering out of the NCM communalism took stronghold o Even within the Congress, a group known as ‘responsivists’, including Madan Mohan Malviya, Lala Lajpat Rai and NC Kelkar, offered cooperation to the government so that the so-called Hindu interests might be safeguarded.

Bhagat Singh l

The sudden suspension of the non-cooperation movement led many young people to question the very basis strategy of non-violence and began to look for alternatives.

All the major new revolutionary leaders had been enthusiastic participants in the non-violent noncooperation movement.

Two separate strands of revolutionary terrorism developed – one in Punjab, UP and Bihar and the other in Bengal.

Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chatterjee and Sachindranath Sanyal met in Kanpur in October 1924 and founded the Hindustan Republican Association to organize armed revolution.

In order to carry out their activities the HRA required funding. The most important action of the HRA was the Kakori Robbery.

On August 9, 1925, ten men held up the 8-Down train from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow at Kakori and looted its official railway cash.

The government arrested a large number of young men and tried them in the Kakori Conspiracy Case.

Ashfaqulla Khan, Ramprasadn Bismil, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri were hanged, four others were sent to Andaman while seventeen others were sentenced to long term imprisonment.

New revolutionaries joined the HRA. They met at Ferozshah Kotla Ground at Delhi on 9 and 10 September 1928, created a new collective leadership, adopted socialism as their official goal and changed the name of the party to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.

Lala Lajpat Rai dies in a lathi-charge when he was leading an anti-Simon Commission demonstration at Lahore on 30 October 1928.

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On 17 December 1928, Bhagat Singh, Azad and Rajguru assassinated, at Lahore, Saunders, a police official involved in the lathi-charge on Lala Lajpat Rai.

In order to let the people know about HSRA’s changed objectives Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt were asked to throw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly on 8 April 1929 against the passage of the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill.

He aim was not to kill but to let people know of their objectives through the leaflet they threw.

They were later arrested and tried.

The country was also stirred by the hunger strike the revolutionaries took as a protest against the horrible conditions in jails.

On 13th September, the 64th day of the epic fast, Jatin Das died.

Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were sentenced to be hanged. He sentence was carried out on 23 March, 1931.

Bhagat Singh was fully secular. o

The Punjab Naujawan Bharat Sabha organized by him acted on secular lines.

In Bengal, after the death of C R Das, the Congress leadership in Bengal got divided into two wings: one led by S C Bose and the other by J M Sengupta. The Yugantar group joined forces with the first while the Anushilan with the second.

Surya Sen had actively participated in the non-cooperation movement. He gathered around him a large band of revolutionary youth including Anant Singh, Ganesh Ghosh and Lokenath Baul.

Chittagong Armoury Raid

Events Timeline l

Emergence of socialism in the 1920s in the nationalist ranks p

JL Nehru and SC Bose

Raised the question of internal class oppression by capitalists and landlords

MN Roy became the first Indian to be elected to the leadership of the Communist International

Muzaffer Ahmed and SA Dange were tried in the Kanpur Conspiracy Case

1925: Communist Party of India was formed

All India Trade Union Congress

Various Strikes: Bombay textile mills, Jamshedpur, Kharagpur

Hindustan Republican Association: 1924 p

Kakori Conspiracy Case (1925)

Four, including Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan were hanged.

Simon Commission (1927) l

Indian Statutory Commission chaired by Simon to go into the question of further constitutional reform

All its seven members were Englishmen. Clement Attlee was one of the members.

Lord Birkinhead was the secretary of state at that time UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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At its Madras session in 1927 INC decided to boycott the commission “at every stage and in every form” p

Bardoli Satyagraha (1928) p

Peasants under the leadership of Sardar Patel organized no tax campaign

Indian Youth were becoming active p

ML and Hindu Mahasabha supported Congress

First All Bengal Conference of Students held in 1928 presided by JL Nehru

Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (1928) p

On 17th December 1928, Bhagat Singh, Azad and Rajguru assassinated Saunders

Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt threw bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly on 8 April 1929 to let the people know of their changed political objectives

Chittagong Armoury Raid: 1030, Surya Sen p

Participation of young women

Nehru Report, 1928 p

Dominion status

Contained Bill of Rights

No state religion

Federal form

Linguistically determined provinces

No separate electorates

All Party Convention, held at Calcutta in 1928, failed to pass the report

Muslim league rejected the proposals of the report

Jinnah drafted his fourteen points

Hindu Mahasabha and Sikh League also objected

Poorna Swaraj p

Resolution passed at the Lahore session in 1929

On 31 December 1929, the tri-color was hoisted

On 26 January 1930, Independence Day was celebrated

Civil Disobedience Movement l

Started by Gandhi on 12th March 1930 with the Dandi March. Reached Dandi on April 6.

Defiance of forest laws in Maharashtra, Central Province and Karnataka. Refusal to pay chaukidari tax in Eastern India.

Wide participation of women

Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan organized Khudai Khidmatgars (aka Red Shirts)

Nagaland: Rani Gaidilieu

First RTC, 1930 p

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Gandhi-Irwin Pact, 1931 p

Government agreed to release the political prisoners who had remained non-violent

Right to make salt for consumption

Right to peaceful picketing of liquor and foreign cloth shops

Congress suspended the Civil Disobedience Movement

Agreed to take part in the second RTC

The Quit India Movement and the INA ‘Quit India,’ ‘Bharat Choro’. This is a simple but powerful slogan launched the legendary struggle which also became famous by the name of the ‘August Revolution.’ In this struggle, the common people of the country demonst rated an unparal leled heroi sm and militancy. Moreover, the repression that they faced was the most brutal that had ever been used against the national movement. For one, the failure of the Cripps Mission in Apri 1942 made it clear that Britain was unwill ing to offer an honourable set t lement and a real const i tut ional advance during the War, and that she was determined to cont inue India’s unwilling partnership in the War effort . A fortnight after Cripps’ departure, Gandhi ji drafted a resolution for the Congress Working Committee calling for Britain’s withdrawal and the adoption of non-violent non-cooperation against any Japanese invasion. 1. Popular discontent, a product of rising prices and war-time shortages, was gradually mounting. 2. High-handed government actions such as the commandeering of boats in Bengal and Orissa to prevent their being used by the Japanese had led to considerable anger among the people. 3. The popular willingness to give expression to this discontent was enhanced by the growing feel ing of an imminent British collapse. 4. The news of Allied reverses and British withdrawals from South-East Asia and Burma confirmed this feeling. Infact, one major reason for the leadership of the national movement thinking it necessary to launch a struggle was their feeling that the people were becoming demoralized and, that in the event of a Japanese occupation, might not resist at all. In order to build up their capacity to resist Japanese aggression, it was necessary to draw them out of this demoralized state of mind and convince them of their own power. Though Gandhi ji himself had begun to talk of the coming struggle for some t ime now, it was at the Working Commi ttee meet ing at Wardha on 14 July, 1942 that the Congress first accepted the idea of a struggle. The All-India Congress Committee was then to meet in Bombay in August to ratify this decision. The historic August meeting at Gowalia Tank in Bombay was unprecedented in the popular enthusiasm it generated. Gandhi ji’s speech also contained specific instruct ions for different sections of the people. 1. Government servants would not yet be asked to resign, but they should openly declare their allegiance to the Congress, soldiers were also not to leave their posts, but they were to ‘refuse to fire on our own people.’ UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks 2. The Princes were asked to ‘accept the sovereignty of your own people,’ instead of paying homage to a foreign power.’And the people of the Princely States were asked to declare that they ‘(were) part of the Indian nation and that they (would) accept the leadership of the Princes, if the latter cast their lot with the People, but not otherwi se.’ 3. Students were to give up studies if they were sure they could continue to remain firm till independence was achieved. On 7 August, Gandhiji had placed the instructions he had drafted before the Working Committee, and in these he had proposed that peasant s ‘who have the courage, and are prepared to risk their all ’ should refuse to pay the land revenue. Tenants were told that ‘the Congress holds that the land belongs to those who work on it and to no one else.’ The Government had been preparing for the strike since the outbreak of the War itsel f, and since 1940 had been ready with an elaborate Revolut ionary Movement Ordinance. The Government responded by gagging the press. Dissemination of news was a very important part of the activity, and considerable success was achieved on this score, the most dramatic being the Congress Radio operated clandest inely from di fferent locat ions in Bombay ci ty, whose broadcast could be heard as far as Madras. Ram Manohar Lohia regularly broadcast on this radio, and the radio cont inued till November 1942 when it was discovered and confiscated by the pol ice. In February 1943, a striking new development provided a new burst of political activity. Gandhi ji commenced a fast on 10 February in jail. He declared the fast would last for twenty-one days. This was his answer to the Government which had been constant ly exhort ing him to condemn the violence of the people in the Quit India Movement. Gandhi ji not only refused to condemn the people’s resort to violence but unequivocally held the Government responsible for it. The severest blow to the prestige of the Government was the resignat ion of the three Indian members of the Viceroy’s Executive Council , M.S. Aney, N.R. Sarkar and H.P. Mody, who had supported the Government in is suppression of the 1942 movement, but were in no mood to be a party to Gandhi ji’s death. A significant feature of the Quit India Movement was the emergence of what came to be known as parallel governments in some parts of the country. 1. The first one was proclaimed in Ballia, in East U.P., in August 1942 under the leadership of Chittu Pande, who called himself a Gandhian. 2. In Tamluk in the Midnapur district of Bengal, the Jatiya Sarkar came into existence on 17 December, 1942 and lasted till September 1944. 3. Satara, in Maharashtra, emerged as the base of the longest-lasting and effective parallel government. A parallel government or Prati Sarkar was set up and Nani Patil was its most important leader. Women, especially college and school girls, played a very important role. 1. Aruna Asaf Ali and Sucheta Kripalani were two major women organizers of the underground, and Usha Mehta an important member of the small group that ran the Congress Radio.

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More At @Aj_ebooks In fact, the erosion of loyalty to the British Government of its own officers was one of the most striking aspects of the Quit India struggle. Also, there was a total absence of any communal clashes, a sure sign that though the movement may not have aroused much support from among the majori ty of the Muslim masses, it did not arouse their hostility either. The Congress leaders were released to participate in the Simla Conference in June 1945. That marked the end of the phase of confrontat ion that had existed since August 1942.

INA The idea of the INA was first conceived in Malaya by Mohan Singh, an Indian officer of the British Indian Army, when he decided not to join the retreating British army and instead went to the Japanese for help. Indian prisoners of war were handed over by the Japanese to Mohan Singh who then tried to recruit them into an Indian National Army. The fall of Singapore was crucial, for this brought 45,000 Indian POWs into Mohan Singh’s sphere of influence. By the end of 1942, forty thousand men expressed their willingness to join the INA. It was repeatedly made clear at various meetings of leaders of the Indian community and of Indian Army officers that the INA would go into act ion only on the invitation of the Indian National Congress and the people of India. The INA was also seen by many as a means of checking the misconduct of the Japanese against Indians in South-East Asia and a bulwark against a future Japanese occupation of India. The outbreak of the Quit India Movement gave a fillip to the INA as well Anti –British demonstrations were organized in Malaya. But, by December 1942, serious differences emerged between the Indian army officers led by Mohan Singh and the Japanese over the role that the INA was to play. Mohan Singh and Niranjan Singh Gill, the senior-most Indian officer to join the INA, were arrested. The Japanese, it turned out, wanted only a token force of 2,000 men, while Mohan Singh wanted to raise an Indian National Army of 20,000. The second phase of the INA began when Subhas Chandra Bose was brought to Singapore on 2 July 1943, by means of German and Japanese submarines. Bose returned to Singapore and set up the Provisional Government of Free India on 21 October 1943. The Provisional Government then declared war on Bri tain and the Uni ted States, and was recogniged by the Axis powers. Subhas Bose set up two INA headquarters, in Rangoon and in Singapore, and began to reorganize the INA. Recruits were sought from civilians, funds were gathered, and even a women’s regiment called the Rani Jhansi regiment was formed. On 6 July 1944, Subhas Bose, in a broadcast on Azad Hind Radio addressed to Gandhiji, said: ‘India’s last war of independence has begun. Father of our Nation! In this holy war of India’s liberation, we ask for your blessing and good wishes.’ UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks One INA battalion commanded by Shah Nawaz was allowed to accompany the Japanese Army to the Indo-Burma front and participate in the Imphal campaign. But the discriminatory treatment which included being denied rations, arms and being made to do menial work for the Japanese units, completely demoralized the INA men. The failure of the Imphal campaign, and the steady Japanese retreat thereafter, quashed any hopes of the INA liberat ing the nation. August Offer (1940) After the WWII began, British sought cooperation from India. August Offer offered three proposals. Firstly, it called for an immediate expansion of Viceroy’s Executive Council with the inclusion of India representatives; secondly, an advisory body with the members from British India and Indian princely states which were supposed to meet at consequent intervals was established and thirdly, two practical steps were decided to be taken in which it was to come at an agreement with the Indians on the form of the post representatives body should take and the methods by which it should come to a conclusion. It further planned to draw out the principles and outlines of the Constitution itself. Congress did not accept the offer. CR Formula C. Rajagopalachari's formula (or C. R. formula or Rajaji formula) was a proposal formulated by Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari to solve the political deadlock between the All India Muslim League and Indian National Congress on independence of India from the British. C. Rajagopalachari, a Congress leader from Madras, devised a proposal for the Congress to offer the League the Muslim Pakistan based on plebiscite of all the peoples in the regions where Muslims made a majority. Although the formula was opposed even within the Congress party,Gandhi used it as his proposal in his talks with Jinnah in 1944. However, Jinnah rejected the proposal and the talks failed. The CR formula entailed i.

The League was to endorse the Indian demand for independence and to co-operate with the Congress in formation of Provisional Interim Government for a transitional period.

ii. At the end of the War, a commission would be appointed to demarcate the districts having a Muslim population in absolute majority and in those areas plebiscite to be conducted on all inhabitants (including the non-Muslims) on basis of adult suffrage. iii. All parties would be allowed to express their stance on the partition and their views before the plebiscite. iv. In the event of separation, a mutual agreement would be entered into for safeguarding essential matters such as defence, communication and commerce and for other essential services. v. The transfer of population, if any would be absolutely on a voluntary basis. vi. The terms of the binding will be applicable only in case of full transfer of power by Britain to Government of India. Freedom and Partition But after the Cripps Offer of 1942, there was little left to be offered as a concession except transfer of power — full freedom itself.

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More At @Aj_ebooks British policy in 1946 clearly reflected this preference for a united India, in sharp contrast to earlier declarations. l

Attlee’s 15 March 1946 statement that a ‘minority will not be allowed to place a veto on the progress of the majority’ was a far cry from Wavell’s allowing Jinnah to wreck the Simla Conference in June-July 1945 by his insistence on nominating all Muslims.

The Cabinet Mission was convinced that Pakistan was not viable and that the minorities’ autonomy must somehow be safeguarded within the framework of a united India. The Mission Plan conceived three sections,

A — comprising Madras, Bombay, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, C.P. and Orissa;

B — consisting of Punjab, NWFP and Sind; and

C — of Bengal and Assam — which would meet separately to decide on group constitutions.

There would be a common centre controlling defence, foreign affairs and communicat ions. After the first general elections a province could come out of a group. After ten years a province could call for a reconsideration of the group or union constitution.

Congress wanted that a province need not wait till the first elections to leave a group; it should have the option not to join it in the first place.

There was obviously a problem in that the Mission Plan was ambivalent on whether grouping was compulsory or optional. It declared that grouping was optional but sections were compulsory. This was a contradiction, which rather than removing, the Mission deliberately quibbled about in the hope of somehow reconciling the irreconcileable.

The Congress and League interpreted the Mission Plan in their own way, both seeing it as a confirmation of their stand.

Nehru asserted the Congress Working Committee’s particular interpretation of the plan in his speech to the AICC on 7 July 1946: ‘We are not bound by a single thing except that we have decided to go into the Constituent Assembly.’ The implication was that the Assembly was sovereign and would decide rules of procedure.

Jinnah seized the opportunity provided by Nehru’s speech to withdraw the League’s acceptance of the Mission Plan on 29th July, 1946.

The dilemma before the Government was whether to go ahead and form the Interim Government with the Congress or await League agreement to the plan. Wavell, who had opted for the second course at the Simla Conference a year earlier, preferred to do the same again. But His Majesty’s Government, especially the Secretary of State, argued that it was vital to get Congress cooperation.

Thus, the Interim Government was formed on 2nd September 1946 with Congress members alone with Nehru as de facto head.Thi s was against the League’s insistence that all settlements be acceptable to it.

The British in 1946, in keeping with their strategic interests in the post-independence Indian subcontinent, took up a stance very different from their earlier posture of encouraging communal forces and denying the legitimacy of nationalism and the representative nature of the Congress. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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They were frightened into appeasing the League by Jinnah’s ability to unleash civil war.

Wavell quietly brought the League into the Interim Government on 26 October 1946 though it had not accepted either the short or long term provi sions of the Cabinet Mission Plan and had not given up its policy of Direct Action.

The Secretary of State argued that without the League’s presence in the Government civil war would have been inevitable. Jinnah had succeeded in keeping the British in his grip.

The League’s demand for the dissolut ion of the Constituent Assembly that had metfor the first time on 9th December 1946 had proved to be the last st raw. Earlier it had refused to join the Constituent Assembly despite assurances from His Majesty’s Government in their 6th December1946 statement that the League’s interpretat ion of grouping was the correct one.

A direct bid for Pakistan, rather than through the Mi ssion Plan, seemed to be the card Jinnah now sought to play. This developing crisis was temporarily defused by the statement made by Attlee in Parliament on 20 February, 1947.

The date for British withdrawal from India was fixed as 30 June 1948 and the appointment of a new Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, was announced. The hope was that the date would shock the parties into agreement on the main question and avert the constitutional crisis that threatened.

Besides, Indians would be finally convinced that the British were sincere about conceding independence; however, both these hopes were introduced into the terminal date notion after it had been accepted.

The basic reason why the Attlee Government accepted the need for a final date was because they could not deny the truth of Wavell’s assessment that an irreversible decline of Government authority had taken place.

The Mountbatten Plan, as the 3rd June, 1947 Plan came to be known, sought to affect an early transfer of power on the basi s of Dominion Status to two successor states, India and Pakistan.

Congress was willing to accept Dominion Status for a while because it felt it must assume full power immediately and meet boldly the explosive situation in the country.

The early date, 15th August 1947, and the delay in announcing the Boundary Commi ssion Award, both Mountbat ten’s deci sions, compounded the t ragedy that took place.

The Boundary Commi ssion Award was ready by 12th August, 1947 but Mountbatten decided to make it public after Independence Day, so that the responsibility would not fall on the British.

The acceptance of Partition in 1947 was, thus, only the final act of a process of step by step concession to the League’s intransigent champioining of a sovereign Muslim state. p p p

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POST INDEPENDENCE INDIA, JUST AFTER INDEPENDENCE Partition and Its Aftermath l

Partition of an as big country as Indian subcontinent cannot be imagined to be a smooth process. Partition of Indian subcontinent followed by severe communal riots across the partitioned border causing loss of lives of hundreds of people and migration of very large scale on both sides of the borders. Several hundred thousand people were killed and innumerable women raped and abducted. Millions were uprooted, transformed into refugees in alien lands.

One of the most undesired fallouts of this painful partition was lifelong rivalry between two newly independent states- India and Pakistan. The two nations, even after fighting three full" scale war, are still at war at "psychological" level. Partition generated memories, hatreds, stereotypes and identities that still continue to shape the history of people on both sides of the border. These hatreds have manifested themselves during inter-community conflicts, and communal clashes in turn have kept alive the memories of past violence.

Apart from violence, migration and other human rights violation at large scale, there were other challenges to follow. These challenges were distributed unevenly at multiple levels. Firstly, it was country vast in geographical expanse and diversity. Secondly, the society was plagued with disparity, inequality and illiteracy. Thirdly, in economic sphere poverty was rampant after the ravages of centuries of colonial rule and industry as well as agriculture was in abysmal shape. These challenges led to many observers predict the disintegration of India, especially as it adopted a democratic system of government despite not possessing the conditions considered to be necessary for democracy to flourish.

However, strength of the nascent nation lay in the fact that it was endowed with natural resources and industrious people. Also, the national struggle had provided leadership, institutions and experiences that would aid in facing the challenges mentioned earlier. Thus, the challenges over the time shaped the key goals to be achieved in the process of nation building and making India a success story.

Consequence of Partition: As we previously discussed, the year 1947, saw the one of the most abrupt and haphazard, tragic transfer of people that human history had ever witnessed. There were brutal killings, atrocities, rapes, on both sides of the border. The cities like Lahore, Amritsar, Kolkata (then Calcutta) got divided into "Communal Zones". In many cases women were killed by their own family members to preserve the 'family honor'. Everything was divided then from tables, chairs to government officials. It is estimated that the Partition forced about 80 lakhs people to migrate across the new border. Between five to 10 lakh people were killed in Partition related violence.

The government of India was successful in providing relief and in resettlement and rehabilitation of nearly six million refugees from Pakistan. A department of rehabilitation was created. Various refugee camps were set up some notable being camp at Kurukshetra and Kolwada camp at Bombay. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Many of the Hindus and Sikhs fleeing West Punjab were directed by the government of India to refugee camp in Kurukshetra. A vast city of tents had grown up on the plain, to house waves of migrants, sometimes up to 20,000 a day. Kurukshetra was the largest of the nearly 200 camps set up to house refugees from West Punjab. While there were five refugee camps in Mumbai for refugees from Sindh region. l

Some refugees had arrived before the date of transfer of power; among them prescient businessmen who had sold their properties in advance and migrated with the proceeds. However, the vast majority came after15 August 1947, and with little more than the clothes on their skin. These were the farmers who had 'stayed behind till the last moment, firmly resolved to remain in Pakistan if they could be assured of an honourable living'. But when, in September and October, the violence escalated in the Punjab, they had to abandon that idea. The Hindus and Sikhs who were lucky enough to escape the mobs fled to India by road, rail, sea and on foot.

Camps such as Kurukshetra were but a holding operation. The refugees had to be found permanent homes and productive work. Thus refugees required land for permanent settlement. As it happened, a massive migration had also taken place the other way, into Pakistan from India. Thus, the first place to resettle the refugees was on land vacated by Muslims in the eastern part of the Punjab. If the transfer of populations had been 'the greatest mass migration' in history now commenced 'the biggest land resettlement operation in the world'. As against 2.7 million hectares abandoned by Hindus and Sikhs in West Punjab, there were only 1.9 million hectares left behind by Muslims in East Punjab. The shortfall was made more acute by the fact that the areas in the west of the province had richer soils, and were more abundantly irrigated. To begin with, each family of refugee farmers was given an allotment of four hectares, regardless of its holding in Pakistan. Loans were advanced to buy seed and equipment. While cultivation commenced on these temporary plots, applications were invited for permanent allotments.

Each family was asked to submit evidence of how much land it had left behind. Applications were received from 10 March 1948; within a month, more than half a million claims had been filed. These claims were then verified in open assemblies consisting of other migrants from the same village. As each claim was read out by a government official, the assembly approved, amended, or rejected it.

Expectedly, many refugees were at first prone to exaggeration. However, every false claim was punished, sometimes by a reduction in the land allotted, in extreme cases by a brief spell of imprisonment. This acted as a deterrent; still, an officer closely associated with the process estimated that there was an overall inflation of about 25 per cent. To collect, collate, verify and act upon the claims a Rehabilitation Secretariat was set up in Jullundur. At its peak there were about 7,000 officials working there; they came to constitute a kind of refugee city of their own. The bulk of these officials were accommodated in tents, the camp serviced by makeshift lights and latrines and with temporary shrines, temples for Hindus and gurdwaras for Sikhs.

Leading the operations was the director general of rehabilitation, Sardar Tarlok Singh of the Indian Civil Service. A graduate of the London School of Economics, Tarlok Singh used his academic training to good effect, making two innovations that proved critical in the successful settlement of the refugees.

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Thus the task of rehabilitation took time to accomplish and by 1951, the problem of the rehabilitation of the refuges from West Pakistan had been fully tackled. The rehabilitation on East took years and it was more difficult because of constant exodus of Hindus from East Bengal continued for years. After handling this worst nightmare of Partition, Indian leadership had strived to consolidate India from within and look after its internal affairs.

Plan of Consolidation l

The broad strategy for national consolidation after 1947 involved: o Territorial integration o Mobilisation of political and institutional resource o Economic development, and o Adoption of polices which would promote social justice, remove glaring inequalities and provide equal opportunities.

Indian Constitution l

Framing, Implementing and Structure in the post-independence India:

Framing: The Constitution of India was framed by a Constituent Assembly set up under the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946. The Assembly consisted of 389 members representing provinces (292), states (93), the Chief Commissioner Provinces (3) and Baluchistan (1).

The Assembly held its first meeting on December 9, 1946, and elected Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha, the oldest member of the Assembly as the Provisional President. On December 11, 1946, the Assembly elected Dr Rajendra Prasad as its permanent Chairman.

The strength of the Assembly was reduced to 299 (229 representing the provinces and 70 representing the states) following withdrawal of the Muslim League members after the partition of the country.

The Constituent Assembly set up 13 committees for framing the constitution. On the basis of the reports of these committees, a draft of the Constitution was prepared by a seven-member Drafting Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr B R Ambedkar.

The drafting Constitution was published in January, 1948 and people were given eight months. After the draft was discussed by the people, the press, the provincial assemblies and the Constituent Assembly in the light of the suggestions received, the same was finally adopted on November, 26, 1949, and was signed by the President of the Assembly. Thus, it took the Constituent Assembly 2 years, 11 months and 18 days to complete the task.

The Constitution of India was not an original document. The framers of the Constitution freely borrowed the good features of other constitutions. However, while adopting those features, they made necessary modification for its suitability to the Indian conditions and avoided their defects. The Constitutions which exercised profound influence on the Indian Constitution were that of UK, USA, Ireland, Canada etc.

The parliamentary system of government, rule of law, law-making procedure and single citizenship were borrowed from the British Constitution. Independence of Judiciary, Judicial Review, UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Fundamental Rights and guidelines for the removal of judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts were adopted from the US Constitution. The federal system with a strong central authority was adopted from Canada. l

Directive Principles of State Policy were borrowed from the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland. The idea of Concurrent List was borrowed from the Australian Constitution. The provisions relating to emergency were influenced by the Weimer Constitution.

Above all, the Government of India Act, 1935, exercised great influence of the Indian Constitution. The federal scheme, office of Governor, powers of federal judiciary, etc., were drawn from this Act. In short, the Indian Constitution incorporated the best features of several existing constitutions.

Implementing l

Though the major part of the Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950, the provisions relating to citizenship, elections, provisional parliament and temporary and transitional provisions came into force with immediate effect, viz., from November 26, 1949.

The Structure of Bureaucracy and the Police:

While guaranteeing the rights of the old services, the new Indian government envisaged the need for replacing with services controlled and manned by Indians. In fact, as early as October 1964, Sardar Patel, the then Home Member in the Governor General's Executive Council, had secured the agreement of the Provincial Governments to the formation of the two new All India Services the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), to replace the old colonial ICS and IPS. The emergence of a free India on August 15, 1947 found the country in a deep crisis of personnel. The new government led by Jawaharlal Nehru promptly and courageously set about the task of filling the gaps in the services.

The first step in this direction was to invite applications to fill about 200 - 300 posts in the newly created Foreign Service. The applications were solicited from persons from all walks of life and the age limit was specially raised to 45 years.

In 1948, a new Recruitment Board was set up to survey the available administrative manpower in the country both inside and outside the ranks of the Permanent Services, and to select men of the right requisite standards in order to make good the deficiency in services. With the inauguration of the Constitution of India in January 26, 1950, the Special Recruitment Board came to an end. The All India Service Act was passed by the parliament in October 1951 and the Indian Forest Service was constituted.

Training of Civil Servants: The teething problems of the education and training of Civil Servants have assumed special significance in India today. Recruits to the All India and Central Services are given training, extensively, at different centers of the country. The IAS, IFS and IPS probationers are directed to the Lai Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration(LBSNNA) Mussoorie for initial, foundational course training. The idea of this course is that officers of the higher services should acquire an understanding of the constitutional, economic and social framework, within which they have to function as these largely determine the policies and programmes of government policies.

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After completion of 3-4 months foundational course, the probationers of the services, other than the IAS, leave for their respective training institutions for institutional training and the IAS probationers remain at the Academy to undergo a further course of institutional training. The IFS trainees get further training at Delhi and the IPS at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad. The LBS Academy may also organise short courses, seminars, conferences etc. for the benefit of senior officersordinarily those having about fifteen years of service. The course may deal with the higher problems of government or with special subjects, like social security, fiscal policy, planning, departmental coordination etc.

CHALLENGES BEFORE INDEPENDENT STATE OF INDIA Political Integration of India l

The political integration of India established a united nation for the first time in centuries from a plethora of princely states, colonial provinces and possessions. Despite partition, a new India united peoples of various geographic, economic, ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. The process began in 1947, with the unification of 565 princely states through a critical series of political campaigns, sensitive diplomacy and military conflicts. India transformed after independence through political upheaval and ethnic discontent, and continues to evolve as a federal republic natural to its diversity. Sensitive religious conflicts between Hindus and Muslims, diverse ethnic populations, as well as by geo-political rivalry and military conflicts with Pakistan and China define the process.

When the Indian independence movement succeeded in ending the British Raj on August 15 1947, India's leaders faced the prospect of inheriting a nation fragmented between medieval-era kingdoms and provinces organized by colonial powers. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of India's most respected freedom fighters, as the new Minister of Home Affairs emerged as the man responsible for employing political negotiations backed with the option (and the use) of military force to ensure the primacy of the Central government and of the Constitution then being drafted.

India's constitution pronounced it a Union of States, exemplifying a federal system with a strong central government. Over the course of the two decades following Independence the Government of India forcefully acquired the Indian possessions of France and Portugal. But the trend changed as popular movements arose for the recognition of regional languages, and attention for the special issues of diverse regions. A backlash ensued against centralization - the lack of attention and respect for regional issues resulted in cultural alienation and violent separatism. The central government attempted to balance the use of force on separatist extremists with the creation of new States to reduce the pressures on the Indian State. The map has been redrawn, as the nature of the federation transforms. Today, the Republic of India stands as a Union of twenty eight states and seven union territories.

British India: British colonization of the Indian subcontinent began in the early 18th century. By the mid-19th century, most of the subcontinent fell under British rule. With the arrival of Lord Mountbatten (the former Lord Louis Mountbatten later created Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, then promoted to Earl) as the Viceroy of India in early 1947, the British government under Prime Minister Clement Attlee clearly proclaimed the imminent independence of India. Elections for provincial legislatures and the Constituent Assembly of India had been held in 1946. India's top political parties, the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League both began negotiating UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks the impending transfer of power as well as the make-up of the new Indian government. In June 1947, the Congress and the League agreed to the partition of India into two independent British Commonwealth dominions: India and Pakistan. Burma, separated from British India in 1937, became independent along with Ceylon (never a part of British India) in 1948. l

Without the princely states, the Dominion of India would comprise the provinces of Bombay Presidency, Madras Presidency, the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, the Central Provinces and Berar, Assam, Orissa, Bihar, and the chief commissioners' provinces of Coorg, Ajmer-Merwara, Panth-Piploda, and Delhi. The North West Frontier Province, Sind, and the chief commissioners' province of Baluchistan would go to Pakistan. The provinces of Bengal and Punjab had been partitioned in 1946, with India retaining West Bengal and East Punjab, the Hindu-majority portions of the larger provinces. West Punjab and East Bengal, heavily Muslim, went to Pakistan. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Lakshadweep Islands would be turned over to the control of India.

Princely states: The Saurashtra and Kathiawar regions of Gujarat (depicted) were home to over two hundred princely states. Between 570 and 600 princely states enjoyed special recognition by, and relationship, with the British Raj. The British government announced in the Indian Independence Act 1947 that with the transfer of power on 15 August 1947, all of those states would be freed of their obligations to the British Empire, leaving them free to join either India or Pakistan, or to choose to become independent. The kingdom of Nepal, an independent treaty ally, became a fully sovereign nation. The kingdom of Bhutan dissolved its protectorate relationship similarly but, via treaty in 1949, kept India as the guarantor of its security. The kingdom of Sikkim became a protectorate of India. Apart from a few geographically unalienable from Pakistan, approximately 565 princely states linked to India, the largest nation.

The largest of them included Hyderabad and Kashmir, while 222 states existed in the Kathiawar peninsula alone. The states comprised more than half of the territory of India and a large proportion of its population. Experts maintained that without a single federal structure, India would be susceptible to political, military and social conflicts. The British had taken control of India piecemeal and over the course of a century; most of the states had signed different treaties at different times with the British East India Company and the British Crown, giving the British Raj varying degrees of control over foreign, inter-state relations and defence. Indian monarchs accepted the suzerainty of Britain in India, paid tribute and allowed British authorities to collect taxes and appropriate finances, and in many cases, manage the affairs of governance via the Raj's Political Department. The princes held representation in the Imperial Legislative Council and the Chamber of Princes, and under law enjoyed relationships described as that of allies, rather than subordinates. Thus the princes maintained a channel of influence with the British Raj.

Process of accession: The states of Gwalior, Bikaner, Patiala and Baroda joined India first on April 28, 1947. Others felt wary, distrusting a democratic government led by revolutionaries of uncertain, and possibly radical views, and fearful of losing their influence as rulers. Travancore and Hyderabad announced their desire for independence while the Nawab of Bhopal, Hamidullah Khan, expressed his desire to either negotiate with Pakistan or seek independence. The Nawab exerted a powerful influence on a number of princes, as he had prestige as the former chancellor

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More At @Aj_ebooks of the Chamber of Princes. In addition, Jodhpur, Indore and Jaisalmer conducted a dialogue with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the slated Governor-General of Pakistan, to discuss terms for a possible accession to it. While that surprised many in both India and Pakistan, neither party could ultimately ignore the fact that those kingdoms held Hindu majorities, which rendered their membership in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan untenable. l

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel served as the Minister for Home and States Affairs, receiving the explicit responsibility of welding a united and strategically secure India in time for the transfer of power. The Congress Party, as well as Lord Mountbatten and senior British officials, considered Patel the best man for the task. Mahatma Gandhi had said to Patel "the problem of the States is so difficult that you alone can solve it".[1]Recognized by the Princes and parliamentarians alike as a man of integrity, many also considered Patel gifted with the practical acumen and resolve needed to accomplish a monumental task. Patel asked V. P. Menon, a senior civil servant, with whom he had worked over the partition of India, to become the Secretary in charge of the Home and States Ministry, as then constituted. Patel's admirers would later call him the Iron Man of India for his decisive actions at this time.

Instrument of accession: Sardar Patel and V.P. Menon devised a formula to propose to the monarchs. The Instrument of Accession became the official treaty scheduled for signing between the Government of India or the Government of Pakistan and the accession candidates. According to the basic tenets of the treaty, the Government of India would control only foreign affairs, defense and communications, leaving all internal issues to the states to administer. On July 5 1947, the Government of India released the official policy, and stating:

"We ask no more of the States than accession on these three subjects in which the common interests of the country are involved. In other matters we would scrupulously respect their autonomous existence. This country is the proud heritage of the people who inhabit it. It is an accident that some live in the States and some in British India. None can segregate us into segments… I suggest that it is better therefore for us to make laws sitting together as friends than to make treaties as aliens. I invite my friends the rulers of States and their people to the councils of the Constituent Assembly in this spirit of friendliness… Congressmen are no enemies of the princely order."

Considering that the princes had to sign away the sovereignty of states where their families had reigned for centuries, and that they believed that India's security would be jeopardized if even one state refused to sign on, Patel and Menon held the opinion that Instrument represented the best deal they could offer the princes. While negotiating with the states, Patel and Menon also guaranteed that monarchs who signed on willingly would be retained as constitutional heads of state, although they would be 'encouraged' to hand their power over to an elected government. Once states signed the Instrument of Accession, they received the right to have representation in the Constituent Assembly of India, thus becoming an active participant in framing the new Constitution.

Patel's Diplomacy l

On May 6, 1947, Patel began lobbying the princes, attempting to make them receptive towards dialogue with the future Government and trying to forestall potential conflicts. Patel used social meetings and unofficial surroundings to engage most monarchs, inviting them to lunch and tea at his home in Delhi. At those meetings, Patel would claim that there was no inherent conflict between UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks the Congress and the princely order. Nonetheless, he stressed that Congress expected the princes to accede to India in good faith before the deadline, August 15, 1947. Patel also listened to the monarchs' opinions, seeking to address their two chief concerns: o The princes feared that the Congress would be hostile to the princely order, attacking their property and, indeed, their civil liberties. Their concern arose from the large proportion of Congress pledging socialist inclination. Patel, who disavowed allegiance to the socialist faction, promised personally that the Congress would respect the Indian princes, their political power, and their property, only asking concessions when 'necessary' for the stability and unity of India. o Patel assured the monarchs of the states that after acceding to India, they would be allowed to retain their property and estates. Further, they would be fully eligible to run for public office. o For the loss of income (from revenue), the monarchs would be compensated with a privy purse. o The princes also expressed worries that the guarantees offered by Patel while the British still ruled would be scrapped after August 15. Patel thus had to promise to include the guarantees of privy purses and limited central powers in the as yet unframed Constitution. o Patel invoked the patriotism of India's monarchs, asking them to join in the freedom of their nation and act as responsible rulers who cared about the future of their people. Patel frequently dispatched V. P. Menon frequently to hold talks with the ministers and monarchs. Menon would work each day with Patel, calling him twice, including a final status report in the night. Menon stood as Patel's closest advisor and aide on the diplomacy and tactics, and handling of potential conflicts, as well as his link with British officials. Patel also enlisted Lord Mountbatten, whom most of the princes trusted and a personal friend of many, especially the Nawab of Bhopal, Hamidullah Khan. o Mountbatten stressed that he would act as the trustee of the princes' commitment, as he would be serving as India's head of state well into 1948. Mountbatten engaged in a personal dialogue with the Nawab of Bhopal. He asked through a confidential letter to him, that he sign the instrument of accession, which Mountbatten would keep locked up in his safe to be handed to the States Department on August 15 only if the Nawab still agreed. He could freely change his mind. The Nawab agreed, keeping the deal intact. Accession of the States l

From June to August 15 1947, 562 of the 565 India-linked states signed the instrument of accession. Despite dramatic political exchanges, Travancore, Jodhpur and Indore signed on time. Patel willingly took on other Indian leaders for the sake of accomplishing the job. The privy purse pledge, offensive to many socialists, earned Prime Minister Nehru's complaint, arguing that Patel by-passed the Cabinet to make the pledge to the Princes. Patel, describing the pledge as an essential guarantee of the Government's intentions, won approval for incorporation into the Constitution. (In 1971, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Congress Party repealed the clause through a constitutional amendment.) Patel defended their right to retain property and contest elections for public office, and today, especially in states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, descendants of the formerly royal families play an important role in politics.

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During the strenuous process of integration, three major conflicts arose that posed a major threat to the Union:

Junagadh l

Junagadh, a state on the southwestern end of Gujarat, consisted of the principalities of Manavadar, Mangrol and Babriawad. The Arabian Sea stood between it and Pakistan, and over 80% of its population professed Hinduism. Possibly on the advice of his Dewan, Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, prominent in the Muslim League, the Nawab of Junagadh Mahabhat Khan acceded to Pakistan. They announced the accession on August 15 1947, when Pakistan had come into being. When Pakistan confirmed the acceptance of the accession in September, the Government of India expressed outraged that Muhammad Ali Jinnah would accept the accession of Junagadh despite his argument that Hindus and Muslims could not live as one nation. Patel believed that if Junagadh joined Pakistan, the communal tension already simmering in Gujarat would exacerbate.

Patel gave Pakistan time to void the accession and hold a plebiscite in Junagadh. Samaldas Gandhi formed a democratic government-in-exile, the Aarzi Hukumat (in Urdu:Aarzi: Temporary, Hukumat: Government) of the people of Junagadh. Eventually, Patel ordered the forcible annexation of Junagadh's three principalities. Junagadh's court, facing financial collapse and no possibility of resisting Indian forces, first invited the Aarzi Hukumat, and later the Government of India to accept the reins. A plebiscite convened in December, with approximately 99% of the people choosing India over Pakistan.

Kashmir l

Maharaja Hari Singh, a Hindu, equally hesitant about acceding to either India &mdash, felt his mostly Muslim subjects would not like joining a Hindu-majority nation - or Pakistan - an eventuality which he would personally prefer to avoid. He personally believed that Kashmir could exercise its right to stay independent; a belief Sheikh Abdullah, the leader of Kashmir's largest political party, the National Conference backed. Pakistan coveted the Himalayan kingdom, while Indian leaders including Gandhi and Nehru, hoped that the kingdom would join India. Hari Singh signed a Standstill Agreement (preserving status quo) with Pakistan, but still withheld his decision by August 15.

Pakistan, concerned about the lack of movement on the front, attempted to force the issue by permitting the incursions of tribals from the North-West Frontier, followed in September 1947 by regular forces. India offered military assistance to the Kashmiri Government, which lacked an organized military; such assistance came on the condition of the Maharaja signing the Instrument of Accession, which he then did.By that time, the raiders closed in on the capital of Srinagar. Indian troops secured Jammu, Srinagar and the valley itself during the First Kashmir War, but the intense fighting flagged with the onset of winter, which made much of the state impassable. Prime Minister Nehru, recognizing the degree of international attention brought to bear on the dispute, declared a ceasefire and sought U.N. arbitration with the promise of a plebiscite. Patel had argued against both, describing Kashmir as a bilateral dispute and its accession as justified by international law. Patel had feared that the U.N.'s involvement would stall the process and allow Pakistan to reinforce its presence in Kashmir. Additionally, the outcome of a plebiscite remained highly uncertain. In 1957, Kashmir officially integrated into the Union, but with special provisions made for it in the Constitution's Article 370. The northwestern portion remaining under control of the Pakistan army UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks remains today as Pakistan-administered Kashmir. In 1962, China occupied Aksai Chin, the northeastern region bordering Ladakh.

Hyderabad l

Hyderabad state in 1909. Its area stretches over the present Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra. Hyderabad constituted a state that stretched over 82,000 square miles (over 212,000 square kilometres) in the center of India with a population of 16 million, 85% of whom declared themselves Hindus. Nizam Usman Ali Khan, the ruler, had always enjoyed a special relationship with the British Raj. When the British ruled out dominion status, the Nizam set his mind upon independence, under the influence of Muslim radical Qasim Razvi. Without Hyderabad, a large gap would exist in the centre of the united nation envisioned by Indian nationalists and the Indian public. Patel believed that Hyderabad looked to Pakistan for support, and could pose a constant threat to India's security in the future. Patel argued Hyderabad essential for India's unity, but he agreed with Lord Mountbatten to refrain from using force. Hyderabad signed a Standstill Agreement - an agreement made with no other princely state without an explicit assurance of eventual accession. Patel required Hyderabad promise to refrain from joining Pakistan. Mountbatten and India's agent K.M. Munshi engaged the Nizam's envoys into negotiations. When the negotiations failed to achieve an agreement, the Nizam alleged that India had created a blockade. India, on the other hand, charged that Hyderabad received arms from Pakistan, and that the Nizam allowed Razvi's Razakar militants to intimidate Hindus and attack villages in India.

Lord Mountbatten crafted a proposal called the Heads of Agreement, which called for the disbandment of the Razakars and restriction of the Hyderabad army, for the Nizam to hold a plebiscite and elections for a constituent assembly, and for eventual accession. While India would control Hyderabad's foreign affairs, the deal allowed Hyderabad to set up a parallel government and delay accession. Hyderabad's envoys assured Mountbatten that the Nizam would sign the agreement, and he lobbied Patel hard to sign for India. Patel signed the deal but retained his belief that the Nizam would reject it. The Nizam, taking Razvi's advice, dismissed the plan. In September 1948, Patel made clear in Cabinet meetings that he intended to use force against the Nizam. He obtained the agreement of the new Governor-General Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari and Prime Minister Nehru after some contentious debate, and under Operation Polo, sent the Army to invade Hyderabad. Between September 13 and 18th, Indian troops fought Hyderabadi troops and Razakars and defeated them. Patel retained the Nizam as the head of state as a conciliatory gesture. The main aim of Mountbatten and Nehru in attempting to achieve integration through diplomacy had been to avoid an outbreak of Hindu-Muslim violence. Patel insisted that if Hyderabad continued its independence, the prestige of the Government would be tarnished and then neither Hindus nor Muslims would feel secure in its realm.

Conflicting Agendas l

Different theories have been proposed to explain the designs of Indian and Pakistani leaders in this period. Rajmohan Gandhi postulates that Patel believed that if Muhammad Ali Jinnah let India have Junagadh and Hyderabad, Patel would accept Kashmir acceding to Pakistan. In his book Patel: A Life, Gandhi asserts that Jinnah sought to engage the questions of Junagadh and Hyderabad in the same battle. Some suggest that he wanted India to ask for a plebiscite in Junagadh and Hyderabad, knowing thus that the principle then would have to be applied to Kashmir, where the

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More At @Aj_ebooks Muslim-majority would, he believed, vote for Pakistan. In a speech at the Bahauddin College in Junagadh following the latter's take-over, Patel said: "If Hyderabad does not see the writing on the wall, it goes the way Junagadh has gone. Pakistan attempted to set off Kashmir against Junagadh. When we raised the question of settlement in a democratic way, they (Pakistan) at once told us that they would consider it if we applied that policy to Kashmir. Our reply was that we would agree to Kashmir if they agreed to Hyderabad." l

Although only Patel's opinions rather than India's policy, and rejected by Nehru, both leaders felt angered at Jinnah's courting the princes of Jodhpur, Bhopal and Indore.In her book The Sole Spokesman, Ayesha Jalal argues that Jinnah had never actually wanted partition, but once created, he wanted Pakistan to become a secular state inclusive to its Hindu minority and strategically secure from a geographically-larger India, thus encouraging Hindu states to join. When Jinnah remained adamant about Junagadh, and when the invasion of Kashmir began in September 1947, Patel exerted himself over the defense and integration of Kashmir into India. India and Pakistan clashed over Kashmir in 1965 and 1971, as well as over the sovereignty of the Rann of Kutch in August, 1965.

Integrating the Union l

Many of the 565 states that had joined the Union had been very small and lacked resources to sustain their economies and support their growing populations. Many published their own currency, imposed restrictions and their own tax rules that impeded free trade. Although Prajamandals (People's Conventions) had been organized to increase democracy, a contentious debate opened over dissolving the very states India promised to officially recognize just months ago. Challenged by princes, Sardar Patel and V. P. Menon emphasized that without integration, the economies of states would collapse, and anarchy would arise if the princes proved unable provide democracy and govern properly. In December 1947, over forty states in central and eastern India merged into the Central Provinces and Orissa. Similarly, Patel obtained the unification of 222 states in the Kathiawar peninsula of his native Gujarat. In a meeting with the rulers, Menon said: "His Highness the Maharaja of Bhavnagar has already declared himself in favour of a United Kathiawar State. I may also remind you of the metaphor employed by Sardar Patel, of how a large lake cools the atmosphere while small pools become stagnant...It is not possible for 222 States to continue their separate existence for very much longer. The extinction of the separate existence of the States may not be palatable, but unless something is done in good time to stabilize the situation in Kathiawar, the march of events may bring more unpalatable results."

In Punjab, the Patiala and East Punjab States Union formed. Madhya Bharat and Vindhya Pradesh emerged from the princely states of the former Central India Agency. Thirty states of the former Punjab Hill States Agency merged to form the Himachal Pradesh. A few large states, including Mysore, Kutch, and Bilaspur, remained distinct, but a great many more merged into the provinces. The Ministry of External Affairs administered the Northeast Frontier Agency (present-day Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland) with the Governor of Assam. The Constitution of India, adopted on January 26, 1950, gave the states many powers, but the Union government had superior powers - including dissolving state governments if law and order collapsed. Federalists emphasized creating national institutions to prevent factionalism and separatism. A common judiciary and the Indian Administrative UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Service and Indian Police Service emerged to help create a single government infrastructure. Most Indians welcomed the united leadership to fight social, economic challenges of India for the first time in thousands of years.

Pondicherry and Goa l

In the 1950s, France still maintained the regions of Pondicherry, Karikal, Yanaon, Mahe and Chandernagore as colonies and Portugal maintained Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Goa remained as colonies. India received control of the lodges in Machilipatnam, Kozhikode and Surat in October 1947. An agreement between France and India in 1948 agreed to an election in France's remaining Indian possessions to choose their political future. Chandernagore ceded to India on May 2, 1950, merging with West Bengal on October 2, 1955. On November 1, 1954, the four enclaves of Pondicherry, Yanaon, Mahe, and Karikal de facto transferred to the Indian Union and became the Union territory of Pondicherry. Portugal had resisted diplomatic solutions, and refused to transfer power. Dadra and Nagar Haveli incorporated into India in 1953 after bands of Indian irregulars occupied the lands, but Goa, Daman and Diu remained a bone of contention.

Arbitration by the World Court and the United Nations General Assembly favoured self-determination, but Portugal resisted all overtures from India. On December 18, 1961, in what Prime Minister Nehru termed as a police action, the Indian Army liberated Goa, Daman and Diu. The Portuguese surrendered on December 19, and 3,000 Portuguese soldiers became prisoners of war. That takeover ended the last of the European colonies in India. In 1987, Goa achieved statehood.

Jawahar Lal Nehru: The First Prime Minister of India l

Jawaharlal Nehru was a freedom fighter, the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence. He emerged as an eminent leader of the Indian independence movement under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi and served India as Prime Minister from its establishment as an independent nation in 1947 until his death in 1964. He is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation-state: a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic.

Nehru was elected by the Congress to assume office as independent India's first Prime Minister, although the question of leadership had been settled as far back as 1941, when Gandhi acknowledged Nehru as his political heir and successor. As Prime Minister, he set out to realise his vision of India. The Constitution of India was enacted in 1950, after which he embarked on an ambitious program of economic, social and political reforms. Chiefly, he oversaw India's transition from a colony to a republic, while nurturing a plural, multi-party system. In foreign policy, he took a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement while projecting India as a regional hegemon in South Asia.

Under Nehru's leadership, the Congress emerged as a catch-all party, dominating national and state-level politics and winning consecutive elections in 1951, 1957, and 1962. He remained popular with the people of India in spite of political troubles in his final years and failure of leadership during the 1962 Sino-Indian War. In India, his birthday is celebrated as Bal Diwas

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More At @Aj_ebooks Linguistic Reorganisation of Indian States after Independence l

At the time of independence in 1947, India consisted of 571 disjointed princely states that were merged together to form 27 states. The grouping of states at the time was done on the basis of political and historical considerations rather than on linguistic or cultural divisions, but this was a temporary arrangement. On account of the multilingual nature and differences that existed between various states, there was a need for the states to be reorganised on a permanent basis.

The integration and merger of princely states was purely ad hoc arrangement and there was need for reorganisation of states on a permanent basis on account of the haphazard growth of provinces, disparity between various states and multilingual nature of the states. In 1948, the government appointed commission under S K Dhar, a judge of the Allahabad High Court, to examine the case for the reorganisation of states on the linguistic basis.

Admitting the importance of the reorganisation of states on a linguistic basis, the commission, however, attached more importance to historical, geographical and economic considerations. It favoured reorganisation on the basis of administrative convenience rather than linguistic considerations.

JVP Committee: In December, 1948, Congress appointed a committee under Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabh bhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya (known as the JVP Committee) to examine the issue afresh. The committee, in a report submitted in April, 1949, dismissed the idea of reorganisation on a linguistic basis. However the committee stated that the problem may be re-examined in the light of public demand.

First Linguistic State: In 1953, the government was forced to create a separate state of Andhra Pradesh for Telugu-speaking people following the long-drawn agitation and death of Potti Sriramulu after a hunger strike for 56 days. Thus, the first linguistic state of Andhra Pradesh was created under pressure.

Fazl Commission: This led to the demand for creation of states on linguistic basis from other parts of country and on December 22, 1953, Jawaharlal Nehru announced the appointment of a commission under Fazl Ali to consider this demand. The other two members of the commission were K M Panikkar and HN Kunzru. The commission submitted its report after taking into account the wishes and claims of people in different regions.It recommended the reorganization of the whole country into sixteen states and three centrally administered areas. However, the government did not accept these recommendations in toto.

While accepting Commission's recommendation to do away with the four-fold distribution of states as provided under the original Constitution, it divided the country into 14 states and 6 union territories under the States Reorganization Act 1956.The states were Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Mysore, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The six union territories were Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands, Manipur and Tripura. The Act was implemented in November, 1956. Why language was used as the criteria for the division of states? o It would lead to the local people participating in the administration in larger numbers because of being able to communicate in a common language. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Governance would be made easier in areas, which shared linguistic and geographical features. o This would lead to the development of vernacular languages, which had long been ignored by the British. l

Concept of Zonal Council: With a view to promoting cooperation among various states, the act provided for five zonal councils--for the northern, central, eastern, western and southern zone states, respectively. Each zonal council consisted of a union minister appointed by the President; the chief ministers of states in the zones, two ministers of each state in the zone, one member from each union territory nominated by the President (if such a territory was included in the zone), and the advisor to the Governor of Assam in the case of the eastern zone. In addition, the zonal council was to have certain advisors.

Diversion of the State of Bombay: In 1960, as a result of agitation and violence, the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were created by bifurcating the state of Bombay. With this the strength of the Indian states rose to 15.

Formation of Nagaland: In 1963, the state of Nagaland was formed to placate the Nagas. However, before providing it the status of a full-fledged state, it was placed under the control of the Governor of Assam in 1961. With this the strength of the Indian states rose to 16.

Territories from France and Portuguese: After the acquisition of Chandernagore, Mahe, Yaman and Karekal from France, and the territories of Goa, Daman and Diu from the Portuguese, these were either merged with the neighbouring states or given the status of union territories.

Shah Commission l

In 1966, the Parliament passed the Punjab Reorganization Act after an agitation for the formation of Punjabi Subha. This step was taken on the recommendation of the Shah Commission appointed in April, 1966.As a result of this act, the Punjabi-speaking areas were constituted into the state of Haryana and the hilly areas were merged with the adjoining Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh. Chandigarh was made a Union Territory and was to serve as a common capital of Punjab and Haryana. The two states were also to have a common High Court, common university and joint arrangement for the management of the major components of the existing irrigation and power system. With the division of Punjab, the strength of states rose to 17.

Further Formation of the State o In 1969, the state of Meghalaya was created out of the state of Assam. Initially, the state was given autonomous status within Assam, but subsequently it was made a full-fledged state. This raised the strength of Indian states to 18. o In 1971, with the elevation of the union territory of Himachal Pradesh to the status of a state, the strength of Indian states rose to 19 and then to 21 with the conversion of the Union Territories of Tripura and Manipur into states. o In 1975, Sikkim was admitted as a state of the Indian Union. Initially, Sikkim was given the status of an associate state but was subsequently made a full-fledged state. o In 1986 it was decided to give Mizoram, a Union Territory of India, the status of a full-fledged state. However, it actually acquired the status of a state in February 1987 and became the 23rd state of the Indian Union.

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More At @Aj_ebooks o

In February 1987 Arunachal Pradesh, another Union Territory of India, was also given the status of a state and became the twenty-fourth state of the Indian Union.

o In May 1987 the state of Goa was created by separating the territory of Goa from the Union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu. While Daman and Diu continued to be a Union Territory, Goa became the 25th state of the Indian Union. Three new states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal were created in November 2000.

Tribal Integration l

The uphill task of integrating the tribal population into the mainstream was extremely difficult given the diverse conditions under which they dwell in different parts of the country, having different cultures and speaking varied languages. o Tribal population was spread all over India, their greatest concentration lies in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, North-eastern India, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Except the North-East, they constitute minorities in their home states. Residing mostly in the hills and forest areas, in colonial India they lived in relative isolation and their tradition, habits, cultures and ways of life were exceptionally different with that of their non-tribal neighbours. o Radical transformation and penetration of market forces integrated the isolated tribal people with colonial power. A large number of money lenders, traders, revenue farmers and other middlemen and petty officials invaded the tribal areas and disrupted the tribal's traditional way of life. o To conserve forests and to facilitate their commercial exploitation, the colonial authorities brought large tracts of forest lands under forest laws which forbade shifting cultivation and put severe restrictions on the tribals' use of forest and their access to forest products. o Loss of land, indebtness, exploitation by middlemen, denial of access to forests and forest products, oppression and extortion by policemen, forest officials and other government officials was to lead a series of tribal uprisings in the nineteenth & twentieth centuries, e.g. Santhal & Munda rebellion.

Roots of India Tribal Policy l

The preservation of the tribal people's rich social and cultural heritage lay at the heart of Government of India's policy of tribal integration.

Jawaharlal Nehru was the main influence in shaping government's attitude towards the tribals. Nehru stood for economic and social development of the tribal people in multifarious ways, especially in the fields of communications, modern medical facilities, agriculture and education.

Nehru approach was based on the nationalist policy towards tribals since the 1920s when Gandhiji set up ashrams in the tribal areas and promoted constructive work. There were certain broad guidelines laid down by Nehru, with the help of Verrier Elwin [British Anthropologist] which was called as "Tribal Panchsheel". They are: o People should develop along the line of their own genius & we should avoid imposing anything on them. We should try to encourage in every way their own traditional arts and culture. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Tribals rights to land and forest should be respected. o We should try to train and build up a team of their own people to do the work of administration and development. Some technical personnel from outside will no doubt, be needed, especially in the beginning. But we should avoid introducing too many outsiders into tribal territory. o We should not over administer these areas or overwhelm them with a multiplicity of schemes. We should rather work through & not in rivalry to, their own social & cultural institutions. o We should judge results not by statistics or the amount of money spent, but by the quality of human character that is involved. l

To give shape to government's policy, a beginning was made in the constitution itself.

Under article 46 - the state should promote with special care the educational and economic intersects of the tribal people & should protect them from social injustice & all forms of exploitation. In spite of the constitutional safeguards and the efforts of central & state governments, the tribals progress and welfare has been very slow and even dismal. Except the North East, the tribals continue to be poor, indebted, landless and often unemployed. The problem lies in weak execution of even well intentioned measures. Reasons for dismal performance of Tribal Policy: o Quite often the funds allocated for tribal welfare are not spent or are spent without corresponding results and sometimes funds are even misappropriated. The watch dog of tribal interests, Tribal Advisory Council has not functioned effectively. o Administrative personnel are either ill trained or prejudiced against tribals. o A major handicap from which tribals suffer is denial of justice, often because of their unfamiliarity withthe laws & the legal system. o Violation of strict land transfer laws for tribals, leading to alienation of land & eviction of tribals. o Rapid extension of mines & industries has worsened their conditions in many areas. o The progress of education among the tribal people has been disappointingly slow. o Exploitations from the forest officials and unsympathetic attitude of officials.

Positive Development happened due to state's Initiative l

Certain positive developments in the tribal sphere have occurred since 1947. Legislation to protect tribal rights & interests, activities of the tribal welfare departments, Panchayati Raj, spread of literacy and education, reservations in government services and in Parliament, state assemblies, reservation in higher education institutions, repeated elections have led to increasing confidence among the tribal people & greater political participation by them, at least by growing middle classes & intelligentsia among them in the constitutional political processes.

Even though there are certain regions where reached the benefits of positive discrimination by the states, certain regions are still lagging behind. Protest movements have sprung up among tribals out of their frustration with the lack of development & welfare. Some of the protest movements have taken to violence leading to strong state action against them.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Issues of Language l

The language problem was the most divisive issue in the first twenty years of independent India. Linguistic identity during first 20 years after independence had become a strong force in all societies. Due to diversity in languages, this language issue became more difficult to tackle.

The problem posed to national consolidation by linguistic diversity has taken two major forms : 1. The dispute over official language of the union. 2. The linguistic reorganisation of the states The Official Language: o Opposition to Hindi as a national languages tended to create conflict between Hindi speaking and non- Hindi speaking regions of the country. o The issue of a national language was resolved when the constitution-makers virtually accepted all the major languages as "languages of India". o Being a foreign language Gandhi opposed the idea that English would be an all India medium of communications in free India. o Sharp differences marked the initial debates as the problem of the official language was highly political from the beginning. o Hindi was chosen over Hindustani [written in Devanagari or Urdu script] to be the official language of India & but the national language. o The issue of the time-frame for a shift from English to Hindi produced a divide between Hindi & non Hindi areas. Proponents of Hindi wanted immediate switch over, while non Hindi areas advocated retention of English for a long if not indefinite period. o Nehru was in favour of making Hindi the official language, but he also favoured English to be continuing as an additional official language. o The constitution provided that Hindi in Devanagari script with international numerals would be India's official language. English was to continue for use in all official purposes till 1965, when it would be replaced by Hindi in phased manner. However, Parliament would have the power to provide for the use of English for specified purposes even after 1965. o The constitution laid upon the government the duty to promote the spread and development of Hindi & provides for the appointment of Commission & a Joint Parliamentary Committee to review the progress in the respect. The state legislatures were to divide the matter of official language at state level, though the official language of the Union would serve as the language of communication between the states and the centre & between one state & another. o In 1956, the report of the official language commission set up in 1955 in terms of a constitutional provision, recommended that Hindi should start progressively replacing English in various functions of the central government with effective change taking place in 1965. Two members of commission, one each from West Bengal & Tamil Nadu, dissented this while accusing other members for pro-Hindi Bias. JPC [Joint Parliamentary Committee] reviewed the report to implement the recommendations of JPC, President issued an order in April 1960 stating that after 1965 Hindi would be the Principal official language, but English would continue without any restriction as the associate official language. To promote Hindi, according to President's UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks directive, central government took a series of steps to promote Hindi. These includes the setting up of central Hindi Directorate, publication of standards works in Hindi or in Hindi translation in various fields, compulsory training of central government employees in Hindi and translation of major text of law into Hindi & promotion of their use by the courts. o To allay the fear of non Hindi speakers Nehru in the Parliament in 1959, assured them that English would continue as alternate language as long as the people require it. In 1963, official languages Act was passed. The object of the Act, was to remove a restriction which had been placed by the constitution on the use of English after a certain dates namely 1965. o Because of ambiguity in Official Languages Act due to the world "may" instead of "shall", they criticized it. o Now, many non Hindi leaders in protest changed their line of approach to the problem of the official language, while initially they had demanded a slowing down of the replacement of English, now they shifted their stand and demanded that there should be no deadline fixed for the changeover. o There was immense amount of protests in Tamil Nadu, some students burnt themselves, Two Tamil Ministers in Union Cabinet, C. Subramaniam & Alagesan resigned, 60 people died due to police firing during agitation. o Later when Indira Gandhi became PM in 1966, in 1967, she moved a amendment to the 1963 official Languages Act. The amendment was passed with thumping majority. Features of Amended Act: o The Act put to rest all the ambiguities regarding Nehru's assurance in 1959. It provided the use of English as an associate language in addition to Hindi for the official work at the centre & for communication between the centre and non Hindi states would continue as long as non Hindi states wanted it. o Indefinite policy of bilingualism was adopted. o The states were to adopt a three language formula that is study of a modern Indian language, preferably one of the Southern languages, apart from Hindi and English in the Hindi speaking areas and of Hindi along with the regional languages and English in the non-Hindi speaking areas; o The Parliament adopted a policy resolution laying down that the public service exams were to be conducted in Hindi & English & in all the regional languages with the provision that the candidates should have additional knowledge of Hindi or English. l

The Government of India took another important step on language in July 1967. On the basis of the report of the education commission in 1966 it declared that Indian languages would ultimately become the medium of education in all subjects at the University level, though the time from for the changeover would be decided by each university to suit its convenience.

The debates concerning the Hindu Code Bill in pre and post-independent India: Due to the majority of Hindus staying in India, this Bill had been a matter of concern as it directly intervened in their religious world. The laws and the customs they were following since centuries were challenged.

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The general subordination of women assumed a particularly severe form in India through the powerful instrument of religious traditions which have shaped social practices. A marked feature of Hindu society is its legal sanction for an extreme expression of social stratification in which women and the lower castes have been subjected to humiliating conditions of existence.

The British Policy l

In such a background the story of the Hindu Code Bill gets a shape. The need to reform the Hindu legal system became very clear to the British by the end of the eighteenth century, when the British policy of non-interference with customary laws met with difficulties of implementation at the ground level. While introducing their legal system in the administration of the country, the British faced difficulties in accommodating the plethora of Indian customary practices within the rational structure of British jurisprudence.

More than a century later, the Montague-Chelmsford Report of 1918 and the Government of India Act 1919 ushered in a new era in the Indian legislative initiative. In 1921, the need for codification of Hindu law was debated in the legislature comprising representative Indians, with limited political participation.

The debate in the period 1941 - 1951: l

The decade of the 1940s was a vital period in Indian history. The nation was bestowed with the unprecedented opportunity to transform itself as a modern nation. To build a new nation, a variety of economic, political, social and cultural factors had to come to term with each other. The vision of planned economic development and self-reliance within a curious mixture of socialism and capitalism led to the evolution of the political structures within the ambit of a democratic set-up. As economic and political forces reconfigured themselves to contribute to the emergence of a progressive economy, the cultural milieu also experienced the need for alignment with the aspirations of an emerging nation.

The protracted debate over the Hindu Code Bill with widespread participation across all regions and segments of the Indian society between 1941 and 1956, known as the Hindu Code Bill debate, epitomized the necessity of the society to strike an alliance with the forces of modernization.

President Dr. Rajendra Prasad had written multiple letters to Nehru protesting against the bill. The bill, argued the president, was highly discriminatory, for it applied to only one community, Hindus. Many more joined the ranks of Prasad and Singh. One major lacuna in the Bill was considering all the citizens except Muslims, Parsis, Christians, and Jews of India as Hindus. It meant Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists were brought under the category of Hindus. This created tension. Observing this chaos the Bill was postponed till September 1951.

The Constituent Assembly Debate l

During the debates in the Constituent Assembly, B.R. Ambedkar had demonstrated his will to reform Indian society by recommending the adoption of a Civil Code of western inspiration. He had then opposed the delegates who wished to immortalize personal laws, especially Muslim representatives who showed themselves very attached to the Shariat.

The British had drafted a text on codifying the Hindu Personal laws in 1946 but they had had no time to get it adopted. In 1948, Nehru entrusted the drafting of the new code to a sub-committee of UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks the Assembly and nominated Ambedkar as its head. The latter got written in it fundamental principles such as equality between men and women on the question of property and the necessity of justifying concretely a petition for divorce - a procedure which belonged too often until then to a case of a repudiation of the wife by her husband. The Debate in 1951 - 1957 l

One pertinent question was asked regarding the introduction of the Bill. Is it the right time to introduce it as it was, that is1951, just the fourth year after independence. Nehru was of the view that to make India an egalitarian society the Hindu Code Bill is a necessity. He was supported by Dr. Ambedkar. Ambedkar remarked that since time immemorial Hindu society considered God as lawmaker and because of this there has been no developmental change since centuries. His attempt was to prepare the nation for this major change. He asked that if we want to save the Hindu traditions, culture, and social order, then we must not hesitate to remove the loopholes or shortcomings from it.

This questioning of the customs governing the private life of the Hindus aroused a profound emotion, not only among the traditionalists of the Hindu Mahasabha but also among leaders of the Congress as prestigious as Rajendra Prasad, who, after being president of the Constituent Assembly had become the first President of the Indian Republic. Prasad, in a letter to Patel, who himself showed strong reservations vis-à-vis such reforms of the Hindu traditions, rose against a project whose "new concepts and new ideas are not only foreign to the Hindu law but are susceptible of dividing every family".

Ambedkar failed in his first attempt and again he introduced the Bill in the assembly in February 1951. Again there were voices of opposition. Dr. Ambedkar and Nehru faced the opposition both inside and outside the parliament from the Hindu conservatives. Seeking the agitation, Nehru decided to divide the Bill into four parts as he had left with fewer choices.

Moreover, only a few months were left for the first general elections. Nehru was in a dilemma that whether he should take the risk of introducing the Bill just before the elections or should he wait for the appropriate time. He favored the latter option. He declared in September 1951, that the Bill now be divided into two parts and they were marriage and divorce. But as we are lacking time so there would be no discussion on the Bill in this session.

With this the Hindu conservatives and orthodox organizations sat quite but Dr. Ambedkar resigned as Law Minister, as he took this decision of Nehru his failure. Nehru had to make many concessions to the bill's critics, including Rajendra Prasad. Although the bills which were adopted by the new Parliament in the mid-1950s were thus less far-reaching in scope than Nehru had originally intended, they were a solid testimony to his ability to impose his views on others and to defy the Hindu traditionalists.

The Hindu Code Bill: The Hindu Code Bill is primarily a child of Article 44 of Indian constitution. The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India. Hindu Code Bill focused on two issues: 1. Elevate rights and status of Hindu Women. 2. To do away with disparities and divisions of caste.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Among the notable features of the bill wereo Awarding equal share of the property to daughters and widows. o Granting of maintenance to a wife if she decided to live separately if husband has a "loathsome disease". o Abolition of caste and sub-caste specific marriage rules. o Allowing either partner to file for and obtain a divorce. o Making monogamy mandatory. o Allowing adoption of a child from a different caste. Following are the four divided acts: o The Hindu Marriage Bill: Outlawed polygamy and contained provisions dealing with intercaste marriages and divorce procedures; o Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Bill: Had as its main thrust the adoption of girls, which till then had been little practiced; o Hindu Succession Bill: placed daughters on the same footing as widows and sons where the inheritance of family property was concerned. o Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act: Specifically serves to define guardianship relationships between adults and minors, as well as between people of all ages and their respective property. There is one more bill for those, who not to marry according to any particular religious laws i.e. Special Marriage Act, which was last amended in 1954. It lays out provisions for marital laws irrespective of the religion to which the persons concerned belong. Muslims too can get married under this law. Regionalism in Post-independent India l

Regionalism is a political ideology that focuses on the national or normative interests of a particular region, group of regions or other sub-national entity. These may be delineated by political divisions, administrative divisions, cultural boundaries, linguistic regions, and religious geography, among others.

India is a country of unity in diversity, where the power of unity is strong in spite of diversities in area, population and human-cultural factors. This power helped to develop Indian Federation. The rise of regionalism in India is due to diversity and variation in the India economic and social culture.

In this sense, local patriotism and loyalty to a locality or region or state and its language and culture don't constitute regionalism nor are they disruptive of the national unity. They are quite consistent with national patriotism and loyalty to the nation. One's pride in his/her region doesn't constitute regionalism. The Indian national movement too functioned on this understanding.

Aspiring to or making special efforts to develop one's state, to remove poverty, implementing social justice is not branded as regionalism. However, if any state asserting its pride & interests above the national interest and against the nation in a hostile manner, then that can be dubbed as regionalism. American scholar and journalist, Selig Harrison in his book India - The most dangerous decades, wrote that there would be threat to Indian unity because of conflict between national and state governments. But contrary to this apprehension, India quite well managed to accommodate and even celebrate India's cultural diversity. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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The linguistic reorganization of India and the resolution of the official language controversy have played a very important role by eliminating a patent cause of the feeling of cultural loss or cultural domination. Despite such great amount of amity and peace, there exist many regional disputes which create friction between regional states like on sharing of river waters between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh etc.

Economic Imbalances & Regionalism l

Economic inequality among different states and region could be a potential source of trouble. Hence from the beginning, the national government felt a responsibility to counter the imbalance in regional development. To influence the rates of growth in poorer states and regions and to reduce economic distance from richer states, the central government adopted a whole range of policies. o A major instrument in government's hand in bringing development to the poor state was transfer of financial resources, which was done by Finance Commission, a constitutional body. o Planning was also used as a powerful instrument to remove regional inequality. Planning Commission allocated greater plan assistance to the backward states. The assistance was given in both the forms, grants and loans. o Public investment by the central government in major industries such as steel, fertilizers, oil refining, petro chemicals, heavy chemicals, and in power and irrigation projects has been a tool for the reduction of regional inequality. o Government incentives have been provided to the private sector to invest in backward areas through subsidies, tax concessions, concessional banking and institutional loans at subsidized rates. Inspite of above mentioned initiatives and programmes the backward states have a lower level of infrastructural facilities such as power, irrigation, roads, telephones and modern markets for agricultural produce. Political and administrative failure also bolsters backwardness.

Sons of Soil Doctrine l

This doctrine mentions that particular state belongs to majority linguistic group inhabiting it or constitutes an exclusive "homeland" for regional language speakers. The doctrine is majorly popular in cities. In the struggle for the appropriation of economic resources and economic opportunities, recourse was often taken to communalism, casteism and nepotism.

In similar way, language loyalty and regionalism was and is still used to systematically exclude the "outsiders". This doctrine was profoundly utilized in big metros like Mumbai (Marathi) [Earlier Bombay], Bangalore (Kannada), Kolkata (Bengali), etc. "Mulki rule" provided in article 371(D) of Indian constitution safeguards the rights of local people in employment and education and was created after agitation in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This is an example of Sons of soil doctrine, but this was provided only in Group C and D services.

Sons of the soil doctrine arise when there is actual or potential competition for industrial and middle class jobs, between the migrants and local educated middle class youth. The worst case of anti-migrant or implementation of Sons of the Soil doctrine was movement led by Shiv Sena which appealed regional chauvinism and assumed fascist proportions. However, the

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More At @Aj_ebooks courts approved the reservation on the grounds of residence, but maintained people's right to migrate and their allied fundamental right regarding their movements

Issue of J & K, Punjab l

Issue of J & K :Jammu and Kashmir comprises three social and political regions: Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh. Kashmir Valley is the heart of the region. Jammu region is a mix of foothills and plains areas of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and speakers of various languages. The Ladakh region is mountainous, has very little population which is equally divided between Buddhists and Muslims. The Kashmir issue" isn't just a dispute between India & Pakistan. It has both external and internal dimensions. It involves the issue of Kashmiri identity "Kashmiriyat" and the aspirations of the people of J& K Political autonomy.

Root - Cause of the Problem: o Before 1947, J&K was a princely state as specified by British that Princes were free to join any either country or to remain independent. The Prince wanted to remain independent, while the popular movement in the state, led by Sheikh Abdullah of the national conference wanted to get rid of Maharaja Hari Singh & at the same time didn't wish to join Pakistan. o Later after partition, Pakistan still had designs on J&K and to annex it forcefully it sent tribal infiltrators from its side to capture Kashmir. The Maharaja pleaded for help and India helped to drive out infiltrators only when the Maharaja signed "Instrument of Accession" to India. At the same time, it was also agreed that once the situation get normalised, the views of the people of J&K will be ascertained about their future. o The tribal infiltrators had captured one part of the state which came under Pakistan's control, India maintains this as illegal and since then Kashmir has remained a major issue of conflict between India and Pakistan. o Internally, there is a dispute which still persists and couldn't be resolved. This was related to J&K's special status because of Article 370 of the constitution, which gives greater autonomy to it as compared to other states in the country. All provisions of Indian constitution are not applicable to the state. Laws passed by the Parliament apply to J&K only if the state agrees. J&K has its own constitution too. o There is a section of people and parties outside J&K that believes that the special status of the state doesn't allow full integration of the state with India. Hence, it should be revoked. The people residing in Jammu & Kashmir, mostly Kashmiri don't believe that autonomy conferred by Article 370 is enough. A section of Kashmiri have expressed at least three major grievances: o The promise of "Plebiscite" hasn't been fulfilled. o Autonomy given by Article 370, has been eroded in practice and this led to a clamor for "Greater State Autonomy". o Democracy which is practiced in the rest of India, hasn't been institutionalised in J&K. o By 1989, the J&K state had come in the grip of a militant movement mobilised around the cause of a separate Kashmiri region. The insurgents get moral, material and military support from Pakistan. Separatist Politics has taken different forms and made up of various strands. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Successive governments at the centre from time to time have made attempts to engage various separatist groups in negotiations.

Punjab Issue l

The social composition of the state changed first with the partition and later on with creation of Haryana & Himachal Pradesh in 1966. Much before the independence, in 1920, the Akali Dal was formed as the political wing of Sikhs, which led movement for the formation of a "Punjabi Suba". After partition, the Sikhs were now a majority in the truncated state of Punjab. Hence to fulfill this demand, during the 1970s a section of Akalis began to demand political autonomy for the region. They passed a resolution in this regard in their Anandpur Sahib Conference in 1973. This resolution asserted regional autonomy and wanted to redefine centre-state relationship in the country. They declared their goal of attaining bolbala (dominance or hegemony) of the Sikhs. However, this didn't mean separation from India. The more extreme elements started advocating secession from India & demanded "Khalistan".

The leadership of Akali's was transformed from moderate to militant elements. Parallel to the Akali militancy, terrorism made its appearance in Punjab in 1981 as partial culmination of communal politics since 1947. These elements they took the path of armed insurgency to get Khalistan. They made the Golden Temple as their headquarters in Amritsar and turned it into an armed fortress. In June 1984, the government of India carried out "Operation Blue Star" an army action to flush out the militants. It was successfully achieved by Indian army personnel. Meanwhile during the action the holy place got damaged and people's sentiments got hurt and this gave impetus to militant and extremist groups. Later, the bodyguards of our PM Indira Gandhi shot her to avenge the feelings of Sikhs, which was followed by brutal anti Sikh riots.

Road to Peace: l

In August 1985 the newly elected PM of India, Rajiv Gandhi signed an agreement with Harchand Singh Longowal the then President of Akali Dal which was known as "Rajiv Gandhi-Longowal Accord or the Punjab Accord". This was a positive step towards bringing normalcy to Punjab.

Basic feature of the Accord: o Transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab. o Sharing of Water through tribunal between Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana. o Compensation for those who suffered from militancy. o Revocation of AFSPA from Punjab.

This accord didn't facilitate peace immediately. Militancy and counter insurgency violence continued which led to human rights violation. Fragmentation of Akali Dal also started. Normal political process was suspended and President's rule was imposed. Gradually the military was eradicated by the security forces. Peace returned to Punjab by the middle of 1990's. The alliance of BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal emerged as victorious and brought back democratic process in the state.

Problems with North-East Region : l

The regional aspirations of North-east region became more focal and prominent in the 1980's. The region has seen lots of changes since 1947. The princely states like Manipur, Tripura, Khasi Hills of Meghalaya had merged with India Post Independence. The whole North-East region has

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More At @Aj_ebooks witnessed altogether different political reorganization. Earlier the partition of India turned the North-East region into a land locked region and affected it economically. Due to this isolation from the mainstream India, the region remained backward in terms of developmental parameters. l

Nagaland state was created in 1960, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura in 1972 and Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram became separate state in 1987. The isolation of the region, its complex social character due to different ethnic tribes and their culture, lack of development, weak communications between the north-east region and rest of India fuelled the anger and soured the relationship between centre and this region, which led to varied demands of people inhabiting in this region. Due to this delicate relationship, people aspired for their autonomy, secessionist movements and strict opposition to outsider from entering into their region. Meanwhile, following the large scale reorganization of region in 1972, a regional body, the North-Eastern Council (NEC) was set up to provide a forum for inter-state coordination regional planning and integrated development of the region to avoid intra regional disparities.

However, this NEC couldn't control their feelings for autonomy and violent secessionist movements for that cause. Now we will discuss the different demands emanating from different parts of NorthEast region: I.

Demands for autonomy: After the independence, except Manipur and Tripura, entire northeast region comprised the state of Assam. Due to the presence of different cultures and tribes, Non-Assamese felt alienated with the Assamese and Bengali residents of the plain. In addition to this, the Assam Government imposed Assamese language on them. This non- Assamese people protested against this move violently, tribal leaders started demanding separation from Assam. To consolidate their voice for the separation, the tribal leaders formed the Eastern Indian Tribal Union which later transformed into a comprehensive all Party Hill leaders Conference in 1960. Their demands were fulfilled later and several states were carved out of one Assam. fulfillment of these demands couldn't stop aspirations of a separate state among some tribes like Bodos, Karbi and Dimasas. They drew centre's attention towards their demand of autonomy. They mobilised public opinion through popular movements and insurgency. It was not possible for the centre to fulfill all the regional aspirations, and create smaller and smaller states. So the centre devised some other alternative to fix this demand, such as grant of Autonomous District for such tribes.

II. Secessionist Movements: The demands of autonomy can be fulfilled with the constitutional provisions, but the demands of separatism are complicated to deal with. This has been true in the case of the North-East region as well, as can be seen form the following cases: o Mizoram: Mizo People never considered themselves us a part of British Union. So they refused to consider themselves as Indian, after India's Independence. Later in 1959, during the Famine in Assam, The Mizos felt neglected by the government in famine relief efforts. Discontent among a section of Mizo people led to the formation of the Mizo National Front under the leadership of Lal denga in 1961. The MNF began an armed an armed campaign against Indian army through guerrilla warfare and they were aided by Pakistan government and received shelter in East Pakistan. Pakistan was aiding all such UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks secessionist movement in India to destabilize India through different means. The Union government used armed and air forces to quell the MNF uprising. After realising the futility of war, Laldenga started negotiations with the Indian Government. In 1986 Rajiv Gandhi, the then PM and Laldenga reached for an agreement known as the Mizo-Accord. In accordance with this agreement, Mizoram was granted a full-fledged statehood with special powers and MNF gave up its secessionist movement. Now, the state is recognised as having done a commendable job in the implementation of development programmes and making agriculture remunerative. o Nagaland :The Nagas residing in the Naga hills on consisted of many separate tribes speaking different languages. The British had left the Nagas in relative isolation and due to missionary activity permitted by them there had emerged an educated section which became the flag bearer of separate Naga identity and the demand of sepration and complete indendenc e form India. Led by Angami Zaphu Phizo belonging to the Naga National Council (NNC), the Nagas articulated their demands of freedom and separation from India, immediately after the end of the British Rule. Following a referendum held by the NNC in 1951, Phizo formed the underground Naga Federal Government (NFG) and the Naga Federal Army (NFA) in March 1956, thus beginning an armed insurrection against Indian government. The Government of India sent in the Army to crush the insurgency and, in 1958, enacted the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. The Government also tried to quell such movements with limited success by bringing many Naga areas within an autonomous framework in 1957, formation of the state of Nagaland in 1963. o Movements against outsiders: The migration of people from other part of the country to the North-east region has created lots of problem and increased the tension between 'locals' and 'outsiders'. The migrant people were seen as encroachers, who would snatch away their scarce resources like land, employment opportunities and political power and render the local population without their legitimate due. To drive away the outsiders from the region was the main aim of the Assam Movement from 1975 to 1985. The main targets were Bengali Muslim settlers from Bangladesh. In 1979 the All Assam student's union (AASU), a student's group not related to any political party, led an anti-foreigner movement. Their area of focus was illegal migration, domination of Bengali and other outsiders, against faulty voter's registration of lakhs of immigrants. AASU members used both non-violent and violent methods. Their violent agitation took human lives and damaged lots of properties. After 6 years of violent turmoil, the then PM, Rajiv Gandhi negotiated with AASU leaders. Both the sides (Union Govt and AASU) signed the Assam Accord in 1985. According this accord, the foreigners who migrated into Assam during and after Bangladesh war, were to be identified and deported. With the success of signing this accord, the AASU and Assam Gana Sangram Parishad came together, formed their political party, Assam Gana Parishad, won the Assembly elections in 1985 with the promise of resolving the foreign national problem and make Assam a "Golden Assam". However the problem of immigration hasn't been resolved yet, but it brought peace to some extent.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Establishment of Planning Commission l

The Planning Commission was an institution in the Government of India, which formulated India's Five-Year Plans, among other functions. Planning Commission in India has come to say as an important organ of development administration and process. Nation's every activity today revolves round this organisation. Unless funds for a project are made available by the Commission, the work cannot go on.

A brief history of Planning Commission: India, quite for some time, has been playing with the idea of planned economy in the country. As early as in 1876, when Dadabhai Naoroji wrote his 'Poverty of India' it was realised that India's poverty could be eradicated only if efforts in some planned way were made.

It was in 1933 that M. Visvesvaraya came out with his ten year plan with the target of doubling the income of the country. In 1938, Indian National Congress set up a National Planning Committee under the Presidentship of Late Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru.

The work of the Committee was, however, hampered due to the outbreak of Second World War. In 1941, the then Government of India realised the need and necessity of some sort of planning body in India and appointed a Committee for Planning. In 1943, this Committee was replaced by the Reconstruction Committee of the Executive Council, which was headed by the Governor General himself.

A year later in 1944, a separate Planning and Development Department was set up by the Government of India. Simultaneously some industrialists of India came forward, with 'Bombay Plan' aiming at economic development of the country in a planned way.

In 1946, an Advisory Planning Board was set up by the interim Government of India with K.C. Neogi as its Chairman. It was to make recommendations about co-ordination and improvement of planning, future planning machinery and set objectives and priorities.

It was of the view that there should be a single and compact authoritative organisation concerning itself with the whole field of development and be made responsible direct to the cabinet. It also suggested that such a body be named as Planning Commission. The Commission's members should be persons with general experience of public affairs on the one hand and be drawn from industry, science and technology on the other with no Minister as its member. In 1948, National Planning Committee was accordingly set up by the government. The Planning Commission was actually set up on 15th March, 1950, by a resolution of the Government of India and started its work on 28th March, 1950.

In November 1989 when National Front Government took over at the Centre, Hegde was made Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. Immediately after his taking over he announced that the government proposed to give constitutional status to the Commission. The re-constituted commission will include three opposition ruled state Chief Ministers, each one having a year's term of office. But no change could be brought about because the government went out of power after about a year.

National Development Council l

It was with the object of involving states in planning process that National Development Council was set up in 1952 though, the idea was mooted in 1946. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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In 1967, based on the recommendations and suggestions of the A.R.C., the Government of India outlined the following functions of the Council: o To give guidmnelines for the formulation of national plans o To help in assessing plan resources; o To consider plans as formulated by the Planning Commission; o To deal with important questions of social and economic policies, which have a bearing on national development; o To review the working of the plan from time to time and suggest measures for speedy achievement of plan targets; o To suggest measures to secure active participation and co-operation of the people in planning process; o To suggest ways and means for improving efficiency of administrative services dealing with plan implementation. o To suggest measures for building up resources for national development. o To ensure the fullest development of less advanced regions and sections of community.

The Council is a very powerful body, which, is headed by the Prime Minister himself. All the State Chief Ministers, Lt. Governor and Chief Executive Councilor Delhi, Administrators of Union Territories, Members of Planning Commission, Food, Home, Finance and Defence Ministers of the Central Cabinet are members of the Council. The Council usually meets twice a year though there is no rigidity about it.

Niti Aayog: The replacement of Planning Commission in 2014 l

The planning commission which has a legacy of 65 years has replaced by NITI Aayog. The utility and significance of the Planning Commission had been questioned for long. The replacement seems to be more relevant and responsive to the present economic needs and scenario in the country.

Evolution of NITI Aayog: The NITI Aayog was formed on January 1, 2015. In Sanskrit, the word "NITI" means morality, behavior, guidance, etc. But, in the present context, it means policy and the NITI stand for National Institution for Transforming India. It is country's premier policy-making institution which is expected to bolster the economic growth of the country. It aims to construct a strong state that will help to create a dynamic and strong nation. This helps India to emerge as a major economy in the world. The NITI Aayog's creation has two hubs called "Team India Hub" and Knowledge and innovation Hub. o The Team India: It leads the participation of Indian states with the central government. o The Knowledge and innovation hub: it builds institution's think tank capabilities.

NITI Aayog is additionally creating itself as a State of the Art Resource Center, with the essential resources, knowledge, and skills that will empower it to act with speed, advance research and innovation, bestow crucial policy vision to the government and manage unforeseen issues. The reason for setting up the NITI Aayog is that the people had expectations for growth and development in the administration through their participation. This required institutional changes in administration

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More At @Aj_ebooks and active strategy shifts that could seed and foster substantial scale change. The institution has completed one year of its life.

Regionalism, regional inequalities and National Consolidation l

Regionalism is not about local patriotism or local pride as Gandhiji said 'As the basis of my pride as an India, I must have pride in myself as a Gujarati otherwise we shall be left without any moorings'. National pride is not opposite of regional pride and rather two of them coexist together and this was core to our nationalistic ideology too during our freedom struggle. Special efforts to uplift one's region is not regionalism as it promotes a progressive thinking and healthy competition and even undermines other divisive factors like caste and class by diverting attention from them to regional well being. For same regions, demand for a separate state or an autonomous region is also not regionalism unless it is marked by bitterness towards others.

Regionalism is instead an ideology which propagates that interests of a region are not in harmony with national interests or interests of other regions and hence may lead to hostility. Politics of DMK during 1950s in Tamil Nadu is an apt example when a region becomes more assertive of its cultural identity in a hostile manner. Case of Punjab during 1980s is not an example of regionalism, but communalism.

Linguistic reorganization of states averted a major face-off between various regions by acting as a safety value. Another area of potential conflict is sharing of riparian waters, especially in southern states. Even such disputes have not aroused passions to such great extents to cause major integrational threats.

Another potential source of regionalism can be economic disparity. However, many special programs like Food for Work, IRDP etc in 1970s and special aid for development of such regions helped in diffusing growth of strident regionalism. Industrial policy also ensured that new industries are widely spread out. During planning process also, more development aid and funds were given to lesser developed regions which continue even today and role of Finance Commission is important in this aspect which allocates more grants to backward regions. Public investment in various infrastructure projects like - rail, road, ports, industries etc also played role in offsetting the inequalities. Tax soaps and other incentives were provided to private sector also to invest in industrially backward regions. Licensing policy was used to guide the location of industries in various regions. Nationalization of banks started process of financial inclusion of backward areas as well. However, investment in agriculture sector and irrigation remained one ignored area. Green Revolution led to unequal benefits and considerable heartburn in other rain-fed and dry areas which was tried to minimize through extending the Green Revolution to other areas as well.

Results of above efforts have been a mixed one. Industrialization has relatively evenly spread except a few states like North Eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir. Some states have progressed more than others and others have failed to keep pace. While states like Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have improved upon, states like West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have lost their position. Andhra and Rajasthan have stagnated.

One of the major reasons of economic disparity of poor economic growth of the nation as a whole and it was not good enough to make a dent in regional inequalities. Specific issues of social and political organization of certain states are also a reason of their backwardness as in case of Bihar UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks and West Bengal. Similarly, agrarian structure in UP and Orissa is still backward. In Bihar and UP casteism is there. In West Bengal CPI led leadership didn't allow much industrial growth due to strong trade-unionism. Intra-regional disparities have also given birth to sub- regional movements as well as in case of Vidarbha in Maharashtra, Telangana in Andhra, Saurashtra in Gujarat, Darjeeling or Gorkhland in West Bengal, Bodoland in Assam etc. l

For various reasons, economic disparity has not led to growth of regionalism in India. While it is digested for many reasons, some rational explanations like fault of their own political leadership are given in other cases. Some others are even unaware of the acuteness of the situation.

One particular instance of regionalism raising its head is in form of 'sons of the soil doctrine' since 1950s. It holds that a state and its resources specifically belong to a particular cultural or linguistic group inhabiting in that state. It creates a notion of 'us' for insiders and 'them' for outsiders. Outsiders are not regarded 'sons of the soil' even if they have been residing there since long. To harness the employment and economic opportunities this doctrine was used along communalism, casteism and nepotism. As migration into major cities accelerated after 1951, urban areas specifically became the playfield of this doctrine as 'insiders' were gradually reduced to minority in these cities as these areas witnessed acute struggle for middle class jobs and other opportunities. Failure to create new employment opportunities created more competition in 1960s and 1970s. It particularly flourished in states of Maharashtra, Assam and Telangana and was primarily led by urban middle class as people in these areas had little tradition of migration as compared to other states like West Bengal, Kerala etc. Worst among these was one led by Shiv Sena in 1960s which was more antagonistic towards South Indians especially Tamilians.

However, regional chauvinism has not posed a great challenge to national unity after 1960s and 70s. DMK has contended itself by changing the name of state and its capital city. Shiv Sena has turned to Hindu communalism instead. There are occasional flares like violence in Assam and rhetoric of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, but they are only limited in their intensity.

Foreign Affairs India's role in international happenings: o Korea War and Non-Alignment Policy: End of Second World War left Korea divided and hostile to each other. India supported US resolution in 1950 in UN when North Korea invaded South Korea and condemned North Korea as aggressor. However, US got miffed when India abstained from another resolution calling for an armed intervention. US sent its force under leadership of General McArthur without a UN approval and crossed the 38th parallel and marched into North Korea. China warned US on this and came into defence of North Korea and fight ensued. US moved another resolution calling China aggressor (though in reality it was US which was aggressor) and India voted against it. India was only line of communication between China and US and after long efforts, both sides agreed to hold ceasefire and recognized the same boundaries which they wished to change. A 'Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission' was formed under India General Thimayya's leadership to repatriate soldiers. Korean War was a test of Non-Alignment policy of India and its foreign policy. In whole turn of events, India first miffed USSR and China when it termed North Korea aggressor and then miffed US when it abstained from UN vote and later voted against US resolution calling China as an

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More At @Aj_ebooks aggressor. India didn't dilute its stance in difficult circumstances as in the same period, China attacked Tibet without taking India into picture, India even supported permanent seat of China in UNSC which USSR didn't like. India also needed US help to meet challenge of food security during famine. However, later everyone acknowledged the stance of India and the incidents prove to be a sound testimony of genuineness and worth of non-alignment policy. o Indo-China (Today's Laos-Vietnam-Cambodia): Indo-China was on brink of becoming theater of cold war in 1950s. US was goading France to continue its efforts to occupy the region and China was getting ready to intervene if US comes into picture. Indian leaders held intense negotiation for maintaining peace and even declared such intention in the Colombo Conference, 1954. Finally, after much parleys, India was successful in assuring China that it should not intervene and also extracted promise from France that it would not allow US to have a military base in the region. As a result, India was appointed Chairman of 'International Control Commission' which would supervise the import of foreign armaments in Indo-China. This commission was later subverted by US and Indo-China did became a theater of anti-communism crusade of West, but same peace efforts initiated by India were followed by the regional leaders later. o Suez Canal Episode - Suez was nationalised by Naseer in 1956 and this made UK and France apprehensive and they demanded international control over it, however India asked both sides to restrain and suggested a formula allowing Egypt to control canal, but with an advisory role for users at London Conference which was widely appreciated. But UK and France perceived it as a future irritant in terms of trade route use and they ultimately supported Israel attack on Egypt and their control of Suez canal. This attack was widely condemned as 'naked aggression' by India, US and UN and as a result withdrawal of forces started to take place under UN supervision in which India also lend help in form of peacekeeping forces.

Foreign Policy under Jawahar Lal Nehru The shaping of India's foreign policy was largely influenced by the international development after the Second World War, the weakening of the forces of imperialism and growth of the forces of democracy and progress. Several countries in the post war era in Europe and Asia broke away from the capitalist system to form the socialist system. There was an upsurge in the movements for national liberation that resulted in the collapse of the colonial system of imperialism. The Indian National Congress party had as early as 1920s adopted a resolution expressing a desire to establish cooperation with the neighbouring countries. But at that point the internal situation of India did not permit them to pay attention to international developments. It was mainly due to Nehru's efforts that since the mid-twenties the Congress party began to take interest in international affairs. l

The Congress resolved to support the subject peoples and races in their struggle for freedom and equality. They also decided to condemn racial discriminations throughout the world. After 1927 Nehru took an active part in formulating the foreign policy of the Congress that was in effect its first foreign policy statement. It contained a declaration that India should not participate in imperialist and any other war. This position was taken up as the key foreign policy principle in late 1920s and 1930s. When in 1930s Japan, Italy and Germany engaged themselves in imperialist aggressions, the Congress condemned their brutal imperialist designs and passed resolutions to defend the cause of the nationalist forces in various countries such as China, Ethiopia, etc. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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The inter-war period shaped a substantial portion of India's foreign policy. India agreed to cooperate with Britain against Nazi Germany but since the cooperation was sought on British terms, the newly constituted Congress ministries resigned.

At no time did India have sympathies for the fascist countries. The Indians consistently criticized the Non-Aggression pact signed between Germany and the USSR in August 1939 and regarded it as an eyewash.

The dropping of atom bomb by the Americans on Japanese soil wounded India's feelings and was strongly condemned. Soon after the formation of the interim government in September 1946, India took steps to establish friendly relations with all countries.

During the time that the interim government was in office, India established diplomatic relations and exchanged ambassadors with the USA, USSR, China and some other countries. Meanwhile rout of the forces of Nazism and Japanese militarism in World War II altered the correlation of forces in the international arena.

It resulted in an upsurge of movements for national liberation in Asia. Nehru on behalf of the Congress participated in several international conferences including the one held at Brussels in 1926 that declared its profound aim of fighting imperialism. The Congress under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru constantly supported the newly liberated countries and their struggle against imperialism.

After independence, Nehru became the virtual director of India's foreign policy. And under his guidance India became the first state to have pursued a policy that was new in the history of international relations- the policy of Non-Alignment. He was ably supported by Naser of Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia and Joseph Broz Tito of Yugoslavia.

Early in 1947, at the initiative of India, the Asian Relations Conference at Delhi was convened where the principles of foreign policy of independent India were proclaimed. It was attended by representatives of 29 countries. The Conference helped to strengthen the solidarity of all Asian countries. Nehru also participated in the Afro-Asian Conference held in 1955 in Bandung and popularised the policy of non-alignment there. The agenda contained in these conferences was the economic and cultural cooperation, respect for human rights and self-determination and finally the promotion of world peace and cooperation.

The policy of Non-alignment meant the acceptance of the inevitability of war but on the conviction that was could also be avoided. Non-Alignment stood for an independent policy conditioned and controlled by India's own strength. It meant not to entangle oneself with any kind of alliances or commitments that would lead to war and conflict.

Non-alignment implied a position to judge each issue without prejudice or bias. It enhanced the chances of effective mediation in bitter conflicts and thereby brightens the prospect of world peace. In the Korean War and the tangle of Indo-China, the role of peacemaker that India played was vital.

The secret of this policy is that India is neither permanently pro-west nor with the east. She was clearly with Communist block on the issues such as disarmament, racial discrimination, colonialism and China's membership of the United Nations. But on major issues of aggression of North Korea,

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More At @Aj_ebooks India clearly criticised the Communists. The pro-west move did not prevent India from opposing the US military adventurism in Korea. l

India was equally vigorous in condemning the Anglo-French action in Suez and Soviet intervention in Hungary. Non-alignment also did not mean isolation because India had established diplomatic relations with almost all independent states. She was a member of the United Nations and also took part in the Commonwealth of Nations. The basis of all this was cooperation but at the same time following an independent course.

The policy of Non-alignment was based on the five principles of Panchsheel, enumerating international conduct. These were first envisaged and formulated in 1954. These principles were: o Mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty. o Non-aggression o Non interference in each other's military affairs o Equality and mutual benefit o Peaceful coexistence

By April 1955, Burma, China, Laos, Nepal, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Yugoslavia and Cambodia had accepted the Panchsheel. Non-alignment was a tactic or technique to maintain world peace in such a way that each nation pursues his own interest without disturbing the other. The policy was also in tune with the domestic requirements of democracy and socialism.

A major economic factor for the adoption of the policy of non-alignment had been India's economic backwardness. Foreign aid was an important component for developing our underdeveloped economy. Therefore aid was welcome from all quarters- USSR, UK, USA, Germany and Japan. This presupposes non-alignment. India was both tied up with the east and west for economic development.

However the events on the borders in September-October 1962 threw a serious challenge to the Non-Alignment Movement (NAM). Due to the Chinese aggression on India it was now recognised that non-Alignment must be tied up with the immediate defence requirements in order to serve a useful purpose.

Conceived as a struggle against colonialism and growing polarisation of international relations resulting from military blocks and cold war, non-aligned India has constantly struggled for all-round emancipation of the people of Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and other parts of the world. Non-Alignment has achieved success and has continued to play a decisive role in efforts to promote world peace.

Some argue on the relevance of NAM after the end of the cold war. However the single existence of the United States and its dominating influence today threatens to make the world uni-polar. Instead of territorial imperialist design, the ugly face of economic imperialism has taken its place.

The widening gap between the developed and the developing countries is a source of instability in the world. Access to resources and debt burden today threaten the survival of smaller nations. The goal of NAM would now change accordingly to economic needs to face new challenges in terms of new forms of imperialism. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Relations with China l

India's relation with China until 1960-62 rested on an age long friendship and contact. The contact developed in the form of Chinese pilgrims coming to India from 221 B.C. to about 10th c. A.D. Diplomatic as well as commercial relations prevailed through the coast of Arakan and to the Pagan. Sea was also significant for maritime trade between China and India. These routes became points of numerous contacts, religious, trade, diplomatic and cultural. Buddhism was ardently followed from India. Trade contacts between regions of Far East and South India developed amicably during the early Christian centuries.

Contact between India and China though snapped for a while was revived in the 18th and 19th centuries by sharing similar opposition to British imperialism. After 1911 Indian intellectuals became interested in the national movement in China. It was further strengthened by Tagore's visit to China in 1920s.Japanese Aggression on Manchuria was also denounced by India. During the Sino-Japanese war in 1937 the Congress sent a medical mission and supplies to China. In 1942 Chai-Kai-Shek visited India to rally public opinion against Japan. As soon as China became independent in 1949, India established diplomatic relations with her.The initial problems between India and China started on the question of Tibet. The Government of India in 1947 inherited certain extra territorial rights in Tibet. Delhi now expressed concern to Peking over the unsettled SinoTibetan relations that were to be adjusted through peaceful negotiations in 1950.Even when the Chinese troops entered Tibet on October 1950, Delhi followed a policy characterized by forbearance and patient negotiations. Thereafter even in the UN General Assembly India supported the cause of China in the Korean War and condemned US aggression of Indo-China.

On one occasion China for the first time protested against the presence of Indian troops in Barahoti, U.P India refuted the allegation that Indian troops had intruded into Tibet. The attempt to cross into Barahoti by the Chinese troops was also protested by India. But on July 26th, 1956 Peking for the first time claimed that Barahoti was Chinese territory and denied that Tunjun La was a border pass.

Towards the end of November Chou-Eu-ai paid a visit to India. Nehru and Chou discussed the border question in their meeting and Chou assured his Indian counterpart that the Tibet border dispute would be solved through negotiations. The border with Burma was also recognized.

The years between 1957-58 were crucial in relations between India and China. However Chinese reactions to India's friendly relations was not responded equally. China in turn went on to occupy illegally India's territory on the borders. On July 28th, 1955, they occupied the Barahoti area in south of Ladakh and in September they had intruded ten miles inside India's territory. Gradually they crossed the Shipki pass into India.

In April 1958, talks were held on the question of Barahoti. While China agreed to withdraw military personnel their civilian personnel continued to stay in the area. In April 1960 the talks between ChcL- Nehru ended in failure amidst violations on the border as well as air space of India.

Besides these border disputes, the relations of China and India were further strained on the question of giving asylum to Dalai Lama. Right from 1959 owing to large-scale demolition of Buddhist monasteries and confiscation of lands, the Chinese had caused discontent among the Tibetans. In the revolt of the Tibetans, certain insurgents together with Dalai Lama fled in the direction of India.

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Fixed on the question to decide whether he should let the Tibetan refugees into India or refuse them asylum, Nehru was put in a dilemma. On March 30th, 1959, Prime Minister Nehru said in the Lok Sabha that should a large group of people attempt to cross the Indian border from Tibet they would not be allowed into India.

Nevertheless continuous crossing of the border carried on. Not able to hurt the Indian sentiments especially of the Buddhist community, the entry of Dalai Lama was accepted.

By 10th October 1962 a massive Chinese attack was launched on Indian posts and the next day the Chinese captured the Thagla Ridge, the traditional Indo-Tibetan border. The Chinese refused to recognize the MacMohan line or the accepted eastern border. It took a lot of deliberations before cease-fire was declared and the Chinese agreed to withdraw to the line as it was on September 8th, 1962 .Meanwhile an intense exchange of notes continued between the two governments and efforts were being made to settle down matters.

The impact of Chinese aggression on India has serious consequences not only on the internal situation of India but also on its foreign policy. Internally the invasion led to economic imbalance and inflation along with mounting taxes.

Non-Align Movement (NAM) l

The Non-Aligned Movement was formed during the Cold War, largely on the initiative of thenYugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, as an organisation of States that did not seek to formally align themselves with either the United States or the Soviet Union, but sought to remain independent or neutral. The basic concept for the group originated in 1955 during discussions that took place at the Asia-Africa Bandung Conference held in Indonesia. Subsequently, a preparatory meeting for the First NAM Summit Conference was held in Cairo, Egypt from 5-12 June 1961. At this meeting, participants discussed the goals of a policy of nonalignment, which were adopted as criteria for membership. These were as follows: o The country should have adopted an independent policy based on the coexistence of States with different political and social systems and on non-alignment or should be showing a trend in favour of such a policy; o The country concerned should be consistently supporting the Movements for national independence; o The country should not be a member of a multilateral military alliance concluded in the context of Great Power conflicts; o If a country has a bilateral military agreement with a Great Power, or is a member of a regional defense pact, the agreement or pact should not be one deliberately concluded in the context of Great Power conflicts; o If it has conceded military bases to a Foreign Power the concession should not have been made in the context of Great Power conflicts. The First NAM Summit Conference took place in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in September 1961.

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NAM has sought to "create an independent path in world politics that would not result in member States becoming pawns in the struggles between the major powers." It identifies the right of independent judgment, the struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism, and the use of moderation in relations with all big powers as the three basic elements that have influenced its approach. At present, an addition goal is facilitating a restructuring of the international economic order.

What is relevance of NAM today? l

According to the critics, NAM is no longer relevant because of the changed international environment, from Bi-polar to uni-polar. But whatever the world is - bipolar, multi-polar or unipolar, non-alignment as a foreign policy of the small / weak states will continue to remain valid. In other words, the policy will last as long as the sovereign nation states exist.

Non-alignment with the hegemony of great powers- The declaration of the Jakarta Summit conference 1992 assured, NAM has contributed to the ending of bipolar in the world and to the elimination of the cold war. Membership of the NAM has more than quadrupled from about 25 states in 1961 to 118 today. There could be no hope of survival in the age of nuclear bombs, if war happens. Therefore, NAM is then a pioneer nuclear destruction. It demanded complete elimination of all nuclear weapons. The movement also stood opposed to the treaties on WMD (Weapon of Mass Destructions) which were not universal in nature. Further, it looks after the interest of all Third World countries. Pursuit of equality in world affairs through pooling the diplomatic resources of Third World states in international forums. Equality should here be understood in politicaleconomic terms. NAM together with the Group of 77 (G77-largely made up of NAM members) succeeded to keep Third World issues on the agenda in most UN forums and agencies due to their numerical strength. In the UN General Assembly NAM played a significant role in transferring the permanent seat in the UNSC previously filled by the Republic of China (Taiwan) to mainland China. This can also help India getting a UNSC membership.

Thus, the major thrust of NAM is the creation of a new world based on rational, democratic, equitable and non-exploitative inter-states relation. The Non-Alignment countries have to learn to maneuver among them and to successfully face the menace of new colonialism that is sought to be imposed through various WTO round. Thus, the NAM continued to be relevance so long as there is exploitation, war, hunger, poverty and disease on the earth. Its goals do not merely serve the national interest of member state but it stand to promote the cause humanity. Perhaps the most important role for NAM today lies in framing a concrete economic agenda for a just and fair international economic order. The WTO rules and procedures have failed to provide adequate economic gains to the Third World.

How can NAM be Strengthened? l

Its role in the present century would be strengthened by more South-South cooperation, which would mean, by and large, collaboration between and among the NAM countries and defending their interests from fast expanding economic and technological power of the North. NAM should develop a progressive agenda on the fundamental values of democracy, human rights and multiculturalism. The preservation and consolidation of democracy throughout its membership is a

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More At @Aj_ebooks major challenge. NAM's spectrum could be further enlarged with the increasing concern worldwide over environmental issues over greenhouse gas emissions, health concerns especially AIDS, drug trafficking, rising instances of poverty, food crisis and unemployment mostly within the NAM members and LDC countries, the rising digital divide between the rich and poor and fight against all shades of extremism, xenophobia, ethnic nationalism and regional wars. l

Non-Alignment has not lost any of its relevance rather it has stood the test of time. It has served the useful purpose of protecting and preserving the interest of the Third World countries well in the past, so it is also expected to serve their interest well in the future to come. NAM can play the most important role in protecting the economic interest of the Third World countries as well as promoting south-south cooperation. Thus the philosophy of NAM is as relevant as ever for the Third World.

Indus Water Treaty l

Since the partition of the Sub-continent in 1947, water has been a divisive issue between India and Pakistan. The Indus Water Treaty was created to lessen and manage any tensions that might arise from the use of the Indus River and its tributaries. Pakistan is highly reliant upon the water of the Indus and fears that India could use this to its strategic advantage as its headwaters pass totally through India. The treaty has been successful in preventing bilateral disputes from escalating and both parties continue to see value in maintaining it.

The Indus Water Treaty (IWT) was negotiated between India and Pakistan under the auspices of the World Bank in 1960. It was designed to allocate the waters of the Indus River Basin after the partition of the two countries in 1947. Prior to independence, the British constructed an intricate canal system to irrigate the region that is modern-day Pakistan. Partition left a large part of this infrastructure that Pakistan relies upon to support its agriculture-based economy in what it sees as a hostile foreign country. The tributaries of the Indus River either originate in India or, like the Indus itself, begin in Tibet. Under the treaty, the waters that flow into the Indus Basin are shared between the two countries. The accord has been hailed as a success as it has survived the four wars that the two neighbours have engaged in since its implementation.

Prior to the signing of the treaty, water sharing arrangements were made on an ad hoc basis. Under the agreement, exclusive usage rights to the three eastern tributaries - the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi - were granted to India and usage of the three western rivers - the Chenab, Jhelum and the Indus proper - were given to Pakistan. Indian rivers represent one-fifth of te total flow of the Indus system while the remainder was granted to Pakistan. All of these six rivers flow through Kashmir, the region that continues to be a contentious issue in the bilateral relationship. As the treaty currently stands, water cannot be tied to the resolution of tensions caused by Kashmir.

The treaty also established the Permanent Indus Commission and the position of Indus Water Commissioner in both countries. This commission continued to meet even during the wars of 1965 and 1971, showing the entrenched nature of the pragmatism that exists between the two countries over water usage rights.

As part of the agreement, India is permitted to limited development on the three western rivers within its own territory. The treaty does not exclude India from utilising the western rivers that were allocated to Pakistan. As they pass through Indian territory, India is permitted limited use of these waters for drinking water, existing agricultural use with some limited expansion, storage of no more than 3.6 million acre-feet and generation of hydroelectric power through run-of-the-river projects.

Hardliners in both countries suggest water could be used as a weapon against the other. Rightwing Hindu groups in India routinely call upon the government to either stop the flow of water to UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Pakistan or flood it. Radical Islamic groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, in Pakistan, on the other hand, advocate a "water jihad" against India. l

Pakistan is a lower riparian state and therefore depends upon India for its water security. A "water jihad" will only damage Pakistan's own national interests as its economy is heavily reliant upon agriculture and benefits from the provision of water from India. For its part, New Delhi cannot cut off the supply of water to Pakistan, as unilaterally abandoning a treaty mediated by the World Bank would come with its own political risks and ultimately harm its national interests as well.

India and Pakistan have been described as "water-rational" states that seek to secure their longterm supplies of water. As water from the Indus River is so important to both countries they are very reluctant to risk jeopardising the status quo. As it currently stands, conflict between India and Pakistan over the distribution of Indus waters is unlikely in the near future. As the next section of this paper will argue, however, there is still scope for the Indus River to be a cause of hostility between the two neighbours.

Revisiting the Treaty l

Much has changed since the treaty was signed in 1960. Its provisions were based upon the knowledge and technology of the time. The adverse environmental and social impacts of river projects were either not known, or not given the attention that they are today. Population growth, climate change, and outdated irrigation practices are putting greater stress on the Indus and the treaty that governs its use.

The combined population of India and Pakistan tripled from 485 million in 1961 to 1.39 billion in 2011.1 Water demand to supply irrigation networks and electricity production is now far greater than it was in 1960 and necessitates greater attention. When the treaty was originally signed it was believed, correctly, that there was more than enough water for both countries to utilise. Now, due to increased demand, water security in both countries is at increased risk as the rate of water extraction exceeds recharge rates, leading to lower water tables and increased withdrawals from surface-water sources.

Climate change could alter the situation on the ground and affect the fragile relationship between the two neighbours. As the rivers of the Indus Basin originate in the mountains of Tibet, they are influenced by the melting of glaciers in that region. There are concerns that the Indus could become a seasonal river by 2040, making the Pakistani Punjab increasingly prone to drought. Climate change also has the potential to increase the severity of extreme weather events, which could lead to more devastating floods, such as those that occurred in 2010.

Unless the treaty is revised, climate change has the potential to complicate the existing allocation of water. While the region has always been prone to floods and drought, changing weather patterns and climatic conditions exacerbated by climate change could result in more frequent and destructive extreme weather events. Such conditions could prove to be the factor that pushes the two countries into conflict, particularly since, after major floods, Pakistani hardliners accuse the upper riparian of contributing to, or engineering, the flood. They claim that the only way to ensure that similar disasters are averted is to "liberate" Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir by force. Such views are held by only a small portion of the Pakistani population but, as glacial melt is likely to increase the potential for flooding in the coming decades, it is a view that might come to be adopted by more in the community.

The IWT does not contain any provision for flood control infrastructure or warning systems. Such mechanisms would be of immense benefit to both countries as they would assist in minimising the risk associated with extreme weather events and lower the cost of humanitarian aid in the aftermath of such an event. Disaster-risk management procedures need to be developed and, perhaps, codified in an updated treaty document.

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A revised treaty would benefit from an examination of the environmental protections that could be incorporated into it. As it currently stands, the treaty only stipulates that each party intends to prevent undue pollution from entering the system. Much work has been done in the decades since the signing of the treaty on the importance of river sustainability. There is a common perception that any water that remains unutilised and flows into the sea is wasted. This view is being increasingly challenged as it becomes clear that the outflow of rivers is necessary to sustain the environment at the river mouth.

Ensuring the environmental sustainability of the river system also has economic benefits for individuals living in the delta region. For instance, mangroves, which rely upon the natural outflow of the Indus, provide a habitat for fish which are exploited by fishers in the Indus River Delta. Dwindling flows from the river have led to the loss of almost 90 per cent of the delta's mangrove cover since 1966. The destruction of this ecosystem would prove catastrophic for Pakistani fish and shrimp exports.

A revised treaty would take population, climatic and environmental factors into greater consideration. In order to revise the treaty, however, a spirit of goodwill and common purpose needs to exist between India and Pakistan. Without that, building upon or altering the existing treaty will prove challenging, if not impossible.

Sino-India War 1962 l

India and China war 1962 is a bitter chapter in India's war history. A disputed Himalayan border was the main pretext for war between both countries, but other issues played a role. There had been a series of violent border incidents after the 1959 Tibetan uprising, when India had granted asylum to the Dalai Lama. India initiated a Forward Policy in which it placed outposts along the border, including several north of the McMahon Line, the eastern portion of the Line of Actual Control proclaimed by Chinese PremierZhou Enlai in 1959.

Unable to reach political accommodation on disputed territory along the 3,225 kilometre long Himalayan border, the Chinese launched simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line on 20 October 1962. Chinese troops advanced over Indian forces in both theatres, capturing Rezang La in Chushul in the western theatre, as well as Tawang in the eastern theatre. The war ended when China declared a ceasefire on 20 November 1962, and simultaneously announced its withdrawal to its claimed 'line of actual control'.

Much of the battle took place in harsh mountain conditions, entailing large-scale combat at altitudes of over 14,000 feet.The Sino-Indian War was also noted for the non-deployment of the navy or air force by either the Chinese or Indian side.

Important facts on Indo-Sino war 1962 o On October 20, 1962, China's People's Liberation Army invaded India in Ladakh, and across the McMahon Line in the then North-East Frontier Agency o Till the start of the war, the Indian side was confident that war would not be started and made little preparations. Thinking this, India deployed only two divisions of troops in the region of the conflict, while the Chinese troops had three regiments positioned o The Chinese also cut Indian telephone lines, preventing the defenders from making contact with their headquarters UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks o On the first day, the Chinese infantry also launched an attack from the rear. The continued losses forced the Indian troops to escape to Bhutan o On October 22, the Chinese lighted a bush which caused a lot of confusion among the Indians. Some 400 Chinese troops attacked the Indian position. The initial Chinese assault was stopped by accurate Indian mortar fire o When the Indian army discovered that a Chinese force gathered in a pass, it opened fire with mortars and machine guns and killed about 200 Chinese soldiers o On October 26, a patrol from the 4th Sikhs was encircled, and after they were unable to break the encirclement, an Indian unit sneaked in and attacked the Chinese army and freed the Sikhs o According to China's official military history, the war achieved China's policy objectives of securing borders in its western sector.

Forward Policy l

At the beginning of 1961, Nehru appointed General B. M. Kaul as army Chief of General Staff, but he refused to increase military spending and prepare for a possible war. In 1959, India started sending Indian troops and border patrols into disputed areas. This program created both border skirmishes and deteriorating relations between India and China. The aim of this policy was to create outposts behind advancing Chinese troops to interdict their supplies, forcing them north of the disputed line. There were eventually 60 such outposts, including 43 north of the McMahon Line, to which India claimed sovereignty. China viewed this as further confirmation of Indian expansionist plans directed towards Tibet. According to the Indian official history, implementation of the Forward Policy was intended to provide evidence of Indian occupation in the previously unoccupied region through which Chinese troops had been advancing. Kaul was confident, through contact with Indian Intelligence and CIA information, that China would not react with force.[35] Indeed, at first the PLA simply withdrew, but eventually Chinese forces began to counter-encircle the Indian positions which clearly encroached into the north of McMahon Line. This led to a tit-fortat Indian reaction, with each force attempting to out manoeuvre the other. Despite the escalating nature of the dispute, the two forces withheld from engaging each other directly.

Chinese attention was diverted for a time by the military activity of the Nationalists on Taiwan, but on 23 June the U.S. assured China that a Nationalist invasion would not be permitted. China's heavy artillery facing Taiwan could then be moved to Tibet.It took China six to eight months to gather the resources needed for the war, according to Anil Athale, author of the official Indian history. The Chinese sent a large quantity of non-military supplies to Tibet through the Indian port of Calcutta.

Implications of Indo-China war 1962 l

The aftermath of the war saw sweeping changes in the Indian military to prepare it for similar conflicts in the future, and placed pressure on Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was seen as responsible for failing to anticipate the Chinese attack on India. Indians reacted with a surge in patriotism and memorials were erected for many of the Indian troops who died in the war. Arguably, the main lesson India learned from the war was the need to strengthen its own defences and a shift from Nehru's foreign policy with China based on his stated concept of "brotherhood".

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More At @Aj_ebooks Because of India's inability to anticipate Chinese aggression, Prime MinisterNehru faced harsh criticism from government officials, for having promoted pacifist relations with China. l

The public saw the war as a political and military debacle. Indians in general became highly sceptical of China and its military. Many Indians view the war as a betrayal of India's attempts at establishing a long-standing peace with China and started to question the once popular "Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai" meaning "Indians and Chinese are brothers". The war also put an end to Nehru's earlier hopes that India and China would form a strong Asian Axis to counteract the increasing influence of the Cold War bloc superpowers.

The unpreparedness of the army was blamed on Defence MinisterMenon, who resigned his government post to allow for someone who might modernise India's military further. India's policy of weaponisation via indigenous sources and self-sufficiency was thus cemented. Sensing a weakened army, Pakistan, a close ally of China, began a policy of provocation against India by infiltratingJammu and Kashmir and ultimately triggering the Second Kashmir War with India in 1965 and Indo-Pakistani war of 1971. The Attack of 1965 was successfully stopped and ceasefire was negotiated under international pressure.In the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 India won a clear victory, resulting in liberation of Bangladesh (formerly East-Pakistan).

As a result of the war, the Indian government commissioned an investigation, resulting in the classified Henderson Brooks-Bhagat Report on the causes of the war and the reasons for failure. India's performance in high-altitude combat in 1962 led to an overhaul of the Indian Army in terms of doctrine, training, organisation and equipment. Neville Maxwell claimed that the Indian role in international affairs after the border war was also greatly reduced after the war and India's standing in the non-aligned movement suffered.The Indian government has attempted to keep the Hendersen-Brooks-Bhagat Report secret for decades, although portions of it have recently been leaked by Neville Maxwell.

India also gained many benefits from the 1962 conflict. This war united the country as never before. India got 32,000 square miles of disputed territory even if it felt that NEFA was hers all along. The new Indian republic had avoided international alignments; by asking for help during the war, India demonstrated its willingness to accept military aid from several sectors. And, finally, India recognised the serious weaknesses in its army. It would more than double its military manpower in the next two years and it would work hard to resolve the military's training and logistic problems to later become the second-largest army in the world. India's efforts to improve its military posture significantly enhanced its army's capabilities and preparedness. This played a role in subsequent wars against Pakistan.

Soon after the end of the war, the Indian government passed the Defence of India Act in December 1962, permitting the "apprehension and detention in custody of any person [suspected] of being of hostile origin." The broad language of the act allowed for the arrest of any person simply for having a Chinese surname, Chinese ancestry or a Chinese spouse. The Indian government incarcerated thousands of Chinese-Indians in an internment camp in Deoli, Rajasthan, where they were held for years without trial. The last internees were not released until 1967. Thousands more ChineseIndians were forcibly deported or coerced to leave India. Nearly all internees had their properties sold off or looted. Even after their release, the Chinese Indians faced many restrictions in their freedom. They could not travel freely until the mid-1990s. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Demise of India's First Prime Minister: Jawahar Lal Nehru's Death l

Nehru's health began declining steadily after 1962, and he spent months recuperating in Kashmir through 1963. Some historians attribute this dramatic decline to his surprise and chagrin over the Sino-Indian War, which he perceived as a betrayal of trust. Upon his return from Dehradun on 26 May 1964 he was feeling quite comfortable and went to bed at about 23:30 as usual, he had a restful night until about 06:30 soon after he returned from bathroom, Nehru complained of pain in the back. He spoke to the doctors who attended on him for a brief while and almost immediately Nehru collapsed. He remained unconscious until he died. His death was announced to Lok Sabha at 14:00 local time on 27 May 1964; cause of death is believed to be heart attack.Draped in the Indian national Tri-colour flag the body of Jawaharlal Nehru was placed for public viewing. "Raghupati Raghava Rajaram" was chanted as the body was placed on the platform. On 28 May, Nehru was cremated in accordance with Hindu rites at the Shantivan on the banks of the Yamuna, witnessed by 1.5 million mourners who had flocked into the streets of Delhi and the cremation grounds.

Nehru, the man and politician made such a powerful imprint on India that his death on 27 May 1964, left India with no clear political heir to his leadership (later Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded him as the Prime Minister). The death was announced to the Indian parliament in words similar to Nehru's own at the time of Gandhi's assassination: "The light is out."

Legacy of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru l

As India's first Prime minister and external affairs minister, Jawaharlal Nehru played a major role in shaping modern India's government and political culture along with sound foreign policy. He is praised for creating a system providing universal primary education, reaching children in the farthest corners of rural India. Nehru's education policy is also credited for the development of world-class educational institutions such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences,Indian Institutes of Technology,and the Indian Institutes of Management.

In addition, Nehru's stance as an unfailing nationalist led him to also implement policies which stressed commonality among Indians while still appreciating regional diversities. This proved particularly important as post-Independence differences surfaced since British withdrawal from the subcontinent prompted regional leaders to no longer relate to one another as allies against a common adversary. While differences of culture and, especially, language threatened the unity of the new nation, Nehru established programs such as the National Book Trust and the National Literary Academy which promoted the translation of regional literatures between languages and also organised the transfer of materials between regions. In pursuit of a single, unified India, Nehru warned, "Integrate or perish."

Nehru was a prolific writer in English and wrote a number of books, such as The Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History, and his autobiography, Toward Freedom. He had written 30 letters to his daughter Indira Gandhi, when she was 10 years old and in a boarding school in Mussoorie, teaching about natural history and the story of civilisations. The collection of these letters was later published as a book Letters from a Father to His Daughter.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Lal Bahadur Shastri: The man of Turbulent Times l

Before taking oath as second Prime Minister of independent India, Lal Bahadur Shastri was elected to the central Indian legislature in 1952 and also held the post of union minister for railways and transport. He gained a reputation as a skilful mediator after his appointment to the influential post of minister for home affairs in 1961.Three years later, on Jawaharlal Nehru's illness, Shastri was appointed minister without portfolio, and after Nehru's death he became prime minister in June 1964.

He led the country during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. His slogan of "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan" ("Hail the soldier, Hail the farmer") became very popular during the war. The war formally ended with the Tashkent Agreement on 10 January 1966; he died the following day, still in Tashkent, with the cause of his death in dispute: it was initially reported to be a cardiac arrest.

Foreign Policy of India under Lal Bahadur Shastri l

Shastri continued Nehru policy of non-alignment but also built closer relations with the Soviet Union. In the aftermath of the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the formation of military ties between the Chinese People's Republic and Pakistan, Shastri's government decided to expand the defence budget of India's armed forces.

In 1964, Shastri signed an accord with the Sri Lankan Prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike regarding the status of Indian Tamils in the then Ceylon. This agreement is also known as the Sirima-Shastri Pact or the Bandaranaike-Shastri pact.

Under the terms of this agreement, 6,00,000 Indian Tamils were to be repatriated, while 375,000 were to be granted Sri Lankan citizenship. This settlement was to be done by 31 October 1981. However, after Shastri's death, by 1981, India had taken only 300,000 Tamils as repatriates, while Sri Lanka had granted citizenship to only 185,000 citizens (plus another 62,000 born after 1964). Later, India declined to consider any further applications for citizenship, stating that the 1964 agreement had lapsed.

India's relationship with Burma had been strained after the 1962 Military coup followed by the repatriation of many Indian families in 1964 by Burma. While the central government in New Delhi monitored the overall process of repatriation and arranged for identification and transportation of the Indian returnees from Burma, it fell under the responsibilities of local governments to provide adequate facilities to shelter the repatriates upon disembarkation on Indian soil. Particularly in the Madras State the Chief Minister during that time, Minjur K. Bhaktavatsalam, showed care in rehabilitation of the returnees. In December 1965 Shastri made an official visit with his Family to Rangoon, Burma and re-established cordial relations with the country's military government of General Ne Win. But Shastri's greatest moment came when he led India in the 1965 Indo-Pak War.

1965 Indo-Pak War l

The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was designed to infiltrate forces into Jammu and Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against Indian rule. India retaliated by UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks launching a full-scale military attack on West Pakistan. The seventeen-day war caused thousands of casualties on both sides and witnessed the largest engagement of armoured vehicles and the largest tank battle since World War II.Hostilities between the two countries ended after a United Nations-mandated ceasefire was declared following diplomatic intervention by the Soviet Union and the United States, and the subsequent issuance of the Tashkent Declaration.Much of the war was fought by the countries' land forces in Kashmir and along the border between India and Pakistan. This war saw the largest amassing of troops in Kashmir since the Partition of British India in 1947, a number that was overshadowed only during the 2001-2002 military standoff between India and Pakistan. Most of the battles were fought by opposing infantry and armoured units, with substantial backing from air forces, and naval operations. Many details of this war, like those of other Indo-Pakistani Wars, remain unclear. l

Pakistan sent trained infiltrators around 30,000 on 5th August 1965. These infiltrators were divided into nine groups and were given different code names, mostly after historically significant Muslim rulers like Salahudin, Ghaznavi, Tariq, Babur, Qasim, Khalid, Nursat, Sikandar and Khilji. The plan was multi-dimensional. Infiltrators would mingle with the local populace and incite them to rebellion. Simultaneously guerrilla warfare would commence, destroying bridges, tunnels and highways, harassing enemy communications, logistic installations and headquarters as well as attacking airfields, to give an impression of armed rebellion and leading to separation of Kashmir from India. This was followed by Operation Grand Slam- attack by Pak Army regulars on J&K on 1st September 1965. Indian forces responded by launching operations against the Pak Army and occupied Haji Pir, Tithwal and Kargil heights. The War continued till September 22 when the ceasefire resolution brought a cease fire.India had the upper hand over Pakistan when the ceasefire was declared.Although the two countries fought to a standoff, the conflict is seen as a strategic and political defeat for Pakistan,as it had neither succeeded in fomenting insurrection in Kashmirnor had it been able to gain meaningful support at an international level.

The 1965 war witnessed some of the largest tank battles since World War II. At the beginning of the war, the Pakistani Army had both a numerical advantage in tanks, as well as better equipment overall. Despite the qualitative and numerical superiority of Pakistani armour,[96] Pakistan was outfought on the battlefield by India, which made progress into the Lahore-Sialkot sector, whilst halting Pakistan's counteroffensive on Amritsar.

Despite the declaration of a ceasefire, India was perceived as the victor due to its success in halting the Pakistan-backed insurgency in Kashmir. In light of the failures of the Sino-Indian War, the outcome of the 1965 war was viewed as a "politico-strategic" victory in India. The Indian premier, Lal Bahadur Shastri, was hailed as a national hero in India.While the overall performance of the Indian military was praised, military leaders were criticised for their failure to effectively deploy India's superior armed forces so as to achieve a decisive victory over Pakistan.

Foreign Powers during the 1965 War l

The UN Secretary General U Thant made hectic efforts to bring an end to the conflict. In his report to UNSC on 3rd September he pointed out that on the advice of General Nimmo he summoned the representatives of both the countries and conveyed to Pakistan UN's very serious concern about the situation that had developed by the crossing of CFL by number of armed men and their attacks on the military positions on the Indian side and appealed for observance of CFL. To India he

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More At @Aj_ebooks appealed for restraint as regards retaliatory attacks. He subsequently stated that he failed to get any assurance from Pakistan but received assurance from Indian side. This reflected that U Thant was convinced that the trouble began because of the Pakistani action. l

On 4 September 1965, the Security Council, by resolution 209 (1965), called for a ceasefire and asked the two Governments to cooperate fully with UNMOGIP in its task of supervising the observance of the ceasefire. Two days later, the Council adopted resolution 210 (1965), by which it requested the Secretary-General "to exert every possible effort to give effect to the present resolution and to resolution 209 (1965), to take all measures possible to strengthen the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, and to keep the Council promptly and currently informed on the implementation of the resolutions and on the situation in the area".

From 7 to 16 September, the Secretary-General visited the subcontinent in pursuit of the mandate given to him by the Security Council. In his report of 16 September to the Security Council, he noted that both sides had expressed their desire for a cessation of hostilities, but that each side had posed conditions which made the acceptance of a ceasefire very difficult for the other. On 20 September, after the hostilities had spread to the international border between India and West Pakistan, the Council adopted resolution 211 (1965), by which it demanded that a ceasefire take effect at 0700 hours GMT on 22 September 1965 and called for a subsequent withdrawal of all armed personnel to the positions held before 5 August.

The 1965 War noticed changes in the attitude of powers. The U S maintained neutrality despite its alliances with Pakistan and worked with Soviet Union to bring a ceasefire. The US placed arms embargo on both Indian and Pakistan on the 8th September. However the impact on Pakistan was severe. This also infuriated Pakistan as it had expected that US would continue to support it as it was a member of SEATO and CENTO. It had hoped that US would use its influence to restrain India from launching a counter attack. Chinese threats to India also pushed US to be neutral. US had also sent a message to China to stay out of Indo-Pak conflict.

The Soviet Union however was willing to play a bigger role in bringing an end to the conflict. Moscow had accepted that the disturbances in Kashmir were created by Pakistan. Soviet Union had also supported India in the UNSC on technical points and objections raised by the former. Moscow supported India that UNSC should only deal with settlement of the armed conflict and not drag the Kashmir issue. India also received assurance of the Soviet support in the event of the Chinese attack. Chinese got the message as was revealed later by Mao Zedong to Ayub that in case of nuclear war, the target would be Peking and not Rawalpindi.

UK reflected bias in favour of Pakistan. UK PM Harold Wilson sent an identical note soon after India began its move towards Lahore to Ayub and Shastri, "Both Governments bear responsibility for the steady escalation which has subsequently occurred and today's attack in Lahore area presents us with a completely new situation." His reference to Lahore indicated UK's preference.

China tried to utilise this war to settle scores with India. China in order to put pressure on India blamed India for violating 'Sikkim -China border' on the 8th September -the day UK sent its note India and Pakistan. On 17th September accused India for maintaining 56 military installations on Tibet side and demanded their immediate dismantling. China also claimed that its 13 representations had ignored on about 300 incursions by India and further accused India for abducting 59 Chinese UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Yak. These made both Soviet Union and US to ensure that China stayed out of the Indo-Pak conflict. l

However international pressure besides General J.N. Choudhury's wrong statement that India had exhausted considerable amount of ammunition may have influenced Indian leadership to decide not to move forward towards Lahore. It is possible that if the Indian leadership would have known that only 14% ammunition had been used, Indian forces would have occupied more strategic area. Fortunately General Harbaksh Singh took the right decision and Indian Army occupied some strategic areas.

The Tashkent Declaration l

During the 1965 War, the Soviet Union had offered its good offices for a peaceful settlement between the two warring states. The Prime Ministers of India and President of Pakistan met at Tashkent from January 4-10, 1966 and discussed the issues involved. Initially both sides stuck to their demands. While Shastri desired assurance that all infiltrators sent by Pakistan Army be withdrawn and there should be an assurance that such operations would not be repeated and also pressed for a 'no war pact', Ayub harped on the Kashmir issue to be discussed and demanded plebiscite in the Kashmir. Kosygin stepped in and used all his diplomatic skills under his command to convince them to come to an agreement. Both sides agreed to withdraw forces to August 5 positions. Other items included that both sides would exert all efforts to create good neighbourly relations in accordance with UN charter and reaffirmation not to have recourse to force and to settle their disputes through peaceful means. They also agreed not to encourage propaganda against each other.

It is common to have an agreement after a conflict to bring an armistice and if possible to resolve the issues connected with the war. It was called a peace agreement 'to restore normal and peaceful relations between their countries and to promote understanding and friendly relations between their peoples'. The main item was the withdrawal to the August 5 positions and with that India had to return the Haji pir and other areas.

The items included in the Tashkent Agreement were very valuable and if they were implemented in letter and spirit, they could usher a new era of peace and friendship. The question remains why Shastri agreed to return strategic areas which had been occupied by the Indian Army. While the actual answer cannot be obtained as Shastri died within hours of signing the agreement, only some guess can be made. Shastri may have been persuaded to accept it with the assurance that Pakistan would not use force in future (which was accepted in the agreement). He may have been motivated to accept this to have enduring peace and goodwill with the neighbour particularly when Soviet Union had given the assurance that Pakistan would not use force. Ayub is reported to have stated that Pakistan would not be use force in future. How India was misled was clear soon. Bhutto stated that 'the UN charter does not prevent a state to use force in self-defence. Ayub also stated that the Tashkent Agreement did not change Pak attitude towards Kashmir. This reflects that the Indian leadership failed to read the real intentions of Pak leadership and missed an opportunity to keep Pakistan under pressure till the resolution of the all the issues.

The agreement only brought armistice and nothing more than this. But the war proved important in many respects. First, this was the first successful operation that not only thwarted Pak attempt to

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More At @Aj_ebooks grab Kashmir but also occupied strategically significant area that put considerable pressure on Pakistan. Pakistan failed in its gamble to change the situation in J&K. Second, war improved India's prestige internationally particularly after the Sino-Indian War of 1962. The Times in its editorial reported that India was going to be Asia's power. Third, it significantly improved relations with Soviet Union and paid dividend during 1971 War. Fourth India began to focus on nuclear programme to deal with Chinese threat. Fifth, India accelerated its defence acquisition programme to build its capabilities. Sixth, India removed its weaknesses in intelligence collection and assessment making capabilities that were noticed during the war. India created a dedicated external intelligence agency and brought Joint Intelligence Committee under Cabinet Secretariat to provide overall assessment taking into account all dimensions. These changes paid rich dividend later. l

Of late the question who won the war has received a great attention and this aspect must be dealt with. Victory and defeat are assessed in terms of objectives. Pakistan miserably failed in its attempt to create problems in Kashmir and ensure its separation from India. It also lost strategic areas making it clear that it was a loser. Internally its position deteriorated and that resulted in its break up. Indian objectives were reactive -to defeat the Pak attempt to seize Kashmir and to teach a lesson to Pakistan of the consequences of its sinister designs. India achieved these aims and therefore it was India that achieved victory.

Death at Tashkent: After the declaration of ceasefire, Shastri and Pakistani President Muhammad Ayub Khan attended a summit in Tashkent (former USSR, now in modern Uzbekistan), organised by Kosygin. On 10 January 1966, Shastri and Khan signed the Tashkent Declaration. The next day Shastri, who had suffered two heart attacks earlier, died supposedly of a heart attack at 1:32AM. He was the only Indian Prime Minister, and indeed probably one of the few heads of government, to have died in office overseas.

Mystery of Shastri's Death l

Although officially it was maintained that Shastri died of heart attack, his widow, Lalita Shastri kept alleging that her husband was poisoned. Many believed that Shastri's body turning blue was an evidence of his poisoning. Indeed a Russian butler attending to him was arrested on suspicion of poisoning Shastri, but was later absolved of charges.

In 2009, when Anuj Dhar, author of CIA's Eye on South Asia, asked the Prime Minister's Office under an RTI plea (Right to Information Act), that Shastri's cause of death be made public, the PMO refused to oblige, citing that this could lead to harming of foreign relations, cause disruption in the country and cause breach of parliamentary privileges.

The PMO did inform however that it had in its possession one document related to Shastri's death, but refused to declassify it. The government also admitted that no postmortem examination had been conducted on him in USSR, but it did have a report of a medical investigation conducted by Shastri's personal physician Dr. R.N. Chugh and some Russian doctors. Furthermore, the PMO revealed that there was no record of any destruction, or loss, of documents in the PMO having a bearing on Shastri's death. As of July 2009, the home ministry is yet to respond to queries whether India conducted a postmortem and if the government had investigated allegations of foul play.

Circumstances of Shastri's death do indeed make a case for close inquiry. On the night of January 11, Shastri was awakened by a severe coughing fit. Dr. R.N. Chugh came to his aid. Shastri was UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks unable to speak and pointed to a flask kept nearby. A staffer brought some water which Shastri sipped. Shortly afterward, Shastri became unconscious and attempts to revive him proved futile. A cold case forensic enquiry which keeps these facts in consideration, could point to three causes in order of probability. o Myocardial Infarction (ordinarily known as Heart Attack) o Café Coronary (impaction of food in windpipe - in this case, drops of water) o Poisoning by some very quick acting poison, say cyanide although its probability is minimal.

Operation Flood: Beginning of India's White Revolution l

'Operation flood' a program started by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1970 made India the largest producer of the milk in the world. This program with its whopping success was called as 'The White Revolution'. The main architect of this successful project was Dr. Verghese Kurien, also called the father of White Revolution.

In 1949 Mr. Kurien joined Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union (KDCMPUL), now famous as Amul voluntarily leaving a government job of dairy engineer.Kurien has since then built this organization into one of the largest and most successful institutions in India. The Amul pattern of cooperatives had been so successful, in 1965, then Prime Minister of India, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, created the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to replicate the program on a nationwide basis citing Kurien's "extraordinary and dynamic leadership" upon naming him chairman. The Operation Flood was completed in three phases: o Phase I (1970-79): During this phase 18 of the country's main milk sheds were connected to the consumers of the four metros viz. Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. The total cost of this phase was Rs.116crores. The main objectives were, commanding share of milk market and speed up development of dairy animals respectively hinter lands of rural areas. o Phase II (1981-1985): The management increased the milk sheds from 18 to 136; 290 urban markets expanded the outlets for milk. By the end of 1985, a self-sustaining system of 43,000 village cooperatives with 42.5 lakh milk producers were covered. Domestic milk powder production increased from 22,000 tons in the pre-project year to 140,000 tons by 1989, all of the increase coming from dairies set up under Operation Flood. o Phase III (1985-1996): The dairy cooperatives were enabled to expand and strengthen the infrastructure required to procure and market increasing volumes of milk. Veterinary first-aid health care services, feed and artificial insemination services for cooperative members were extended, along with intensified member education. It went with adding 30,000 new dairy cooperatives to the 42,000 existing societies organized during Phase II. Milk sheds peaked to 173 in 1988-89 with the numbers of women members and Women's Dairy Cooperative Societies increasing significantly.

Amul: (“priceless” in Sanskrit) The brand name “Amul,” from the Sanskrit “Amoolya”, formed in 1946, is a dairy cooperative in India. It is a brand name managed by an apex cooperative organization, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which today is jointly owned by some 2.8 million milk producers in Gujarat, India. The White Revolution's model dairy board was that of Amul. The whole program

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More At @Aj_ebooks of NDDB was largely based the working of this dairy board. The three-tier 'Amul Model' has been instrumental in bringing about the White Revolution in the country. Achievements of the White Revolution o The phenomenal growth of milk production in India - from 20 million MT to 100 million MT in a span of just 40 years - has been made possible only because of the dairy cooperative movement. This has propelled India to emerge as the largest milk producing country in the World today. o The dairy cooperative movement has also encouraged Indian dairy farmers to keep more animals, which has resulted in the 500 million cattle & buffalo population in the country - the largest in the World. o The dairy cooperative movement has spread across the length and breadth of the country, covering more than 125,000 villages of 180 Districts in 22 States. o The movement has been successful because of a well-developed procurement system & supportive federal structures at District & State levels. l

The history of food and agricultural policy in independent India: India has been facing food problems since long period. During Second World War India experienced a severe food crisis leading to a phenomenal increase in the prices of foodgrains. Again in 1943, Bengal faced a serious Agriculture and its Development in India famine where nearly 3.5 million people died out of starvation.

India had to face a serious food crisis at the time of independence. To meet the deficiency in the supply of foodgrains in the short run, the Government made the following provisions: o Extension of the rationing system to cover both urban and rural areas; o Import of foodgrains to make easy the situation and the amount of import reached the level of 2.7 million tonnes in 1947; and o Introduction of subsidy for the distribution of imported food grains as it was expensive as compared to indigenously produced foodgrains. But the public distribution system which was mostly maintained in the urban areas primarily had been suffering from huge degree of inefficiency and corruption. .

To meet the situation, the First Five Year Plan accorded highest priority to agriculture. During the First Plan period, the country experienced a series of good harvests leading to an improvement in the food supply situation, curtailment of imports and a consequent fall in the prices of food grains by 23 per cent.Considering the situation the planners became very much optimistic and an impression was created that the food problem was finally solved. But the situation was short-lived because whatever improvement in food situation was achieved that was mainly due to better climatic conditions and timely arrival of monsoons. o PL-480 Agreement, 1956 : Soon after, the Second Plan again experienced a serious food crisis especially in 1958-59, in various parts of the country due to drought, floods and cyclone. To meet the crisis the Government of India entered into an agreement in 1956 with U.S.A. to import 3.1 million tonnes of wheat and 0.19 million tonnes of rice for the next three years. This agreement was known as Public Law-480 (PL- 480) Agreement, 1956 which the government UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks utilised to reduce and stabilise the prices of foodgrains in the country.That marked the beginning of the present public distribution system (PDS) which was introduced to distribute cheap imported foodgrains through network of "fair price shops" at a price which was far below the prevailing market price.Again the Third Plan set a target to raise the production of foodgrains by 100 million tonnes but the plan failed to achieve the target. Under such a situation the government had no other alternative but to import foodgrains heavily.Thus, the volume of import of foodgrains which was a negligible 6 lakh tonnes in 1955-56 went up to 1.4 million tonnes in 1956-57 (the first year of PL-480 imports), 3.6 million tonnes in 1956-57, 6.3 million tonnes in 1963-64, 7.4 million tonnes in 1964-65 and then to 10.3 million tonnes in 1965-66. o Foodgrains Enquiry Committee, 1957:This huge import of foodgrains was endorsed by the foodgrains Enquiry Committee appointed by the government in 1957. This committee categorically observed that, "Food problem was likely to remain with us for a long time to come, assurance of continued imports of certain quantities- of foodgrains will constitute the very basis of a successful food policy for some years to come."Thus, under such a situation a stable and long term food policy based on heavy imports of foodgrains emerged gradually. Accordingly, India signed an agreement with U.S.A. for importing 16 million tonnes of wheat and 1 million tonnes office for the next 4 years. During this 10 years period (1956-66), the food policy of the Government of India was mostly based on imports (under PL-480) from U.S.A. and the country imported nearly 60 million tonnes of foodgrains or an annual average of 6 million tonnes. About 75 to 80 per cent of foodgrains distributed through public distribution system was brought through imports which was really a humiliating dependence. Instead of all these steps, the prices of foodgrains started to rise continuously and thus the Government realised that its food policy based on imports failed to save the situation. o Integrated Food Policy, 1966: In order to save the situation the Government set up another food-grain Policy Committee, 1966 to review the situation. This committee recommended to prepare and implement a National Food Budget involving a national plan of supply and distribution of foodgrains through (a) procurement of foodgrains (b) control of inter-state movement (c) a public distribution system and (d) building a buffer stock for difficult years. This Policy was known as Integrated Food Policy 1966 which recommended partial procurement, partial public distribution and simultaneously permitted private trade of foodgrains with free market prices.

Impact of New Agricultural Strategy l

In the meantime, the Government adopted new agricultural strategy during the Fourth Plan and set a production target of 129 million tonnes of foodgrains at the last year (1973-74) of the Plan. But at the end of Plan,' the production of foodgrains could be started to increase. After 1968 the government gradually reduced the volume of imports of foodgrains from nearly 8.7 million tonnes in 1967 to 0.5 million tonnes in 1972.But the Government raised its procurement of foodgrains since 1972 and put the public distribution system on a permanent basis. Inspite of that when prices of foodgrains rose considerably; the Government took a major decision to take over the wholesale trade in wheat from April 1, 1973.But there was considerable opposition from the wholesale traders and rich farmers leading to a huge chaos and confusion in the wheat growing states. Due to a mounting pressure from within and outside the party, the Government ultimately forced to scrap the takeover of wholesale trade in wheat.

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More At @Aj_ebooks l

The new agricultural strategy, popularly known as green revolution was also continued during the Fifth and Sixth Plan. At the end of Fifth Plan total production of food grains rose to about 132 million tonnes and then the same figure rose to 145.5 million tonnes at the end of Sixth Plan (198485).After two years acute drought, the production of foodgrain in 1988-89 reached a record level of 169.9 million tonnes and then it further rose gradually to 146.4 million tonnes in 1990-91. But due to bad weather, the total production of foodgrains again declined to 167.1 million tonnes in 199192 and in 1996-97 it is likely to reach the level of 192.0 million tonnes.

In spite of this positive trend in the production of foodgrains of the country, the Government had to continue its dependence on import of foodgrains for building buffer stock in different years excepting those favourable years viz., 1972, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991.India imported 4.1 million tonnes of cereals in 1982-83, 2.4 million tonnes in 1983-84 and also in 1987-88. In 1993, the Government has taken a decision to import 1 million tonnes of wheat for direct sale in the market and not for replenishing its buffer stocks.

Another aspect of the food problem is that prices of foodgrains have been rising continuously causing serious difficulties to the rural poor. The index of foodgrains price (base 1970-71 = 100) rose from 103 in 1971-72 to 1985 in 1979-80 and then to 390 in 1988-89.Under such a situation income disparities have widened and the proportion of population lying below the poverty line has also increased considerably. Demand for foodgrains of those people lying below the poverty line gradually declined because they do not have sufficient purchasing power.

Green Revolution in India l

The introduction of high-yielding varieties of seeds and the increased use of fertilizers and irrigation under the 'Green Revolution' initiative in late 1960s resulted in rapid expansion of agricultural land and boost in agricultural production. The Green Revolution continued with the policy of expanding cultivable land. The striking feature of green revolution was taking up of double-cropping which implies planting two crops per year on the same agricultural land. The earlier practice of one crop per year was dependent on monsoon rainfall.

For the second crop, huge irrigation facilities such as dams were created. Dams were built to arrest large volumes of natural monsoon water which were earlier being wasted as run-off. Simple irrigation techniques as the digging of tube wells for extracting groundwater were also adopted on a massive scale. The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) under the Ministry of Agriculture played a crucial role in the Green Revolution era of the late 1960s. ICAR developed new stains of high yield value seeds, mainly wheat and rice, millet and corn. The most noteworthy seed was the K68 variety for wheat which pushed up food grain production significantly during the subsequent decade.

The 'Green Revolution' resulted in a record grain output of 131 million tons during 1978-79. This established India as one of the world's biggest agricultural producers. No other country in the world which attempted the Green Revolution recorded such levels of success. India also became an exporter of food grains during the same time. Yield per unit of farmland jumped by more than 30% between 1947- 1979 when the Green Revolution was considered to have delivered its goods in the short term. The Green Revolution was launched specially for wheat and rice crops in 1960s. The north-western states of Haryana, Punjab and western UP were the major beneficiary of the UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks move that used technology and innovative practices. It helped farmers in the region, having good irrigation network, increase farm productivity substantially over the years. l

However the thrust on policy approach to agriculture since the 1990s has been to secure increased production through subsidies on inputs such as power, water and fertilizer, and by increasing the minimum support price (MSP) rather than through building new capital assets in irrigation, power and rural infrastructure. This has shifted the production base from low-cost regions to high cost ones, causing an increase in the cost of production, regional imbalances, and an increase in the burden of storage and transport of food grains. Ground water particularly in northern states of Haryana, Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh is rapidly depleted.

The situation in the northern Indian state of Punjab is alarming. It has exhausted its upper layer of groundwater and farmers are now using high-horsepower pumps to go deeper underground. Agricultural scientists have advised against growing water intensive paddy in Punjab and Haryana. Scientists agree that Indian agriculture must move to a more sustainable way as far as a water usage-based ecosystem is concerned to meet the food and non-food needs of a growing population. As agriculture is the largest user of water in India (using more than 80 per cent of usable freshwater) and a large proportion of the population derives its livelihood directly or indirectly from it, we need to build efficient irrigation systems and water conservation strategies, especially in semi-arid regions, through conjunctive use of surface and groundwater. Studies show the net annual groundwater draft in Punjab exceeds availability by 45 per cent and in Haryana by nine per cent. Indiscriminate use of fertiliser due to massive subsides has changed the nutrient balance in the soil. As against the Nitrogen: Phosphorous: Potash (N:P:K) norm of 4:2:1, farmers in Punjab and Haryana apply these in the ratio of 26:7:1 and 37:11:1, respectively.

Critics say indiscriminate use of fertiliser, excessive exploitation of groundwater, driven by cheap power, and difficulty in adopting new farming patterns is gradually turning barren the erstwhile green revolution belt. Its biggest drawback, was its limitation to a few states, promotion of monocropping and encouraging the use of more chemical fertiliser. These associated issues should have been addressed, too. Balancing its benefits to all farmers, across all crops, has been weak. Indian farming was transformed after the mid-60s, on a wave of new agri technology and allied changes, but the costs of this model can no longer be ignored or its addressing be postponed. The green revolution helped India move out of a ship-to-mouth situation and India was made selfsufficient in food production but since the mid-1980s, its second-generation environmental impact and the intensive farming it promoted started showing its impact. We've now reached a stage where one need to understand that the green revolution has done its job and it's time to consign it to history, and shift to a more sustainable method of farming. M S Swaminathan, considered 'father' of green revolution in India, is of the stand there is no green revolution today and unlike the initial green revolution that depended on modern technologies ,now its time to move towards a more environmentally sustainable agriculture. In sum, promoting the green revolution here and elsewhere in a sustainable manner, unlike till now, is the need.

Impact or the Effects of Green Revolution o Increase in Production and Productivity: As a result of new agricultural strategy, food grains output substantially increased from 81.0 million tonnes in the Third Plan (annual average) to 203 million tonnes in the Ninth Plan (annual average) and further to 212. 0 million tonnes in

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More At @Aj_ebooks 2003-04. HYVP was restricted to only five crops - wheat, rice jowar, bajra and maize. Therefore, non- food grains were excluded from the ambit of the new strategy. Wheat has made rapid strides with its production increasing from 11.1 million tonnes (Third Five Year Plan) to 71.3 million tonnes in the Ninth Plan. The production of wheat touched a high level of 72.1 million tonnes in 2003-04, the overall contribution of wheat to total food grains has increased from 13 per cent in 1950 - 51 to 34 per cent in 2003-04. The average annual production of rice rose from 35. 1 million tonnes in the Third Plan to 87.3 million tonnes in the Ninth Plan. It stood at 87.0 million tonnes in 2003-04. o Scientific Cultivation: A very important effect of Green Revolution is that traditional agricultural inputs and practices have given way to new and scientific practices. Instead of farm seeds, farmers are now using HYV seeds. Traditional fertilizers are replaced by chemical fertilizers. Consequently under HYV seeds increased sharply from 1.66 million hectares in 1966-67 (when green revolution came to India) to about 78.4 million hectares in 1998-99. o Change in Cropping Pattern: Two changes are significant. First, the proportion of cereals in the food grains output has increased and the proportion of pulses has declined. Second, the proportion of wheat cereals has increased while that of coarse grains has declined. o Development of Industries: Green revolution has benefited the industrial development. Many industries producing agriculture, machinery, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides etc., have come up to meet the growing demand for these commodities.

Limitations of the Green Revolution In spite of several achievements, the green revolution has several defects: o More inequality among farmers (Inter-personal inequalities):The new technology requires a huge amount of investment which can be only, afforded by the big farmers. Hence, these farmers are getting the absolute benefits of the green revolution and became comparatively more rich than farmers. This increases inequality in rural India. o Regional inequality:Benefits of the new technology remained concentrated in wheat growing area since green revolution remained limited to wheat for a number of years. These were thy regions of Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. On account of the above reasons new agricultural strategy has led to an increase in regional inequalities. o The Question of Labour Absorption: There is a general consensus that the adoption of new technology had reduced labour absorption in agriculture. The uneven regional growth was mainly responsible for the low absorption of labour within agriculture. The growth of output was also slow to generate adequate employment opportunities. The sudden rise in the demand for labour in these areas induced mechanisation and labour-saving practices in general. o Undesirable Social Consequences: Some micro level socio-economic studies of green revolution areas have revealed certain undesirable social consequences of the green revolution. Many large farmers have evicted tenants as they now find it more profitable to cultivate land themselves.Thus, a large number of tenants and share-croppers have lost their lands and have been forced to join the ranks of agricultural labourers. Wetlands have also attracted outsiders (non-agriculturists from nearby towns to invest capital in buying farms. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Health Hazards: The health hazards of the new technology can also not be lost sight of. Increased mechanization that has accompanied the modernisation of farm technology in green revolution areas carries with it the risk of incapacitation due to accidents. The attitude of the Government towards the problems of treatment and rehabilitation of victims of accidents on farm machines is that of total ambivalence. Meagre compensation is provided to victims. o Change in Attitudes: A healthy contribution of green revolution is the change in the attitudes of fanners in areas where the new agricultural strategy was practised. Increase in productivity in these areas has enhanced the status of agriculture from a low level subsistence activity to a money- making activity. The desire for better farming methods and better standard of living is growing up.

NAXALISM IN INDIA: THE BEGINNING OF "BIGGEST INTERNAL SECURITY THREAT" IN INDIA l

The Naxalite movement in India owes its origins to a small village in West Bengal called 'Naxalbari' and thus, the movement acquired its name. The year was 1967 when a small group of Communist Party of India (Marxist) members led by Charu Mazumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal decided to initiate an armed struggle against large landowners and forcibly take away their lands and re-distribute it amongst the landless.

Kanu Sanyal's call for an armed struggle got its first voice of support from Jangal Santhal, who at the time was the President of Siliguri Kisan Sabha. On 18 June 1967, he gave a call for support to the armed struggle and thus began a violent period in India that continues to have its impact on the lives of many people even today.

Within a week of his call for support, on 24 May, a local sharecropper in a village near Naxalbari was attacked and killed by goons sent by the local landlord. This incident became the first trigger for a period of violence that was to rock West Bengal and other parts of India for a long time. A small police party, led by a sub-inspector was sent to follow-up on the killing. A group of local tribals led by the fiery Jangal Santhal ambushed the police party and attacked them with bows and arrows, resulting in the death of the sub-inspector.

The word of the killing soon spread and more armed tribals began to come out in support of further action. What started off as a spontaneous uprising at the local level soon began to attract the masses in rural and subsequently urban areas. Common rural folk were increasingly attracted to the far left vision of a class and caste struggle to overthrow the existing order in favour of the landless and worker class.

Government's Failure to Understand the Reasons behind the Naxalite Movement l

The initial response of the state government and subsequently, the central government, was that this was a 'law & order' problem and believed that the uprising would be short lived and could be crushed with force in a short period of time. The government completely failed to read the situation and this is borne out by the statement in Lok Sabha on June 13 1967, by the then Home Minister

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More At @Aj_ebooks Y.B.Chavan, where he stated that this was a case of lawlessness and should be contained and crushed by the local police force. l

Unfortunately, this was to remain symptomatic of all subsequent governments at the state and centre, with very little effort to address the root cause of mass discontent that drew people to join the Naxalite movement. What was thought to be a brief period of discontent has today grown into becoming Indian's biggest threat to internal security as stated by PM Manmohan Singh in 2008.

Origins of Discontent l

Extreme poverty, exploitation of lower and backward castes by the upper classes and denial of social justice and opportunity to the exploited classes were the main reasons of simmering discontent among the masses.

Since Independence, the government has focused on improving agricultural output without simultaneously addressing social disparity that was actually widening as a result of improved agricultural returns. This was not a problem restricted to Bengal but all across India. Once the government abolished the Zamindari system, what took its place were large landowners who rapidly prospered while the masses remained mostly landless and without any means of food or income.

The gap between the landowners and the landless had begun to widen, while the government has continued to focus on improving agriculture at the cost of equitable social development. In several parts of India, the poverty levels are as high as 95.8%, while several tribal areas in central, east and south east India still remain underdeveloped even after 68 years of Independence. These areas have, therefore, attracted the masses to leftist ideology with many actively joining the Naxalite movement.

Left Wing Politics Took Up the Cause of the Exploited l

It was Mao Zedong's success in organising and leading the ordinary and exploited people of rural China to overthrow the ruling elite that formed the basis of inspiration for Charu Mazumdar, who then began his own interpretation of how the class and caste struggle was to be taken forward. His 'Historic Eight Documents' propounded the Naxalite ideology that found many takers, in rural and urban areas.

During this period, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was a part of the ruling United Front government and therefore, it opposed the concept of armed struggle. Several party cadres rebelled against their party high command and in November 1967, they broke away to form the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) under the leadership of Sushital Ray Chowdhury to pursue armed struggle against the ruling class.

They organised several armed actions in many parts of India, all the while gaining more sympathisers to join the movement. By 22 April 1969, AICCCR transformed into Communist Party of India (MarxistLeninist) - CPI-ML. All subsequent groups believing in far left and armed struggle were offshoots of CPI-ML. Over the years, groups like Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), which later merged with People's War Group (PWG), to subsequently evolve as the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Another offshoot was led by T. Nagi Reddy who earlier had broken away from AICCCR to form UCCRI(ML) in Andhra Pradesh. Given the extensive poverty combined with exploitation of the UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks backward communities by the upper classes, the movement found wide support and this was how the Naxalite movement got entrenched in Andhra Pradesh and later expanded to other southern states.

Naxalite Movement in Kolkata l

From 1967 onwards, the Naxalite movement found strong sympathy and support amongst the youth that saw in Charu Mazumdar and Kanu Sanyal leaders who could actually fulfill their dream of overthrowing the ruling elite. By 1971, the concept of armed struggle was at its peak and spread to schools and colleges in Kolkata. Students gave up their studies to join the class struggle and initiated violence against landlords, shopkeepers, teachers, political leaders and the police, which became the norm.

This drew an armed response from the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Siddharth Shankar Ray, who with active support from the Army and Police, launched Operation Steeplechase. The result was that over a period, several active Naxalites were either killed or imprisoned. Charu Mazumdar and later Kanu Sanyal were imprisoned. Charu died in Alipore Jail in Kolkata. But the movement was far from over.

Subsequent Government Measures in Fighting the Naxalites l

The government did initiate steps to correct past mistakes by launching several new laws that include: o Chhattisgarh Special Public Securities Act, 2006 o Forest Rights Act, 2006 o Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007

The implementation of these laws has given rise to several unintended consequences that have held back development to various sections of affected people. The government must step up its investment and make a serious attempt to reach out to the local people in affected areas and include them in finding solutions that will preserve their way of life and yet offer them all the benefits of modern development like education and healthcare. Meanwhile, the fight against Naxalism remains work in progress.

Operation Green Hunt l

In late 2009, with an array of military forces, hi-tech support and utmost cruelty, the government of India launched an operation to eliminate Maoists. This initiative was dubbed as Operation Green Hunt by the media. Initially, this phrase was used by Chhattisgarh police to describe a specific operation against the insurgents.The target of this initiative is the hilly and forest regions of 5 central and eastern states - Chhattisgarh, Jharkand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.

Precursor of Operation Green Hunt l

Operation Green Hunt's precursor was the Salwa Judum - vigilante militias funded by the governing parties and local state governments. The leaking of a draft government report stating that Salwa Judum was first funded by Tata and Essor Steel created an outburst in the press; that part was subsequently edited out of the final version. Salwa Judum recruited those local people who could be bought to work as bullies and informers, sometimes offering free mobile phones in exchange

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More At @Aj_ebooks for information. For those they couldn't buy, they exercised a reign of terror. The official figure of emptied villages in Chhattisgarh is 644. Thousands of villagers were murdered. Thousands were arbitrarily arrested and left rotting in jail. Over 300,000 people were displaced. l

In attempting to separate the people from the CPI (Maoist), nearly 50,000 were forced to live in Vietnam-style strategic hamlets. Villagers who did not move into the hamlets were considered Maoists by the authorities. Independent journalists and intellectuals who tried to report on these atrocities were beaten, jailed or otherwise prevented from investigating Salwa Judum's actions.

The "land to the tiller" views of CPI (Maoist) are in contradiction to India's rising capitalist development at its most competitive and cutthroat. In terms of a CPI (Maoist) "They want to crush us, not only because of the minerals, but because we are offering the world an alternative model."

Unlike Salwa Judum this operation is coordinated by the central government, which predicts a long and bloody war until the tribal area is "sanitized" and the Naxalites defeated. More than 100,00 military and paramilitary troops are being sent into the Adivasi areas. The plan is for the occupiers to gradually spread from one "sanitized" area to another. Twenty Warfare Training Schools are being built in India. The first operations were carried out in Dantewada (Chhattisgarh) and Gadchiroli (Maharashtra).

With Operation Green Hunt the burning, killing, looting, and torturing has increased exponentially - again caught in the fire are innocent tribes.

LAND REFORMS IN INDEPENDENT INDIA l

Vinoba Bhave was one of the great spiritual leaders and reformers of modern India, who was loved by countless Indian's. Born in 1895, at the tender age of ten, Vinoba took a vow life-long celibacy & selfless service. and then he met Gandhi and joined him in his struggle for freedom.

As Vinoba himself put it: " I experienced with Gandhi the peace of the Himalayas the revolutionary spirit. Peaceful revolution, revolutionary peace, the two streams united in Gandhi in a way that was altogether new."

Gandhi also wrote to Vinoba's father, "At a tender age, Vinoba has acquired a degree of spirituality and ascetism that took me years of patient labour."

In 1940 Gandhi chose Vinoba to be the first Satyagrahi, to offer non-violent resistance to the British regime. Vinoba respected other religions also and studied them. Vinoba's life shows the harmony of a great man, and his commitment to non-violence, and power of love.

After independence of india when gandhi's idea started to fade from people's memory, vinoba started his "bhoodan" movement. And in a period of twenty years, he travelled all across india by foot. Persuading landlords to give their land to poor people and he successfully distributed four million of land among poor people.

Bhoodan-Gramdan Movement l

The Bhoodan Movement or Land Gift Movement was initiated and inspired by Vinoba Bhave 1951. It was a land reform movement. And it helped in bringing Vinoba to the limelight.

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In 1951,the Third Annual Sarvodaya Conference was held at Shivarampali, a village a few miles south of the city of Hyderabad in South India. Vinoba left to attend the meeting and walked three hundred miles to Hyderabad. At that time there was communist rebellion in telangana. This army had tried to break the land monopoly of the rich landlords by driving them out or killing them and distributing their land.Vinoba thought that in future there was a contest between principles of Gandhi and marx. In Hyderabad vinoba's and other gandhians got their faith in non violence tested.

On April 11th 1951, the final day of conference,Vinoba said that he would tour the areas where communism was at peak in telangana.

On April 18th 1951, was the day when Bhoodan movement started, when Vinoba entered Nalgonda district, where communist were in force. there he was confronted by local landless people and they gave him a warm reception. Vinoba visited harijans colony and later in day harijans came to ask him for eighty acres of land. Then Vinoba suggested that of government is not giving land then possibly villagers can help each other. And then "Vedre Ramachandra Reddy Bhoodhan", the local landlord promised to give hundred acres of land. This incident which was neither planned nor imagined was the very outset of the Bhoodan movement and it made Vinoba bhave think that this method can be used to solve the biggest root of poverty in india that is land less people. The root of land monopoly, he reasoned, is greed. If greed can be removed from people's mind,it would lead to end of the exploitation of poor people. As he later put it, "We do not aim at doing mere acts of kindness, but at creating a Kingdom of Kindness." This movement later on went to become more radical program and turned into village gift or Gramdan movement. This movement was a part of a comprehensive movement which led to the establishment of a Sarvodaya Society, both in India & outside India. In the United States, major articles on Vinoba appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker-Vinoba even appeared on the cover of Time.

Some argue that the land given as a gift is often poor quality, barren, rocky and uncultivable. But its said that no land can be called useless. He used to say that more than the quality of the land,it should be seen that there is willingness among people to give their property for a social cause.and that is the seeds of a mighty revolution. And the poor quality land could be utilized for pastures, afforestation, the rehabilitation of displaced people.

The movement had its ups and downs. Vinoba went on to demand fifty million acres of land from whole of india for the landless people by 1957. And hence a movement which was personal became a mass movement. But its downfall started in 1971 and it collapsed under its own weight. And the land gift movement got changed into village gift or "gramdan". In gramdan major part of village was donated by majority of villagers in favour of distribution of land equally among all village's families. Meanwhile the land gift was still there but it was neglected.

The main reason for the decline was the fact that it was not popular in non -tribal areas.

There were other programs also such as Sampattidan (Wealth-gift), Shramdan(Labour-gift), Jeevandan ( Life-long commitment to the movement by co-workers), Sadhandan (gift for agricultural operations).There were questions as to why the sampattidan, for example, was not launched at the same time as the bhoodan. As the Landless people receiving land due to bhoodan can't work on it unless they have the required materials. But acharya ji said "he knew it from the beginning, but he chose to follow the formula which says 'attend yet to the root and all else will grow automatically.' As everyone knows that fundamental problem is land.

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More At @Aj_ebooks l

The movement not only brought land to landless people but it also helped in igniting interest of people in gandhian philosophy as educated people were overlooking those ideas if not considering irrelevant.

Many people got moved by this movement among the prominent were Jayaprakash Narayan, a renowned Marxist, and a Socialist. He was a big leader in politics before and even after india's independence. He came close to the movement and realized that it was a very good idea which had its basis on gandhian philosophyand he devoted his life for sarvodaya society.

The movement was attracting not only attention from indian people but also from foreigner. Louis Fischer, the famous American said: "Gramdan is the most creative thought coming from the East in recent times". Hallam Tennyson, the grandson of the English poet, Alfred Tennyson, wrote a book, "The Saint on the march" in which he shared his experiences as he travelled with vinoba bhave in rural india. And American ambassador to India Chester Bowles, said in his book, "The dimensions of peace": "We experienced in 1955, the Bhoodan Movement it is giving the message of Renaissance in India. It offers a revolutionary alternative to communism, as it is founded on human dignity".

The British Industrialist, Earnest Barder was so much impressed by the Bhoodan movement that he implemented the Gandhian concept and alloted 90% share of his company to his industrial workers. Arthur Koestler, in 1959 wrote in London Observer, that the Bhoodan Movement was presenting itself as a substitute to the Nehruvian model of Western development.

To conclude it can be said that even after having its limitations "bhoodan movement" was a splendid attempt for soving land problems thorough means of gandhian philosophy. And it helped in construction if socio-economic-political order of relevance and significance.

What is 'Land Reforms'? Land reforms refer to the regulation of ownership, operation, leasing, sales, and inheritance of land. Objectives of land reforms after independence Land is the basis of all economic activity and for a largely agrarian society like India; this carries a lot of import. Indian rural society is symbolised by a rich landowning minority (zamindars/landlords) and an impoverished landless majority (peasants). Therefore, land reforms are a vital step towards economic and social equality. Objectives of Land Reforms o Redistribution of land across society so that land is not held in the hands of a few people. o Land ceiling to disburse surplus land amongst small and marginal farmers. o Removal of rural poverty. o Abolition of intermediaries. o Tenancy reforms. o Increasing agricultural productivity. o Consolidation of land holdings and prevention of land fragmentation.Developing cooperative farming.

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More At @Aj_ebooks o To ensure social equality through economic parity. o Tribal protection by ensuring their traditional land is not taken over by outsiders. o Land reforms were also for non-agricultural purposes like development and manufacturing. Out of these the major objectives post-independence were abolition of intermediaries, regulation of tenancy, land ceiling, consolidation of fragmented holdings. In India, the abolition of intermediaries who existed under the various British systems has largely been successful. The other objectives have yielded mixed results and vary across states and over time periods. Land reforms come under the State List and so, the success of land reforms varies from state to state. The most comprehensive and successful reforms took place in the communist strongholds of Kerala and West Bengal. Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar saw intercommunity clashes as a result of land reforms. India has seen four 'experiments' since independence to redistribute the land holdings. They are: o Reforms from 'above', i.e., through legislation. o Reforms from above from the government coupled with peasant mobilisation; like in Kerala and West Bengal where land was seized and redistributed; and also to improve the conditions of peasants. o Naxalite movement and also the 'land grab' movement. o Reforms from 'below' through voluntary donations by landlords and peaceful processions by farmers like the Bhoodan movement and the Gram Dan.

Zamindari Abolition Acts l

Initially when these acts were passed in various states, they were challenged in the courts as being against the right to property enshrined in the Indian Constitution. So, amendments were passed in the Parliament to legalise the abolition of landlordism. By 1956, Zamindari abolition acts were passed in many states. As a result of this, about 30 lakh tenants and share-croppers acquired ownership rights over a total of 62 lakh acres of land all over the country.

Land Ceilings Act l

Land ceiling refers to fixing a cap on the size of land holding a family or individual can own. Any surplus land is distributed among landless people like tenants, farmers, or agricultural labourers. Tenancy reforms: This focused on three areas: o Rent regulation o Tenure security o Conferring ownership to tenants Outcomes of Land Reforms o Abolition of middlemen like landlords: The powerful class of Zamindars and Jagirdars cease to exist. This reduced the exploitation of peasants who now became owners of the land they tilled. This move was vehemently opposed by the Zamindars who employed many means to evade the law. They registered their own land under their relatives' names. They also shuffled tenants around different plots of land so that they wouldn't acquire incumbency rights.

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Land ceiling: With a cap on the size of land holding an individual/family could hold equitable distribution of land was possible to an extent. With only landlord abolition and no land ceiling, the land reforms would not have been at least partially successful. Land ceiling ensured that the rich farmers or higher tenants did not become the new avatar Zamindars. o Land possession: Land is a source of not just economic income but also social standing. Land reforms made it mandatory to have records of holdings, which was not the case previously. It is also compulsory to register all tenancy arrangements. o Increased productivity: More land came under cultivation and since tillers themselves became the landowners, productivity increased. l

Land reforms were largely successful in the states of West Bengal and Kerala because of the political will of the left-wing governments to implement them efficiently. There was a sort of revolution in these places in terms of land holding patterns and ownership, and also the condition of peasants. The backing slogan was 'land to the tiller'. In Jammu and Kashmir also, there was partial success in the redistribution of land to landless labourers.

Drawbacks of Land Reforms o There are still many small and marginal farmers in India who pray to the clutches of moneylenders and continue to remain indebted. o Rural poverty still exists. o Land ceiling varies from state to state. o Many plantations were exempt from land ceiling act. o Many people own huge tracts of land under 'benami' names. l

Land reforms also include agrarian reforms which deal with measures to improve the productivity of land especially agricultural land. This includes the Green Revolution.

To fix the various loopholes in the land reforms, in the late 60s and early 70s, therecommendations of the Central Land Reforms Committee were implemented. o The ceiling was lowered according to the crop pattern. It was brought to 54 acres for inferior dry land. o For purposes of law, family of five was made one unit. o Land distribution was given priority particularly to the landless peasants, SC and ST communities.

The government was responsible for the acquisition of land which it did under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. This law, being archaic and inadequate to address farmers' concerns was replaced by the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013. In 2015, the government proposed a few amendments to the law and introduced the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill of 2015, which came into effect as an ordinance.

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More At @Aj_ebooks INDIRA GANDHI: THE FIRST WOMAN PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA l

In the Congress Party's parliamentary leadership election held in early 1966 upon the death of Shastri, Indira Gandhi defeated her rival Morarji Desai, to become leader, and thus succeeded Shastri as the third and India's first woman Prime Minister. She served as Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian Prime Minister after her father Jawahar Lal Nehru. Her stint as Prime Minister has been quite eventful from historical point of view.

As Prime Minister, Gandhi was known for her political intransigency and unprecedented centralisation of power. She went to war with Pakistan in support of the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in an Indian victory and the creation of Bangladesh, as well as increasing India's influence to the point where it became the regional hegemon of South Asia. Citing fissiparous tendencies and in response to a call for revolution, Gandhi instituted a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 where basic civil liberties were suspended and the press was censored. Widespread atrocities were carried out during the emergency. In 1980, she returned to power after free and fair elections. After Operation Blue Star, she was assassinated by her own bodyguards and Sikh nationalists on 31 October 1984. The assassins, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, were both shot by other security guards. Satwant Singh recovered from his injuries and was executed after being convicted of murder.

Initial years of Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister l

The first electoral test for Indira was the 1967 general elections for the Lok sabha and state assemblies. The Congress Party won a reduced majority for the Lok sabha in these elections owing to widespread disenchantment over rising prices of commodities, unemployment, economic stagnation and a food crisis. Indira Gandhi had started on a rocky note after agreeing to a devaluation of the rupee, which created much hardship for Indian businesses and consumers, and the import of wheat from the United States fell through due to political disputes.

The party also for the first time lost power or lost majority in a number of states across the country. Following the 1967 elections, Indira Gandhi gradually started moving towards socialist policies. In 1969, she fell out with senior Congress party leaders on a number of issues. Chief among them was the decision by Indira to support V. V. Giri, the independent candidate rather than the official Congress party candidate Neelam Sanjiva Reddy for the vacant position of President of India. The other was the announcement by the prime minister of Bank nationalisation without consulting the finance minister, Morarji Desai. These steps culminated in Party president S. Nijalingappa expelling her from the party for indiscipline.

Gandhi, in turn floated her own faction of the Congress party and managed to retain most of the Congress MPs on her side with only 65 on the side of Congress (O) faction. The Indira faction, called Congress (R), lost its majority in the parliament but remained in power with the support of regional parties such as DMK.The policies of the Congress under Indira Gandhi, prior to the 1971

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More At @Aj_ebooks elections, also included proposals for the abolition of Privy Purse to former rulers of the Princely states and the 1969 nationalisation of the fourteen largest banks in India. l

Garibi Hatao (Eradicate Poverty) was the theme for Gandhi's 1971 political bid. On the other hand, the combined opposition alliance had a two word manifesto of "Indira Hatao" (Remove Indira). The Garibi Hatao slogan and the proposed anti-poverty programs that came with it were designed to give Gandhi an independent national support, based on rural and urban poor. This would allow her to bypass the dominant rural castes both in and of state and local governments; likewise the urban commercial class. And, for their part, the previously voiceless poor would at last gain both political worth and political weight.

The programs created through Garibi Hatao, though carried out locally, were funded and developed by the Central Government in New Delhi. The program was supervised and staffed by the Indian National Congress party. "These programs also provided the central political leadership with new and vast patronage resources to be disbursed... throughout the country.",

The biggest achievement of Indira Gandhi after the 1971 election came in December 1971 with India's decisive victory over Pakistan in the liberation war, that led to the formation of independent Bangladesh. In the elections held for State assemblies across India in March 1972, the Congress (R) swept to power in most states riding on the post-war “Indira wave”.

Despite the victory against Pakistan, the Congress government faced numerous problems during this term. Some of these were due to high inflation which was in turn caused by war time expenses, drought in some parts of the country and more importantly, the 1973 oil crisis. The opposition to Gandhi in 1973-75 period, after the Indira wave had receded, was strongest in the states of Bihar and Gujarat. In Bihar, Jayaprakash Narayan, the veteran leader came out of retirement to lead the protest movement there.

ABOLITION OF PRIVY PURSE The Privy Purses were in effect a kind of pension that the Constitution of a sovereign nation guaranteed to pay to the erstwhile rulers. The Privy Purses were to be paid by the Indian states into which the princely Sates were absorbed. The rulers were initially apprehensive that they would be at the mercy of the whims and fancies of the popular ministries of the states into which their States were absorbed. The apprehension turned out to be not entirely groundless as in the case of Jammu and Kashmir, as soon as the State acceded to the Indian Union, Sheik Abdullah expelled its ruler from the state. He refused to honour the agreement to pay the negotiated Privy Purse to the Maharajah. The Government of India was forced to pay the Privy Purse and continued to do so till its abrogation by Indira Gandhi. The Privy Purses were to be gradually reduced. At the time of independence, the annual outlay for the purses was Rs. 6 crore. By the time they were abolished by Indira Gandhi in 1971, the figure came down to Rs. 4 crore. To put this figure in perspective, it amounted to 0.1% of the estimated annual revenue receipts (Rs. 3867 crore) for the year 1970-71. After Indira Gandhi returned to power with a landslide majority in 1971, her government passed the Constitution (Twenty-sixth Amendment) Bill to abolish the Privy Purses.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Nationalisation of Banks l

After independence the Government of India (GOI) adopted planned economic development for the country (India). Accordingly, five year plans came into existence since 1951. This economic planning basically aimed at social ownership of the means of production. However, commercial banks were in the private sector those days. In 1950-51 there were 430 commercial banks. The Government of India had some social objectives of planning. These commercial banks failed helping the government in attaining these objectives. Thus, the government decided to nationalize 14 major commercial banks on 19th July, 1969. All commercial banks with a deposit base over Rs.50 crores were nationalized. It was considered that banks were controlled by business houses and thus failed in catering to the credit needs of poor sections such as cottage industry, village industry, farmers, craft men, etc. The second dose of nationalisation came in April 1980 when banks were nationalized.

Objectives Behind Nationalisation of Banks in India The nationalisation of commercial banks took place with an aim to achieve following major objectives. o Social Welfare : It was the need of the hour to direct the funds for the needy and required sectors of the Indian economy. Sector such as agriculture, small and village industries were in need of funds for their expansion and further economic development. o Controlling Private Monopolies : Prior to nationalisation many banks were controlled by private business houses and corporate families. It was necessary to check these monopolies in order to ensure a smooth supply of credit to socially desirable sections. o Expansion of Banking : In a large country like India the numbers of banks existing those days were certainly inadequate. It was necessary to spread banking across the country. It could be done through expanding banking network (by opening new bank branches) in the un-banked areas. o Reducing Regional Imbalance : In a country like India where we have a urban-rural divide; it was necessary for banks to go in the rural areas where the banking facilities were not available. In order to reduce this regional imbalance nationalisation was justified: o Priority Sector Lending : In India, the agriculture sector and its allied activities were the largest contributor to the national income. Thus these were labeled as the priority sectors. But unfortunately they were deprived of their due share in the credit. Nationalisation was urgently needed for catering funds to them. o Developing Banking Habits : In India more than 70% population used to stay in rural areas. It was necessary to develop the banking habit among such a large population.

Demerits, Limitations - Bank Nationalisation in India l

Though the nationalisation of commercial banks was undertaken with tall objectives, in many senses it failed in attaining them. In fact it converted many of the banking institutions in the loss making entities. The reasons were obvious lethargic working, lack of accountability, lack of profit motive, political interference, etc. Under this backdrop it is necessary to have a critical look to the whole process of nationalisation in the period after bank nationalisation. The major limitations of the bank nationalisation in India are:-

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Inadequate banking facilities : Even though banks have spread across the country; still many parts of the country are unbanked. Especially in the backward states such as the Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and north-eastern states of India. o Limited resources mobilized and allocated : The resources mobilized after the nationalisation is not sufficient if we consider the needs of the Indian economy. Some times the deposits mobilized are enough but the resource allocation is not as per the expansions. o Lowered efficiency and profits : After nationalisation banks went in the government sector. Many times political forces pressurized them. Banking was not done on a professional and ethical grounds. It resulted into lower efficiency and poor profitability of banks. o Increased expenditure : Due to huge expansion in a branch network, large staff administrative expenditure, trade union struggle, etc. banks expenditure increased to a dangerous levels. o Political and Administrative Inference : Many public sector banks badly suffered due to the political interference. It was seen in arranging loan meals. It ultimately resulted in huge nonperforming assets (NPA) of these banks and inefficiency. l

These are several limitations faced by the banks nationalisation in India.Apart from this there are certain other limitations as well, such as weak infrastructure, poor competitiveness, etc.But after Economic Reform of 1991, the Indian banking industry has entered into the new horizons of competitiveness, efficiency and productivity. It has made Indian banks more vibrant and professional organisations, removing the bad days of bank nationalisation.

Garibi Hatao Program l

In the late sixties, it was increasingly being realised that the economic policies and power structures had only brought about limited growth. But there had hardly been equitable distribution of its benefit.Indira Gandhi was aware of these ground realities and was by no means separated from the broader leftist ideological paradigm vis-a-vis development. As the Prime Minister, she was concerned about the steep prices affecting the economy and was also aware that the poor were the worst hit by the situation. The radical Naxalite movement was gaining ground in different parts of the country. She was aware of the implications of the massive land grab movements inspired by leftist ideology.

When the Congress split in 1969, Indira became the leader of one faction of the party and she proved that she was no less radical than the leftists in waging struggle against poverty. In the preparations of the Fourth Five Year Plan, she constantly expressed her special concerns for the weaker sections of the population. She told her supporters that with their support, she was determined to fight against poverty effectively. She pursued the Nehruvian model of development with a greater degree of zeal and enterprise.

Indira's political opponents campaigned on the slogan "Indira Hatao," (Remove Indira), Indira retooled it to "Garibi Hatao," (Remove Poverty). This slogan had a considerable impact; Indira was now looked upon by many as India's saviour. Her election campaign was more energetic than it had ever been before. This was the backdrop of the Garibi Hatao desh bachavo (meaning 'Abolish Poverty rescue the country') slogan of Indira Gandhi's 1971 election bid and later also used by her son Rajiv Gandhi. The slogan and the proposed anti-poverty programmes that came with it were UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks designed to reach out directly to the poor and marginalised, by-passing the dominant rural castes. For their part, the previously voiceless poor would at last gain both political worth and political weight. In the 1971 elections, she popularised the slogan of Garibi Hatao and made it a point to reach out to the various sections of the unprivileged groups of the rural India. Babu Jagjivan Ram, who was made the president of the party, functioned as a spokesman of the depressed groups. He observed, "The Hindu society is a confederation of different caste ... and the dominant castes which so far been enjoying the fruits of all government measures even today has to expropriate to themselves the advantage provided by the government. We have the challenge from the dominant castes in certain areas and from what is known as left adversaries. We have to meet all these challenges. The congress is pledged to promote with special care, the educational, employment and economic interest of the weaker sections of the people particularly the S C's, S T's and the O B C's."The early seventies carried the expectations of real social democratic possibilities in India. However these experiments did not often yield the expected results because Indira often faced a great deal of resistance from the dominant class interests. In this regard, she stated that "One can bully state leaders so much and no more…" l

Indira often stood in an open car for hours addressing the crowds invoking radical rhetoric to arouse the masses, but at the same time, reassured the higher classes that she would be mindful of their interests as well. As a result, Indira and her supporters triumphed in the parliamentary elections.

In her speech delivered at the Red Fort on 15th August, 1975, Indira warned: "Please do not expect magic remedies and dramatic results, there is only one magic which can remove poverty, and that is hard work, sustained by clear vision, iron will and the strictest discipline"

Twenty Point Programme l

The Twenty Point Programme was launched by Indira Gandhi in 1975 and was subsequently restructured in 1982 and again in 1986.Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in a radio broadcast, announced measures to revive the economy and reinforce her image as a leader with socialist leanings. Among the announcements were: raising the income tax exemption limit from Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 8,000, confiscation of properties owned by smugglers, ceilings on ownership and possession of vacant land, and acquisition of excess land. Land ceiling laws would be strictly implemented and surplus land distributed among the rural poor. The Twenty Point Programme included steps to bring down prices of essential commodities, promote austerity in government spending, crackdown on bonded labour, liquidate rural indebtedness and make laws for a moratorium on recovery of debt from landless labourers, small farmers and artisans.

The twenty points of the Programme were carefully designed and selected to achieve the above objectives. The Twenty Point Programme consisted of the following: o Attack on rural poverty o Strategy for rained agriculture o Better use of irrigation water

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Bigger harvest o Enforcement of land reforms o Special programmes for rural labour o Clean drinking water o Health for all o Two child norm o Justice for SC/ST o Equality for women o New opportunities for women o Housing for the people o Improvement for slums o New strategy for forestry o Protection of environment o Concern for the consumer o Energy for the villages o A responsive administration

Indo-Pakistan War 1971 l

The war began with preemptive aerial strikes on 11 Indian air stations, which led to the commencement of hostilities with Pakistan and Indian entry into the war of independence in East Pakistan on the side of Bengali nationalist forces. Lasting just 13 days, it is one of the shortest wars in history.

During the war, Indian and Pakistani militaries simultaneously clashed on the eastern and western fronts; the war ended after the Eastern Command of the Pakistan military signed the Instrument of Surrender on 16 December 1971 in Dhaka, marking the formation of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh. Officially, East Pakistan had earlier called for its secession from the unity of Pakistan on 26 March 1971. Approximately 90,000 to 93,000 Pakistani servicemen were taken prisoner by the Indian Army, which included 79,676 to 81,000 uniformed personnel of the Pakistan Armed Forces, including some Bengali soldiers who had remained loyal to Pakistan.

The conflict was largely a result of the Bangladesh Liberation war, when Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) was fighting to seek freedom from (West) Pakistan. In 1971, Pakistani Army began to commit the barbaric genocide on innocent Bengali population, particularly the minority Hindu population in East Pakistan. As Pakistan's atrocities increased, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi decided to take action against Pakistan at the same time give refuge to civilians from other side of the border.She ordered Army Chief General Sam Manekshaw to launch offensive against Pakistan following which India launched a full-scale war against its neighbour.It is estimated that between 300,000 and 3,000,000 civilians were killed in Bangladesh. Rape, torture, killings and conflicts followed due to which eight to ten million people fled the country to seek refuge in India.

Indira Gandhi was reluctant to launch a full-scale war against Pakistan as the country was already facing the burden due to the continuous flow of refugees from East Pakistan and entering a war UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks meant inviting more burden. She also appealed to world leaders to intervene and pressurise Pakistan to stop its brutalities but India did not have much time and a quick response became necessary. On December 6, she announced in Parliament that India had accorded recognition to the Bangladesh Government. On August 2, 1972, India and Pakistan signed the Shimla Agreement under which the former agreed to release all the 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war. Aftermath of the War l

On 16 December 1971, Lt. Gen A. A. K. Niazi, Chief Officer of Pakistan Army forces located in East Pakistan signed the Instrument of Surrender. Over 93,000 Pakistani troops surrendered to the Indian forces & Bangladesh Liberation forces, making it the largest surrender since World War II.M. A. Hannan, an Awami League leader from Chittagong, is said to have made the first announcement of the declaration of independence over the radio on 26 March 1971.26 March 1971 is considered the official Independence Day of Bangladesh, and the name Bangladesh was in effect henceforth. Bangladesh became an independent nation, the world's fourth most populous Muslim state and seventh most populous country. Mujibur Rahman was released from a West Pakistani prison, returning to Dhaka on 10 January 1972 and becoming the first President of Bangladesh and later its Prime Minister. Bangladesh sought admission in the UN with most voting in its favour, but China vetoed this as Pakistan was its key ally. On the brink of defeat around 14 December, the Pakistani Army, and its local collaborators, systematically killed a large number of people. Bangladesh government figures state that Pakistani forces aided by collaborators killed three million people, raped 200,000 women and displaced millions of others. For Pakistan, it was a complete and humiliating defeat, a psychological setback that came from a defeat at the hands of intense rival India. Pakistan lost half its population and a significant portion of its economy and suffered setbacks to its geo-political role in South Asia. Pakistan feared that the two-nation theory was disproved and that the Islamic ideology had proved insufficient to keep Bengalis part of Pakistan. When the surrender in East Pakistan was finally announced, people could not come to terms with the magnitude of defeat, spontaneous demonstrations and mass protests erupted on the streets of major cities in West Pakistan. Yahya Khan's dictatorship collapsed and gave way to Bhutto, who took the opportunity to rise to power. The loss of East Pakistan shattered the prestige of the Pakistani military. Pakistan lost half its navy, a quarter of its air force and a third of its army.In 1972 the Simla Agreement was signed between India and Pakistan.The treaty ensured that Pakistan recognised the independence of Bangladesh in exchange for the return of the Pakistani Prisoners of War (PoW).India treated all the PoWs in strict accordance with the Geneva Convention, rule 1925.It released more than 93,000 Pakistani PoWs in five months. Further, as a gesture of goodwill, nearly 200 soldiers who were sought for war crimes by Bengalis were also pardoned by India.The accord also gave back 13,000 km2 of land that Indian troops had seized in West Pakistan during the war, though India retained a few strategic areas; most notably Kargil (focal point for a war between the two nations in 1999).It influenced the Pakistani government to support jihadist groups in Afghanistan even after the Soviets left, because the jihadists were a tool to use against India, including bogging down the Indian Army in Kashmir. After the war, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto authorised the highly secretive and clandestine atomic bomb program, as part of its new deterrence policy, to defend itself and never to allow another armed invasion from India.

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More At @Aj_ebooks BACKGROUND OF 1971 INDO-PAKISTAN WAR The internal crisis of Pakistan after the verdict of their general elections in Pakistan turned violent. The ruling party of Zulfikar Bhutto emerged as winner in West Pakistan while in their Eastern Part Sheikh Mujib-Ur Rahman's Awani League won majority of seats with great margins. However, strong and powerful western establishment ignored the democratic verdict and didn't accept the League's demand for federation. Instead of responding to their demands and verdict positively, Pakistan army arrested Rahman and unleashed brutal terror activities and suppressed their voices. To end this menace permanently, people of Eastern Pakistan started liberation struggle of Bangladesh from Pakistan. Due to the huge influx of refugees from Eastern Pakistan, India deliberated much and later extended its support to people's cause materially and morally, which was frowned by Western Pakistan as Indian conspiracy to break of Pakistan. The support to Western Pakistan came from the USA & China to quash the people's movement. To ensure its safety from the attacks of American and Chinese backed Pak, India signed 20 year Treaty of Peace and Friendship with the Soviet Union. Even after much diplomatic deliberations it could not achieve concrete results, and full scale war broke out in December 1971 on both the western and Eastern front. With the support of local population in the form of "Mukti Bahini" Indian army made rapid progress and compelled the Pakistani troops to surrender in 10 days only. With emergence of Bangladesh as an independent country, India declared a unilateral ceasefire. Later Shimla Agreement of 1972 between Indira Gandhi & Zulfikar Bhutto brought back the peace between two nations. Since then India has argued for Shimla agreement as the framework within which the disputes between the two countries should be resolved.

Shimla Agreement l

The Simla Agreement, or Shimla Agreement, was signed between India and Pakistan on 2 July 1972 in Shimla. It followed from the Bangladesh Liberation war in 1971 that led to the independence of Bangladesh, which was earlier known as East Pakistan and was part of the territory of Pakistan. India entered the war as an ally of Bangladesh which transformed the war into an Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The agreement was ratified by the Parliaments of both the nations in same year. The agreement was the result of resolve of both the countries to "put an end to the conflict and confrontation that have hitherto marred their relations". It conceived the steps to be taken for further normalisation of mutual relations and it also laid down the principles that should govern their future relations. Major outcomes of the Simla Agreement were: o Both countries will "settle their differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations" o India has, many a times, maintained that Kashmir dispute is a bilateral issue and must be settled through bilateral negotiations as per Simla Agreement, 1972 and thus, had denied any third party intervention even that of United Nations. o The agreement converted the cease-fire line of 17 December 1971 into the Line of Control (LOC) between India and Pakistan and it was agreed that "neither side shall seek to alter it unilaterally, irrespective of mutual differences and legal interpretations". UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Many Indian bureaucrats have later argued that a tacit agreement, to convert this LOC into international border, was reached during a one-on-one meeting between the two heads of government. However, Pakistani bureaucrats have denied any such thing. o This identification of a new "cease-fire line" by both the states has been argued by India as making United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan insignificant. As according to India, the purpose of UNMOGIP was to monitor the cease-fire line as identified in Karachi agreement of 1949 which no longer exists. However, Pakistan have a different take on this issue and both countries still host the UN mission. o The agreement has not prevented the relationship between the two countries from deteriorating to the point of armed conflict, most recently in the Kargil War of 1999. In Operation Meghdoot of 1984 India seized all of the inhospitable Siachen Glacier region where the frontier had been clearly not defined in the agreement (possibly as the area was thought too barren to be controversial), this was considered as a violation of the Shimla Agreement by Pakistan. l

The Shimla Agreement 1972 is intriguing for what it did not reflect - India not leveraging the fruits of the 1971 war victory to produce an advantageous geopolitical settlement. After all, for the first time since Partition, India was negotiating from a position of (POWs) strength and prestige with Pakistan; 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war , including the entire military leadership in East Pakistan, had surrendered to Indian forces. India had also captured strategic locations in Kashmir and 5,000 square miles of Pakistan's territory in Sindh and south Punjab.

Emergency Period during the Prime-minister ship of Indira Gandhi l

The Emergency, as the period is commonly known in India, lasted from 25 June 1975 until its withdrawal on 21 March 1977.It was officially issued by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed on the recommendation of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It was done under Article 352 of the Indian Constitution because of 'internal disturbance'.

Years Preceding the Emergency: l

The social and economic condition of the country was in bad shape during 1972-1975. Although the win over Pakistan in the war brought much praise for Indira Gandhi from the common man, the war and the eight million refugees from Bangladesh had put a heavy strain on our economy. After the war the U.S government stopped all aid to India and the oil prices also increased manifold in the international market. This led to a general increase in prices of commodities (23% in 1973 and 30% in 1974). Such a persistently high level of inflation was causing great distress to the people. Moreover, industrial growth was low and unemployment was high.

The government's move to freeze the salaries of its employees to reduce its spending further led to resentment amongst the government employees. Monsoons failed in 1972-1973, resulting in the food grain output declining by 8%. There was a general atmosphere of dissatisfaction with the prevailing economic situation all over the country.

Protests in Northern India l

The protests in Gujarat and Bihar, led by students, played a pivotal role in galvanising a nationwide opinion against Congress and the Prime Minister. In January 1974 students in Gujarat started protesting against rising prices of food grains and other essential commodities and corruption in

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More At @Aj_ebooks the state government. The protests became widespread with major opposition parties (including Moraji Desai, a prominent political leader and a rival of Indira Gandhi when he was in the Congress) joining it, leading to the imposition of President's rule in the state. Demands for fresh elections became intense. Subsequently, elections were held in Gujarat in June 1975, which the Congress lost. l

Students in Bihar came together in march 1974 to protest against rising prices, food scarcity, unemployment and corruption. As the movement gained strength, they invited Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), who had given up active politics and was involved in social work, to lead it. He accepted it and took the movement to the nation. Jayaprakash Narayan demanded the dismissal of the Congress government in Bihar and gave a call for total revolution in the social, economic and political spheres of the society. The movement gained momentum with a series of strikes and protests. The government, however, refused to resign.

Jayaprakash led a massive political rally in Delhi's Ramlila grounds on 25 June 1975, where he announced a nationwide Satyagraha for Indira Gandhi's resignation and asked the army, police and government employees not to obey 'illegal and immoral orders'. The government perceived this as an incitement and felt that it would bring all government machinery to a standstill. Alongside the agitation led by Jayaprakash Narayan, the employees of the Railways gave a call for a nationwide strike, led by George Fernandes.

Disqualification of Indira Gandhi as an MP l

In the 1971 Parliamentary elections, Indira Gandhi defeated Raj Narain from the Rae Bareli constituency. Subsequently, Raj Narain filed a petition In the Allahabad High Court accusing Indira Gandhi of electoral malpractices, bribing voters and misuse of government machinery. Indira Gandhi was also cross-examined in the High Court which was the first such instance for an Indian Prime Minister. On 12 June 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha found the prime minister guilty of misuse of government machinery during her election campaign and declared her election null and void and also barred her from contesting any election for the next six years. The court, however, gave the Congress twenty days to make arrangements to replace Indira as the PM. A leading newspaper described it as 'firing the Prime Minister for a traffic ticket'.

Indira Gandhi challenged this verdict in the Supreme Court. On June 24, the Supreme Court granted her a partial stay on the High Court order - till her appeal was decided, she could remain an MP but could not take part in the proceedings of the Lok Sabha.

Proclamation of Emergency l

The government responded to the massive strike on June 25, 1975 by declaring a state of emergency that night itself, saying that there was a threat of internal disturbances and that a grave crisis had arisen which made the proclamation necessary. PM Indira Gandhi recommended to the President to proclaim a state of emergency, and he did so immediately. After midnight, the electricity to all the major newspaper offices was disconnected, and was restored only two to three days later after the censorship apparatus had been set up. Early morning, on 26, a large number of opposition leaders and workers were arrested. The Union Cabinet was only informed about it at a special meeting at 6 a.m, after all this was over. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks What occurred during the emergency? It is clear from the words of article 352 that the Emergency is seen as an extraordinary condition, where normal democracy cannot function. Some of the exceptions occurred during the period wereo The federal distribution of powers no longer remained in order. All the powers were concentrated in the hands of the Union government. o Government gets to restrict or limit any or all of the fundamental citizens during the emergency, and it made use of this power quite extensively. This included the right of citizens to move the Court for restoring their fundamental rights. o All newspapers needed to get prior approval for all their materials to be published. This is known press censorship. o Apprehending social and communal disharmony, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Jamait-e-Islami were banned. Protests, strikes and public agitations were also disallowed.

Excesses during the Emergency l

The government made blatant and extensive use of its power of preventive detention. People were arrested and detained only on the apprehension that they may commit an offense. Negating the judgment of several High Courts, the Supreme Court in April 1976 gave a judgment upholding the constitutional validity of such detentions during emergency. The Shah Commission estimated that nearly 1,11,000 people were arrested under preventive detention laws. Torture in police custody and custodial deaths also occurred during Emergency.

Sanjay Gandhi, the Prime Minister's younger son, did not hold any official position at the time. Yet, he gained control over the administration and allegedly interfered in the functioning of the government. His role in the demolitions and forced sterilisation in Delhi became very controversial.

The Constitution was amended in an autocratic manner, particularly in the 42nd amendment, as the government enjoyed a huge majority in parliament. In the background of the Allahabad High Court verdict, an amendment was made declaring that elections of Prime Minister, President and Vice-President could not be challenged in the Court.

Acts of dissent and resistance did happen during the emergency, but were few. Newspapers like the Indian Express and the Statesman protested against censorship by leaving blank spaces where news items had been censored.

Was the Emergency justified? l

The emergency was declared stating the security of India was threatened due to internal disturbances. In an AIR broadcast on 26 June 1975, Indira Gandhi said- "In the name of democracy it has been sought to negate the very functioning of democracy. Duly elected governments have not been allowed to function. Agitations have surcharged the atmosphere, leading to violent incidents. …Certain persons have gone to the length of inciting our armed forces to mutiny and our police to rebel. The forces of disintegration are in full play and communal passions are being aroused, threatening our unity. How can any Government worth the name stand by and allow the country's stability to be imperilled? The actions of a few are endangering the rights of the vast majority."

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More At @Aj_ebooks l

On the other hand, JP and other opposition leaders believed that in a democracy, people had the right to publicly protest against the government.

The Bihar and Gujarat movements were largely peaceful and non-violent. Moreover, even if some undue incidents happened, the government had enough routine powers to control them. There was simply no need to resort to such an extraordinary measure for that. In fact, the threat was not to the unity and integrity of the country but to the Congress government and to the prime minister herself.

The End of Emergency and After l

After 18 months of emergency, in January 1977, the government finally decided to hold election in March 1977. Accordingly, all the leaders and activists were released from jails. Although this gave the opposition very little time, it quickly united to form a new party, Janata Party, under the leadership of JP.

Highlighting the dictatorial character and the various excesses committed during the emergency, the Janata Party turned the elections into a referendum on the experience of the emergency, at least in the North India. The public perception was very much against the Congress and the formation of Janata Party ensured that the non-Congress votes would not be divided.

For the first time since independence, the Congress party was defeated in the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress could win only 154 seats in the Lok Sabha, whereas the Janata Part got 295 seats (330, along with its allies).

Indira Gandhi was defeated from Rae Bareli, as was her son Sanjay Gandhi from Amethi.An important constitutional amendment done by the new government was substituting 'armed rebellion' in place of 'internal disturbance' and making it necessary that the advice to the President to proclaim emergency must be given in writing by the Council of Ministers.

Punjab Insurgency: The origin of Khalistan Movement l

The insurgency in Punjab originated in the late 1970s, was a threat to the unity and integrity of India due to the militant sikh ethno nationalism known as Khalistan movement.In the 1980s the movement had developed into a secessionist movement under the leadership of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

Background of Punjab Insurgency: o In the 1950s there was a demand for linguistic reorganisation of the state of Punjab, which the government finally agreed in 1955 after protests and recommendation of the States Reorganisation commission. o The state of Punjab was later split into the states of Himachal Pradesh, the new state Haryana and current day Punjab. o While the Green Revolution in Punjab had several positive impacts, the introduction of the mechanised agricultural techniques led to uneven distribution of wealth. o The industrial development was not done at the same pace of agricultural development, the Indian government had been reluctant to set up heavy industries in Punjab due to its status as a high-risk border state with Pakistan. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks o The rapid increase in the higher education opportunities without adequate rise in the jobs resulted in the increase in the unemployment of educated youth. o The resulting unemployed rural Sikh youth were drawn to the militant groups, and formed the backbone of the militancy. Immediate Causes l

In 1972 Punjab state elections, Congress won and Akali Dal was defeated. In 1973 Akali Dal put forward the Anandpur Sahib Resolution to demand more autonomy to Punjab. The Congress government considered the resolution a secessionist document and rejected it. Bhindranwale then joined the Akali Dal to launch the Dharam Yudh Morcha in 1982, to implement Anandpur Sahib resolution. Bhindranwale had risen to prominence in the Sikh political circle with his policy of getting the Anandpur Resolution passed, failing which he wanted to declare a separate country of Khalistan as a homeland for Sikhs.

Bhindranwale symbolized the revivalist, extremist and terrorist movement in the 1980s in Punjab. He is credited with the launching the Sikh militancy in Punjab, with training and support from the spy agency ISI of Pakistan. Under Bhindranwale, the number of people initiating into the Khalsa increased. He also increased the level of rhetoric on the perceived "assault" on Sikh values from the Hindu community. Bhindranwale and his followers started carrying firearms at all times. In 1983, to escape arrest, he along with his militant cadre occupied and fortified the Sikh shrine Akal Takht. He made the Sikh religious building his headquarters and led the terrorist campaign in Punjab. On 1 June Operation Blue Star was launched to remove him and the armed militants from the Golden Temple complex. On 6 June Bhindranwale died in the operation.

Operation Blue Star: The encounter of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale l

Under the orders of the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, the Indian military stormed into the premises of the Golden Temple in Amritsar to drive out the Sikh extremist religious leader, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers. Bhindranwale in the past two years, had made his political claims very clear. He wanted the Indian government to pass the Anandpur Resolution, and thereby agree to the formation of a separate state of Khalistan for Sikhs. Since 1982, the radical leader of Sikhism had managed to gain enough support for his cause and by mid-1983 had set up a base inside the Golden Temple complex, with ammunition and his followers. The Operation Blue Star was launched between June 1 and June 6, 1984 with the aim of getting rid of Bhindranwale and his demands.

Once Bhindranwale had fortified the Golden Temple and its surrounding areas, Indira Gandhi decided to consult the Indian army regarding the plan to drive him out. Given the religious sentiments attached to the Gurudwara and the casualty that could be expected, the then Army Vice-Chief, Lt. Gen. S.K.Sinha had advised against an assault. Soon after however, he was replaced by General Arun Shridhar Vaidya as Chief of the Indian Army, who went on to plan and lead Operation Blue Star. The Indian Army launched the offensive on the night of June 2, and on June 3 a curfew was imposed on the state of Punjab, and all lines of communication and travel were stopped. Operation Blue Star was divided into two parts: o Operation Metal: It was limited to Golden Temple but it also led to Operation Shop - the capturing of suspects from outskirts of Punjab.

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Operation Woodrose was launched throughout Punjab. The operation was carried out by Indian Army, using tanks, artillery, helicopters and armored vehicles. The operation resulted in the death of Bhindranwale and a high casualty figure among the army, the civilians and the militants. The assault on Golden Temple was heavily criticised by Sikhs worldwide and had led to several Sikhs resigning from administrative positions. Few months post-Operation Blue Star, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, followed by severe anti-Sikh riots in Delhi.

Operation Black Thunder Operation Black Thunder was the second phase of Operation Blue Star. The first phase was carried out on April 30, 1986, while the second Operation Black Thunder began on May 9, 1988. It was carried out by Black Cat commandos of National Security Guards (NSG) to remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple. Planning for Operation Black Thunder was initiated in early 1988 at Manesar at Aravali hills, 40kms from Delhi by National Security Guards (NSG) under patronage of union Home Minister, rather Ministry of Internal Security. A large model of Sri Darbar Sahib complex was created; practice was carried out at a high school at Tauru and in a college at Nuh in Haryana. Both schools had structures that resembled the parikarma of Sri Darbar Sahib. Weekend visits to Sri Darbar Sahib became a regular feature of the Special Action Group (SAG) of the NSG. They also started growing their hair for operational reasons. The operation was commanded by Kanwar Pal Singh Gill who was the DGP of Punjab Police. Snipers were used in this operation. Compared to Operation Blue Star, little damage was inflicted on the Golden Temple. In what was reported as a successful operation, around 200 militants surrendered, 41 were killed. Gill stated that he did not want to repeat the mistakes made by the Indian army during Operation Blue Star. This operation was described as a severe setback to the Anandpur Resolution implementation movement. In contrast to prior operations, minimum force was used under full public scrutiny. It is remembered for the free access the news media was provided unlike during Operation Blue Star. The day after the militants surrendered, nine reporters were allowed into the Temple complex.

WHAT WAS ANANDPUR SAHIB RESOLUTION? The Anandpur Sahib Resolution, was a statement with a list of demands made by Punjab political party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, in 1973. After being routed in 1972 Punjab election, the Akali Dal put forward the Anandpur Sahib Resolution in 1973 to demand more autonomy to Punjab. The resolution included both religious and political issues. It asked for recognising Sikhism as a religion separate from Hinduism. It also demanded that power be generally devaluated from the Central to state governments. The demand for autonomy was phrased such a way that would have given more authority to Punjabis rather than the Central Government. The Shiromani Akali Dal shall ever strive to achieve the following aims: o Propagation of Sikhism, its ethical values and code of conduct to combat atheism.

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Preservation and keeping alive the concept of distinct and sovereign identity of the Panth and building up of appropriate condition in which the national sentiments and aspirations of the Sikh Panth will find full expression, satisfaction and facilities for growth. o Eradication of poverty and starvation through increased production and more equitable distribution of wealth and also the establishment of a just social order sans exploitation of any kind. o Vacation of discrimination on the basis of caste, creed or any other ground in keeping with basic principles of Sikhism. o Removal of disease and ill health, checking the use of intoxicants and provision of full facilities for the growth of physical well-being so as to prepare and enthuse the Sikh Nation for the national defence.

Comparison with Operation Blue Star l

While Operation Blue Star was widely considered poorly executed and shambolic because of the egregious loss of civilian lives and the damage done to both the Golden Temple and Sikh relations with the government (culminating in the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards and anti-Sikh riots), Operation Black Thunder was far more successful with the blockade tactics paying dividends, and has been credited with breaking the back of the Sikh separatist movement. Soon after this operation, the Indian Government banned the use of religious shrines for political and military purposes and increased penalties for the possession and use of illegal weapons, as part of its strategy to fight extremism in the Punjab region.

Assassination of Indira Gandhi l

On 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, was killed by her Sikh bodyguards. The assassination sparked four days of riots that left more than 8,000 Indian Sikhs dead in revenge attacks.

Nuclear Program of India l

Indira Gandhi contributed and further carried out the vision of Jawaharlal Nehru, former Premier of India to develop the nuclear program. Gandhi authorised the development of nuclear weapons in 1967, in response to the Test No. 6 by People's Republic of China. Gandhi saw this test as Chinese nuclear intimidation, therefore, Gandhi promoted the views of Nehru to establish India's stability and security interests as independent from those of the nuclear superpowers.

The program became fully mature in 1974, when Dr. Raja Ramanna reported to Gandhi that India had the ability to test its first nuclear weapon. Gandhi gave verbal authorisation of this test, and preparations were made in a long-constructed army base, the Indian ArmyPokhran Test Range. In 1974, India successfully conducted an underground nuclear test, unofficially code named as "Smiling Buddha", near the desert village of Pokhran in Rajasthan. As the world was quiet by this test, a vehement protest came forward from Pakistan. Great ire was raised in Pakistan and its Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, described this test as "Indian hegemony" to intimidate Pakistan. In response to this Bhutto launched a massive campaign all over the Pakistan to make Pakistan a nuclear power. In these campaigns Bhutto asked the nation to get united and great slogans were

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More At @Aj_ebooks raised such as hum ghaas aur pattay kha lay gay magar nuclear power ban k rhe gay (We will eat grass or leaves even go hungry but will get nuclear power). Gandhi directed a letter to Bhutto and, later to the world, describing the test for peaceful purposes and India's commitment to develop its programme for industrial and scientific use. Foreign Policy under Indira Gandhi l

Indira Gandhi is often described as a practitioner of realpolitik for her expedient, unprincipled and ruthless pursuit of power. Indira Gandhi was much more equipped in foreign affairs than Lal Bahadur Shastri. As Nehru's daughter, she had the rare privilege of being constantly exposed to the outside world. The summary of significant foreign policy issues thus can be enlisted as following: o Non-Alignment: The policy of Non-Alignment is the bed-rock of India's foreign policy, it was also followed by Indira Gandhi as her predecessors, Nehru and Shastri did. In the 1950s and 1960s, several African countries had gained independence from colonial rule. Indira Gandhi realized the political and economic importance of these countries. Indira Gandhi boosted the NAM summit in New Delhi in 1967 to strengthen the unity and co-operation among Afro-Asian countries

Relations with Foreign Countries o Indo-US Relations: On invitation from the US President Lindon B. Johnson, Indira Gandhi visited the US on 28 March 1966. During her visit, the Indo-US Education Foundation was formulated, but could not materialize due to strong opposition in India. Indira Gandhi impressed on the US President the need for American aid in terms of food and foreign exchange. America had suspended aid to India in 1965 at the time of the Indo-Pak war. However, Johnson promised three million tons of food and nine million in aid. The Indo-US relations touched the base when India signed the treaty of peace, Friendship and Co-operation with Russia in 1971. The U.S. vehemently criticized India for interfering with the internal affairs of Pakistan and President Nixon deployed the US 7th fleet to the Bay of Bengal. America ordered complete stoppage of economic assistance and supply of defense equipment to India. The Pokhran Test had driven a wedge in the Indo-US relations. This issue caused a stalemate in the relations between the two countries. Though the visit of Dr. Henry Kissinger, the secretary of the state of the US, to India in October 1974, helped to bridge the gap between the two countries, Indira Gandhi's imposition of emergency in 1975 strained the Indo-US relation. o Indo-Soviet Relations: Indira Gandhi visited Moscow in September 1966, with a view to strengthen India's 'special relations' with Russia. But India was discouraged when the Soviet Union decided to supply arms to Pakistan in July 1976. When Russia was dissatisfied with Pak's pro-china attitude, she started improving Indo-soviet relations, which led to the signing of a historic treaty of peace with the country. o Indo Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Co-operation, 1971: On 9 August 1971, India and the Soviet Union signed the treaty of peace, Friendship and Co-operation. The impact of the treaty: 1) Discourage Pak threat to India's security. 2) Check the possible Sino-Pak collusion against India. 3) Neutralise the growing Washington-Pindi-Beijing entente. 4) Help indirectly to make a decisive contribution towards the formation of Bangladesh. 5) assure Soviet support UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks during the Bangladesh War, and 6) prevent the adoption of the US-China sponsored anti-India moves in the U.N. Security Council. Relations with Neighbouring Countries o Indo-Sino Relations:In the post-1962 period, Indo-Sino relations remained cold and unfriendly. Even diplomatic relations were down Graded. China came closer to Pakistan. During 1965 Indo-Pak war, China extended full support to Pakistan short of intervention in the war. Chinese attitude towards the border dispute with India, the continued border incidents between Chinese and Indian troops, and the Chinese surreptitious support to anti-Indian elements like extremist Nagas, Mizos, the Naxalites etc combined to create further strains. o Indo-Pak Relations:The Indo-Pak War of 1971 brought the relations between the two countries to a breaking-point. The Shimla Agreement (1972) which followed the war restored mutual relations. This was followed by the Delhi Agreement (1973) which resolved the issue of repatriation of Prisoners of War (POW) and the problem of returning Bengalis from Pakistan and Bihari Muslim from Bangladesh to Pakistan. When Pakistan attempted to integrate 'Azad Kashmir' (POK) with Pakistan (1975), Indira Gandhi neutralized by concluding an agreement with Sheikh Abdulla on February 1975, thereby Pakistan turned hostile towards India. o Indo-Bangladesh Relations: Mujibur Rehman, assumed power in Bangladesh on 12 January 1972. The erstwhile East Pakistan became an Independent Sovereign State. India recognized the new nation even before the war was over. On 10 December 1971, the first Indo-Bangladesh Treaty was signed by Indira Gandhi and acting Bangladesh President Nazrul Islam. A Joint India-Mukti Bahini command was set up under India's General to liberate Bangladesh from Pakistan. According to this treaty India pledged to protect the territorial integrity of Bangladesh; economic assistance for its reconstruction; to return refugees from India; and to withdraw the Indian army from that country as normalcy was established.Mujibur Rehman visited India on invitation from 16 to 18 February 1972 and held talks with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Both leaders agreed to be guided by the principles of democracy socialism, secularism, nonalignment, opposition to racialism and colonialism and ensure bilateral trade between the two countries and to oust smuggling. When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi toured Bangladesh on 19 March 1972, The Treaty of Friendship and Peace for twenty five years was signed. India agreed full support in securing its admission to the UNO, the Indian Ocean be kept free of great power rivalry and make it a nuclear-free zone; to establish a Joint River Commission on permanent basis and exchange in science and technology. o The Treaty Agreement, March 1972:Both the treaties were concluded in the spirit of equality, friendship and good neighborliness. But the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman on 15 August 1975 in a military coup derailed the relationship between the two neighbours, this incident made the relation between the two countries stressed. o The Farakka Barrage Issue: The Farakka Barrage was built by India during 1962-71 to preserving and maintain the Calcutta port and navigability of Bhagirathi-Hoogli. In 1972, the Joint River Commission conducted detailed survey of the entire barrage. After Mujibur Rehman's visit to India (1974), an interim agreement was concluded (1975) for allocation of Ganga water between the two countries. As the murder of Mujib strained the relation in 1976, Maulana

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More At @Aj_ebooks Bhashani mobilized public opinion against India and led a Farakka Peace March, since then the Farakka issue had become an irritant in India-Bangladesh relation.

Economic Relations l

In December 1976, India, Bangladesh and Nepal agreed to form a Jute international for coordinating their jute export policies. These were indeed bold attempts to promote mutual trade relations.

Maritime Boundary Dispute l

The New Moore Island is of critical importance to both India and Bangladesh. The Island remained a bone of contention since 1970. The India, navy surveyed the island and erected identification pillars on it 1974 in and Indian ownership of the island was also underlined. In 1978, Bangladesh for the first time questioned the Indian claim over the Island. o Indo-Sri Lanka Relations:The demarcation of maritime boundaries between the two countries remained unsolved since 1956. The kachativu were the bone of contention between India and Sri Lanka.

Kachativu Issue: Kachativu is an oval-shaped island with a circumference of these miles, with a total area of about 280 acres. It is about 10 miles nearest land means of Sri Lanka and 12 miles from Indian shore. It is a barren, uninhabited and cactus covered island, without drinking water. There is an ancient church of saint Anthoni on the northern coast and pilgrim from both India and Sri Lanka used to visit the island on the eve of annual festival in the month of March. Both the countries laid claim over the island on the basis of historical links, documents and the location of the Island. Finally, a Maritime Boundary Agreement of 28th 1974 demarcated the international maritime boundary between India and Sri Lanka, Which placed Kachhativu on the Sri Lanka side of the boundary. However, Kachchativu remains the object of concern for India due to provocative incidents involving Sri Lanka Naval Patrols and unarmed Indian Fisherman. o Indo-Nepal Relations: In 1974, Indo-Nepal relations got strained when Nepal reacted sharply when Sikkim acceded to India. In effect, the Indo-Nepal relations remained anything but cordial. o Indo-Bhutan Relations: Indo-Bhutan relations remained cordial ever since India concluded a revised treaty with Bhutan on 8 August 1949. When Sikkim became put of Indian Union in 1976, many countries, particularly China, tried hard to impress upon Bhutan to beware of India's designs. But the king of Bhutan, Jigme Singha Wangchuck remained loyal to India and felt assured of India's respect to the sovereign status of Bhutan. o India and the NPT: India has always been supporting disarmament and arms control. In 1954 Nehru condemned nuclear tests as 'a crime against humanity' and proposed an immediate 'standstill agreement' on nuclear testing. India was the first country to cry halt to nuclear tests. On 5 August 1963, a Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) was signed by the Foreign Minister of UK, USA and USSR. Finally, on 12 July 1968, the General Assembly endorsed the US and USSR proposal for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by a big majority. The Treaty came into force on 5 March 1970. o India aimed at — — opposition to nuclear weaponisation; — universal total nuclear disarmament; UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks — nuclear technology for only peaceful purposes; and — voluntary submission to uniform, safeguard and inspections without any exception or discrimination. o India and the UNO: India has always regarded the UNO as a world forum to voice her views and to oppose discriminatory practices that contaminate healthy international relations. Addressing the 38th session of the Non-Aligned Movement ventilated the views of non-aligned countries, particularly the new International Economic Order, Disarmament and Indian Ocean as Peace Zone.

Indira Gandhi Years: Significant Time Period for Indian wildlife Conservation l

When Mrs Gandhi came to power in 1966, wildlife was a in a crisis. Post-independence, swathes of prime forests had been cleared - to settle Partition refugees in the Terai, and other regions. As a new India was born, natural habitats were destroyed to make way for mines, dams, real estate, infrastructure and industrial projects.

Wild animals were being hunting ruthlessly - a sitting target for anyone with a gun and pursued relentlessly in vehicles in hitherto inaccessible jungles. Tigers were the prized trophy, with big game hunting safaris organised for "dollar" tourists. Trade in tiger skins was rampant and an exposé by a forest officer (Kailash Sankhala who was to lead Project Tiger) along with a woman journalist showed how snow leopard, tiger, leopard pelts were being sold openly, and in great numbers in bazaars - including in Delhi's Chankaya market. Wild India was doomed. And the tiger was vanishing from its forests.

She was a visionary when it came to environment issues, and laid the foundation of much of legal and policy framework that protects India's forests and wild creatures.

The first landmark was the first IUCN (International Conservation Union) that India hosted in 1969, where the crisis of the tiger was brought to the fore. What followed was an immediate ban on tiger shooting, in spite of the immense pressure by the shikar safari lobby who protested the loss of precious foreign exchange - and their business.

Indira responded with a resounding, "We do need foreign exchange but not at the cost of life and liberty of some of the most beautiful inhabitants of this continent."

Soon after, a task force was created to draft the Wildlife Protection Act, piloted through Parliament in 1972. It facilitated the creation of wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, strictly restricted and regulated activities in them, besides banning hunting of wildlife. Meanwhile, a census of tigers revealed that India had barely 1,800 tigers left, and the prime minister spearheaded the establishment of Project Tiger in 1973, the biggest conservation initiative of the time to save a species. Nine tiger reserves were carved out in varied ecosystems - from the mangroves of the Sundarbans to the dry forests of Ranthambhore, which were set aside for the tiger. There can be much criticism of Project Tiger - most of it valid, but there can be no doubt that the Project coupled with strict legislation, and backed by strong political lobby, gave India's wild tigers a second lease of life.

She also spearheaded the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, which prohibited commercial activities in forests. Despite the fact that it has been abused and clearances given freely, it has still slowed the process of destruction of forests. She put to a stop to hunting houbara bustards by the Arabs, and secured the pristine forests of the Silent Valley by refusing a hydel power plant in response to

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More At @Aj_ebooks a people's movement that had built up in Kerala. When student groups petitioned the destruction of the Delhi Ridge, the last outcrop of the ancient Aravalli hills, she initiated steps to protect the city forest. l

There is little doubt that her commitment to forests was born of personal passion. She started young, as a teenager she was a member of the Delhi Bird Club. She said, "Like most Indians, I took birds for granted until my father sent me the (late) Salim Ali's book (on Indian Birds) from Dehradun jail and opened my eyes to an entirely new world. Only then did I realise how much I have been missing."

Her fondness for birds was to manifest itself in various ways. Indira Gandhi personally monitored the arrival of the increasingly rare (and now extinct) Siberian Crane, a migrant to Bharatpur (Rajasthan), and put her weight behind reviving the falling fortunes of the Great Indian Bustard.

That her commitment ran deep is evident from a letter she wrote to a Bihar chief minister in response to a plea legislature about the release of the rich Madanpur forests for some development project. She purportedly asked the then chief minister to halt the diversion of the forest. The letter is dated July 1972, when she was at the hill station having historic talks with her Pakistani counterpart Zulfikar Ali Bhutto post the Bangladesh war.

If the foundation - the legal framework that secures forests and wildlife is weakened - there is little hope for tigers, and other wildlife.Unfortunately, this green legacy was laid to waste by even the earlier government - the political heirs of the late prime minister - which rubber stamped most projects without a thought to environmental, wildlife or social impacts. A clean environment was increasingly viewed as a hurdle to development, an idea which is being aggressively pursued in the current regime.

As India positions itself as a top investment destination, posed for double digit growth, it needs to pause and think whether such growth is ecologically or even economically: for instance, the World Bank in 2013 estimated that environmental degradation in India costs the nation 5.7 per cent of its GDP each year.

RAJIV GANDHI YEARS l

Rajiv Gandhi served as the 6th Prime Minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to become the youngest Indian Prime Minister at the age of 40.

His leadership was tested over the next few days as organised mobs rioted against the Sikh community, resulting in riots in Delhi. Rajiv Gandhi's period in office was mired in controversies; perhaps the greatest crises were the Bhopal disaster and the Shah Bano case. In 1988 he reversed the coup in Maldives, antagonising militant Tamil groups such as PLOTE, intervening and then sending peacekeeping troops to Sri Lanka in 1987, leading to open conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In mid-1987 the Bofors scandal damaged his corruptionfree image and resulted in a major defeat for his party in the 1989 election. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Bhopal Gas Tragedy l

The Bhopal gas tragedy was an industrial accident. It happened at a Union Carbide subsidiary pesticide plant in the city of Bhopal, India. In the early morning hours of December 3, 1984, a rolling wind carried a poisonous gray cloud from the Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal, capital town of Madhya Pradesh (India). Pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Limited was located in the eastern part of the city which was densely populated. The plant was established in 1969 in which Union Carbide Corp. shares 51% and remaining by state authority. A chemical called Methyl Isocynate (MIC) was used as raw material to produce pesticide hence factory stored a large amount of MIC.

On the fateful night of 2nd December, 1984 a regular maintenance activity was under progress. During pipeline washing workers observed a leak and little attention was given with casual remedial actions. But leak continued and pressure in one of the MIC tanks increased beyond acceptance limit. Due to water leak in tank lead by exothermic reaction, concrete tank cracked and relief valve of plant gave away large amount of MIC in the atmosphere. Now the workers understood the scale of disaster and hence tried at their level best to activate safety system present in factory. But none of the safety system was in working condition. By that time workers felt that nothing can stop this disaster.

As on the three sides of the plant people used to live in slums and hence people living in this area were the worst sufferers. Due to delayed use of warning and alarming system, most of the people left unwarned. As an effect of MIC gas leakage people started suffering through suffocation, vomiting and other health problems. On the same night around 3000 people died and another 8000 people died within week and yet another 1500020000 people died over a period of time. Still a half a million people directly or indirectly affected due to poisonous gas.

Investigations into the tragedy show that there were many shortcomings on all levels, which are listed as below: o The Union Carbide Factory did not have much information about safe storage of these highly toxic gases. o The Medical fraternity did not have the requisite about how to deal with contamination of this level. o The lack of co-ordination between factory and emergency services. o Lack of trained personnel in the factory along with impact of cost cutting on safety of plant, its employees and the people living around the plant. o Location of factory in dense populated area which is against many norms. o Negligence to similar events reported by workers such as leak of Phosgene on 25th December, 1981; another leak on 9th January 1982 from higher authority. l

All this turned Bhopal Gas Tragedy into World's worst industrial disaster till date. Since the disaster, India has experienced rapid industrialization. While some positive changes in government policy and behavior of a few industries have taken place such as The Environment Protection Act was passed in 1986, creation the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and strengthening India's commitment to the environment. It established the importance of integrating environmental strategies into all industrial development plans for the country.

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More At @Aj_ebooks l

The tragedy of Bhopal continues to be a warning sign at once ignored and heeded. Still the Indian economy is growing at a tremendous rate but at significant cost in environmental health and public safety.

Operation Cactus, 1988 l

A defining moment in the India-Maldives strategic relationship occurred in 1988 when India intervened in the Maldives to prevent an attempted coup by mercenaries, organised by a Maldivian businessman. In November 1988, a force of some 80-200 mercenaries, largely drawn from a Sri Lankan Tamil insurgent group, the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), infiltrated the Maldivian capital of Malé and took control of key points in the city. The rebels failed to capture the Maldivian President, Abdul Gayoom, who took refuge in the Maldives National Security Service headquarters. Gayoom personally or though the Maldivian ambassador to the United Nations, requested military assistance from several countries, including India, the United States, Britain, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and 'other' Asian states. The Sri Lankan military placed 85 commandos on standby at its Ratmalana Air Base at Colombo, and Malaysia reportedly alerted its navy (although it is three to four days sailing from the Maldives). The US Marine detachment at Diego Garcia was also placed on alert but the US State Department ruled out direct intervention, and worked with Britain to help coordinate a response from India.

New Delhi responded to the crisis with uncharacteristic speed and decision, seeing it as India's prerogative and its responsibility. On the same day as Gayoom's request for assistance, the Indian Air Force airlifted some 300 paratroops from Agra to Malé, landing on the nearby island of Hulhule which was still under the control of Maldivian security services. Additional Indian troops were transported by air and by sea from Cochin and Indian Air Force Mirages were deployed over Malé as a show of force. The Indian troops took control of Malé within several hours and rescued President Gayoom. A group of insurgents with 27 hostages managed to escape on board a merchant ship. The following day, with US assistance, Indian maritime patrol aircraft were vectored onto the ship, which then tracked it until two Indian naval vessels reached the area. Sea King helicopters from INS Godavari dropped depth charges to deter evasion and Indian Marines operating from Sri Lanka boarded the ship and returned the rebels to Malé for trial. Most of the Indian troops were withdrawn from the Maldives after order had been restored, with around 150 troops remaining for a year after the attempted coup.

India's intervention in the Maldives was a model for the benign security role that India could play in the Indian Ocean. It was undertaken at the express invitation of a nominally democratic Maldivian government, and India was careful to avoid the appearance of military occupation. India also undertook the intervention alone, demonstrating its ability to airlift troops over long distances and successfully intercept the plotters at sea. India showed that it could execute a combined services operation in an efficient and timely manner. The decision of the United States not to mount a rescue mission - which almost certainly would have had to come from Diego Garcia - was a wise one. US intervention would have evoked bitter memories in New Delhi. Instead, the forbearance of the United States gave a clear signal of its acceptance of India's leading role in South Asia.

India received international praise for the operation. President Reagan expressed his appreciation for India's action, calling it 'a valuable contribution to regional stability'.

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More At @Aj_ebooks l

Margaret Thatcher reportedly commented: "Thank God for India: President Gayoom's government has been saved. We could not have assembled and dispatched a force from here in good time to help him".

Lee Kwan Yew saw it as essentially a peacekeeping operation of the type that the United States conducted globally and Australia conducted in the South Pacific.

India-Srilanka Peace Accord l

The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was an accord signed in Colomboin 1987, between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayewardene. The accord was expected to resolve the Sri Lankan Civil War by enabling the thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Provincial Councils Act of 1987. Under the terms of the agreement,Colombo agreed to a devolution of power to the provinces, the Sri Lankan troops were to be withdrawn to their barracks in the north and the Tamil rebels were to surrender their arms.

Background of the Accord l

After the British left the subcontinent Sri Lanka which was predominantly a Buddhist nation since Ashoka s times had a huge influx of Indian workers most of which were Hindus from Tamil Nadu in their tea plantations brought there by the British .

The majority Sinhalese first tried to adopt majoritarianism measures by excluding the Tamilians from all political and economic activities and passed unfair laws such as promoting Sinhalese as the only official language and banned all Tamilian media activities. When the Tamils started protesting the government stepped on the accelarator. Sinhalese based militant groups and government soldiers went on a rampage demanding the Tamils to leave Sri Lanka and when they refused the Army resorted to firing on peaceful protests, massacaring Tamil peasants and raping women and children. The Tamils took at as the last straw and many among their youth took up arms and under The LTTE(Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) banner of Velupillai Prabhakaran fought back fiercely and the rebels took control of North and North Eastern Sri Lanka with a solid base at the Jaffna peninsula . Through well planned guerilla tactics and using the jungles as cover Prabhakaran soon had enough backing to demand a separate state for Tamils only.

As a result of this war the civilians in the peninsula displaced from their homes naturally turned to their only neighbouring country, India. Also with the army finally breaking through to Jaffna there was nobody to help the residents of the besieged city and humanity was rapidly detoriating there .Being Sri Lanka s godfather India expressed its concern due to the number of immigrants in its coastal areas and also due to international pressure to intervene as the Lankan government was rearming itself with the help of Pakistan and Israel. The Rajiv Gandhi government sought for a peaceful political solution and decided to bring in a show of force .Rajiv Gandhi signed a peace accord with the Sri Lankan prime minister Junius Jayawerdane which stated that peaceful provincial elections are to be held in the island taking representatives from both sides. It also stated that in order for peace and normalcy to return to Sri Lanka an Indian Peace Keeping force of 100000 Jawans are to be posted there to mediate between both parties during this transition period and immediately after the accord was signed on 29 June 1987 the Indian Army and Navy marched into Jaffna thereby lifting the seige. Another reason perhaps was the significance of the Trincomalee dock in Lanka whose absolute control could get you dominance in the Indian Ocean. Such was its strategic importance that Prabhakaran used it as a bargaining chip for western support which

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More At @Aj_ebooks could have harmed India s interests and would have drastically reduced its prescence in the Indian Ocean. So the arrival of the peacekeeping force gave the opening for RAW(Research and Analysis Wing) to set up base and counteract. Provisions of the Peace Accord o Among the salient points of the agreement, the Sri Lankan Government made a number of concessions to Tamil demands, which included Colombo devolution of power to the provinces, merger (subject to later referendum) of the northern and eastern provinces, and official status for the Tamil language. o More immediately, Operation Liberation - the successful, ongoing anti-insurgent operation by Sri Lankan forces in the Northern peninsula - was ended. Sri Lankan troops were to withdraw to their barracks in the north, the Tamil rebels were to disarm. o India agreed to end support for the Tamil separatist movement and recognise the unity of Sri Lanka. o The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord also underlined the commitment of Indian military assistance on which the IPKF came to be inducted into Sri Lanka. o In 1990, India withdrew the last of its forces from Sri Lanka, and fighting between the LTTE and the government resumed. The LTTE committed serious human rights violation. o In January 1995, the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE agreed to a ceasefire as a preliminary step in a government-initiated plan for peace negotiations. After 3 months, however, the LTTE unilaterally resumed hostilities. o The government of Sri Lanka then adopted a policy of military engagement with the Tigers, with government forces liberating Jaffna from LTTE control by mid-1996 and moving against LTTE positions in the northern part of the country called the Vanni. o An LTTE counteroffensive, begun in October 1999, reversed most government gains; and by May 2000, threatened government forces in Jaffna. Heavy fighting continued into 2001.

Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War l

The Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War was the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka intended to perform a peacekeeping role. The deployment followed the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord between India and Sri Lanka of 1987 which was intended to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between militantSri Lankan Tamil nationalists, principally the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the Sri Lankan military.

The original intention was the Indian Peace Keeping Force would not be involved in large scale military operations. However, after a few months, the Indian Peace Keeping Force engaged the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in a series of battles. During the two years in which it was deployed, the IPKF fought numerous battles against the LTTE. The IPKF began withdrawing in 1989, and completed the withdrawal in 1990.

Conflict with the LTTE and returning of Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) l

While most Tamil militant groups laid down their weapons and agreed to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict, the LTTE refused to disarm its fighters. Keen to ensure the success of the accord, UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks the IPKF then tried to demobilise the LTTE by force and ended up in full-scale conflict with them. The three-year-long conflict was also marked by the IPKF being accused of committing various abuses of human rights by many human rights groups as well as some within the Indian media. The IPKF also soon met stiff opposition from the Tamils. l

Nationalist sentiment led many Sinhalese to oppose the continued Indian presence in Sri Lanka. These led to the Sri Lankan government's call for India to quit the island, and they allegedly entered into a secret deal with the LTTE that culminated in a ceasefire. But the LTTE and IPKF continued to have frequent hostilities. In April 1989, the Ranasinghe Premadasa government ordered the Sri Lanka Army to clandestinely hand over arms consignments to the LTTE to fight the IPKF and its proxy Tamil National Army (TNA).

Although casualties among the IPKF mounted, and calls for the withdrawal of the IPKF from both sides of the Sri Lankan conflict grew, Rajiv Gandhi refused to remove the IPKF from Sri Lanka. However, following his defeat in Indian parliamentary elections in December 1989, the new prime Minister V. P. Singh ordered the withdrawal of the IPKF, and their last ship left Sri Lanka on 24 March 1990.

Shah-Bano Case l

The case of Mohd. Ahmad Khan vs. Shah Bano Begum & Ors. also called the Shah Bano case is seen as one of the milestones in Muslim women's fight for rights in India and the battle against the set Muslim personal law. It laid the ground for thousands of women to make legitimate claims which they were not allowed before. Shah Bano was 62-year-old when her well-known lawyer husband threw her out of their Indore house. The mother of five could have been yet another story of an oppressed woman subjected to humiliation by her husband. Instead, Bano decided to fight her husband, the male-dominated society and changed the system forever.

In April 1978, a 62-year-old Muslim woman, Shah Bano, filed a petition in court demanding maintenance from her divorced husband Mohammed Ahmad Khan, a renowned lawyer in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Khan had granted her irrevocable talaq later in November. The two were married in 1932 and had five children - three sons and two daughters. Shah Bano's husband had asked her to move to a separate residence three years before, after a prolonged period of her living with Khan and his second wife.

Shah Bano went to court and filed a claim for maintenance for herself and her five children under Section 123 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The section puts a legal obligation on a man to provide for his wife during the marriage and after divorce too if she isn't able to fend for herself. However, Khan contested the claim on the grounds that the Muslim Personal Law in India required the husband to only provide maintenance for the iddat period after divorce.

Iddat is the waiting period a woman must observe after the death of her husband or divorce before she can marry another man. The length of the iddat period is circumstantial. The period is usually three months after either of the two instances. In case the woman is pregnant, the period carries on until the childbirth.

Khan's argument was supported by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board which contended that courts cannot take the liberty of interfering in those matters that are laid out under Muslim Personal Law, adding it would violate The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937. The board

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More At @Aj_ebooks said that according to the Act, the courts were to give decisions on matters of divorce, maintenance and other family issues based on Shariat. l

After detailed arguments, the decision was passed by the Supreme Court of India in 1985. On the question whether CrPC, 1973, which applies to all Indian citizens regardless of their religion, could apply in this case.

Then Chief Justice of India Y.V. Chandrachud upheld the decision of the High Court that gave orders for maintenance to Shah Bano under CrPC. For its part, the apex court increased the maintenance sum.

The case was considered a milestone as it was a step ahead of the general practice of deciding cases on the basis of interpretation of personal law and also dwelt on the need to implement the Uniform Civil Code. It also took note of different personal laws and the need to recognise and address the issue of gender equality and perseverance in matters of religious principles.

Justice Y.V. Chandrachud said in his decision: "Section 125 was enacted in order to provide a quick and summary remedy to a class of persons who are unable to maintain themselves. What difference would it then make as to what is the religion professed by the neglected wife, child or parent? Neglect by a person of sufficient means to maintain these and the inability of these persons to maintain themselves are the objective criteria which determine the applicability of section 125. Such provisions, which are essentially of a prophylactic nature, cut across the barriers of religion. The liability imposed by section 125 to maintain close relatives who are indigent is founded upon the individual's obligation to the society to prevent vagrancy and destitution. That is the moral edict of the law and morality cannot be clubbed with religion."

The following events were unfavourable to a great extent with the then Rajiv Gandhi Congress government, elected in 1984, passing the Muslim Women (Protection on Divorce Act), 1986. This law overturned the verdict in the Shah Bano case and said the maintenance period can only be made liable for the iddat period. The new law said that if a woman wasn't able to provide for herself, the magistrate had the power to direct the Wakf Board for providing the aggrieved woman means of sustenance and for her dependent children too.

Shah Bano's lawyer Danial Latifi had challenged the Act's Constitutional validity. The apex court, though upholding the validity of the new law, said the liability can't be restricted to the period of iddat. One of the key points of relevance in the verdict that set it apart from previous cases was the recognition of women's claim for treatment with equality and dignity, particularly in cases of marriage. Significantly, Shah Bano later withdrew the maintenance claim she had filed.

Emerging Economic Crisis in late 1980s l

The 1991 Indian economic crisis had its roots in 1985 when India began having balance of payments problems as imports swelled, leaving the country in a twin deficit: the Indian trade balance was in deficit at a time when the government was running on a large fiscal deficit. By the end of 1990 in the run-up to the Gulf War, the situation became so serious that the Indian foreign exchange reserves could barely finance three weeks' worth of imports while the government came close to defaulting on its financial obligations. By July that year, the low reserves had led to a sharp devaluation of the rupee, which in turn exacerbated the twin deficit problem. Chandrasekhar government could not pass the budget in february 1991 at a crucial time when Moody had UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks downgraded India and it further went down after the budget was not passed and global creditrating agencies further downgraded India from investment grade making it impossible to even get short term loans and the government was in no position to give any commitment to reform the economy. The World Bank and IMF also stopped their assistance, leaving the government with no option except mortgaging the country's gold to avoid defaulting on payments. l

This led the Indian government to airlift national gold reserves as a pledge to a large conditional bail out from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in exchange for a loan to cover balance of payment debts. The crisis led to the liberalisation of the Indian economy, as one of the conditions stipulated in the World Bank loan (structural reform), requiring India to open itself up to participation from foreign entities in its industries, including state owned enterprises.The crisis was caused by currency devaluation the current account deficit, and investor confidence played significant role in the sharp exchange rate depreciation.

The economic crisis was primarily due to the large and growing fiscal imbalances over the 1980s. During the mid-eighties, India started having balance of payments problems. Precipitated by the Gulf War, India's oil import bill swelled, exports slumped, credit dried up, and investors took their money out.Large fiscal deficits, over time, had a spillover effect on the trade deficit culminating in an external payments crisis. By the end of the 1980s, India was in serious economic trouble.

The gross fiscal deficit of the government (centre and states) rose from 9.0 percent of GDP in 1980-81 to 10.4 percent in 1985-86 and to 12.7 percent in 1990-91. For the centre alone, the gross fiscal deficit rose from 6.1 percent of GDP in 1980-81 to 8.3 percent in 1985-86 and to 8.4 percent in 1990-91. Since these deficits had to be met by borrowings, the internal debt of the government accumulated rapidly, rising from 35 percent of GDP at the end of 198081 to 53 percent of GDP at the end of 1990-91. The foreign exchange reserves had dried up to the point that India could barely finance three weeks worth of imports.

In mid-1991, India's exchange rate was subjected to a severe adjustment. This event began with a slide in the value of the Indian rupee leading up to mid-1991. The authorities at the Reserve Bank of India took partial action, defending the currency by expanding international reserves and slowing the decline in value. However, in mid-1991, with foreign reserves nearly depleted, the Indian government permitted a sharp devaluation that took place in two steps within three days (1 July and 3 July 1991) against major currencies.

PV NARASIMHA RAO (1991-1996) l

Narasimha Rao was hailed as the modern day Chankaya during his prime ministerial period. Rao demolished the existing 'License Raj' system, thus reversing the social reforms of Rajiv Gandhi.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Under Rao's leadership India saw a major change with the economy making a paradigm shift to Liberalization, Privatization and Globalisation. Rao like Shastri was the one who had put nation ahead of the political system. Rao's tenure was a result oriented one. He died of a heart attack in 2004.

Economic Reform of 1991 l

It was during Narasimha Rao's government in 1991, that India met with the economic crisis which occurred due to its external debt. Due to debt, the government was not able to make the payments for the borrowings it had made from the foreign countries. As a result, the government had to adopt new measures to reform the conditions of the Indian economy. There were many programs and initiatives introduced primarily consisted of liberalization, privatization, and globalization.

The Crisis of 1991 and the Reforms l

The crisis of 1991 happened largely due to inefficient management of the economy of India in the 1980s. The revenues that government was generating were not enough to meet the ever increasing expenses. Thus, the government had to borrow to pay for the debts and thus was caught in a term called debt-trap. Debt-trap is the deficit that occurs due to an increase in government expenses in comparison to the government's revenue.

Due to the failure of earlier economic policies till 1990 there was a need for need for new economic policies. The situation was worsening as India had foreign reserves which could last only for the next two weeks. There was a shortage of new loans and Indian people living abroad (NRIs) were withdrawing money in large amounts.

There was a little confidence for international investors towards the Indian economy. These points will highlight the need for a new economic policy in India. Crisis in Gulf countries, increase in fiscal deficit, prices rising, the worse balance of payments, public sector units (PSUs) performing badly, and many more.

The Emergence of New Reforms l

India approached the world and international monetary fund for loan and received $7 million to manage their crisis. As a result to this, international firms and agencies expected that India will open up the door in the country by removing various restrictions majorly on private sector and thereby removing the trade restrictions between India and the other foreign countries.

India agreed to the terms and conditions and as a result, new reforms were introduced. These economic reforms in India are structurally classified as liberalization, globalization, and privatization.

Liberalisation l

Simply speaking liberalisation means to free to economy from the controls imposed by the Govt. Before 1991, Govt. had put many types of controls on Indian economy. These were as follows: (a) Industrial Licensing System (b) Foreign exchange control (c) Price control on goods (d) Import License.

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Due to all these controls, the economy became defective. The entrepreneurs were unwilling to establish new industries. Corruption, undue delays and inefficiency rose due to these controls. Rate of economic growth of the economy came down. Economic reforms were introduced to reduce the restrictions imposed on the economy. The following steps have been taken for liberalization: o Independent determination of interest rate: Under the policy of liberalisation interest rate of the banking system will not be determined by RBI rather all Banks are independent to determine the rate of interest. o Increase in the investment limit of the Small Scale Industries: Investment limit of the small scale industries has been raised to Rs. 1 crore. So that they can modernize their industry. o Freedom to import capital goods: Indian industries will be free to buy machines and raw materials from foreign countries to expand their business. New Economic Policy

Liberalisation

Privatisation

Globalisation

o Freedom to import Technical know-how: Under new economic policy the entrepreneurs are free to import technical know-how and develop modernisations. The main aim of the policy is to develop computers and electronics. o Freedom for expansion and production to Industries: Industries are free to expand and produce under the policy of liberalisation. Previously, the govt. used to fix the maximum limit of production capacity. No industry could produce beyond that limit. Now the industry can produce freely. Also they can produce anything depending on the demand. o Freedom from Monopolies Act: According to Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act, all those companies having assets worth Rs. 100 crore or more were called MRTP firms and were subjected to several restrictions. Now these firms have not to obtain prior approval of the Govt. for taking investment decision. o Removal of Industrial Licensing and Registration: Previously private sector had to obtain license from Govt. for starting a new venture. In this policy private sector has been freed from licensing and other restrictions. o Industries licensing is necessary for following industries: ä Liquor ä Cigarette ä Defence equipment ä Industrial explosives ä Drugs ä Hazardous chemicals.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Privatisation l

Simply speaking, privatisation means permitting the private sector to set up industries which were previously reserved for the public sector. Under this policy many PSU's were sold to private sector. In privatisation, the Govt.'s role is only reduced it does not disappear. Literally speaking, privatisation is the process of involving the private sector-in the ownership of Public Sector Units (PSU's). The main reason for privatisation was in currency of PSU's are running in losses due to political interference. The managers cannot work independently. Production capacity remained underutilized. To increase competition and efficiency need of privatisation was felt. The following steps are taken for privatisation: o Sale of shares: Indian Govt. has been selling shares of PSU's to public and financial institution e.g. Govt. sold shares of Maruti Udyog Ltd. This was the private sector will acquire ownership of these PSU's. The share of private sector has increased from 45% to 55%. o Disinvestment in PSU's: The Govt. has started the process of disinvestment in those PSU's which had been running into loss. It means that Govt. has been selling out these industries to private sector. Govt. has sold enterprises worth Rs. 30,000 crores to the private sector. o Minimisation of Public Sector: Previously Public sector was given the importance with a view to help in industralisation and removal of poverty. But these PSU's could not able to achieve this objective and policy of contraction of PSU's was followed under new economic reforms. Number of industries reserved for public sector was reduces from 17 to 4. v Transport and railway v Mining of atomic minerals v Atomic energy v Defence equipment

Globalization l

Literally speaking Globalisation means to make Global or worldwide, otherwise taking into consideration the whole world. Broadly speaking, Globalisation means the establishment of relations of the economy with world economy in regard to foreign investment, trade, production and financial matters. Globalisation may be defined as integrating the economy of a country with the economies of other countries under conditions of free-flow of trade and capital and movement of persons across the borders. Economic reforms aim at close association of India economy with world economy. There will be an increased co-operation of India economy with world economies across the world. Capital and technology will flow from the developed countries of the world towards India. Following steps are taken for Globalisation: o Reduction in tariffs: Custom duties and tariffs imposed on imports and exports are reduced gradually just to make India economy internationally beneficial. o Long term Trade Policy: Forcing trade policy was enforced for longer duration. Main features of the policy are: v Liberal policy v All controls on foreign trade have been removed v Open competition has been encouraged. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Partial Convertibility: Partial convertibility can be defined as to sell foreign currency like dollar ($) or pound, for foreign transaction at a price determined by the market. Partial convertibility of Indian rupee was allowed to achieve the objectives of globalisation. This convertibility stood valid for following transaction: v Remittances to meet family expenses v Payment of interest v Import and export of goods and services.

o Increase in Equity Limit of Foreign Investment: Equity limit of foreign capital investment has been raised from 40% to 100% percent. In 47 high priority industries foreign direct investment (FDI) to the extent of 100% will be allowed without any restriction. In this regard Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) will be enforced. Major Highlights on the Economic Reforms in India o During the reform period, the growth in service was increasing, while the agriculture sector saw a decline, and the industrial sector was fluctuating. o The opening up of the Indian economy led to a sharp increase in the FDIs and foreign exchange reserve. o This foreign investment includes foreign institutional investment and direct investment. o India is one of the successful exporters of engineering goods, auto parts, IT software, textiles during the time of the reforms. o The price rise during the reforms was also kept under control. Failures of the Economic Reforms in India o The agriculture sector was neglected and the public investment in this sector was reduced and hence the infrastructure areas were affected. o The subsidies on the fertilizers were removed and hence it led to an increase in the cost of production which affected many marginal and small farmers. o Further, many policies were introduced which reduce the import duties on agriculture products, reduce the minimum support price increased the threat of international organizations competing with the local farmers. o The industrial sector saw uneven growth. o The imports were made cheaper as a result of which the demand for the industrial goods reduced. o The globalization which allowed for free trade between the countries affected adversely on the local industries and thus affected employment opportunities. o The reforms led to an increase in economic colonialism. o It also led to the erosion of culture. o The investments in many infrastructural facilities like power supply were inadequate. l

The economic reforms were started in 1991, and they are still continuing. A major feature of economic reforms was that it was implemented in a gradual manner. The reforms were comprehensive and extensive as it covered all sectors- trade, investment, industrial sector, financial

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More At @Aj_ebooks sector, public sector, fiscal sector etc. The new industrial policy introduced in 1991 is the central point of the economic reforms. In the following years, the government has introduced further policy changes for trade liberalization, financial sector liberalization and foreign investment policy changes to sustain the momentum initiated in 1991. Over the last twenty-five years, as a result of the launch of the new economic policy and its continuation, the Indian economy has undergone significant improvement and now is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The famous BRIC report predicts that India will grow as the second largest economy by 2050. At present, India is categorized as an Emerging Market Economy (EME) along with China, Brazil, Russia etc. Even in the current crisis phase of the global economy, India's macroeconomic performance is comparatively better. Panchayati Raj and Nagarpalika Act l

The constitution of India, when it came into force on 26 January 1950, directed the state, in Article. 40, to organize village panchayats, but no such direction was given to the state regarding urban local bodies. The only reference to urban local bodies is to be found in the form of its mention in the state and concurrent lists.

The structure and composition of our urban local bodies has been faulty, their powers are limited and circumscribed, their elections are not held on time and regularly, their supersession on partisan basis have been galore, the superseded bodies are not restored for indefinite periods, the state supervision and control of government over them is excessive, their finances are scarce, incommensurate with the functions assigned to them and above all, they are not granted the autonomy which the local democratic institutions should enjoy by their active participation in the formation and execution of the plans for the development of the local areas.

The Government of India and state governments have been appointing commissions and committees from time to time to go into the problems of urban local governments and to make recommendations for their effective functioning. The various governments have not been giving due consideration to their findings, much less accepting and implementing their recommendations.

But the central government began to show interest in this direction only since 1989. The rejuvenation of grassroots government became the concern of the Rajiv Gandhi Government since, 1989. The Rajiv Gandhi Government set the ball rolling by holding wide ranging consultations with the elected members of the municipalities. Three regional Sammelan (conferences) were held at Bangalore and Delhi during June 1989.

The Rajiv Gandhi Government introduced the constitution (sixty fifth amendment) Bill in parliament in August 1989. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha but not by the upper house and thus it fell. The succeeding National Front Government under V.P. Singh introduced a revised Bill, namely the constitution (seventy fourth Amendment) Bill, 1990 incorporating the provisions relating to panchayats (rural local government) as well as municipalities. This was done in September 1990. The Bill, however, lapsed on account of the dissolution of the then Lok Sabha. The P.V. Narasimha Rao Government, coming into power in 1991, drafted the constitution 88 (seventy third Amendment) Bill, 1991, pertaining to municipalities and introduced it in Lok Sabha in September 1991. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 1992 and by the upper house the same month. Following its rectification by more than half the state assemblies it received the assent of the president on 20 UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks April 1993 and is known as the constitution (seventy fourth amendment) Act, 1992. This amendment, operative since April 1993, introduces a new part, namely part IX-A in the constitution, which deals with relating to urban local government. Salient Features of the Bill The Bill, among other things provided for:o Three categories of Nagarpalikas, Nagar Panchayats for transitional area, that is areas in transition from rural to urban with population between 10,000 to 20,000, municipal councils for urban areas with a population between 20,000 and municipal corporations with a population exceeding three lacs. o Wards committees in Nagarpalikas with a population of 1,00,000 and Zonal Committees in territorial areas of municipal corporations as intermediate level between the ward committees and the municipal corporations. o Direct elections of Nagarpalikas and ward committees, and constitution of zonal committees by the chairpersons of the wards committees comprised within the territorial areas of the 89 zonal committees, representation of chairpersons for ward committees in municipal councils and of chairperson of zonal committees in municipal corporations. o Reservations in Nagarpalikas and ward committees for the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes in proportion of their population and 30 percent reservation for women. o A fixed tenure of five years for Nagarpalikas including the Nagar Panchayats and ward committees and in the event of their dissolution holding of elections within six months. o A committee at the district level for harmonizing and consolidating the plans of panchayats and Nagarpalikas in the district and preparing a draft development plan for the district as a whole and its elections from among the members of the Panchayats and Nagarpalikas in the district in proportion to the ratio of population covered by them. o Sound finances by securing authorization from state legislatures for grant-in-aids from the consolidated fund of the state as also assignment to or appropriation by nagarpalikas of the revenue of designated taxes, duties, tolls and fees. o A finance commission to review the finances of the Nagarpalikas and recommend principles on the basis of which their soundness could be secured. o Superintendence, direction and control of elections to the Nagarpalikas including Nagar Panchayats and other elected committees by the Election Commission. o Comptroller and Auditor General of India to cause the accounts of the Nagarpalikas, ward committees and zonal committees to be audited in such manner as he may deem fit. o (a) Factors, which would disqualify a person from membership. (b) Governor's decision on the question of disqualification which he would take after obtaining the opinion of the election commission to be treated as final. (c) barring the jurisdiction of the courts in the matters relating to elections. (d) The bill had been hailed as historic, revolutionary and momentous. l

The Government has assured that it would try to remove all the difficulties that it might encounter in its implementation. The Bill was passed by the Lok sabha but it failed to get the support of two thirds majority in Rajya Sabha, short of a narrow margin of three votes only and could not therefore be placed on the statute book.

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The Congress (I) again in power, though forming a minority government with Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister introduced two constitution amendment bills in the Lok sabha on 16th September, 1991 with the purpose of giving more teeth to Panchayati Raj institutions and urban local bodies. Shri G. Venkatswami minister of state for Rural development introduced the Constitution (72nd Amendment) Bill relating to Panchayati Raj institutions and Mrs. Sheila Kaul, Minister for Urban Development introduced the constitution (73rd Amendment) Bill pertaining to urban local bodies.

This was the second time that the bills on Panchayati Raj institutions and urban local bodies had been introduced in parliament. The earlier bills had evoked sharp reaction from the combined opposition which took the plea that these Bills would take away the powers of the state governments, the BJP still held the same view. The BJP members said that the Bills affected the basic federal structure of the constitution as these violated the state legislature power to legislate on local bodies and maintained that after the Keshavanand Bharti judgment, the government could not change the basic structure of the constitution. The BJP had staged a walk out as a protest against the introduction of the Bills. But the Congress (I) members had claimed that by introducing the Bills, the government was trying to implement one of the directive principles of state policy and federalism was not affected because powers of the state governments had been kept intact. The Constitution (73rd amendment) Bill proposed to put on a "firmer footing" the relationship between the state government and urban local bodies. It also sought to add a new part in the constitution relating to municipalities to provide for Nagar Panchayats, Municipal Councils and Municipal Corporations. It also provided for reservation for SCs and STs and women and a Finance Commission and a state Election Commission as did the earlier Nagarpalika bill.

A Critique of the bill: Its Strength and Weaknesses l

There can be no divergence of opinion on the dismal performance of our municipal governments due to their outdated 19th century structure and outmoded administrative organisation, mounting pressure on their slender resources to provide basic civic amenities to tremendously increasing number of urbanities in the wake of industrialization and influx of migrants from rural areas, diminishing of their powers and erosion of their functions by the creation of multitude of specific purpose agencies, excessive state control reflected especially in the spate of super sessions and their continuation for indefinite periods resulting in the denial of fundamental right of the electorate to effect their local representative to manage the affairs of their cities/towns, apathy from citizens, absence of sound leadership, under interferences by politicians and above all the denial of constitutional status to local bodies.

Foreign Policy of Narasimha Rao Government l

Unlike Rajiv Gandhi, he did not have a firm control over his party, he received considerable challenge from his opponents within the party, who sought to dethrone him. Not surprisingly, he could not centralize foreign policy decision-making despite his considerable knowledge of foreign affairsmuch more than any other post Rajiv Prime Ministers. Rao had been India's Minister External Affairs twice in the past-once under Mrs. Gandhi (January 1980-July 1984) and again under Rajiv Gandhi (1988-89). Under Rajiv Gandhi, he had also held Defence portfolio for a while. Yet, Rao wavered in the initial days as the Prime Minister. He did not know how to respond to the 8 August UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks 1991 coup in the Soviet Union, led by Conservative Communist to overthrow Gorbachev. He fumbled by stating that coup was a clear warning to all those-in this case Gorbachev who pushed too hard for change. This, cast India's democratic Prime Minister on the side of forces of status quo led by the Conservative Communists. This in effect, cemented and stabilized then growing distance between India and the Soviet Union. For the First time the Soviet Union went against known position of India when it voted on 13 October 1991 in favour of UN Security Council resolution calling for south Asia as a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone, which had been always opposed by India as she favours global nuclear disarmament. l

India's relations with US were on an upward trend when Narasimha Rao assumed leadership George Bush had made it clear that it did not consider old resolutions calling for plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir as relevant to resolve Kashmir tangle. It had reaffirmed its commitment to India's twenty-year-old Simla agreement with Pakistan, which stipulated a peaceful and bilateral resolution of all disputes. The US had also cut off its military and economic aid to Pakistan in October 1990 for the first time under the Pressler Amendment originally passed in 1985. US had been keen to develop closer military relations with India. Sharad Pawar, the Defence Minister, cleared the proposals for joint naval exercises. Since then thrice these exercises had been held. Similar contacts between India and American armed and air forces had increased. US were using the trade relations to pressurize India to amend its Patent Law of 1974 to fall in line with the US requirements. These threats had never been so far carried out, but used to extract greater concessions from India in wake of economic liberalization launched by India under the dire circumstances of an adverse balance of payments situation where India had foreign exchange worth about Rs. 2000 to Rs. 2400 crores sufficient to pay for imports of only seven days. There was the fear of Indian economy running out of stream as it was on the verge of defaulting on her repayments to IMF and the World Bank. However, real security related problems arose in the IndoUS bilateral relations when William Clinton assumed the US presidency in January 1993. There were stories of Clinton writing to Kashmiri separatist lobby leader, Gulam Nabi Faki expressing his desire to work with him to establish peace in Kashmir. Apparently, there had been certain concessions made by India in the field of its own security. This has led US officials to conclude that India's Agni project is in "a period of suspended animation," While Pritheris in "a period of liberation." India not only did not join the NPT Review Conference in New York held in April-May 1995, but did not even campaign against its renewal or provide any leadership to non aligned group on the issue. India should have exacted a commitment from the Clinton Administration to "Keep under serious consideration India's inclusion in an expanded permanent Security Council membership" as recommended by Asia Society report. By June 1995, the US had emerged as the largest trading partner and largest foreign investor in India. India is probably the only democratic country, which expressed, it is vaguely its support to communist efforts to take over power against from Gorbachev on 8 August 1991 without any appreciation for the role of Boris Yeltsin in restoring confidence in democracy again in the Soviet Union and frustrating coup leader efforts to dislodge Gorbachev. The President Boris Yeltsin came on his first ever visit to India between 27 and 29 January 1993. During Rao's visit to Russia, it was decided to set up a joint venture to produce spare parts for warplanes manufactured by Russia. Russia also agreed to upgrade India's MIG-21 fleet. A political document, Moscow Declaration signed by the two leaders stressed the need to enhance cooperation

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More At @Aj_ebooks in various areas. The most important outcome of the visit was a political declaration on the rights of multiethnic, multireligious states to preserve their territorial integrity and security. The two leaders strongly opposed efforts to promote aggressive nationalism and religious fanaticism. India supported fully Russia in Chechnya and Russia has continued Soviet policy of treating Kashmir as an integral part of India. The US had imposed sanctions on the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Russian Space Agency Gloavkosmos for violating Missiles Technology Control Regime (MTCR). It can be said that Prime Minister had been able to prevent any erosion of Russian support to India's security and territorial integrity. l

There was a visit by the Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng to New Delhi in December 1991. The Joint Communiqué expressed a concern over the dangers of an "international oligarchy" (a reference obviously to the US and its western allies) trying to pose as a protector of human rights, worldwide. During Narasimha Rao's visit in September 1993, until the border dispute was settled, it was agreed to maintain peace and tranquility on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and reduce the military forces, on the LAC. Both sides had further agreed to take specific Confidence Building Measures like informing each other on their military exercises. Because of finding an alternate market for her massive production of goods, under the programme of economic liberalization, China was keen to develop friendly relation with India. China continued to consolidate its nuclear power (exploding a nuclear bomb in May 1992) and territorial expansion evident in its claims over smartly islands in South China Sea. While India has accepted that Tibet is an autonomous region of China, China stated that Kashmir issue should be bilaterally resolved.

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga visited India on 25 March 1995. She was facing secessionist movement led by the LTTE and has asked for help.

In December 1991 the then Nepalese Prime Minister, G.P. Koirala visited New Delhi and assured Rao that Nepal no longer depended on China to meet her security concerns. During Prime Minister Manmohan Adhikary's April 1995 visit to Delhi, Rao Government permitted port facility for Nepalese goods in Bombay and Kandla in addition to existing facility at Calcutta, two more trading points had been agreed upon and a rail line agreed built on Bihar-Nepal border. However, the bone of contention between the two on modification of Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, 1950 remained to be resolved. Nepal mainly wanted changes in provisions providing for consolation, conflicts or war with neighbours. Nepal also signed a series of agreements for water resources development and cooperation in curbing terrorism.

For 12 years, Pakistan had armed financed trained various Sikh groups based abroad to create chaos and promote secessionist demands in Punjab based on Sikhism as a distinct religion and not an offshoot of Hinduism. But by 1993, Rao could claim the return of peace to Punjab, holding of Sate elections in Punjab in February 1992. Since becoming Prime Minister, Rao had tried to improve relations with Pakistan. He had met Nawaz sharief at least six times at different places. But in November 1993 elections, Ms. Benazir Bhutto became Prime Minister, relations between the two really began to deteriorate, though not because of Rao's actions. Pakistan had tried to internationalize her bilateral problems with India by linking her own nuclear ambition with Kashmir question. A major flash point arose in October-November 1993 when Pak-trained terrorists, along with many mercenaries occupied Hajarathbal mosque in Srinagar on 15 October. During the 32 days eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation between Indian security forces and Pakistan trained - terrorists, UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks efforts were made by the Security Forces to tire out the terrorists. Rao Government followed strategy with four goals find out militants, restore local trade and livelihood of the people, control infiltration across the border and expose and isolate Pakistan internationally. Rao planned to held elections in Jammu and Kashmir in July 1995, but failed. As far as the status of Kashmir was concerned, it was made very clear by the Prime Minister, that "Kashmir is an indivisible part of India." The threat of Islamic extremism has been the burning of Charar-e-Sharief on 11 May 1995. l

The eight Summit of SAARC was held in Delhi in May 1995 and India assumed the Chairmanship of the SAARC for the second time. The SAARC Summit reiterated its commitment to SAPTA and expressed the desire to run it into SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Agreement). Narasimha Rao had developed a strategy to cultivate close political and economic relations with Iran, as a counter weight to Pakistan over its policy of promoting terrorism in Kashmir and as a moderating voice in the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). This had helped Iran to prevail upon Pakistan at UNHRC at Geneva in 1994 to withdraw the resolution on Kashmir opposed by India. Iranian card could also help India to seek greater presence in Central Asia as indicated by signing of a Tripartite Agreement with Turkmenistan for economic cooperation after a long overdue the establishment of full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. When there were clear signs of apartheid being dismantled, Rao Government took first step towards establishing diplomatic relations and developing mutually beneficial cooperation.

India had cordial relations with South Africa first Black President Nelson Mandela elected in the first ever-democratic elections held in May 1994. India also has signed a Defence Pact with Malaysia wherein India provides defence infrastructure in the modernization of Malaysian armed forces.195India had stepped up its desire to get more actively associated with ASEAN and with the namely created Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation(IOR-RAC). It was trying to be more active at regional level and sub-regional level economic diplomacy. It was unrealistic to assert that the end of the cold war and changes in India's economic policies and her relationship with various major powers had no impact at all on our global view and our non-aligned course continued to be unaltered.

Babri Masjid Demolition l

Rao was the 9th Prime Minister, whose tenure saw India's economy liberalized. Yet his legacy is destined to be tainted by the demolition. It is believed Rao had the option to impose central rule in Uttar Pradesh in July and had even sought a contingency plan to protect the mosque. But eventually he did nothing. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad's announcement in October of plans to perform a kar seva next to the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1990 led Rao to ask his home secretary Madhav Godbole to come up with a contingency plan. Several meetings

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More At @Aj_ebooks between different players were to follow over the following days. Kalyan Singh, then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, assured the Supreme Court that the mosque would be protected while Rao agonized over the question of dismissing the state government. Several theories have done the rounds over the years of what Rao was doing as the mosque was first overrun and then brought down by the kar sevaks and just why was this allowed to happen. History is tight-lipped on this, just as Rao himself was. l

The rath yatra led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani in 1990, and then another big rally organised by the BJP and its right-wing affiliates in 1992 in Ayodhya, led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992. In 1984, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), with the backing of the BJP, began a campaign demanding a temple at the site of the Babri Masjid, a 16th century mosque, which they claimed was the birth place of Lord Ram. VHP's demand found further backing when a Faizabad district judge in 1986 said the gates of the mosque should be opened and Hindus should be allowed to pray inside. With the nod of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and his government, the gates of the mosque were reopened. On the day the mosque was finally demolished by more than 1,50,000 party workers of the BJP, VHP and the RSS and other affiliates, several big politicians were at the spot including Advani and other senior BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti. This is, of course, not a complete list-that would include the litigants and kar sevaks who played a key role in the demolition of the mosque and the multiple legal cases before and after.

The destruction of the Babri Mosque, as well as the destruction of numerous others that day, sparked Muslim outrage around the country, provoking several months of inter-communal rioting in which Hindus and Muslims attacked one another, burning and looting homes, shops and places of worship. Several of the BJP leaders were taken into custody, and the VHP was briefly banned by the government. Despite this, the ensuing riots spread to cities like Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Delhi, Bhopal and several others, eventually resulting in over 2000 deaths, mainly Muslim. The Mumbai Riots alone, which occurred in December 1992 and January 1993 and which the Shiv Sena played a big part in organising, caused the death of around 900 people, and estimated property damage of around ? 9,000 crore ($3.6 billion). The demolition and the ensuing riots were among the major factors behind the 1993 Mumbai bombings and many successive riots in the coming decade. Jihadi groups including the Indian Mujahideen cited the demolition of the Babri Mosque as a reason for their terrorist attacks.

On 16 December 1992, the Union home ministry set up the Liberhan Commission to investigate the destruction of the Mosque, headed by retired High Court Judge M. S. Liberhan. After 399 sittings over sixteen years, the Commission submitted its 1,029-page report to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 30 June 2009. According to the report, the events of 6 December 1992, in Ayodhya were "neither spontaneous nor unplanned". In March 2015, the Supreme Court of India admitted a petition alleging that, with a BJP government in power, the CBI would not pursue conspiracy charges against senior BJP leaders including L. K. Advani and Rajnath Singh. The Court asked the CBI to explain its delay in filing an appeal. In April 2017, a special Central Bureau of Investigation court framed criminal conspiracy charges against Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, and several others.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Kashmir Issue during Narasimha Rao Government l

The political game plan devised by PV Narasimha Rao was carried out like a game of chesseach move providing a tactical edge over the other player. India, post-independence saw a number of significant events including India-Pakistan war, Bangladesh liberation, Emergency, Rise of opposition (Janata Party), Indira Gandhi's assassination, Rajiv Gandhi's rise etc. When PV Narasimha Rao was elected the country was already on the brinks of economic bankruptcy while the Indian diaspora was reeling under polarised environment. It was under Rao's premiership that Indian economy not only resurrected but opened an avenue for new possibilities. Though, Rao is majorly credited for his stern approach to carrying out economic reforms under LPG policies, it must be recalled that it was the shrewd diplomacy displayed by him-which led India to its first diplomatic win at UN over Kashmir issue and earned him the tag of "Chanakya". Today, when the Kashmir issue is still blistering and UN report on Human Rights violations in Kashmir has invoked sharp reactions from both politicians and experts, the present government should take a look at the historic diplomatic battle that India fought and won.

Pakistan backs Kashmir Freedom Struggle: Since the time of Partition, Kashmir was termed as the "unfinished business of partition". During the 1990s the infiltration of Pakistan backed terrorists in Kashmir was at its peak. Pakistan launched a proxy war on India through jihadis in 1990 ("nonState actors"). However, the alleged "Azad Kashmir" struggle received legitimacy when the then PM of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto decided to support it openly. On Feb 4, 1990, Bhutto called for an urgent conference of Pakistan political leaders on Kashmir situation and announced February 5 as a Solidarity Day with Kashmir. Since then, the day is regularly being observed in Pakistan.

Within next five days, the Pakistani parliament passed a resolution which rejected the Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India and even demanded UN resolution for it. Despite several proposals suggesting bilateral talks by PV Narasimha Rao; Bhutto government, which was then in the good books of US, was successful in internationalising the Kashmir Issue. Shortly after passing the resolution, Benazir Bhutto visited Pakistan occupied Kashmir which they called "Azad Kashmir". Not only she challenged the Indian Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao to visit Srinagar, she even called for "thousand years of war" indicating her full support to the militant struggle. On March 13, 1990, she addressed a rally in Muzaffarabad where she promised a continuous support to Kashmir struggle. "We support Kashmiris today and will continue to support them till death. And even if we die our last words will be: 'fight for humanity, fight for the right of self-determination, fight for Kashmir," said Bhutto. "We have supported Kashmir's struggle for the right of self-determination in the past," she added. Two years later Nawaz Sharif held series of public gatherings in support of Kashmir's alleged Freedom struggle popularising a slogan that became Pakistan's war-cry against India- Kashmir Banega Pakistan (Kashmir will be a part of Pakistan).

India Passes Kashmir Resolution l

Delhi, on the other hand, under the Premiership of PV Narasimha Rao wasn't going to be a mute spectator. To counter Pakistan's resolution, the Indian parliament unanimously passed Kashmir Resolution on 22 February 1994. The resolution read: "On behalf of the People of India, the Indian Parliament firmly declares that:

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More At @Aj_ebooks o (a) The State of Jammu & Kashmir has been, is and shall be an integral part of India and any attempts to separate it from the rest of the country will be resisted by all necessary means; (b) India has the will and capacity to firmly counter all designs against its unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity; and demands that (c) Pakistan must vacate the areas of the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir, which they have occupied through aggression; and resolves that (d) All attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of India will be met resolutely." Pakistan tables the resolution at UN l

This resolution came on the backdrop of increasing attempts by the US to term the Kashmir issue as "dispute". The New Delhi was alarmed when in May 1993 John Malott of US State Department followed by Robin Raphael visited India. During the talks, they termed Kashmir a "dispute". However, what really rang the bell was September 1993 reference of "Kashmir dispute" by US President in his UN General Assembly address. The New Delhi felt that there was an international coup to dislodge the Indian government from Kashmir. Emboldened by this, the Organisation of Islamic Countries too began seeking visas to send a fact-finding mission to Kashmir. Pakistan which was the member of OIC cried oppression of Kashmiri Muslims at the hands of Indian Army. Just five days after Indian parliament's resolution, Pakistan on 27 February 1994, moved to UN Human Rights Commission and tabled the resolution through OIC that condemned India for violation of human rights in Kashmir in Geneva. If the resolution would have passed, India would have been put on UNSC economic sanctions.

How Shrewdly PV Narasimha Rao Played the Cards l

Faced with challenges on several fronts, PM Narasimha Rao took the matter into his own hands. The same month he flew from Davos (where he was attending World Economic Forum) to Germany. He formed a team of delegates all carefully chosen to represent India. PM PV Narasimha Rao chose Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then opposition party leader to represent India at Geneva. The delegate also included Salman Khurshid, E. Ahmad, National Conference head Farooq Abdullah and Hamid Ansari. To counter Benazir Bhutto's personal presence, Rao sent his reformist Finance Minister Manmohan Singh who was a known figure at UN. At such a juncture, it was important that no move could go wrong. It was also the time when the leaders from across the party lines and religions came together to defend the country.

Rao's masterstroke of including Muslim delegates was later turned out to be effective in dismantling the claims of oppression of Kashmiri Muslims in India. Furthermore, Rao even sent Hurriyat men to UNHRC as non-governmental presence. New Delhi called six ambassadors who were influential with OIC member countries and other powerful Western nations. The big team of delegates from India and Pakistan had even become a matter of joke at the UN restaurant. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks The Smart Moves Behind the Stage l

While the big delegation was handling the battle from the front, PV Narasimha Rao knew that it will not be enough as long as the majority of UN Member countries support Pakistan. So, he started moving his cards quickly back here in India. During the time when India and Pakistan had locked horns at UN, Indian Foreign Minister Dinesh Singh had called in sick and was hospitalised. Even as Singh's unscheduled visit came as a surprise for Iranian Government, their Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Velayati received Dinesh at Mehrabad airport. Velayati was a personal friend of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao who cancelled all his scheduled engagements of the day. Velayati drove Singh straight to President Hashmi Rafsanjani and he delivered a small letter from the Indian Prime Minister. Coincidently, Chinese Foreign Minister, Aian Qichen was also in Teheran. Dinesh Singh met with him also in the backdrop of Uighur East Turkistan Movement in a Chinese province. Dinesh Singh flew back home Later that night and drove straightway to his hospital bed.

Dinesh Singh has finished the task successfully and had laid the foundation for Vajpayee to carry out further plan. Back in Geneva, Vajpayee was preparing UK-based Indian business mogul-the Hindujas-to influence Tehran who had close ties with Iran. It was a success too. Now, Rao shifted his focus to China. In what can be called as a big tactical decision an Indian diplomat voted in favour of Beijing at UN on a resolution based on a different matter. By this, Delhi ensured Beijing's support at the UNHRC resolution. The political game plan was carried out like a game of chesseach move designed to provide a tactical edge over the other player.

On the day of Resolution, most of the countries that Pakistan expected would favour the country had backtracked. Indonesia and Libya withdrew support to OIC Resolution, Syria escaped saying it would reconsider the revised draft. On March 9, 1994, the final day, Iran asked for revised resolution after consultation. Having lost two biggest key players -China and Iran, Pakistan withdrew the resolution that day.

The victory of India in the diplomatic warfare saved the day for India's bid to retain its territory. In Present times, when the Kashmir issue has been raked up again, India must learn a lesson or two from the example set by former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao.

General Election of 1996 l

In 1996 the country witnessed the 11th Lok Sabha or General Elections, the results of which were rather strange. After the counting of votes was over, the nation saw a hung parliament. With a rather apparent decline of the INC in the whole country, every other party was now seen forge alliances so as to get the most seats to make a government.

The political instability led to the country seeing as many as three Prime Ministers in the next two years.

The Political Scenario l

During the Lok Sabha Elections of 1996, the Prime Minister was P. V. Narasimha Rao of the INC. But he suffered a setback because of various scandals and corruption charges. The Rao government's credibility fell further when it failed on issues like violence in Kashmir and ethnic tensions in Punjab. The falling public support pushed the country into the 1996 general elections.

Since no party was expected to have a full majority in coming elections, all the major political forces were trying to form coalitions with smaller and regional parties. Apart from the Congress

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More At @Aj_ebooks and the BJP, the National Front emerged as a so-called strong contender as it was a coalition of parties like the Janata Dal, the Telugu Desam and the Left Front, which later joined the Samajvadi Party with a common agenda to deny power to either the Congress or the BJP. Another strong feature that was seen in the 1996 general elections was that several strong political parties, including regional and state parties, declined to be allied with any of the three main contenders for the power. l

The BJP put on its agenda a four-point plan that was focused on self-reliance in the economy, probity of public life, social harmony and greater security. It also stressed on a Hindu oriented state, encouraging capital investment and removing the special status of Kashmir.

The Congress, in its campaign, stressed on its past achievements like foreign policy record, handling of several natural and ethnic crises, concessions for ethnic minorities, and economic gains without following strong liberalization economic policy. The Janata Dal and the National Front focused on issues like developing a strong public sector by using deregulation and anti-corruption measures. Moreover, the alliance was trying to gain popularity over things like increased education investment, state-run infrastructure projects and subsidized fertilizer.

11th Lok Sabha Results l

As was predicted in opinion polls, no single party could attain majority in the center. However, it was the BJP that won the most seats (161). Its allies were Samata Party, Shiva Sena and Haryana Vikas Party. The allies could win a total of 26 seats, thus making BJP get a total 187 seats. The INC got the second position, while the National Front, Janata Dal and Let Front could win only 114 seats. p p p

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WORLD HISTORY RENAISSANCE The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the

17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Though availability of paper and the invention of metal movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not uniformly experienced across Europe. As a cultural movement, it encompassed innovative flowering of Latin and vernacular literatures, beginning with the 14th-century resurgence of learning based on classical sources and other techniques of rendering a more natural reality in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform. Its influence was felt in literature, philosophy, art, music, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry.

Characteristic of Renaissance Humanism Humanism was not a philosophy but a method of learning. Humanist scholars shaped the intellectual

landscape throughout the early modern period. Political philosophers such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas More revived the ideas of Greek and Roman thinkers, and applied them in critiques of contemporary government. Pico della Mirandola wrote what is often considered the manifesto of the Renaissance, a vibrant defence of thinking, the Oration on the Dignity of Man. Matteo Palmieri (1406-1475), another humanist, is most known for his work Della vita civile ("On Civic Life") which advocated civic humanism, and his influence in refining the Tuscan vernacular to the same level as Latin. Palmieri expounds on the qualities of the ideal citizen. The dialogues include ideas about how children develop mentally and physically, how citizens can conduct themselves morally, how citizens and states can ensure probity in public life, and an important debate on the difference between that which is pragmatically useful and that which is honest. The purpose of humanism was to create a universal man whose person combined intellectual and physical excellence and who was capable of functioning honorably in virtually any situation. Art l

One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly realistic linear perspective. The development of perspective was part of a wider trend towards realism in the arts. To that end, painters also developed other techniques, studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, human anatomy. With the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael representing artistic pinnacles were to be much imitated by other artists. In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the remains of ancient classical buildings and formulated the Renaissance style which emulated and improved on classical forms. The first building to demonstrate this is claimed to be the church of St. Andrew built by Alberti in Mantua. Arches, semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style) segmental, are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals. There may be a section of entablature between the capital and the

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More At @Aj_ebooks springing of the arch. Alberti was one of the first to use the arch on a monumental. Renaissance vaults do not have ribs. They are semi-circular or segmental and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault which is frequently rectangular. Science l

Science and art were very much intermingled in the early Renaissance, with polymath artists such as Leonardo da Vinci making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. He set up controlled experiments in water flow, medical dissection, and systematic study of movement and aerodynamics; he devised principles of research method for which he was known as "father of modern science". In 1492 the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus challenged the classical worldview, as the works of Ptolemy (geography) and Galen (medicine) were found not always to match everyday observations: a suitable environment was created to question scientific doctrine. A decisive shift in focus from Aristotelean natural philosophy to chemistry and then biological sciences (botany, anatomy, and medicine). Some have seen this as a "scientific revolution", heralding the beginning of the modern age. The famous thesis of Copernicus's book was that the Earth moved around the Sun. Significant scientific advances were made during this time by Galileo Galilei, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. One important development was not any specific discovery, but rather the further development of the process for discovery, the scientific method. It focused on empirical evidence, the importance of mathematics, and discarded Aristotelian science.

Major ideas of Enlightenment Rousseau's l

Rousseau's contributions to political philosophy are scattered among various works. In The Social Contract, Rousseau sets out to answer what he takes to be the fundamental question of politics, the reconciliation of the freedom of the individual with the authority of the state. This reconciliation is necessary because human society has evolved to a point where individuals can no longer supply their needs through their own unaided efforts, but rather must depend on the co-operation of others. The Social Contract aims to set out an alternative to this dystopia, an alternative in which, Rousseau claims, each person will enjoy the protection of the common force whilst remaining as free as they were in the state of nature. The key to this reconciliation is the idea of the general will: that is, the collective will of the citizen body taken as a whole. The general will is the source of law and is willed by each and every citizen. In obeying the law each citizen is thus subject to his or her own will, and consequently, according to Rousseau, remains free. Rousseau's account of the general will is marked by unclarities and ambiguities that have attracted the interest of commentators since its first publication. The principal tension is between a democratic conception, where the general will is simply what the citizens of the state have decided together in their sovereign assembly, and an alternative interpretation where the general will is the transcendent incarnation of the citizens' common interest that exists in abstraction from what any of them actually wants.

Immanuel Kant l

Immanuel Kant was the paradigmatic philosopher of the European Enlightenment. He eradicated the last traces of the medieval worldview from modern philosophy, joined the key ideas of earlier rationalism and empiricism into a powerful model of the subjective origins of the fundamental principles of both science and morality, and laid the ground for much in the philosophy of the UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Kant tried to show that both the laws of nature and the laws of morality are grounded in human reason itself. Kant derived the fundamental principles of human thought and action from human sensibility, understanding, and reason, all as sources of our autonomy; he balanced the contributions of these principles against the ineliminable inputs of external sensation and internal inclination beyond our own control; and he strove both to demarcate these principles from each other and yet to integrate them into a single system with human autonomy as both its foundation and its ultimate value and goal. These were the tasks of Kant's three great critiques. The essential forms of space, time and conceptual thought arise in the nature of human sensibility and understanding and ground the indispensable principles of human experience. He then argued that reason, in the narrow sense manifest in logical inference, plays a key role in systematizing human experience, but that it is a mistake to think that reason offers metaphysical insight into the existence and nature of the human soul, an independent world, and God. He argued that reason as the source of the ideal of systematicity is the source of the fundamental law of morality and our consciousness of our own freedom, which is the source of all value. Kant refined and radicalized his view that our religious conceptions can be understood only as analogies for the nature of human reason itself. American Revolution l

American Revolution of 1776 was the most significant phenomenon of whole of human history. This revolution was nor the result of any certain development but was a product of process that had been going on since many decade.

Nature and Character of American Colony o Nature and Character of American Colony was one of the most important factor responsible for American Revolution of 1776. This colony was populated by liberal and progressive people. The Americans had moved there from Europe over the period more than 100 years in a gradual manner. These Americans were from different European countries, the majority of them were from Britain. This diverse social structure of American colony had strengthened the value of freedom and liberty among them and this aspiration responsible for American Revolution of 1776. o The American were not having any love or affection with their country because most of them were move to America to save themselves from orthodox catholic church on the punishment given by State. Many of the Americans were originally deported there by European Government as punishments because of this American consider themselves distinct from Europe. o The social outlook of American colony was also liberal and progressive. They valued the virtue of individualism and material progress, they also believe in secularism and tolerism because American had different religious view because of this typical nature and character of American colony when their interest started clashing with the British Government, the American raise banner of revolt. Nature and Character of British Rule in America o The British rule in North American territory was colonial in character and British Government pursued the policy of fulfilling their national interest at the cost of these American people.

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More At @Aj_ebooks o The only objective of British rule in this colony was to extract as much gain as possible. The strategic interest of Britain also inspired the British Colonial rule in North America. o In consonance with colonial character of British rule, the British government pursued the policy of exploitation of these colonies in different manner. The Navigation Act enacted in 1651 and 1663 were some of this mechanism. When the American colony started witnessing progress many restriction were imposed by the British government. Export of rice, tobacco, leather, wood and wooden items were banned. In 1750, the British government imposed ban on the establishment of iron factory and export of iron and steel. The American people perceived this ongoing exploitation clearly and the development of the latter half of 18th century exhausted their patience. Urges and Aspirations of American people o The Americans had matured by the middle of the 18th century; they had successfully developed number of politico-administrative, legal and judicial interests. The bureaucratic machinery was quiet developed in this country. o The American colony had come of age, agriculture and communication revolution had already taken place in America and industrial revolution had started. Some of the American industry such as iron and steel were more developed even that of Britain and because of this American were no more dependent on the support of their mother country. o The socio-cultural system of this colony was also quiet developed. This American colony was characterized by high degree of socio-cultural stability because of this they had come to value their liberty, indivualism and distinct identity. o The American colony had also undergone the process of ideological advancement. The writings and speeches of American philosophers such as Benzamin Franklin, Thomas Pen, James Autis and Patrick Henry had brought about intellectual revolution in America. Thomas Pen in his book "Commonsense" emphasized upon the ongoing exploitation of American colony and asked the American to cut all kind of ties with Britain. The idea of liberty, equality and freedom, constitutional revolution and nationalism has strengthen their root gradually among Americans and because of this they could perceive the ongoing exploitation clearly and started looking to free themselves from ongoing colonial exploitation of Britain because of this it had been commented that American Revolution of 1776 was a natural and expected event in the life of people who have come of ages. Immediate Cause of Revolution o The development that followed the seven years war provided the immediate cause responsible for American Revolution. Th4e result of seven year war reduced American dependence on Britain on one hand and on the other hand inspired Britain to strengthen the ongoing colonial exploitation. o The seven year war resulted in transfer of Canada from France to Britain because of this consistent French danger from North had seized to exist after 1763. The protection from French threat played important role in the acceptance of British colonial rule by Americans and when this threat was no more the American started resenting the continuation of colonial rule.

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Seven year war had put immense financial burden on Britain because of this British government started believing that American colony must be made to pay for their own defense, the sugar Act, Currency Act, Stamp Act of the government of lord Greenville was the product of same aspiration. When these new taxes were imposed, the Americans suddenly started believing the uselessness of continuation of British colonial rule and because of this they imposed the taxation with slogan "No Taxation without Representation". Lord North tea policy was the product of similar output and when British government tried to impose this new measure by force the American raised the banner of revolt. The incidence following the Boston Tea Party on 16th December, 1773 culminated in the declaration of American Independence on 4th July 1776.

The Significance of the American Revolution l

The American Revolution had significance far beyond the North American continent. It attracted the attention of a political intelligentsia throughout the European continent. Idealistic notables such as Thaddeus Kosciusko, Friedrich von Steuben, and the Marquis de Lafayette joined its ranks to affirm liberal ideas they hoped to transfer to their own nations. Its success strengthened the concept of natural rights throughout the Western world and furthered the Enlightenment rationalist critique of an old order built around hereditary monarchy and an established church. In a very real sense, it was a precursor to the French Revolution, but it lacked the French Revolution's violence and chaos because it had occurred in a society that was already fundamentally liberal. The ideas of the Revolution have been most often depicted as a triumph of the social contract/natural rights theories of John Locke. Lockean intellectuals and the Protestant clergy were both important advocates of compatible strains of liberalism that had flourished in the British North American colonies.

Scholars have also argued that another persuasion contributed to the Revolution: "republicanism." Republicanism, they assert, did not deny the existence of natural rights but subordinated them to the belief that the maintenance of a free republic required a strong sense of communal responsibility and the cultivation of self-denying virtue among its leaders. The assertion of individual rights, even the pursuit of individual happiness, seemed egoistic by contrast. For a time republicanism threatened to displace natural rights as the major theme of the Revolution. Revolution usually entails social upheaval and violence on a wide scale. The Revolution did open up and further liberalize an already liberal society. Liberal assumptions became the official norm of American political culture, whether in the disestablishment of the Anglican Church, the principle of elected national and state executives, or the wide dissemination of the idea of individual freedom. Yet the structure of society changed little. Revolution or not, most people remained secure in their life, liberty, and property.

French Revolution l

France in 1789 was one of the richest and most powerful nations in Europe. Only in Great Britain and the Netherlands did the common people have more freedom and less chance of arbitrary punishment. Nonetheless, a popular rebellion would first to bring the regime of King Louis XVI of France under control of a constitution, then to depose, imprison, try, and execute the king and, later, his wife Marie Antoinette.

Many factors led to the revolution; to some extent the old order succumbed to its own rigidity in the face of a changing world; to some extent, it fell to the ambitions of a rising bourgeoisie, allied with

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More At @Aj_ebooks aggrieved peasants and wage-earners and with individuals of all classes who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. As the revolution proceeded and as power devolved from the monarchy to legislative bodies, the conflicting interests of these initially allied groups would become the source of conflict and bloodshed. l

Certainly, all of the following must be counted among the causes of the revolution: o Absolutism and Privilege: France in 1789 was an absolute monarchy, an increasingly unpopular form of government at the time. In practice, the king's ability to act on his theoretically absolute power was hemmed in by the (equally resented) power and prerogatives of the nobility and the clergy, the remnants of feudalism. Similarly, the peasants covetously eyed the relatively greater prerogatives of the townspeople. The large and growing middle class and some of the nobility and of the working class had absorbed the ideology of equality and freedom of the individual, brought about by such philosophers as Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Turgot, and other theorists of the Enlightenment. Furthermore, they had the example of the American Revolution showing that that it was plausible that Enlightenment ideals about governmental organization might be put into practice. They attacked the undemocratic nature of the government, pushed for freedom of speech, and challenged the Catholic Church and the prerogatives of the nobles. o Economics v

Taxation: Unlike the trading nations, France could not rely almost solely on tariffs to generate income. While average tax rates were higher in Britain, the burden on the common people was greater in France. Taxation relied on a system of internal tariffs separating the regions of France, which prevented a unified market from developing in the country. Taxes such as the extremely unpopular gabelle were contracted out to private collectors ("tax farmers") who were permitted to rise far more than the government requested. These systems led to an arbitrary and unequal collection of many of France's consumption taxes. Further royal and seigneurial taxes were collected in the form of compulsory labor (the corvée). The system also excluded the nobles and the clergy from having to pay taxes. The tax burden was thus paid by the peasants, wage earners, and the professional and business classes. These groups were also cut off from most positions of power in the regime, causing unrest.

Debt: Since 1614, the French monarchy had operated without resort to a legislature. Kings had managed their fiscal affairs by increasing the burden of the ancient and unequal system of taxes, by borrowing money, and sometimes by selling noble titles and other privileges; however, because noble titles exempted the holder from future taxes, the purchasers of titles were effectively buying an annuity. This led to the long-running fiscal crisis of the French government. On the eve of the revolution, France was deeply indebted, so deeply as to be effectively bankrupt. Extravagant expenditures by Louis XIV on luxuries such as Versailles were compounded by heavy expenditures on the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence.

o American Influence: France had played a deciding role in the American Revolutionary War, (1775-1783) sending its navy and troops to aid the rebelling colonists. During this time there was much contact between the Americans and the French, and revolutionary ideals spread between the groups. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks o Food Scarcity: These problems were all compounded by a great scarcity of food in the 1780s. Different crop failures in the 1780s caused these shortages, which of course led to high prices for bread. Perhaps no cause more motivated the Paris mob that was the engine of the revolution more than the shortage of bread. The poor conditions in the countryside had forced rural residents to move into Paris, and the city was overcrowded and filled with the hungry and disaffected. The peasants suffered doubly from the economic and agricultural problems. Different Phases of Revolution Estates-General l

By 1789, France was close to bankruptcy due to its almost constant state of war with England. It had also suffered from bad harvests and famine. Louis XVI called on the Estates-General, the only representative legislative body in France, which had not been called upon since 1614 because the kings had taken absolute power. He hoped to placate the people with the facade of democracy and legitimize new policies. The Estates-General was divided into three groups, or "estates," that were historically controlled by the clergy and aristocracy. The Third Estate, the people, had had enough of the old system and decided to change it.

National Assembly (1789-1791) l

The Third Estate, which made up about 95 percent of the population and had twice the number of representatives, had the same amount of power as the other two, and was easily outvoted. In June of 1789, they took the “Tennis Court Oath,” proclaiming them the National Assembly and swore they would not disband until France had a constitution. They were taken more seriously when the Bastille, a prison that was a symbol of oppression, was stormed on July 14, 1789. This stage also saw the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the creation of a constitution in 1791, which limited the monarchy and created a Legislative Assembly.

Legislative Assembly and National Convention (1792-1795) l

France now had a constitutional monarchy that was responsible to the people. The Legislative Assembly began to spread the revolution by declaring war on Austria and Prussia. However, the Assembly was not popular with the masses that saw it as too middle class, and it collapsed in September of 1792. The next phase, the National Convention, was the most radical and violent of the revolution, witnessing the execution of the king and queen as well as 40,000 others during Robespierre's Reign of Terror. Eventually the Convention turned on Robespierre and took away some of the people's rights before handing power to the Directory in 1795.

The Directory (1795-1799) l

The Directory was headed by five moderate leaders and two houses. They created a new constitution in 1795, the third since the beginning of the revolution. It was effective in the beginning but then became corrupt. When a mob rioted against the Directory in Paris, a young artillery officer named Napoleon Bonaparte saved it. Napoleon, responsible for the success of France's armies, and two others led a coup against the Directory and replaced it with a three-man Consulate.

The Consulate and Empire (1799-1815) l

During this stage, the Consulate ruled France as dictators, and the country continued to move to the right. The Consulate was popular because it restored order and created the Napoleonic Code,

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More At @Aj_ebooks which implemented legal and financial reforms and created an efficient government. In 1804 Napoleon crowned himself emperor and spread the revolution further throughout Europe to Spain and eventually Russia where he lost almost all of his 600,000-man army in 1812. Two more defeats awaited Napoleon, one in 1814 that sent him into exile on Elba from which he subsequently escaped, and finally at Waterloo, which ended his reign and reinstated the monarchy. Reforms made by Napoleon l

Napoleon made many lasting contributions to the institutions of France and to Europe as a whole. Some of them are as follows: o The Code Napoléon: When Napoleon became the leader of France, one of his top priorities was to reorganize the entire legal structure. By the time he was done, France had a unified, progressive legal system, which Napoleon then gave to other parts of his empire. Today, the Code Napoléon is the basis of law in France and a number of other countries. o Economic Reforms: The terrible French economy was one of the key factors leading to the French Revolution. When Napoleon came to power, he turned it around in only a year. Fair taxes, increased trade, the development of French luxury industries, a new commercial code, an improved infrastructure, and a central bank to control monetary policy were keys to his success. o Religious freedom: The Catholic Church had dominated French society, but the French Revolution tossed it out on its ear. Napoleon reached an agreement with the Pope allowing the Church a major role in French society while providing religious freedom for all others. He also abolished slavery and freed the serfs, and today he is seen as a progressive force in European history. o Freedom for the Jews: The previous item might seem to encompass this accomplishment, but the awful discrimination against Jews makes them a special case. In various parts of Europe, they had been forced to wear arm bands, kept from certain professions, made to live in ghettos, and prevented from attending their synagogues. Napoleon put an end to all of those restrictions, made Jews full citizens of France, and even wrote a proclamation that established the idea of a Jewish homeland in Israel. o Education Reforms: To create a middle-class cadre of leaders, Napoleon reorganized France's education system. He restarted the primary schools, created a new elite secondary system of schools (called lycées), and established many other schools for the general populace. He promoted education for girls and greatly improved teacher training. Literacy levels in France soared under Napoleon's reforms. o European Unity: Napoleon's empire, accompanied by his legal and other reforms, helped provide the basis for what is today the European Union. He worked hard to create a unified Italy, Poland, and Germany. Napoleon was also responsible for sweeping away many of the old regimes and promoting the ideals of equality and European solidarity. Sure, the old regimes still had some life in them when Napoleon left the scene, but things were never really the same. For that reason, Napoleon is often considered the father of modern Europe.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Wars of Napoleon War of the First Coalition l

As events unfolded in France, its neighbors watched with concern and began preparing for war. Aware of this, the French moved first declaring war on Austria on April 20, 1792. Early battles went poorly with French troops fleeing. Austrian and Prussian troops moved into France but were held at Valmy in September. French forces drove into the Austrian Netherlands and won at Jemappes in November. In January, the revolutionary government executed Louis XVI which led to Spain, Britain, and the Netherlands entering the war. Enacting mass conscription, the French began a series of campaigns which saw them make territorial gains on all fronts and knocked Spain and Prussia out of the war in 1795. Austria asked for peace two years later.

War of the Second Coalition l

Despite losses by its allies, Britain remained at war with France and in 1798 built a new coalition with Russia and Austria. As hostilities resumed, French forces began campaigns in Egypt, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The coalition scored an early victory when the French fleet was beaten at the Battle of the Nile in August. In 1799, the Russians enjoyed success in Italy, but left the coalition later that year after a dispute with the British and a defeat at Zurich. The fighting turned in 1800 with French victories at Marengo and Hohenlinden. The latter opened the road to Vienna, forcing the Austrians to sue for peace. In 1802, the British and French signed the Treaty of Amiens ending the war.

War of the Third Coalition l

The peace proved short-lived and Britain and France resumed fighting in 1803. Led by Napoleon Bonaparte, who crowned himself emperor in 1804, the French began planning for an invasion of Britain while London worked to build a new coalition with Russia, Austria, and Sweden. The anticipated invasion was thwarted when Lord Horatio Nelson defeated a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in October 1805. This success was offset by an Austrian defeat at Ulm. Capturing Vienna, Napoleon crushed a Russo-Austrian army at Austerlitz on December 2. Defeated again, Austria left the coalition after signing the Treaty of Pressburg. While French forces dominated on land, the Royal Navy retained control of the seas.

War of the Fourth Coalition l

Shortly after Austria's departure, a Fourth Coalition was formed with Prussia and Saxony joining the fray. Entering the conflict in August 1806, Prussia moved before Russian forces could mobilize. In September, Napoleon launched a massive attack against Prussia and destroyed its army at Jena and Auerstadt the following month. Driving east, Napoleon pushed back Russian forces in Poland and fought a bloody draw at Eylau in February 1807. Resuming campaigning in the spring, he routed the Russians at Friedland. This defeat led Tsar Alexander I to conclude the Treaties of Tilsit in July. By these agreements, Prussia and Russia became French allies.

War of the Fifth Coalition l

In October 1807, French forces crossed the Pyrenees into Spain to enforce Napoleon's Continental System which blocked trade with the British. This action began what would become the Peninsular War and was followed by a larger force and Napoleon the next year. While the British worked to aid the Spanish and Portuguese, Austria moved towards war and entered a new Fifth Coalition.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Marching against the French in 1809, Austrian forces were ultimately driven back towards Vienna. After a victory over the French at Aspern-Essling in May, they were badly beaten at Wagram in July. Again forced to make peace, Austria signed the punitive Treaty of Schönbrunn. To the west, British and Portuguese troops were pinned in Lisbon. War of the Sixth Coalition l

While the British became increasingly involved in the Peninsular War, Napoleon began planning a massive invasion of Russia. Having fallen out in the years since Tilsit, he attacked into Russia in June 1812. Combating scorched earth tactics, he won a costly victory at Borodinoand captured Moscow but was forced to withdraw when winter arrived. As the French lost most of their men in the retreat, a Sixth Coalition of Britain, Spain, Prussia, Austria, and Russia formed. Rebuilding his forces, Napoleon won at Lutzen, Bautzen, and Dresden, before being overwhelmed by the allies at Leipzig in October 1813. Driven back to France, Napoleon was forced to abdicate on April 6, 1814, and was later exiled to Elba by the Treaty of Fontainebleau.

War of the Seventh Coalition l

In the wake of Napoleon's defeat, members of the coalition convened the Congress of Vienna to outline the postwar world. Unhappy in exile, Napoleon escaped and landed in France on March 1, 1815. Marching to Paris, he built an army as he traveled with soldiers flocking to his banner. Seeking to strike at the coalition armies before they could unite, he engaged the Prussians at Ligny and Quatre Bras on June 16. Two days later, Napoleon attacked the Duke of Wellington's army at the Battle of Waterloo. Defeated by Wellington and the arrival of the Prussians, Napoleon escaped to Paris where he again was forced to abdicate on June 22. Surrendering to the British, Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena where he died in 1821.

"THE SPANISH ULCER" l

One of Napoleon's largest allies against Britain was Spain. However Spain's neighbor Portugal was failing to comply with the Continental System, which ordered neutral nations not to trade with Britain. To go along with this, Spain's royals were corrupt and unpopular. Seeing them unfit to rule, Napoleon decided to invade Spain and take it for himself. He expected the people to rejoice at the ousting of their old corrupt leaders. He assumed that the Spanish would be overjoyed at the change he was bringing, not only politically, but also socially. He considered Spain to still be in the Dark ages because of the dominance of the church and lack of enlightenment period ideas. However the reaction he received was quite different than what he had anticipated. He brought several hundred thousand troops into Spain and attempted to install Napoleon's brother, Joseph II, as king, but the Spanish people rose up. On May 2, 1808, they rebelled in Madrid and became the first martyrs of their cause, igniting the people to fight the French invasion. They showed a passionate love for their country and a great will for independence that Napoleon had not even considered. As a guerrilla army they could never defeat the powerful French and drive them out of Spain completely, but they held and were a constant nuisance to Napoleon's army. The Spanish Guerrillas along with the British troops who had successfully liberated Portugal kept the French pinned down in Spain for years. Spain was an open wound that refused to go away and so it was called "the Spanish ulcer". Spain was the first showing of defiance to the French and was a sign, which Napoleon failed to see, that Europe was not so ready for Napoleon's enlightened rule. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Legacy of French Revolution l

A legacy is the long-term effect of something. A person or an event or a piece of writing from the past may still shape what people believe and how they live in society today.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man l

One of the legacies of the French Revolution is a document called The Declaration of the Rights of Man, which became part of French law on 16 August 1789. This document was based on the ideas of Rousseau and the American Constitution. It promised freedom to the people of France. The document is about how people should live together in society, and it has had an impact on people all over the world. Some of its key principles were; o equality of the law o freedom of expression and religion o all people are presumed innocent until proven guilty

Inspiring Other Political Revolutions in Europe, Paving the way to Democracy l

Political revolution in Europe began with the French Revolution. This revolution influenced the people in other European countries and political revolutions raged through Europe as people fought against the authority of kings. In 1848, France had yet another revolution that spread across Europe. These revolutions gave hope to societies where people were free and equal and made way for democracy in Europe as the 20th century.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION l

Although the four-field system and steam engine provided the basic foundations for the Industrial Revolution, it took other factors combined with these to create this phenomenon. As it happened, Britain in the 1700's was the place where all these factors converged to make it the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Much of Britain's favored position came from the English Revolution of the 1600's and the triumph of a wealthy middle class with both the money and willingness to invest in new ventures. This created five basic lines of development that together would trigger the Industrial Revolution. The first of was the new steam and textile technology. Second, there was the new agriculture and population growth crating both the labor force for the new industrial factories and the markets to buy their manufactured goods. The third factor was Britain's colonial empire, which provided raw materials for the factories as well as more markets for their goods. Fourth was the development of a superior transportation system for getting raw materials to the factories and finished products to markets. Britain was especially favored in this respect, being an island with navigable inland rivers further enhanced by a well-developed system of canals. The fifth and final factor was a large surplus of capital along with the willingness to spend it on new machines and technology. The other factors also helped Britain. One was its excellent position as an island, which not only helped its trade, but also insulated it from continental wars. Also, Britain was blessed with extensive coal and iron deposits. By 1850, one-half of the world's iron and a full two-thirds of its coal production would come from British mines.

Factors Responsible for Industrial Revolution o Enormous Expansion in Overseas Trade of Britain. Enormous expansion in Britain's trade in overseas markets was one of the major causes of Technological Revolution. During the

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More At @Aj_ebooks seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Britain had carved out an extensive colonial empire and successfully excluded the other powers like Spain, Holland and France from their markets. The growing demand for the British goods in these markets gave a stimulus to the British manufacturers to take to machine methods. In reality, they were a secondary cause only. Machines for turning out cheap goods in large quantities are useless unless there is a market capable of absorbing the increased output. The market must come first; the inventions follow. o Availability of Capital. The vast amount of capital which England had accumulated out of profits of her growing trade enabled her to make large outlays on machinery and buildings, which in turn contributed to new technological developments. In addition England also possessed a large amount of loanable capital obtained by the Bank of England from the rich trade of other countries. This capital also helped England to steal a march over other European countries. o Practical bent of mind of the English Researchers. Another factor which contributed to England's lead in the technological revolution was that the English scientists and engineers had a very practical bent of mind. They made inventions keeping in view the needs of the time. They concentrated mainly on those inventions of science which had practical utility. This was in complete contrast to the continental scientists who concentrated on research in electricity; chemicals etc. which were not of immediate applied relevance. o Small Population. The small size of England's population, which could not cope with England's growing trade, also necessitated that new devices should be found out to keep production in line with the growing demand. This is best exemplified by the changes in the textile industry as well as the coal industry. The shortage of the labour force compelled the owners to encourage and apply new mechanical devices. o Social and Political Stability. Britain not only enjoyed complete freedom of trade but also an insular position which saved her from the disastrous consequences of war, which ravaged the countries of Europe. This social stability prevailing in England encouraged the people to invest in sectors where they could hope to receive high dividend in future. This led to adoption of new techniques and promotion of new industries. o The availability of coal and iron mines close to each other. The location of the coal and iron mines close to each other encouraged the English to evolve new techniques for the manufacture of iron and utilization of the coals. It is well known that the availability of coal and iron ores in large quantities greatly helped the growth of numerous industries in England. The need for large quantities of coal for smelting of iron ores, transportation etc. necessitated improvement in the techniques of coal mining. o The Agricultural Revolution. In Britain the agricultural revolution had already taken place which greatly transformed the English society. It not only made available necessary raw materials to run the new industries but also provided a large number of agricultural labourers for employment in the new factories. o Presence of Enterprising People. Finally, the technological changes in England were made possible because of the presence of a sizable section of people who possessed enterprising spirit and requisite technical qualities. Further this class of people also possessed organizing UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks abilities and was accustomed to the handling of large enterprises and labour force. These people were willing to invest money for the discovery of new techniques and give a fair trial to these techniques. o Risk-taking Private Sector. The presence of a sizable private sector in the country with great capacity of the individual businessmen to take risks also greatly contributed to the industrial revolution. These businessmen were willing to take a chance on new things. In this way they were also supported by the government. o Better means of transport: England possessed a far better network of means of transportation than any other country of Europe which greatly helped the industrial revolution. In this task the government played an important role which spent considerable amount on the improvement of roads and construction of canals. o Geographical location: The geographical location of England also greatly helped in industrial revolution. Being cut-off from the mainland of Europe, England remained immune from wars and upheavals of Napoleonic conflicts and conditions remained quite stable in the country. These stable conditions enabled England to develop their industrial capacity without fear of battle, damage or loss of life. o Flexibility of English social and political system: Above all the flexibility of the English social and political system also greatly contributed to industrial revolution in England. The members of the upper classes in Britain, unlike their counterparts in the continent, pursued their wealth in the new industrial framework with great enthusiasm. They worked in close cooperation with the middle classes and artisans which greatly facilitated the industrial revolution. First Reformation Act of 1832 l

The 1832 Reform Act was the result of a long struggle both in the streets and in Parliament, but although it enfranchised some, it had little real impact on the lives of the working classes. Until the 1830s, Britain's elections were neither representative nor balanced. A range of factors determined whether people were eligible to vote, including whether people lived in a county or a borough and whether people residing in area was eligible to send an MP to Parliament at all. In a few places all men could vote, but in the vast majority of locations it depended on whether people owned property or paid certain taxes. Moreover, with no secret ballot, voters were easily bribed or intimidated. A range of factors, including a popular campaign by the Birmingham Political Union, caused many people to begin to realise that change was necessary. The path of the resulting reforming Bill through Parliament was extremely tough and its being finally passed on 4th June 1832 was only as a result of widespread public unrest. In its final form the Reform Act of 1832 increased the electorate from around 366,000 to 650,000, which was about 18 per cent of the total adult-male population in England and Wales. The vast majority of the working classes, as well as women, were still excluded from voting and the Act failed to introduce a secret ballot. The working classes felt betrayed by an act which made no real difference to their lives. However, the reform of Parliament had begun, and this paved the way for the popular agitation of the Chartists.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Chartist Movement l

The Chartist Movement had at its core the so-called "People's Charter" of 1838. This document, created for the London Working Men's Association, was primarily the work of William Lovett. The charter was a public petition aimed at redressing omissions from the electoral Reform Act of 1832. It quickly became a rallying point for working class agitators for social reform, who saw in it a cureall for all sorts of social ills. For these supporters the People's Charter was the first step towards a social and economic utopia. In demanding so much the supporters of the charter probably ensured its downfall, for the number of demands probably diluted support for any single demand. Demands of the People's Charter o Institution of a secret ballot o General elections be held annually o Members of Parliament not be required to own property o MPs be paid a salary o Electoral districts of equal size o Universal male suffrage

The National Convention l

The first gathering of Chartist delegates gathered in London on February 4, 1839. At this gathering the nature of the divisions that were to trouble the Movement were apparent, as some delegates favoured violence if necessary, some favoured a general strike, and there was even talk of electing a "people's parliament". In other words, in common with many social movements, they could figure out what they were against, but had a harder time figuring out what to do about it. The Convention did adopt the motto "peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must", which may have frightened those more moderate middle-class members who might have been persuaded to support their cause. Agitation continued throughout the spring of 1839, and government troops were used to ensure order in some areas of the country, notably the north.

Outcome l

Proponents of the charter gathered over 1.25 million signatures in support of their aims. They presented the charter and the signatures to Parliament when it gathered in July, 1839. Though supported by future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, the charter was rejected by the House of Commons. In the wake of this defeat in the Commons, the National Convention lost its importance and finally dissolved itself in September. With the national leadership of the Movement no longer effective, local reformers took charge. The government had many leaders of the movement arrested or detained. The suppression of the Chartists drew further attention to their cause, but the movement in general failed to cross class lines and gain the necessary support among members of the ruling aristocracy and landed gentry. The Chartists attempted to submit their petition to Parliament twice more, in 1842, when they claimed to have gathered over 31 million signatures of support, and for a final time in 1848. After this final failure the movement died out.

Failure of Chartist Movement l

Chartism failed for a number of reasons; most obviously, it failed to gather support in Parliament, not surprising it consider the threat it posed to the self-interest of those in power. Equally important, it failed to gather support from the middle-classes. The demands of Chartism were too radical for UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks many of the middle-classes, who were comfortable enough with the status quo. The repeal of the Corn Laws helped improve the economic climate of Britain, and there was less interest in radical reform. As well, the mid-19th century spawned a variety of social-reform groups with special aims, and the Chartist movement lost many of its members to these other groups. Legacy of Chartist Movement l

Although the Chartist Movement failed to directly achieve its aims, a good case can be made that the movement itself was not a failure at all, but a powerful force that resulted in an increased awareness of social issues and created a framework for future working-class organisations. Many of the demands of the Chartists were eventually answered in the electoral reform bills of 1867 and 1864. It also seems likely that the agitation for reform that the Chartist Movement helped bring to the forefront of British society was responsible for the repeal of the Corn Laws and other social reforms.

RISE OF NATIONALISM IN THE 19TH CENTURY Italian Unification l

Italy had not existed as a unified nation-state since the sixth century. In modern Europe, Italy was a geographical term that signified the Italian peninsula, and the word Italian referred to the people who lived there and spoke that language. The people of the numerous Italian states were regionally divided to some degree; the fertile north had evolved into a prosperous industrial society. However, the people were culturally homogeneous, sharing a common language, a common history, and a common religion. Italy was thus a natural breeding ground for nationalism and unification.

The Congress of Vienna had divided Italy among the victors of the Napoleonic Wars as follows: Italian State

Ruled By

Papal States

Pope

Naples and Sicily

Bourbon monarch

Lombardy, Venice, Tyrol

Austria-Hungary

Parma, Modena, other states

Hapsburg monarchs

Nationalist forces in Italy rebelled against their foreign rulers. This happened in Parma and Modena in 1831, where the uprisings were crushed, and again in 1848 with the same result. Republican forces fomented a revolt against the pope, declaring the Republic of Rome in 1848. Since France and Austria were united in the desire to maintain a divided and weak Italy, they worked together to put down the rebellions. French troops occupied Rome until 1870.

In 1852, Count Camillo di Cavour becomes prime minister of Sardinia, a kingdom that included both the island of Sardinia and the Piedmont region of northern Italy. Like almost all successful ministers in European history, Cavour was crafty, clever, and entirely practical in his outlook. He used national alliances to achieve his goal of uniting the rest of Italy to Sardinia. At Cavour's urging, Sardinia fought on the side of the British and French in the Crimean War. Having thus formed a friendship with France, Cavour joined Napoleon III in an attack on Austria. As a result, Lombardy and Sardinia were united in 1859. Later that year, most of the rest of northern Italy joined the union of Italian states. In 1860, the fiery republican Giuseppe Garibaldi led an invasion of his followers, the Red Shirts, into the kingdom of Sicily, ostensibly to join a popular uprising.

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More At @Aj_ebooks With covert assistance from Cavour, Garibaldi liberated both Sicily and Naples. Although Cavour was a monarchist and Garibaldi was a republican, they found common ground in their desire to unify their people. Garibaldi believed that the natural next step was to march into Rome, but Cavour felt it was better to hold off rather than make an enemy of the pope. Therefore, he sent Sardinian troops to maintain peace in the Papal States. Next, with Garibaldi's full support, he held an election throughout the states of southern Italy to decide whether the people were ready to join the northern states and Sardinia as a unified nation. The nation was officially united in 1861; the king of Sardinia was crowned Victor Emmanuel II of Italy later that year. The Papal States, a sizable region surrounding Rome, remained the only holdout. Italian unification would rob the pope of his authority as a head of state; he would be marginalized, as head of the Church only. The 1860 unification reduced the Papal States to the city of Rome and the area immediately surrounding it. l

The new Italian government was closely based on the Sardinian model. The king of Sardinia became the king of Italy. The new Italian parliament, meeting in 1860, was officially referred to as "the eighth session of the Sardinian Parliament." The vote was limited to men over the age of twenty-four who were literate and owned property, a total of about 8 percent of all Italian men in that age group. The administrative structure and tax codes of the old Kingdom of Sardinia were extended to apply to the entire nation. Cavour felt that, for the moment, it was best to present a unified nation to the rest of Europe. Debate and factionalism might have destroyed the unity that he had worked so hard to achieve. Internal debate, he felt, could come later. This decision caused a rift between the northern and southern regions of Italy, as the south resented the dominance of leaders from Piedmont in the north. Most of the army's high-ranking officers were from Piedmont, most of the provincial governors were from Piedmont, and more than half the top positions in the civil service were held by men from Piedmont or its neighboring provinces Lombardy and Venetia. A further divisive factor came from the Vatican; Pope Pius IX retaliated for the reduction of his authority by encouraging the foundation of Catholic political parties whose goal was to undermine the new Italian state.

When France declared war on Prussia in 1870, occupying French troops abandoned Rome. This left the pope undefended, and the Italian army immediately marched in to complete the unification process. Rome, once the center and apex of Classical civilization, had enormous symbolic importance to the Italians, and it was immediately named the new Italian capital city. This did not end the hostility between the Church and the Italian state; if anything, it grew more intense. It would not be resolved until Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed an agreement naming the Vatican an independent city-state in 1929.

German Unification l

Germany had been fragmented into as many as 300 separate states ever since the Investiture Struggle in the Middle Ages had wrecked the power of the German emperors. In the following centuries, it had suffered repeatedly from foreign wars and aggression, most recently Napoleon's rule. However, Napoleon had inadvertently done Germany two favors in the process of his rule. Besides instilling a sense of nationalism in its people, he had also consolidated Germany into 38 states, a giant step toward unification. Since Napoleon's defeat two states had competed for UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks leadership of Germany: Austria and Prussia. Most people would have expected Austria, with its longer imperial tradition and larger territory to dominate. But it was Prussia, with its better organization and more progressive reforms (e.g., its customs union known as the Zollverein), which was destined to unify Germany. l

The man who would lead Prussia in Germany's unification was its chancellor (prime minister), Otto von Bismarck (1815-94). He was a man of massive size and strength, brilliant mind, and iron will. Bismarck's early career was rather undistinguished, although he did see foreign diplomatic service, which gave him experience in that field. He also witnessed Austrian arrogance toward Prussia in the German Diet (parliament), which set his mind to earn his country respect both inside Germany and outside of it. In 1862, he got his chance.

In 1858, Wilhelm I had succeeded Frederick William IV. The new king wanted to build up and reform the Prussian army. But one obstacle stood in the way: the Prussian Reichstag (parliament), formed as a result of the revolutions of 1848, refused to grant Wilhelm the needed money. In 1862, Wilhelm, on the verge of abdicating, appointed Bismarck as his chancellor. Bismarck, among other things, was no lover of democracy, including the Prussian Reichstag, which he said bogged itself down in speeches and resolutions. He believed only clear-sighted decisive policies of "blood and iron" could build a German nation. He figured that once the nation was successfully built, German liberals, inspired by the reality of the long sought for German nation, would come around to his way of thinking. Therefore, he simply ruled without parliament and rammed through his own reforms. Prussia got its army and Bismarck could now turn to unifying Germany. Bismarck was an excellent diplomat who brilliantly manipulated alliances and played different powers off against one another. He was also a master of limited objectives, using each diplomatic step to set up the next one. He started with a revolt in Poland.

The Polish revolt against Russia in 1863 gained a great deal of popular support in Europe. But Bismarck was more interested in power than popular support (unless it was a means to gaining power). He clearly saw that the Czar would put down the revolt, and therefore helped Russia in crushing the rebels. This secured his eastern flank and gained an ally against Austria who had refused to help Russia in the Crimean War even after Russia had helped the Hapsburgs suppress their uprisings in 1848.

With his eastern border secure, Bismarck next championed the liberties of Germans in Schleswig and Holstein, whose Danish ruler was incorporating them more tightly into the Danish state. The resulting Danish War (1864) accomplished three things for Bismarck. First of all, it won him useful popular support among the Germans since he appeared to be defending German liberties. Secondly, it gave the reformed Prussian army valuable combat experience. Finally, it dragged Austria into the war on Prussia's side, since it could not afford to let Prussia be the sole champion of German liberties. This served Bismarck's purpose, since it got Prussia and Austria hopelessly entangled by their joint occupation of Schleswig and Holstein and helped set up a showdown between the two powers.

Austro-Prussian War (1866) l

Bismarck laid the diplomatic groundwork for this war with typical thoroughness. Russia, already Prussia's friend and still mad at Austria, was effectively neutral, which suited Bismarck fine. Bismarck

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More At @Aj_ebooks kept France out of the war by making vague promises of Rhineland territories if he won. And Italy, wanting to get Venice into its fold, allied against the common Austrian enemy. Prussia's military preparations were equally thorough. The Prussian army was better trained, organized and equipped than the Austrian army. A new breech loading rifle, the "needle gun", gave Prussian soldiers four times the firepower of their Austrian counterparts. A combination of using Prussia's railroad system for rapid movement of its armies with the telegraph to coordinate those movements allowed the Prussians to converge at the point of attack with unprecedented precision and overwhelming force. As a result, the Seven Weeks War, as this was also known, was a rapid and total victory for Prussia, in stark contrast to the drawn out conflict of the Seven Years War a century earlier. l

Bismarck's settlement looked forward to the eventual unification of Germany. His treatment of Austria was fairly lenient, taking only Venice and giving it, as promised, to Italy. But he also excluded Austria from German affairs, thus clearing the way for Prussian dominance. For Prussia itself, he took Schleswig and Holstein as well as the lands dividing Prussia from its holdings along the Rhine in the West. Bismarck also unified the north German states into a confederation under Prussian leadership, while expecting the south German states to follow Prussia's leadership in war. The confederation was organized along democratic lines to gain popular support, but the real power rested with the Prussian king and chancellor.

Bismarck's next move was to galvanize German support against a common enemy. He found that cause by going to war with France. Napoleon III of France had his motives for war as well. Sagging popularity at home and concern over Prussia's growing power helped drive him on a collision course with Bismarck that erupted into the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Once again, Bismarck had laid firm diplomatic foundations. Russia was still Prussia's friend. Italy allied with Prussia in order to get Rome out of French hands. Austria, still licking its wounds from its recent struggle with Prussia, was neutralized. The one big question mark was: what would Britain do? Bismarck took care of that by taking out a full-page ad in the London Times claiming France wanted to annex Belgium. Public opinion was outraged and Britain left France to its fate.

Few people then would have given Prussia any chance to beat the French, anyway, since France was still considered the foremost military power in Europe. The Franco-Prussian War proved that assumption wrong. Prussian training, equipment, leadership, and organization quickly smashed French armies in rapid succession. Within six weeks the Prussians had surrounded Napoleon III's army at Sedan. After a day of desperate but suicidal assaults against the Prussian positions, Napoleon III was forced to surrender along with 120,000 men. In the end, it was too little too late and France had to ask for terms.

The Prussian victory had two main results. First of all, Prussia annexed Alsace and Lorraine, a bone of contention between the two countries since the Treaty of Verdun in 843 A.D. This alone was enough to spark French bitterness. Secondly, Bismarck officially unified Germany by declaring the Second Reich (German Empire) and crowning Wilhelm as Kaiser (literally Caesar or emperor). Not only that, he did this at Versailles, for 200 years the symbol of French power and now the symbol of its humiliation. This newly unified Germany would become an economic superpower by rapidly industrializing. For example, German steel production doubled every decade between 1870 and 1910, even passing British steel production after 1900. Both Prussia's treatment of France and its unification and industrialization of Germany would upset the balance of power and trigger UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks a system of interlocking alliances that kept Europe on a knife-edge of readiness for a war that nearly everyone expected to break out. That war, World War I, would be the beginning of the end of European supremacy. l

Internally, Germany between 1870 and 1914 presented a picture of seemingly incompatible contrasts. While its economy forged ahead to make it the most advanced nation in Europe, its political structure resisted any liberalizing trends and remained conservative and autocratic. Likewise, it maintained an increasingly obsolete social structure of rich landowners who had mechanized their farms at the expense of the peasants and even richer capitalists making profits at the expense of a downtrodden working class and shrinking class of small shopkeepers and craftsmen. As the social and political systems lagged behind economic progress, tensions in the form of growing opposition parties (including socialists), protests, and strikes emerged more and more. Discontent was partially diverted away from the government by being focused against such groups as Catholics, socialists, and especially Jews. This and World War I only put off resolving these tensions. Unfortunately, the banner of discontent would be picked up by Adolph Hitler and the Nazis whose terrorist programs would plunge both Germany and the world into a much worse nightmare than even World War I proved to be.

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION l

In 1917, two revolutions completely changed the fabric of Russia. First, the February Russian Revolution toppled the Russian monarchy and established a Provisional Government. Then in October, a second Russian Revolution placed the Bolsheviks as the leaders of Russia, resulting in the creation of the world's first communist country.

The February 1917 Revolution l

Although many wanted a revolution, no one expected it to happen when it did and how it did. On Thursday, February 23, 1917, women workers in Petrograd left their factories and entered the streets to protest. It was International Women's Day and the women of Russia were ready to be heard. An estimated 90,000 women marched through the streets, shouting "Bread" and "Down With the Autocracy!" and "Stop the War!" These women were tired, hungry, and angry. They worked long hours in miserable conditions in order to feed their families because their husbands and fathers were at the front, fighting in World War I. They wanted change. They weren't the only ones. The following day, more than 150,000 men and women took to the streets to protest. Soon more people joined them and by Saturday, February 25, the city of Petrograd was basically shut down, no one was working. Although there were a few incidents of police and soldiers firing into the crowds, those groups soon mutinied and joined the protesters. Czar Nicholas II, who was not in Petrograd during the revolution, heard reports of the protests but did not take them seriously. By March 1, it was obvious to everyone except the czar himself that the czar's rule was over. On March 2 it was made official when Czar Nicholas II abdicated. Without a monarchy, the question remained as to who would next lead the country.

Provisional Government vs. The Petrograd Soviet l

Two contending groups emerged out of the chaos to claim leadership of Russia. The first was made up of former Duma members and the second was the Petrograd Soviet. The former Duma members represented the middle and upper classes while the Soviet represented workers and

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More At @Aj_ebooks soldiers. In the end, the former Duma members formed a Provisional Government which officially ran the country. The Petrograd Soviet allowed this because they felt that Russia was not economically advanced enough to undergo a true socialist revolution. Within the first few weeks after the February Revolution, the Provisional Government abolished the death penalty, granted amnesty for all political prisoners and those in exile, ended religious and ethnic discrimination, and granted civil liberties. What they did not deal with was an end to the war, land reform, or better quality of life for the Russian people. The Provisional Government believed Russia should honor its commitments to its allies in World War I and continue fighting. V.I. Lenin did not agree. Lenin Returns From Exile l

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, was living in exile when the February Revolution transformed Russia. Once the Provisional Government allowed back political exiles, Lenin boarded a train in Zurich, Switzerland and headed home.

On April 3, 1917, Lenin arrived in Petrograd at the Finland Station. Tens of thousands of workers and soldiers had come to the station to greet Lenin. There were cheers and a sea of red, waving flags. Not able to get through, Lenin jumped on top of a car and gave a speech. Lenin at first congratulated the Russian people for their successful revolution. However, Lenin had more to say. In a speech made just hours later, Lenin shocked everyone by denouncing the Provisional Government and calling for a new revolution. He reminded the people that the country was still at war and that the Provisional Government had done nothing to give the people bread and land. At first, Lenin was a lone voice in his condemnation of the Provisional Government. But Lenin worked ceaselessly over the following few months and eventually people began to really listen. Soon many wanted "Peace, Land, Bread!"

The October 1917 Revolution l

By September 1917, Lenin believed the Russian people were ready for another revolution. However, other Bolshevik leaders were not yet quite convinced. On October 10, a secret meeting of the Bolshevik party leaders was held. Lenin used all his powers of persuasion to convince the others that it was time for an armed insurrection. Having debated through the night, a vote was taken the following morning, it was ten to two in favor of a revolution. The people themselves were ready. In the very early hours of October 25, 1917, the revolution began. Troops loyal to the Bolsheviks took control of the telegraph, power station, strategic bridges, post office, train stations, and state bank. Control of these and other posts within the city were handed over to the Bolsheviks with barely a shot fired. By late that morning, Petrograd was in the hands of the Bolsheviks, all except the Winter Palace where the leaders of the Provisional Government remained. Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky successfully fled but by the following day, troops loyal to the Bolsheviks infiltrated the Winter Palace. After nearly a bloodless coup, the Bolsheviks were the new leaders of Russia. Nearly immediately, Lenin announced that the new regime would end the war, abolish all private land ownership, and would create a system for workers' control of factories.

Civil War l

Unfortunately, as well intended as Lenin's promises might have been, they proved disastrous. After Russia pulled out of World War I, millions of Russian soldiers filtered home. They were hungry, tired, and wanted their jobs back. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Yet there was no extra food. Without private land ownership, farmers began to grow just enough produce for themselves; there was no incentive to grow more. There were also no jobs to be had. Without a war to support, factories no longer had vast orders to fill. None of the people's real problems were fixed; instead, their lives became much worse. In June 1918, Russia broke out in civil war. It was the Whites (those against the Soviets, which included monarchists, liberals, and other socialists) against the Reds (the Bolshevik regime). Near the beginning of the Russian Civil War, the Reds were worried that the Whites would free the czar and his family, which would not only have given the Whites a psychological boost but might have led to the restoration of the monarchy in Russia. The Reds were not going to let that happen. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, Czar Nicholas, his wife, their children, the family dog, three servants, and the family doctor were all woken up, taken to the basement, and shot. The Civil War lasted over two years and was bloody, brutal, and cruel. The Reds won but at the expense of millions of people killed. The Russian Civil War dramatically changed the fabric of Russia. The moderates were gone. What was left was an extreme, vicious regime that was to rule Russia until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Fascist counter Revolution in Italy l

World War I and the Treaty of Versailles apparently solved nothing and satisfied no one. Although the Western democracies, such as France and Britain, were regaining some stability and prosperity, no one else was. Ethnic and territorial disputes arose among the new democracies in Eastern Europe. The Bolsheviks in Russia threatened to spread their revolution and overthrow Capitalism. And Italy and Germany, the one a "winner" and the other a loser in the war, were both bitter about the Treaty of Versailles and anxious to reverse its verdict. These conditions gave rise to Fascism, the belief in a totalitarian dictatorship controlling nearly all aspects of the state: government, army, press, schools, etc. However, unlike the Soviet model of Communism, it allowed free enterprise and private property, thus appealing to the business-oriented middle class since it gave them economic security. Finally, Fascism was also intensely nationalistic and aggressive in its foreign policy.

Mussolini and the rise of Fascism in Italy l

The first successful Fascist takeover was in Italy under Benito Mussolini. As a young adult, he fled to Switzerland to avoid the draft and was converted to socialism there. In 1904, he returned to Italy and served his time in the army in return for a pardon. When World War I broke out, he first advocated neutrality, and then, probably after accepting French bribes, called for Italian involvement on the Allied side.

Italy made a poor showing in the war and paid a heavy price for it. Government expenditure during the war was twice its expenditure for the whole period 1861-1913. As a result the economy was in shambles and the country was plagued with unemployment, inflation, riots, strikes, and brigandage. It was then that Mussolini first joined and soon became leader of the Fascist Party, which stood for upholding claims of veterans and the nationalist interests of Italy while crushing any anarchist elements in the country. Ironically, the Fascists did more to promote anarchy than anyone else in Italy at that time. Mussolini would send out his gangs of thugs, the Blackshirts, to riot against Communists and other groups while claiming his men were protecting the peace.

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It was actually the local party bosses who started a series of riots that stormed various city halls and forced concessions from local governments. This encouraged them to march on Rome and seize control of the national government. Benito himself was hesitant to take part, but when the Ras went ahead without him and it looked as if they might succeed, he put himself at the head of the march as if it were his idea all along. The march itself was a fiasco, getting bogged down in a massive traffic jam, but it scared the government enough to offer Benito the power to form a new government, which he did with typical bombast and bluster. Then, through intimidation and rigged elections, Benito tightened his grip on Italy. He bullied the Italian Parliament into giving him emergency powers that allowed him to shut down other parties, censor the press, and end other civil liberties. By 1925, Italy was a fascist dictatorship. The riots and strikes did settle down after Mussolini took power, but little else went right for Italy and the Fascists. Mussolini claimed he made the trains run on time, but that was a gross exaggeration, as was just about every other claim he made. He did try to build up Italy's aircraft, shipping and power industries, but the Depression and Italy's lack of natural resources, along with poor planning and corruption, severely limited any economic progress. Mussolini's big dream was to make Italy a major power, thus reviving the Roman Empire. Here again, little progress was made, although Benito made wildly inflated claims about Italy's military strength.

Whatever his failures as a national leader, Mussolini appeared to be a shining example of Fascist strength when compared to the more timid democracies in Europe, and was a hero to other aspiring Fascist leaders of the day. Among these was a struggling German politician by the name of Adolph Hitler.

Chinese Revolution of 1949 l

On October 1, 1949, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The announcement ended the costly full-scale civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), which broke out immediately following World War II and had been preceded by on and off conflict between the two sides since the 1920's. The creation of the PRC also completed the long process of governmental upheaval in China begun by the Chinese Revolution of 1911. The "fall" of mainland China to communism in 1949 led the United States to suspend diplomatic ties with the PRC for decades.

The Chinese Communist Party, founded in 1921 in Shanghai, originally existed as a study group working within the confines of the First United Front with the Nationalist Party. Chinese Communists joined with the Nationalist Army in the Northern Expedition of 1926-27 to rid the nation of the warlords that prevented the formation of a strong central government. This collaboration lasted until the "White Terror" of 1927, when the Nationalists turned on the Communists, killing them or purging them from the party. After the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931, the Government of the Republic of China (ROC) faced the triple threat of Japanese invasion, Communist uprising, and warlord insurrections. Frustrated by the focus of the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek on internal threats instead of the Japanese assault, a group of generals abducted Chiang in 1937 and forced him to reconsider cooperation with the Communist army. As with the first effort at cooperation between the Nationalist government and the CCP, this Second United Front was short-lived. The Nationalists expended needed resources on containing the Communists, rather than focusing entirely on Japan, while the Communists worked to strengthen their influence in rural society. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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During World War II, popular support for the Communists increased. U.S. officials in China reported a dictatorial suppression of dissent in Nationalist-controlled areas. These undemocratic polices combined with wartime corruption made the Republic of China Government vulnerable to the Communist threat. The CCP, for its part, experienced success in its early efforts at land reform and was lauded by peasants for its unflagging efforts to fight against the Japanese invaders. Japanese surrender set the stage for the resurgence of civil war in China. Though only nominally democratic, the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek continued to receive U.S. support both as its former war ally and as the sole option for preventing Communist control of China. U.S. forces flew tens of thousands of Nationalist Chinese troops into Japanese-controlled territory and allowed them to accept the Japanese surrender. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, occupied Manchuria and only pulled out when Chinese Communist forces were in place to claim that territory.

In 1945, the leaders of the Nationalist and Communist parties, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong, met for a series of talks on the formation of a post-war government. Both agreed on the importance of democracy, a unified military, and equality for all Chinese political parties. The truce was tenuous, however, and, in spite of repeated efforts by U.S. General George Marshall to broker an agreement, by 1946 the two sides were fighting an all-out civil war. Years of mistrust between the two sides thwarted efforts to form a coalition government. As the civil war gained strength from 1947 to 1949, eventual Communist victory seemed more and more likely. Although the Communists did not hold any major cities after World War II, they had strong grassroots support, superior military organization and morale, and large stocks of weapons seized from Japanese supplies in Manchuria. Years of corruption and mismanagement had eroded popular support for the Nationalist Government. Early in 1947, the ROC Government was already looking to the island province of Taiwan, off the coast of Fujian Province, as a potential point of retreat. Although officials in the Truman Administration were not convinced of the strategic importance to the United States of maintaining relations with Nationalist China, no one in the U.S. Government wanted to be charged with facilitating the "loss" of China to communism. Military and financial aid to the floundering Nationalists continued, though not at the level that Chiang Kai-shek would have liked. In October of 1949, after a string of military victories, Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the PRC; Chiang and his forces fled to Taiwan to regroup and plan for their efforts to retake the mainland.

The ability of the PRC and the United States to find common ground in the wake of the establishment of the new Chinese state was hampered by both domestic politics and global tensions. In August of 1949, the Truman administration published the "China White Paper," which explained past U.S. policy toward China based upon the principle that only Chinese forces could determine the outcome of their civil war. Unfortunately for Truman, this step failed to protect his administration from charges of having "lost" China. The unfinished nature of the revolution, leaving a broken and exiled but still vocal Nationalist Government and army on Taiwan, only heightened the sense among U.S. anticommunists that the outcome of the struggle could be reversed. The outbreak of the Korean War, which pitted the PRC and the United States on opposite sides of an international conflict, ended any opportunity for accommodation between the PRC and the United States. Truman's desire to prevent the Korean conflict from spreading south led to the U.S. policy of protecting the Chiang Kai-shek government on Taiwan.

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For more than twenty years after the Chinese revolution of 1949, there were few contacts, limited trade and no diplomatic ties between the two countries. Until the 1970s, the United States continued to recognize the Republic of China, located on Taiwan, as China's true government and supported that government's holding the Chinese seat in the United Nations.

First World War and Second World War as Total War l

The concept of Total war emerges during 20th century. This concept was inspired by the impact of 1st and 2nd World War. Some historian even characterized the Napoleonic campaign as total War. Total war is the practice of war where nearly all the resources of a society are employed to defeat an opponent. This also means that any resources used by the enemy are also legitimate targets of war. As a result, factories, pipelines, railroads, bridges, etc. become legitimate targets in war. Total war does mean the near-total mobilization of the population. All are expected to do their part to help with the 'war effort.' Children collected war materials, civilians were subjected to rationing of most goods, and nearly all were expected to buy government issued bonds to fund the war. The entire economy in Total War is subject to the needs of the government. Consumer goods are hardest hit by Total War. Perhaps the biggest impact of Total War is on civilians. With food, transportation, factories and even vehicles legitimate targets of Total War, cities therefore took a tremendous beating. Since cities have so many war-related targets they were the targets of repeated heavy bombings. Initially, both sided wanted to spare civilians the terror of aerial bombing as targeting was greatly narrowed and restricted to daylight attacks to reduce the chances of missing targets. Total War is an awful thing; however, the rules of war are still necessary to alleviate the horror of war. Where the Geneva conventions were followed, Total War was awful. Where they were not, unspeakable barbarism developed.

First World War l

World War 1 is actually much more complicated than a simple list of causes. While there was a chain of events that directly led to the fighting, the actual root causes are much deeper. This list is an overview of the most popular reasons that are cited as the root causes of World War 1.

Mutual Defense Alliances l

Over time, countries throughout Europe made mutual defense agreements that would pull them into battle. Thus, if one country was attacked, allied countries were bound to defend them. Before World War 1, the following alliances existed: o Russia and Serbia o Germany and Austria-Hungary o France and Russia o Britain and France and Belgium o Japan and Britain

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia got involved to defend Serbia. Germany seeing Russia mobilizing, declared war on Russia. France was then drawn in against Germany and AustriaHungary. Germany attacked France through Belgium pulling Britain into war. Then Japan entered the war. Later, Italy and the United States would enter on the side of the allies. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Imperialism: Imperialism is when a country increases their power and wealth by bringing additional territories under their control. Before World War 1, Africa and parts of Asia were points of contention amongst the European countries. This was especially true because of the raw materials these areas could provide. The increasing competition and desire for greater empires led to an increase in confrontation that helped push the world into World War I.

Militarism: As the world entered the 20th century, an arms race had begun. By 1914, Germany had the greatest increase in military buildup. Great Britain and Germany both greatly increased their navies in this time period. Further, in Germany and Russia particularly, the military establishment began to have a greater influence on public policy. This increase in militarism helped push the countries involved to war.

Nationalism: Much of the origin of the war was based on the desire of the Slavic peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina to no longer be part of Austria Hungary but instead be part of Serbia. In this way, nationalism led directly to the War. But in a more general way, the nationalism of the various countries throughout Europe contributed not only to the beginning but the extension of the war in Europe. Each country tried to prove their dominance and power.

Immediate Cause: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand l

The immediate cause of World War I that made the aforementioned items come into play (alliances, imperialism, militarism, nationalism) was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of AustriaHungary. In June 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated him and his wife while they were in Sarajevo, Bosnia which was part of Austria-Hungary. This was in protest to Austria-Hungary having control of this region. Serbia wanted to take over Bosnia and Herzegovina. This assassination led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia. When Russia began to mobilize due to its alliance with Serbia, Germany declared war on Russia. Thus began the expansion of the war to include all those involved in the mutual defense alliances.

Impact of World War-I l

World War I shook the world. Never before had technology been put to such destructive ends. Never before had a war been so global in scope. The war resulted in the death of empires and the birth of nations, and in national boundaries being redrawn around the world. It ushered in prosperity for some countries, while it brought economic depression to others. It influenced literature. It changed culture. The impact of World War I was monumental.

The Political Impact of World War I l

Coinciding with the end of World War I, a socialist revolution broke out in Germany. The German Revolution of 1918-1919 resulted in the creation of the left-leaning Weimar Republic, which lasted until Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party seized power in the early 1930s. Many historians believe Germany's defeat in World War I and the harsh terms imposed by the Treaty of Versailles led directly to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party. Following its defeat, the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up into several independent states. Among the most prominent were Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Austria. The Ottoman Empire also split apart. Portions of the former empire were placed under the control of France and Great Britain, such as Syria and Palestine, while the bulk of the empire emerged as the Republic of Turkey.

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More At @Aj_ebooks l

Discontent with World War I also helped bring about the Russian Revolution of 1917. In this revolution, the Russian Empire was toppled and replaced by a socialist government led by Vladimir Lenin. In northeastern Europe, new states emerged that had formerly been a part of the Russian Empire. Among them were Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania. The League of Nations mandated that the colony of German East Africa be partitioned to Belgium, France, and Portugal. While the specifics of how post-World War I nation-states emerged is quite complex, the important thing to remember is that after World War I, the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires fractured into numerous independent nations. It can be argued convincingly that the United States emerged from World War I as the world superpower. Because of U.S. intervention and President Woodrow Wilson's diplomatic leadership, America had now become the 'savior of Europe.' The United States left World War I with a major confidence boost.

The Economic Impact Of World War I l

Unlike in some European countries, the United States was not laid to waste by war. America's factories and countryside were unharmed and performing better than ever. World War I sped up American industrial production, leading to an economic boom throughout the 'Roaring Twenties.'

While the war was a devastating experience for France and the United Kingdom, these countries were able to recover economically without too much difficulty. It was Germany, however, that particularly suffered following the war. Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was required to make monetary payments to the Allies, called reparations. The heavy reparations, combined with the devastated economic infrastructure throughout Germany and political tension under the Weimar Republic, led to an economic depression. Hyperinflation and unemployment in Weimar Germany were staggering. Reichsmarks, the German currency, became so devalued, that it took wheelbarrows full of money to buy basic items, such as a loaf of bread. In the mid to late 1920s, the German economy stabilized somewhat, but after the American stock market crash in 1929, the Great Depression spread to Germany. From 1929 into the early 1930s, depression again wreaked havoc on German society. It was under these conditions that the Nazis were able to come to power.

Social Impact of World War I l

The social impact of the war was also total. Almost 36 million people died during the war and in some of the country like Russia and Great Britain almost whole of young generation was wiped off. This large scale destruction of human resulted in severe demographic imbalance. The social institution like family came under strain and the functioning was adversely affected. The World War I also effected the contemporary cultural life. People lost faith in the efficacy of God and the atheistic attitude emerge in Europe. The literature, drama and element of man media were dominated by anti war spirit as a common civilian fail to understand the logic behind such large scale destruction because of this the total impact of all aspect of human life was characterized in World War I.

Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye l

The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye of September 10, 1919, established the Republic of Austria, consisting of the truncated, German-speaking regions of the Habsburg state. The Austrian Empire UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks ceded crown lands to newly established successor states like Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. It also relinquished the South Tyrol, Trieste, Trentino, and Istria to Italy, and Bukovina to Romania. An important tenet of the treaty barred Austria from compromising its newly formed independence, which effectively barred it from unification with Germany, an aspiration long desired by "Pan-Germanists" and an aim actively advocated by Austrian-born Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi) Party. The other portion of the Dual Monarchy, Hungary also became an independent state: under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon (June 4, 1920), Hungary ceded Transylvania to Romania; Slovakia and Transcarpathian Rus to the newly formed Czechoslovakia; and other Hungarian crown lands to the future Yugoslavia. The Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920, ending hostilities with the Allied Powers; but shortly thereafter a Turkish War of Independence began. The new Republic of Turkey, established in its aftermath, signed a superseding Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, effectively partitioning the old Ottoman Empire. THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" l

In January 1918, some ten months before the end of World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson had written a list of proposed war aims which he called the “Fourteen Points”. Eight of these points dealt specifically with territorial and political settlements associated with the victory of the Entente Powers, including the idea of national self-determination for ethnic populations in Europe. The remainder of the principles focused on preventing war in the future, the last proposing a League of Nations to arbitrate international disputes. Wilson hoped his proposal would bring about a just and lasting peace: a "peace without victory." When German leaders signed the armistice in the Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918, many of them believed that the Fourteen Points would form the basis of the future peace treaty, but when the heads of the governments of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy met in Paris to discuss treaty terms, the European contingent of the "Big Four" rejected this approach.

Treaty of Versailles l

Viewing Germany as the chief instigator of the conflict, the European Allied Powers decided to impose particularly stringent treaty obligations upon the defeated Germany. The Treaty of Versailles, presented for German leaders to sign on May 7, 1919, forced Germany to concede territories to Belgium (Eupen-Malmédy), Czechoslovakia (the Hultschin district), and Poland (Poznan, West Prussia and Upper Silesia). The Germans returned Alsace and Lorraine, annexed in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War, to France. All German overseas colonies became League of Nation Mandates, and the city of Danzig, with its large ethnically German population, became a Free City. The treaty demanded demilitarization and occupation of the Rhineland, and special status for the Saarland under French control. Plebiscites were to determine the future of areas in northern Schleswig on the Danish-German frontier and parts of Upper Silesia on the border with Poland.

Perhaps the most humiliating portion of the treaty for defeated Germany was Article 231, commonly known as the "War Guilt Clause," which forced the German nation to accept complete responsibility for initiating World War I. As such Germany was liable for all material damages, and France's premier Georges Clemenceau particularly insisted on imposing enormous reparation payments.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Aware that Germany would probably not be able to pay such a towering debt, Clemenceau and the French nevertheless greatly feared rapid German recovery and the initiation of a new war against France. Hence, the French sought in the postwar treaty to limit Germany's potential to regain its economic superiority and to rearm. The German army was to be limited to 100,000 men, and conscription proscribed; the treaty restricted the Navy to vessels under 100,000 tons, with a ban on the acquisition or maintenance of a submarine fleet. Moreover, Germany was forbidden to maintain an air force. Finally, Germany was required to conduct war crimes proceedings against the Kaiser and other leaders for waging aggressive war. The subsequent Leipzig Trials, without the Kaiser or other significant national leaders in the dock, resulted largely in acquittals and were widely perceived as a sham, even in Germany. League of Nation l

The League of Nations came into being after the end of World War One. The League of Nation's task was simple - to ensure that war never broke out again. After the turmoil caused by the Versailles Treaty, many looked to the League to bring stability to the world. The only way to avoid a repetition of such a disaster was to create an international body whose sole purpose was to maintain world peace and which would sort out international disputes as and when they occurred. This would be the task of the League of Nations.

The organisation of the League of Nations l

The League of Nations was to be based in Geneva, Switzerland. This choice was natural as Switzerland was a neutral country and had not fought in World War One. If a dispute did occur, the League, under its Covenant, could do three things - these were known as its sanctions: It could call on the states in dispute to sit down and discuss the problem in an orderly and peaceful manner. If the states in dispute failed to listen to the Assembly's decision, the League could introduce economic sanctions. If this failed, the League could introduce physical sanctions. This meant that military force would be used to put into place the League's decision. The League also had other weaknesses: o The country, whose president, Woodrow Wilson, had dreamt up the idea of the League America - refused to join it. This was a serious blow to the prestige of the League. o Germany was not allowed to join the League in 1919. o Russia was also not allowed to join as in 1917, she had a communist government that generated fear in Western Europe. o The two most powerful members were Britain and France - both had suffered financially and militarily during the war and neither was enthusiastic to get involved in disputes that did not affect Western Europe.

The successes of the League of Nations The Aaland Islands (1921) l

These islands are near enough equal distant between Finland and Sweden. They had traditionally belonged to Finland but most of the islanders wanted to be governed by Sweden. Neither Sweden nor Finland could come to a decision as to who owned the islands and in 1921 they asked the UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks League to adjudicate. The League's decision was that they should remain with Finland but that no weapons should ever be kept there. Both countries accepted the decision and it remains in force to this day. Upper Silesia (1921) l

The Treaty of Versailles had given the people of Upper Silesia the right to have a referendum on whether they wanted to be part of Germany or part of Poland. In this referendum, 700,000 voted for Germany and 500,000 for Poland. This close result resulted in rioting between those who expected Silesia to be made part of Germany and those who wanted to be part of Poland. The League was asked to settle this dispute. After a six-week inquiry, the League decided to split Upper Silesia between Germany and Poland. The League's decision was accepted y both countries and by the people in Upper Silesia.

Greece and Bulgaria (1925) l

Both these nations have a common border. In 1925, sentries patrolling this border fired on one another and a Greek soldier was killed. The Greek army invaded Bulgaria as a result. The Bulgarians asked the League for help and the League ordered both armies to stop fighting and that the Greeks should pull out of Bulgaria. The League then sent experts to the area and decided that Greece was to blame and fined her £45,000. Both nations accepted the decision.

The failures of the League of Nations Italy (1919) l

In 1919, Italian nationalists angered that the "Big Three" had, in their opinion, broken promises to Italy at the Treaty of Versailles, captured the small port of Fiume. This port had been given to Yugoslavia by the Treaty of Versailles. For 15 months, Fiume was governed by an Italian nationalist called D'Annunzio. The newly created League did nothing. The situation was solved by the Italian government who could not accept that D'Annunzio was seemingly more popular than they were so they bombarded the port of Fiume and enforced surrender. In all this the League played no part despite the fact that it had just been set up with the specific task of maintaining peace.

Teschen (1919) l

Teschen was a small town between Poland and Czechoslovakia. Its main importance was that it had valuable coal mines there which both the Poles and the Czechs wanted. As both were newly created nations, both wanted to make their respective economies as strong as possible and the acquisition of rich coal mines would certainly help in this respect. In January 1919, Polish and Czech troops fought in the streets of Teschen. Many died. The League was called on to help and decided that the bulk of the town should go to Poland while Czechoslovakia should have one of Teschen's suburbs. This suburb contained the most valuable coal mines and the Poles refused to accept this decision. Though no more wholesale violence took place, the two countries continued to argue over the issue for the next twenty years.

Vilna (1920) l

Many years before 1920, Vilna had been taken over by Russia. Historically, Vilna had been the capital of Lithuania when the state had existed in the middle Ages. After World War One, Lithuania had been re-established and Vilna seemed the natural choice for its capital. However, by 1920, 30% of the population was from Poland with Lithuanians only making up 2% of the city's population.

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More At @Aj_ebooks In 1920, the Poles seized Vilna. Lithuania asked for League help but the Poles could not be persuaded to leave the city. Vilna stayed in Polish hands until the outbreak of World War Two. The use of force by the Poles had won. War between Russia and Poland (1920 to 1921) l

In 1920, Poland invaded land held by the Russians. The Poles quickly overwhelmed the Russian army and made a swift advance into Russia. By 1921, the Russians had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Riga which handed over to Poland nearly 80,000 square kilometers of Russian land. This one treaty all but doubled the size of Poland. Russia by 1919 was communist and this "plague from the East" was greatly feared by the West. In fact, Britain, France and America sent troops to attack Russia after the League had been set up. Winston Churchill, the British War Minister, stated openly that the plan was to strangle Communist Russia at birth. Once again, to outsiders, it seemed as if League members were selecting which countries were acceptable and ones which were not. The Allied invasion of Russia was a failure and it only served to make Communist Russia even more antagonistic to the West.

The invasion of the Ruhr (1923) l

The Treaty of Versailles had ordered Weimar Germany to pay reparations for war damages. These could either be paid in money or in kind (goods to the value of a set amount) in 1922, the Germans failed to pay an installment. They claimed that they simply could not rather than did not want to. The Allies refused to accept this and the anti-German feeling at this time was still strong. Both the French and the Belgium's believed that some form of strong action was needed to 'teach Germany a lesson'.

In 1923, contrary to League rules, the French and the Belgium's invaded the Ruhr, Germany's most important industrial zone. Within Europe, France was seen as a senior League member, like Britain and the anti-German feeling that was felt throughout Europe allowed both France and Belgium to break their own rules as were introduced by the League. Here were two League members clearly breaking League rules and nothing was done about it. For the League to enforce its will, it needed the support of its major backers in Europe, Britain and France. Yet France was one of the invaders and Britain was a major supporter of her. Few countries criticised what France and Belgium did. But the example they set for others in future years was obvious. The League clearly failed on this occasion, primarily because it was seen to be involved in breaking its own rules.

Italy and Albania (1923) l

The border between Italy and Albania was far from clear and the Treaty of Versailles had never really addressed this issue. It was a constant source of irritation between both nations. In 1923, a mixed nationality survey team was sent out to settle the issue. Whilst travelling to the disputed area, the Italian section of the survey team became separated from the main party. The five Italians were shot by gunmen who had been in hiding. Italy accused Greece of planning the whole incident and demanded payment of a large fine. Greece refused to pay up. In response, the Italians sent its navy to the Greek island of Corfu and bombarded the coastline. Greece appealed to the League for help but Italy, lead by Benito Mussolini, persuaded the League via the Conference of Ambassadors, to fine Greece 50 million lire. To follow up this success, Mussolini invited the Yugoslavian government to discuss ownership of Fiume. The Treaty of Versailles had given Fiume UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks to Yugoslavia but with the evidence of a bombarded Corfu, the Yugoslavs handed over the port to Italy with little argument

WORLD WAR II Main causes of World WarII Effects of the Treaty of Versailles l

Many of the seeds of World War II in Europe were sown by the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. In its final form, the treaty placed full blame for the war on Germany and AustriaHungary, as well as exacted harsh financial reparations and led to territorial dismemberment. For the German people, who had believed that the armistice had been agreed to be based on US President Woodrow Wilson's lenient Fourteen Points, the treaty caused resentment and a deep mistrust of their new government, the Weimar Republic. The need to pay war reparations, coupled with the instability of the government, contributed to massive hyperinflation which crippled the German economy. This situation was made worse by the onset of the Great Depression. In addition to the economic ramifications of the treaty, Germany was required to demilitarize the Rhineland and had severe limitations placed on the size of its military, including the abolishment of its air force. Territorially, Germany was stripped of its colonies and forfeited land for the formation the country of Poland. To ensure that Germany would not expand, the treaty forbade the annexation of Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.

Failure of the League of Nations l

In theory the League of Nations was a good idea and did have some early successes. But ultimately it was a failure.

In 1931, Japan was hit badly by the depression. People lost faith in the government and turned to the army to find a solution. The army invaded Manchuria in China, an area rich in minerals and resources. China appealed to the League for help. The Japanese government was told to order the army to leave Manchuria immediately. However, the army took no notice of the government and continued its conquest of Manchuria. The League then called for countries to stop trading with Japan but because of the depression many countries did not want to risk losing trade and did not agree to the request. The League then made a further call for Japan to withdraw from Manchuria but Japan's response was to leave the League of Nations.

In October 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia. The Abyssinians did not have the strength to withstand an attack by Italy and appealed to the League of Nations for help. The League condemned the attack and called on member states to impose trade restrictions with Italy. However, the trade restrictions were not carried out because they would have little effect. Italy would be able to trade with non-member states, particularly America. Furthermore, Britain and France did not want to risk Italy making an attack on them. In order to stop Italy's aggression, the leaders of Britain and France held a meeting and decided that Italy could have two areas of land in Abyssinia provided that there were no further attacks on the African country. Although Mussolini accepted the plan, there was a public outcry in Britain and the plan was dropped.

Rise of Fascism & the Nazi Party l

In 1922, Benito Mussolini and the Fascist Party rose to power in Italy. Believing in a strong central government and strict control of industry and the people, Fascism was a reaction to the perceived

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More At @Aj_ebooks failure of free market economics and a deep fear of communism. Highly militaristic, Fascism also was driven by a sense of belligerent nationalism that encouraged conflict as a means of social improvement. By 1935, Mussolini was able to make himself the dictator of Italy and transformed the country into a police state. To the north in Germany, Fascism was embraced by the National Socialist German Workers Party, also known as the Nazis. Swiftly rising to power in the late 1920s, the Nazis and their charismatic leader, Adolf Hitler, followed the central tenets of Fascism while also advocating for the racial purity of the German people and additional German Lebensraum (living space). Playing on the economic distress in Weimar Germany and backed by their "Brown Shirts" militia, the Nazis became a political force. On January 30, 1933, Hitler was placed in position to take power when he was appointed Reich Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg The Nazis Assume Power l

A month after Hitler assumed the Chancellorship, the Reichstag building burned. Blaming the fire on the Communist Party of Germany, Hitler used the incident as an excuse to ban those political parties that opposed Nazi policies. On March 23, 1933, the Nazis essentially took control of the government by passing the Enabling Acts. Meant to be an emergency measure, the acts gave the cabinet (and Hitler) the power to pass legislation without the approval of the Reichstag. Hitler next moved to consolidate his power and executed a purge of the party (The Night of the Long Knives) to eliminate those who could threaten his position. With his internal foes in check, Hitler began the persecution of those who were deemed racial enemies of the state. In September 1935, he passed the Nuremburg Laws which stripped Jews of their citizenship and forbade marriage or sexual relations between a Jew and an "Aryan." Three years later the first pogrom began (Night of Broken Glass) in which over one hundred Jews were killed and 30,000 arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Germany Remilitarizes l

On March 16, 1935, in clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler ordered the remilitarization of Germany, including the reactivation of the Luftwaffe (air force). As the German army grew through conscription, the other European powers voiced minimal protest as they were more concerned with enforcing the economic aspects of the treaty. In a move that tacitly endorsed Hitler's violation of the treaty, Great Britain signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in 1935, which allowed Germany to build a fleet one third the size of the Royal Navy and ended British naval operations in the Baltic. Two years after beginning the expansion of the military, Hitler further violated the treaty by ordering the reoccupation of the Rhineland by the German Army. Proceeding cautiously, Hitler issued orders that the German troops should withdrawal if the French intervened. Not wanting to become involved in another major war, Britain and France avoided intervening and sought a resolution, with little success, through the League of Nations. After the war several German officers indicated that if the reoccupation of the Rhineland had been opposed, it would have meant the end of Hitler's regime.

The Anschluss l

Emboldened by Great Britain and France's reaction to the Rhineland, Hitler began to move forward with a plan to unite all German-speaking peoples under one "Greater German" regime. Again operating in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler made overtures regarding the annexation of Austria. While these were generally rebuffed by the government in Vienna, Hitler was able to UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks orchestrate a coup by the Austrian Nazi Party on March 11, 1938, one day before a planned plebiscite on the issue. The next day, German troops crossed the border to enforce the Anschluss (annexation). A month later the Nazis held a plebiscite on the issue and received 99.73% of the vote. International reaction was again mild, with Great Britain and France issuing protests, but still showing that they were unwilling to take military action. The Munich Conference l

With Austria in his grasp, Hitler turned towards the ethnically German Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Since its formation at the end of World War I, Czechoslovakia had been wary of possible German advances. To counter this, they had built an elaborate system of fortifications throughout the mountains of the Sudetenland to block any incursion and formed military alliances with France and the Soviet Union. In 1938, Hitler began supporting paramilitary activity and extremist violence in the Sudetenland. Following the Czechoslovakia's declaration of martial law in the region, Germany immediately demanded that the land be turned over to them. In response, Great Britain and France mobilized their armies for the first time since World War I. As Europe moved towards war, Mussolini suggested a conference to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia. This was agreed to and the meeting opened in September 1938, at Munich. In the negotiations, Great Britain and France, led by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and President Édouard Daladier respectively, followed a policy of appeasement and caved to Hitler's demands in order to avoid war. Signed on September 30, 1938, the Munich Agreement turned over the Sudetenland to Germany in exchange for Germany's promise to make no additional territorial demands. The Czechs, who had not been invited to conference, were forced to accept the agreement and were warned that if they failed to comply, they would be responsible for any war that resulted. By signing the agreement, the French defaulted on their treaty obligations to Czechoslovakia. Returning to England, Chamberlain claimed to have achieved "peace for our time." The following March, German troops broke the agreement and seized the remainder of Czechoslovakia. Shortly thereafter, Germany entered into a military alliance with Mussolini's Italy.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact l

Angered by what he saw as the Western Powers colluding to give Czechoslovakia to Hitler, Josef Stalin worried that a similar thing could occur with the Soviet Union. Though wary, Stalin entered into talks with Britain and France regarding a potential alliance. In the summer of 1939, with the talks stalling, the Soviets began discussions with Nazi Germany regarding the creation of a nonaggression pact. The final document, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was signed on August 23, and called for the sale of food and oil to Germany and mutual non-aggression. Also included in the pact were secret clauses dividing Eastern Europe into spheres of influence as well as plans for the partition of Poland.

Anti-Comintern Pact and Tripartite Pact l

These were pacts between Germany, Italy, and Japan. The Anti-Comintern pact had been a pact that denounced communism and it was initially signed by Japan and Germany. However, later, as German and Italian relations improved, Italy also signed and this was made stronger later by the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis in 1938. The Tripartite Pact also strengthened the alliance and it was basically a confirmation of the Rome-Berlin-Toyko Axis.

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More At @Aj_ebooks The Invasion of Poland l

Since World War I, tensions had existed between Germany and Poland regarding the free city of Danzig and the "Polish Corridor." The latter was a narrow strip of land reaching north to Danzig which provided Poland with access to the sea and separated the province of East Prussia from the rest of Germany. In an effort to resolve these issues and gain Lebensraum for the German people, Hitler began planning the invasion of Poland. Formed after World War I, Poland's army was relatively weak and ill-equipped compared to Germany. To aid in its defense, Poland had formed military alliances with Great Britain and France. Massing their armies along the Polish border, the Germans staged a fake Polish attack on August 31, 1939. Using this as a pretext for war, German forces flooded across the border the next day. On September 3, Great Britain and France issued an ultimatum to Germany to end the fighting. When no reply was received, both nations declared war.

In Poland, German troops executed a blitzkrieg (lightning war) assault using combining armor and mechanized infantry. This was supported from above by the Luftwaffe, which had gained experience fighting with the fascist Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The Poles attempted to counterattack but were defeated at the Battle of Bzura (Sept. 9-19). As the fighting was ending at Bzura, the Soviets, acting on the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, invaded from the east. Under assault from two directions, the Polish defenses crumbled with only isolated cities and areas offering prolonged resistance. By October 1, the country had been completely overrun with some Polish units escaping to Hungary and Romania. During the campaign, Great Britain and France, who were both slow to mobilize, provided little support to their ally.

With the conquest of Poland, the Germans implemented Operation Tannenberg which called for the arrest, detainment, and execution of 61,000 Polish activists, former officers, actors, and intelligentsia. By the end of September, special units known as Einsatzgruppen had killed over 20,000 Poles. In the east, the Soviets also committed numerous atrocities, including the murder of prisoners of war, as they advanced. The following year, the Soviets executed between 15,00022,000 Polish POWs and citizens in the Katyn Forest on Stalin's orders.

Consequences of World WarII War Crime l

Though Hitler and many of his close conspirators committed suicide, most high-ranking officials in Germany did not escape justice so easily. When the concentration camps throughout Europe were liberated, the world was shocked to see what horrors lay within. Around twelve million people had been murdered in total (half of them Jews) and this number did not include those who had been used for medical experimentation or tortured by the camp guards. Here the Allies were faced with a dilemma: since genocide had never been publicly recognized before, there were no formal laws against such mass murder. Instead, the Nuremberg Trials (November 1945), during which Hitler's remaining officials were declared guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, set a standard to judge others who would commit genocide in the future.

The United Nation l

Another result of World War II was the formation of the United Nations (UN). After the First World War, the Allies had created the League of Nations (LoF), whose purpose was to keep peace and stability in Europe. This was the first global organization in history, but it had several problems, UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks which led to World War II. When they created the United Nations on October 24, 1945, the Allies made sure to improve the UN, especially by splitting the power among five major countries (United Kingdom, France, United States, China, and USSR) instead of just two or three, as in the League of Nations.

Occupation o In the Far East: General Mac Arthur's troops occupied Japan immediately after the surrender, and he became supreme commander in that area, although Emperor Hirohito remained on his throne. An Allied commission advised General MacArthur, but neither the Soviet Union nor Great Britain opposed his decisions. Korea, which had been a Japanese territory, was occupied in the north by the Soviet Union and in the south by the United States. o In Europe: Germany was partitioned among the Allies for a period of indefinite occupation. The Soviet occupation zone included most of eastern Germany except for the western part of Berlin. The United States, Great Britain, and France occupied the rest of Germany and the western part of Berlin. Austria was also divided into zones for occupation by the Soviet Union, the United States, Great Britain, and France.

Territorial Changes l

In 1940 the Soviet Union annexed Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Armistices with Finland in 1940 and 1944 gave the Soviet Union the port of Petsamo and the province of Karelia. The Soviets also received land from Romania under an armistice in 1944 and from Poland and Japan under agreements made in 1945. Poland received lands in eastern Germany. Peace treaties later confirmed most of these changes. In addition, Italy gave up land to France, Yugoslavia, and Greece. Ethiopia regained its independence. Italian colonies in Africa (Eritrea, Libya, and Italian Somaliland) were placed under a trusteeship by the United Nations. Hungary lost territory to Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. Transylvania was restored to Romania, and Romania ceded land to Bulgaria. Japan lost its territories outside the home islands, including Korea and parts of China.

Peace Treaties l

After nearly a year and a half of conferences among the leading Allied powers, peace treaties were signed in Paris in 1947 with Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland. In addition to making territorial concessions, the former Axis nations had to pay reparations and limit the size and strength of their armed forces. Most of the reparations were to be made to the Soviet Union, but Ethiopia, Greece, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Albania were also to get a share. In 1951 Japan signed a treaty of peace with 48 nations, not including the Soviet Union. Japan signed a peace treaty with India and Nationalist China in 1952 and with the Soviet Union in 1956. Austria regained independence under a treaty with the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union in 1955. The Soviets and the Western powers failed to agree on the terms of a peace treaty with Germany. In 1949 the combined occupation zones of the United States, Great Britain, and France became the Federal Republic of Germany. The republic gained independence in 1955. The Soviet Union proclaimed the independence of East Germany in 1954, but the country remained under Soviet domination until 1990, when Germany was reunited.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Reconstruction o Non-Communist Countries: All Western Europe suffered greatly from the effects of the war. Cities, communications, and resources were destroyed. Victorious nations, as well as those that lost the war, faced economic ruin. Thousands of refugees, known as displaced persons, were scattered across Europe. Some wanted to return to their homelands, but others feared returning to areas that were now under Soviet control. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) were set up to help the victims of war. UNRRA ended its work in 1946, but Western Europe was still in a weakened condition. To give aid to Europe, the United States put into effect the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan) in 1947. This program called for financial assistance from the United States and cooperation from the European nations. With help from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa, the British Isles were soon on the road to recovery. The Netherlands, one of the countries's most severely damaged by the war, reached a prewar economic level in 1948. Other nations in Western Europe had returned to a normal standard of living by 1950. Under the "Truman Doctrine," military and economic aid was given to Greece and Turkey by the United States in 1947. This strengthened these countries and kept them from falling under Communist domination. Japan was faced with inflation and unemployment after the war. Assistance from the United States and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development helped Japan rebuild its industries and recover its export markets. The wartime destruction of industry in Germany and Japan forced those countries to completely rebuild their factories, and thus they gained new and modern industrial facilities. This modernization aided them in competing economically with other countries, and hastened their overall recovery. By the mid-1950's, both West Germany and Japan had become important economic powers. o Communist Nations: The Soviet Union's losses during the war were enormous. Production of coal and steel was cut in half, and other industries were damaged or destroyed. However, the nation's economic recovery was hastened by several means. The Soviet Union stripped occupied territories of equipment and resources. Large reparations were received from former Axis nations. Prisoners of war, many of them detained for as long as 10 years after the war, were put to work restoring Soviet industries, farms, and communications. Yugoslavia received aid from UNRRA and the European Recovery Program. The Soviet Union prevented other satellite countries from receiving assistance from the Western powers and attempted, by a blockade begun in 1948, to keep Berlin from getting food and supplies. However, United States and British planes flew supplies into Berlin, and the Soviets lifted the blockade in 1949. The standard of living in East Germany and in other Communist-dominated countries continued to be lower than that of the nations of Western Europe.

New Super Power l

However, though the UN had five major powers, there were only two countries that were economically powerful after World War II. The war severely injured the natural resource supply and the economy of the Western European countries, especially Britain, France, and Germany. These countries had previously dominated the world's trade market, and now two new countries who had been relatively UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks unharmed during the war took their places -- the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States. The USSR had only been damaged on its western side; the east was completely unharmed. The U.S. had only sent its armies over to Europe; none of the fighting had taken place on American soil. The war actually boosted the American economy, ending the Great Depression and allowing the U.S. to become a superpower in the post-war global market.

Women Right l

The war also resulted in a major victory for women's rights advocates. During the war, the government of every country drafted men to serve in the army. Since men had held most of the jobs at this time, the military draft left behind a vacuum in factories, offices, and farms. This vacuum was filled by women, many of whom had never worked before. As the war progressed, these women developed their self-confidence and gained a strong sense of independence. By the time the fighting ended and the men returned, the women refused to give up their jobs; many of them enjoyed making their own living and not having to depend on their husbands or brothers or sons for money. The government was forced to allow women to work and to increase equality in pay (though pay is not completely equal even today). Women continue to fight for complete equality, but World War II helped them considerably on their way.

COLD WAR l

This term is used to describe the relationship between America and the Soviet Union 1945 to 1980. Neither side ever fought the other, the consequences would be too appalling, but they did 'fight' for their beliefs using client states. The Cold War was to dominate international affairs for decades and many major crises occurred, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some. For many, the growth in weapons of mass destruction was the most worrying issue. A clash of very different beliefs and ideology, capitalism versus communism each held with almost religious conviction, formed the basis of an international power struggle with both sides vying for dominance, exploiting every opportunity for expansion anywhere in the world. So this was the scene after the war ended in 1945. Both sides distrusted the other. One had a vast army in the field (the Soviet Union with its Red Army supremely lead by Zhukov) while the other, the Americans had the most powerful weapon in the world, the A-bomb and the Soviets had no way on knowing how many America had.

Causes of the Cold War in 1945 o American fear of communist attack o Truman's dislike of Stalin o USSR's fear of the American's atomic bomb o USSR's dislike of capitalism o USSR's actions in the Soviet zone of Germany o America's refusal to share nuclear secrets o USSR's expansion west into Eastern Europe + broken election promises o USSR's fear of American attack

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More At @Aj_ebooks o USSR's need for a secure western border o USSR's aim of spreading world communism The Iron Curtain l

On March 5th 1946, Winston Churchill made his 'iron curtain' speech at Fulton, Missouri, USA. The speech was officially entitled "The Sinews of Peace" but became better known as the "Iron Curtain" speech. It set the tone for the early years of the Cold War. The Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological conflict and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolized efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the west and nonSoviet-controlled areas. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union. On either side of the Iron Curtain, states developed their own international economic and military alliances: o Member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact, with the Soviet Union as the leading state o Member countries of the European Community and/or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and with the United States as the leading country

Physically, the Iron Curtain took the form of border defenses between the countries of Europe in the middle of the continent. The most notable border was marked by the Berlin Wall and its Checkpoint Charlie which served as a symbol of the Curtain as a whole. The events that demolished the Iron Curtain started in discontent in Poland and continued in Hungary, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Romania was the only communist state in Europe to violently overthrow its totalitarian government.

The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan l

By 1947, Greece was one of the few countries in Eastern Europe that hadn't turned communist. The Communist rebels in Greece were prevented from taking over by the British Army. America was becoming increasingly alarmed by the growth of Soviet power. So, when the British told Truman they could no longer afford to keep their soldiers in Greece, Truman stepped in to take over. In March 1947, he told the American Congress it was America's job to stop communism growing any stronger. This was called the Truman Doctrine. It is often said that Truman advocated containment (stopping the Soviet getting any more powerful), but Truman did not use this word and many Americans spoke of "rolling back" communism. The Truman Doctrine was to set the tone for US foreign policy throughout the world post-March 1947. In 1946 communists in Greece attempted a takeover. They were in the minority in the country but received moral support from the USSR in their efforts to overthrow the monarchy and actual material support from Yugoslavia. Greece was in a highly sensitive position militarily and Truman, while not wanting to involve America in any military action, wanted to give the Greek government as much support as he could during the Greek Civil War. So Truman's stated policy, the Truman Doctrine, was not just about supporting the rights of a majority against the armed might of a minority, it also had a strategic bearing to it. Truman stated that it would be "the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." Greece and Turkey UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks became members of NATO, a clear message to Moscow that an attack on either would be deemed by other members of NATO to be an attack on all of them. l

In the immediate post-World War II period, Europe remained ravaged by war and thus susceptible to exploitation by an internal and external Communist threat. In June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall issued a call for a comprehensive program to rebuild Europe. Fanned by the fear of Communist expansion and the rapid deterioration of European economies in the winter of 1946-1947, Congress passed the Economic Cooperation Act in March 1948 and approved funding that would eventually rise to over $12 billion for the rebuilding of Western Europe.

The Marshall Plan generated a resurgence of European industrialization and brought extensive investment into the region. It was also a stimulant to the U.S. economy by establishing markets for American goods. Although the participation of the Soviet Union and East European nations was an initial possibility, Soviet concern over potential U.S. economic domination of its Eastern European satellites and Stalin's unwillingness to open up his secret society to westerners doomed the idea. Furthermore, it is unlikely that the U.S. Congress would have been willing to fund the plan as generously as it did if aid also went to Soviet Bloc Communist nations.

Thus the Marshall Plan was applied solely to Western Europe, precluding any measure of Soviet Bloc cooperation. Increasingly, the economic revival of Western Europe, especially West Germany, was viewed suspiciously in Moscow. The Marshall Plan has been recognized as a great humanitarian effort. The Marshall Plan also institutionalized and legitimized the concept of U.S. foreign aid programs, which have become a integral part of U.S. foreign policy.

NATO l

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was created in 1949. NATO was seen as being a viable military deterrent against the military might of the Soviet Union. In response to NATO admitting the membership of West Germany, the Soviet Union was to gather all its client states in Eastern Europe into the Warsaw Pact in May 1955. The heart of NATO beat around the military and financial muscle of the United States. However, because the post-war Soviet threat was perceived to be against Western Europe, the headquarters of NATO was based in Brussels, Belgium. The original members of NATO were USA, UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, France, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Greece and Turkey joined in 1952.

In 1952 at the Lisbon Conference, member states discussed expanding NATO to 96 divisions, this was in response to the perceived threat of communism after the North Korean invasion of South Korea and the subsequent Korean War. However, in 1953, it was agreed to limit NATO to 35 divisions but with a greater reliability on nuclear weapons. For many years, only America provided the nuclear weaponry for NATO, though both the United Kingdom and France were eventually to produce their own nuclear capability.

France, angered by what they saw as the dominance of America in NATO, effectively withdrew in 1959 and developed her own independent nuclear force. In 1966 all French military forces were withdrawn from NATO's command. France remained a member of NATO but had its armed forces under the control of the French government. However, in secret talks, plans were made to put French forces back under NATO command in the event of an invasion of Western Europe by Warsaw Pact states. In the UK something similar occurred, though the UK was less openly critical

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More At @Aj_ebooks of America's dominance of NATO - and an independent nuclear capability was developed based around the V Force (Vulcan, Victor and Valiant bombers) and the Blue Streak missile development. Both France and the UK developed an independent nuclear submarine capability as well, though the UK purchased US missiles, thus empathising America's importance to Western Europe and NATO. l

To defend the heart of Europe, NATO based a huge land and air force in West Germany. This was a clear response to the Soviet Army that dominated the Warsaw Pact. In 1979, in response to a build-up of Warsaw Pact military strength, NATO agreed to deploy American Cruise and Pershing II missiles in Western Europe. In 1983-84, when the Warsaw Pact deployed SS-20 missiles in Eastern Europe, NATO responded by deploying more modern Pershing missiles. Combined with her nuclear capability, NATO could also call on a formidable conventional force. With such a military capacity, NATO and Western governments were in a strong position to negotiate with Moscow an arms reduction. It was generally considered that the USSR had major financial troubles and could not compete with NATO in the modernisation of its weaponry. This dual approach, reducing weapons while at the same time maintaining a very strong military force, reaped dividends in the era of Gorbachev and Reagan and helped to end the Cold War.

The Korean War l

The Korean War lasted from 1950-1953. What happened in Korea pushed the boundaries of the Cold War towards 'Warm War'. Though America and Russia did not officially clash, client states did in that Communist China fought and was armed and encouraged by Russia. The peninsula was divided after World War Two into a Russian-backed north (The People's Democratic Republic) and the American-backed south (the Republic of Korea). Each claimed the right to the other half in an effort to unify both. The division was the result of the occupation of Korea by the communists after the end of the war with the country eventually being divided at the 38th parallel.

In June 1950, the North Koreans launched a surprise attack against the south and the capital Seoul fell in just three days.

The United Nations Security Council (which was being boycotted by Russia at this time) asked for UN states to send troops to the region under a UN flag. The huge bulk of the troops sent were American (15 nations sent troops) and command of them was given to Gen. Douglas MacArthur. By the end of August 1950 only Pusan in the south-east corner of South Korea had not fallen to the North.

MacArthur chose to advance north towards the Chinese border at the Yalu River. This provoked the Chinese to launch a massive attack against the UN forces and South Korea. A Chinese army of 180,000 men supported by 100,000 reserves forced the UN troops to retreat and Seoul fell once again in January 1951 and the Chinese forces were halted only 60 miles from the 38th Parallel. Between January 1951 and June 1951 a stalemate took place though the UN forces managed to stabilise themselves near the 38th Parallel.

The war became one of static warfare as both sides entrenched their positions. Peace talks started at Panmunjom and lasted for 2 years. Two occurrences helped to move the peace talks, the death of Stalin in 1953 and the replacement of Truman with Eisenhower as US president. An armistice was signed in 1953.Once again a political belief had been fought for the halting of communist UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks expansion in south-east Asia but the superpowers had avoided any direct conflict, a classic occurrence in the Cold War.

The Warsaw Pact l

The Warsaw Pact was the Soviet Union's response to West Germany joining NATO and came into being in May 1955. The Warsaw Pact, named after the meeting to create it was held in Warsaw, was based throughout the Soviet Bloc and troops in it were used in the ending of the 1968 Czech Revolt. The Warsaw Pact, officially the 'Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance', was obviously very much dominated by the Soviet Union. Like NATO, the Warsaw Pact had a political Consultative Committee with a civilian Secretary-General. It also, like NATO, had a commander-in-chief who was the most senior military figure in it. Each member of the Warsaw Pact had to pledge to defend other members if they were attacked.

Whereas the military in NATO was primarily made up of professionals (except for the years when member nations had conscription), the Warsaw Pact very much depended on conscription, whereby young men and women had to serve in their respective country's military. This reliance on enforcement almost certainly undermined the professional capability of the Warsaw Pact, though its overall military capability was never challenged by NATO as neither side ever fought the other. In the west, the Warsaw Pact was demonised as a massive military monster waiting its chance to attack Western Europe. One of the fears NATO had was that the Warsaw Pact probably recognised that her weaponry was more dated than NATO's and that Moscow, if required to, would fall back on the use of nuclear weapons. With the collapse of the Cold War at the end of the 1980's the Warsaw Pact became both unnecessary and unwanted. It ceased to exist on July 1st 1991. Most former member states of the Warsaw Pact have now joined NATO, the one state that has not is the former Soviet Union.

The Suez Crisis, 1956 l

On July 26, 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, the joint British-French enterprise which had owned and operated the Suez Canal since its construction in 1869. Nasser's announcement came about following months of mounting political tensions between Egypt, Britain, and France. Although Nasser offered full economic compensation for the Company, the British and French Governments, long suspicious of Nasser's opposition to the continuation of their political influence in the region, were outraged by the nationalization. The Egyptian leader, in turn, resented what he saw as European efforts to perpetuate their colonial domination.

The Eisenhower administration, worried by the prospect of the outbreak of hostilities between its NATO allies and an emergent, influential Middle Eastern power (and the possible intervention of the Soviet Union in such a conflict), attempted to broker a diplomatic settlement of the BritishFrench-Egyptian dispute. On September 9, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles proposed the creation of a Suez Canal Users' Association (SCUA), an international consortium of 18 of the world's leading maritime nations, to operate the Canal. Although SCUA would have given Britain, France, and Egypt an equal stake in the Canal, this, and various other U.S. and international mediation efforts failed to win the full support of any of the contending powers.

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In discussions with the United States between August and October, the British Government repeatedly hinted that it might resort to force in dealing with Nasser. At the same time, the British and French held secret military consultations with Israel, who regarded Nasser as a threat to its security, resulting in the creation of a joint plan to invade Egypt and overthrow its President. In keeping with these plans, Israeli forces attacked across Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on October 29, 1956, advancing to within 10 miles of the Suez Canal. Under the pretext of protecting the Canal from the two belligerents, Britain and France landed troops of their own a few days later.

In response, the Eisenhower administration, concerned about dissociating the United States from European colonialism, especially in light of its strident condemnation of the Soviet intervention in Hungary the same week, as well as the possibility that the Soviets would intervene to assist Nasser, pressured Britain and France to accept a United Nations ceasefire on November 6. Moreover, the United States voted for U.N. resolutions publicly condemning the invasion and approving the creation of a U.N. peacekeeping force. Washington's public censure of two of its most important allies temporarily soured relations with London and Paris and helped contribute to the resignation of British Prime Minister Anthony Eden in January 1957. Concurrently, U.S. worries about the continued viability of European (particularly British) political and military power in the Middle East in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis prompted the creation of the Eisenhower Doctrine, which gave the administration increased power to aid countries in the region. By March 1957, however, the U.S.U.K. bilateral relationship had recovered under Eden's successor, Harold Macmillan.

The Cuban Missile Crisis l

The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the few times that the 'rules' of the Cold War were nearly forgotten. Berlin, Korea, Hungary and Suez - the 'rules' had been followed. But in Cuba this broke down and the Cuban Missile Crisis was the only time when 'hot war' could have broken out. In the 1950's Cuba was lead by a right-wing dictator called Fulgencio Batista. He dealt with opponents with extreme harshness and while a few prospered under his regime, many Cubans were very poor. He was not tolerant of communists and received the support of the Americans. Batista's sole support within Cuba came from the army which was equipped by the Americans.

Some young Cubans, who had read about socialism and what it offered the poor, reacted against Batista's corruption and oppression. Their first attempt to overthrow the government was a failure and the small group of rebels fled to the Sierra Mastra - a remote area of Cuba. Here they sharpened their tactics and used the most valuable weapon they had; educating the poor in their ways. It was only a matter of time before the 'message' spread to other areas of Cuba and by 1959, the rebels lead by Fidel Castro felt strong enough to overthrow the government of Batista. This they easily achieved as they were aided by popular support.

Castro's first task was to punish those who had abused the poor. Those found guilty were executed. He then nationalised all American firms in Cuba so that their wealth would be invested in Cuba itself rather than leave the island and go to multi-nationals in America. Castro also introduced major land reforms. America reacted by refusing to do any trade with Cuba whatsoever. This trade embargo would have bankrupted the island as her biggest money earner was exporting sugar to America. However, the trade embargo brought the two together as Russia stepped in to buy Cuba's sugar and other exports. The actions of America appear to have driven Castro into the support offered by Russia. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Now with a supporter of communism J F Kennedy decided to give support to the anti-Castro Cubans who had gone to Florida. With CIA funding, a group of armed Cuban exiles tried to land in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 with the sole intention of overthrowing the Castro government. It proved a fiasco - jeeps landed without fuel; no maps of the island being issued; Cuban exiles firing on Cuban exiles. But to Castro, this episode showed him where America stood in relations to Cuba. After the fiasco of the Bay of Pigs episode, Cuba obviously felt threatened by her massively powerful neighbour. Castro started to look for a closer relationship with Russia who could offer her protection. In Sept 1962, anti-Castro Cuban refugees reported to the CIA that there was a build-up of Russian bases in Cuba.

Following American protests, Khruschev, the Russian leader, sent Kennedy two letters both of which sent conflicting messages that the missiles would be withdrawn if Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba and that if USA removed her missiles from Turkey then USSR would remove them from Cuba. These messages left Kennedy confused. Kennedy replied that if USSR was to remove its missiles from Cuba then USA was to end Cuba`s quarantine and promise not to invade Cuba. On October 28th, Khruschev replied that the USSR would remove the missiles. Within 2 months they were gone. The Cuban Missile Crisis was over but it had taken the world to the brink of nuclear war.

The one positive thing to come out of the crisis was the creation of a hot-line between Moscow and Washington to allow for easier communication between the two nations leaders at a time of crisis. This is one of the few examples of the Cold War where the two principle countries actually got involved them against the other. Just one year later in 1963, both nations signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. This treaty stated that neither would explode nuclear bombs during testing in the atmosphere. This was a popular treaty in America and a sign that something positive had come out of the Cuban Crisis, that of a greater respect for each other.

The Malta Summit 1989 l

Both the USSR and USA declared an end to the Cold War after the 1989 Malta Summit. US President George Bush and Mikail Gorbachev met over two days on the Soviet cruise ship 'Maxim Gorky' at a time when communist governments in Eastern Europe were collapsing. Hungary had just opened its border with the West while the new East German government, after the fall of Eric Hoenecker, lasted just seven weeks. Both men announced that there would be a sizeable reduction in troops within Europe as a whole and that a reduction in weaponry would be the main plank of discussions at a meeting scheduled for June 1990. The Malta Summit was considered to be the most important meeting between the USA and USSR since the 1945 Yalta Conference.

Emergence of Third World and NAM l

Non-Alignment is one of those phenomena of international policies which appeared on the international scene after the second world war and which represents an important force in the shaping of the nature of international relations. With number of conferences of non-aligned countries having already taken place, non-alignment has acquired such a position that it necessitates a dispassionate study of its varied aspects in perspective. Such a study becomes all more important because more and more countries, not only of Asia and Africa but also of Europe and Latin America, are queuing up to join the non-aligned group and the monolithic character of both the Communists and the Western camps are showing cracks.

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The term "non- alignment" is of post-1945 origin. The term non-alignment is commonly used to describe newly independent countries of Asian and Africa which were anxious to maintain their independence and protect their separate identities in the era of bipolarization and cold war. In the post-World war II World was mainly divided into two blocs one led by America and other by Soviet Union. But the newly independent countries of Asian and Africa were anxious to preserve their political independence and did not like to join any of these blocs. They were called the Third World/ non-aligned/ developing countries. The policy of non-alignment was first adopted by countries like India, Burma, Ceylon, Egypt and Indonesia. After the Second World War, a large number of countries of Asia and Africa became independent. These newly independent countries refused to join any power or bloc and chose to follow an independent policy in international affairs.

Evolution of Third World l

Eradication of colonialism after world war-II brought an upheaval in international relations. Martan Kaplan has called the third world a loose bipolar system because it stands between the world divided into two blocs one led by America and other by Soviet Union. The former was variously known as capitalists and later as socialist totalitarian bloc. The newly independent countries of Asia and Africa were anxious to preserve their political independence and did not like to join any of these blocs. They were called the third world.

The term third world was first used in 1952 by French demographer Alfred Sauvy. The third world countries wanted to have friendly relations with all without joining blocs. This decision was to a large extent influenced by Jawaharlal Nehru who had assimilated the liberal democratic values of the west as well as had been influenced by the automatic industrialization of the Soviet Union. The role played by Jawaharlal Nehru in the rise of the third world as a political group was abiding and valuable. He considered the politics of blocs harmful for third world.

Efforts for forging unity among Asians and Africans started early in 1947 and in March the same year on suggestion of Nehru a conference was held at New Delhi. Jawaharlal Nehru's convening of the conference on Indonesia in January 1949 in Delhi, to support the cause of Indonesian independence which soon become a fact marked in his own words "a turning point in history".

Another Afro-Asian conference was held in In April, 1955, in which representatives from twentynine governments of Asian and African nations gathered in Bandung, Indonesia to discuss peace and the role of the Third World in the Cold War, economic development, and decolonization. The core principles of the Bandung Conference were political self-determination, mutual respect for sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference in internal affairs, and equality. These issues were of central importance to all participants in the conference, most of which had recently emerged from colonial rule. The governments of Burma, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka cosponsored the Bandung Conference, and they brought together an additional twenty-four nations from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Because the decolonization process was still ongoing, the delegates at the conference took it upon themselves to speak for other colonized peoples (especially in Africa) that had not yet established independent governments. The delegates built upon the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, worked out in negotiations between India and China in 1954, as they sought to build solidarity among recently independent nations.

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These conferences paved the way for the emergence of third world free from evils both of capitalism and Stalinism and able to defend itself on its own. The concept of third world is basically political based on non-alignment. The third world countries are also called developing countries because they are facing the economic and social problems like poverty, starvation, illiteracy and ethnic conflicts. The third world is not a homogenous group. These countries have different political system and level of economic development. But they have similar problems and aspirations and call themselves as non-aligned countries. They have vehemently opposed imperialism, colonialism, apartheid and foreign intervention and have supported peaceful coexistence, right of selfdetermination, disarmament and world peace.

Positive Aspect of NAM o Nationalism: Nationalism was the most important feature of freedom movements in Asian and African countries. It was not the nationalism of the West which means devotion to one's own country or race. Nationalism in East was a movement to obtain freedom after a long struggle. To preserve the freedom the nations were determined to follow a course whereby they may not become tools in the hands of big powers. They preferred to follow policy of nonalignment. o Anti-colonialism: Anti-colonial feeling persisted in the countries of Asia and Africa after they attained the independence. It is largely contributed to the growth of policy of non-alignment. These powers were afraid they may be again subjugated by colonial powers. They were determined to keep off these colonial powers by avoiding membership of blocs and adopting an independent course of action, keeping out of all sorts of alliances.[10] o Underdeveloped and economic aid: The countries of Asia and Africa who gained independence were underdeveloped. They were keen to improve the standard of living of their people and promote systematic development of their country. They needed capital and financial assistance from the powers of both the blocs to achieve their objectives at a fast rate. Therefore, they thought it proper to keep off from political alliances and pursue the policy of non-alignment. o Racial and cultural aspects: Since long colonial powers had fed the Afro-Asian nations with the idea that they were racially as well as culturally backward. The feeling evoked mutual sympathy among people of the newly emerged states of Africa and Asia. Being common victims of economic exploitation and political domination by the European countries they had a sense of affinity which led them to cooperate with each other.[11] o Need of peace for development: Newly independent states wanted to live in peace. Therefore, they concentrated on their development. They decided to keep off from military alliances and the two power blocs. o Strengthening of UNO: Lest it should meet the same fate as the league of Nations or fall victims of cold war rivalry or become an arena of super power tug of war or a battlefield of superpower polarization many Asian-African nations realized that they would be strengthening the UNO and its principles by remaining non-aligned.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Relevance of Non-Alignment in Today's World l

Non-alignment is an important step to reduce the north-south conflict and it gave an impetus to peace and led to a reduction of tension between the super powers at the same time, the third world (south) was in a position to obtain more financial and technical assistance from both the superpowers. In 1991 the USSR was disintegrated into 15 independent republics. The Bi-polar powers ended and now only monopoly power (the USA) is in existence. Therefore, automatically, the importance of NAM has been reduced. Gone are the days of Cold War and more and more AfroAsian states gradually joined the non-alignment. Though the discrimination on the basis of race has disappeared by name, the seeds of discrimination in another form are there. Even though communism has failed in the USSR and the other countries, communist theory is there and it may rise in course of time, when the capitalism failed to satisfy the wants of the people.

The disputes between modern nations are there as they existed previously. The enemity between the enemies has not been eradicated but subsided. Colonialism has almost been eradicated but new forms of colonialism are arrived. Colonies that have managed to win their freedom are increasingly falling a prey to neo colonialism. Neo-Colonialism is the geopolitical practice of using capitalism, business globalization, and cultural imperialism to control a country, in lieu of either direct military control or indirect political control, i.e. imperialism and hegemony. The term neocolonialism describe the socio-economic and political control that can be exercised economically, linguistically, and culturally, whereby promotion of the culture of the neo-colonist country, facilitates the cultural assimilation of the colonised people, and thus opens the national economy to the multinational corporations of the neo-colonial country is much more dangerous than classical colonialism. There is no division among the industrially-developed countries. Now all of them, together, exploit the third world countries with collaboration. Multinational corporations, belonging to the north that still run large industries in the third world are in many ways exploiting the south to their advantage.

The WTO was created in the place of GATT with more powers. In the name of the world trade agreements, the north is training to exploit the south.

In the UNO and its other organs, the north is dominating and tries to establish its supremacy. Under all these circumstances, the non-alignment is required to cooperate among themselves for their economic developments and unite them to fight with the north for a NIEO and for their share in the world trade.

The Non-Alignment has to play a positive and constructive role in the destruction of the neo colonial system, the will to give evidence to the principles of independence and equality of states; the struggle against attempts to divide the world into spheres of influence, the wish to promote the principles of active peaceful co-existence; the aspiration to a new international order which would be based on equality, fairness and justice; deepening and expansion to detent and hence its relevance. We cannot say that non-alignment can bring about equality, justice and peace through summit conferences. The members of the international non-aligned community have to work together much more purposefully in future than in the past to cope up with the combined challenges of politico-economic pressures by affluent nations.

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The non-aligned countries can certainly contribute to the reduction of the rigidity of the bipolar alliances and denigrate the role of nuclear weapons in international politics. If the non-aligned nations challenge the legitimacy of the weapons of mass destruction and brand the use of nuclear weapons as a crime against humanity, the super powers shall not be able to flout the world opinion. This may ultimately pave the way for the conclusion of the universal convention forbidding the use of the nuclear weapons. It is said that 21st century would involve economic war.

In today's context, issues of world importance are environmental pollution, economic crises etc. NAM has tried to concentrate on environmental pollution in Lusaka and Algiers summits by proposing NIEO. This makes it obvious that NAM is working towards establishing peaceful, socialist world system and then brightening the future of undeveloped countries. At the summit in Bali, Indonesia (14-15 May, 1992) they posed doubts that end of East-West collision would give rise to NorthSouth collision. Cold war may revive in the form of North -South collision. Thus in the new international political context, significance of NAM has been enhanced. Actually Nam is the 2nd largest stage after UNO. From this viewpoint NAM could play a significant role in world politics. Only NAM could save world community from monopoly of America, otherwise, American influence would be established over whole world. Today it has become more important to provide UNO with more democratic skeleton.[51] NAM can work this out. It can also become the face of world in field of disarmament and this would also make sure that superpowers do not make the third world countries a hub of destructive weapons.

Disintegration of Soviet Union l

On Christmas Day 1991, the Soviet flag flew over the Kremlin in Moscow for the last time. A few days earlier, representatives from 11 Soviet republics (Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) met in the Kazakh city of Alma-Ata and announced that they would no longer be part of the Soviet Union. Instead, they declared they would establish a Commonwealth of Independent States. Because the three Baltic republics (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) had already declared their independence from the USSR, only one of its 15 republics, Georgia, remained. The once-mighty Soviet Union had fallen, largely due to the great number of radical reforms that Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev had implemented during his six years as the leader of the USSR. However, Gorbachev was disappointed in the dissolution of his nation and resigned from his job on December 25. It was a peaceful end to a long, terrifying and sometimes bloody epoch in world history.

The Origins and Evolution of the Soviet State l

The Soviet state was born in 1917. That year, the revolutionary Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian czar and established a socialist state in the territory that had once belonged to the Russian empire. In 1922, Russia proper joined its far-flung republics in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The first leader of this Soviet state was the Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.

The Soviet Union was supposed to be "a society of true democracy," but in many ways it was no less repressive than the czarist autocracy that preceded it. It was ruled by a single party, the Communist Party, which demanded the allegiance of every Russian citizen. After 1924, when the dictator Joseph Stalin came to power, the state exercised totalitarian control over the economy,

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More At @Aj_ebooks administering all industrial activity and establishing collective farms. It also controlled every aspect of political and social life. People who argued against Stalin's policies were arrested and sent to labor camps or executed. l

After Stalin's death in 1953, Soviet leaders denounced his brutal policies but maintained the Community Party's power. They focused in particular on the Cold War with Western powers, engaging in a costly and destructive "arms race" with the United States while exercising military force to suppress anticommunism and extend its hegemony in Eastern Europe.

Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost and Perestroika l

In March 1985, a longtime Communist Party politician named Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the leadership of the USSR He inherited a stagnant economy and a political structure that made reform all but impossible.

Gorbachev introduced two sets of policies that he hoped would help the USSR become a more prosperous, productive nation. The first of these was known as glasnost, or political openness. Glasnost eliminated traces of Stalinist repression, like the banning of books and the omnipresent secret police, and gave new freedoms to Soviet citizens. Political prisoners were released. Newspapers could print criticisms of the government. For the first time, parties other than the Communist Party could participate in elections.

The second set of reforms was known as perestroika, or economic restructuring. The best way to revive the Soviet economy, Gorbachev thought, was to loosen the government's grip on it. He believed that private initiative would lead to innovation, so individuals and cooperatives were allowed to own businesses for the first time since the 1920s. Workers were given the right to strike for better wages and conditions. Gorbachev also encouraged foreign investment in Soviet enterprises.

However, these reforms were slow to bear fruit. Perestroika had torpedoed the "command economy" that had kept the Soviet state afloat, but the market economy took time to mature. (In his farewell address, Gorbachev summed up the problem: "The old system collapsed before the new one had time to begin working.") Rationing, shortages and endless queuing for scarce goods seemed to be the only results of Gorbachev's policies. As a result, people grew more and more frustrated with his government.

The Revolutions of 1989 and the Fall of the Soviet Union l

Gorbachev believed that a better Soviet economy depended on better relationships with the rest of the world, especially the United States. Even as President Reagan called the USSR the "Evil Empire" and launched a massive military buildup, Gorbachev vowed to bow out of the arms race. He announced that he would withdraw Soviet troops from Afghanistan, where they had been fighting a war since 1979, and he reduced the Soviet military presence in the Warsaw Pact nations of Eastern Europe.

This policy of nonintervention had important consequences for the Soviet Union-but first, it caused the Eastern European alliances to, as Gorbachev put it, "crumble like a dry saltine cracker in just a few months." The first revolution of 1989 took place in Poland, where the non-Communist trade unionists in the Solidarity movement bargained with the Communist government for freer elections in which they enjoyed great success. This, in turn, sparked peaceful revolutions across Eastern UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Europe. The Berlin Wall fell in November; that same month, the "velvet revolution" in Czechoslovakia overthrew that country's Communist government. (In December, however, violence reigned: A firing squad executed Romania's Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceaucescu, and his wife). l

This atmosphere of possibility soon enveloped the Soviet Union itself. Frustration with the bad economy combined with Gorbachev's hands-off approach to Soviet satellites to inspire a series of independence movements in the republics on the USSR's fringes. One by one, the Baltic states (Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia) declared their independence from Moscow. Then, in early December, the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine broke away from the USSR and created the Commonwealth of Independent States. Weeks later, they were followed by eight of the nine remaining republics. (Georgia joined two years later.) At last, the mighty Soviet Union had fallen.

Consolidation and Expansion of European Union l

The unification of Europe is significant as a source of institutional innovation that may yield some answers to the crisis of the nation-state. This is because, around the process of formation of the European Union, new forms of governance, and new institutions of government, are being created at the European, national, regional, and local levels. Together, they are inducing a new form of state. However, the actual content of this unification, and the actors involved in it, are still unclear, and will be so for some time. It is precisely this ambiguity that makes unification possible, while characterising its process as a debate rather than a blueprint.

The Stages of European Evolution: The European Union resulted from three outbursts of political initiatives and institution-building, aimed at defending the participating countries against three perceived series of threats in three historical moments: the 1950s, the 1980s, and the 1990s. In all three cases, the goal was primarily political, and the means to reach this goal were, mainly, economic measures.

In 1948, the essential goal of European integration was to avoid a new war. For this, a permanent accommodation had to be found with Germany. Furthermore, the Cold War called for an economically strong, politically stable Western Europe. The first move toward European integration was the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) created in Paris, in April 1951, which made autonomous national development impossible in the industries that, at the same time, were strategically central to any future war effort. This initiative led to the two Treaties of Rome, and the European Economic Community, oriented toward improving trade and investment among the six nations.

The 1973 and 1979 economic crises ushered in an era of euro-pessimism. The inclusion of Greece, in 1981, and particularly that of Spain and Portugal in 1986, brought in some dynamic new players. Yet it was the feeling that Europe could become an economic and technological colony of American and Japanese companies that led to the second major defensive reaction, represented by the Single European Act (SEA) of 1987, setting up steps towards the constitution of a truly unified market by 1992. Broader powers were given to the European Commission; the European Council (representing heads of executives) obtained majority voting procedures in several key domains; and the European Parliament received some limited powers.

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The overall geopolitical environment suddenly changed again on 9 November, 1989, prompting another round of European construction. The end of the Cold War allowed a newly unified Germany with eighty million people and thirty per cent of the European Community's GNP, to be truly independent of the tutelage under which it had been kept for over four decades by the victors of World War II. The essence of the negotiations amounted to fully integrating the German economy with the rest of Europe, by moving toward a single European currency, the euro, and an independent, European Central Bank.

The Modern-Day EU l

Throughout the 1990s, the "single market" idea allowed easier trade, more citizen interaction on issues such as the environment and security, and easier travel through the different countries. Even though the countries of Europe had various treaties in place prior to the early 1990s, this time is generally recognized as the period when the modern day European Union arose due to the Treaty of Maastricht on European Union which was signed on February 7, 1992 and put into action on November 1, 1993. The Treaty of Maastricht identified five goals designed to unify Europe in more ways than just economically. The goals are: o To strengthen the democratic governing of participating nations. o To improve the efficiency of the nations. o To establish an economic and financial unification. o To develop the "Community social dimension." o To establish a security policy for involved nations.

In order to reach these goals, the Treaty of Maastricht has various policies dealing with issues such as industry, education, and youth. In addition, the Treaty put a single European currency, the euro, in the works to establish fiscal unification in 1999. In 2004 and 2007, the EU expanded, bringing the total number of member states as of 2008 to 27.

In December 2007, all of the member nations signed the Treaty of Lisbon in hopes of making the EU more democratic and efficient to deal with climate change, national security, and sustainable development.

Latin America- Simon Bolivar l

Simón Bolívar was a South American soldier who was instrumental in the continent's revolutions against the Spanish empire. Born into wealth, Bolívar was sent to Spain for his education, soon deciding to immerse himself in the political sphere in Europe. After France invaded Spain in 1808, he became involved in the resistance movement and played a key role in the Spanish American fight for independence. In 1825, the "Republic of Bolivia" was created in honor of the inspirational leader, hailed by many as El Libertador (The Liberator). He died on December 17, 1830 in Colombia.

'El Libertador' l

Bólivar returned to Europe and kept company with Napoleon. Bolívar returned to Venezuela in 1807. When Napoleon named Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain and its colonies, which included Venezuela, Bolívar joined the resistance movement. The resistance group based in Caracas gained independence in 1810, and Bolívar traveled to Britain on a diplomatic mission. The fight for control UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks of Caracas, Venezuela and most of South American continued on back home. Finally, Bolívar returned to Venezuela and began a campaign to wrest control of that country from the Spanish. He and his followers invaded Venezuela on May 14, 1813; this marked the beginning of his "Compana Admirable" (Admirable Campaign), which resulted in the formation of the Venezuelan Second Republic later that year. Bolívar was hailed as El Libertador (The Liberator), though civil war soon erupted in the republic, forcing him to flee to Jamaica and seek foreign aid. There he wrote his famous "Letter from Jamaica," detailing his vision of a South American republic with a parliamentary setup modeled after England and a life-long president. His idea of being a nation's chief who could not be removed from power would be heavily critiqued by other leaders and intellectuals. l

Gaining support from Haiti, Bolívar returned to his home continent and became involved in a number of military battles, eventually able to claim several territories. 1821 saw the creation of the Gran Colombia, under Bolívar's leadership. This federation included much of what are now Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador. Further maneuvers saw him named Dictator of Peru in 1824, followed by the creation of Bolivia in 1825.

Later Years, Death and Legacy l

Bolívar had succeeded in uniting much of South America in a federation free from Spanish control, but the government was fragile. Despite his desire to create a union of states similar to that which created the United States of America, Bolívar faced opposition from internal factions throughout the huge Gran Colombia, with there being a push to form single nations. As a temporary measure, Bolívar declared himself dictator in 1828, though in September of the same year he escaped an assassination attempt with aid from his mistress and fellow revolutionary Manuela Sáenz. He resigned this post in 1830 and made plans to sail for exile in Europe. On December 17, 1830, however, Simón Bolívar died in Santa Marta, Colombia, after a battle with what may have been tuberculosis.

Today, Bolívar's legacy can be seen in the multitude of statues and plaza squares bearing his likeness throughout South and North America. Several cities and towns throughout the United States are named in his honor and statues and roads bearing his name can be found in a variety of international locales, including Egypt, Australia and Turkey.

SOUTH AFRICA- APARTHEID l

After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white government immediately began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation under a system of legislation that it called apartheid. Under apartheid, nonwhite South Africans (a majority of the population) would be forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities, and contact between the two groups would be limited. Despite strong and consistent opposition to apartheid within and outside of South Africa, its laws remained in effect for the better part of 50 years. In 1991, the government of President F.W. de Klerk began to repeal most of the legislation that provided the basis for apartheid.

Birth of Apartheid l

Racial segregation and white supremacy had become central aspects of South African policy long before apartheid began. The controversial 1913 Land Act, passed three years after South Africa

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More At @Aj_ebooks gained its independence, marked the beginning of territorial segregation by forcing black Africans to live in reserves and making it illegal for them to work as sharecroppers. Opponents of the Land Act formed the South African National Native Congress, which would become the African National Congress (ANC). The Great Depression and World War II brought increasing economic woes to South Africa, and convinced the government to strengthen its policies of racial segregation. In 1948, the Afrikaner National Party won the general election under the slogan "apartheid" (literally "separateness"). Their goal was not only to separate South Africa's white minority from its nonwhite majority, but also to separate non-whites from each other, and to divide black South Africans along tribal lines in order to decrease their political power.

Apartheid Becomes Law l

By 1950, the government had banned marriages between whites and people of other races, and prohibited sexual relations between black and white South Africans. The Population Registration Act of 1950 provided the basic framework for apartheid by classifying all South Africans by race, including Bantu (black Africans), Coloured (mixed race) and white. A fourth category, Asian (meaning Indian and Pakistani) was later added. In some cases, the legislation split families; parents could be classified as white, while their children were classified as colored. A series of Land Acts set aside more than 80 percent of the country's land for the white minority, and "pass laws" required non-whites to carry documents authorizing their presence in restricted areas. In order to limit contact between the races, the government established separate public facilities for whites and non-whites, limited the activity of nonwhite labor unions and denied non-white participation in national government.

Apartheid and Separate Development l

Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, who became prime minister in 1958, would refine apartheid policy further into a system he referred to as "separate development." The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 created 10 Bantu homelands known as Bantustans. Separating black South Africans from each other enabled the government to claim there was no black majority, and reduced the possibility that blacks would unify into one nationalist organization. Every black South African was designated as a citizen as one of the Bantustans, a system that supposedly gave them full political rights, but effectively removed them from the nation's political body. In one of the most devastating aspects of apartheid, the government forcibly removed black South Africans from rural areas designated as "white" to the homelands, and sold their land at low prices to white farmers. From 1961 to 1994, more than 3.5 million people were forcibly removed from their homes and deposited in the Bantustans, where they were plunged into poverty and hopelessness.

Opposition to Apartheid l

Resistance to apartheid within South Africa took many forms over the years, from non-violent demonstrations, protests and strikes to political action and eventually to armed resistance. Together with the South Indian National Congress, the ANC organized a mass meeting in 1952, during which attendees burned their pass books. A group calling itself the Congress of the People adopted a Freedom Charter in 1955 asserting that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black or white." The government broke up the meeting and arrested 150 people, charging them with high treason. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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In 1960, at the black township of Sharpesville, the police opened fire on a group of unarmed blacks associated with the Pan-African Congress (PAC), an offshoot of the ANC. The group had arrived at the police station without passes, inviting arrest as an act of resistance. At least 67 blacks were killed and more than 180 wounded. Sharpesville convinced many anti-apartheid leaders that they could not achieve their objectives by peaceful means, and both the PAC and ANC established military wings, neither of which ever posed a serious military threat to the state. By 1961, most resistance leaders had been captured and sentenced to long prison terms or executed. Nelson Mandela, a founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation"), the military wing of the ANC, was incarcerated from 1963 to 1990; his imprisonment would draw international attention and help garner support for the anti-apartheid cause.

Apartheid Comes to an End l

In 1976, when thousands of black children in Soweto, a black township outside Johannesburg, demonstrated against the Afrikaans language requirement for black African students, the police opened fire with tear gas and bullets. The protests and government crackdowns that followed, combined with a national economic recession, drew more international attention to South Africa and shattered all illusions that apartheid had brought peace or prosperity to the nation. The United Nations General Assembly had denounced apartheid in 1973, and in 1976 the UN Security Council voted to impose a mandatory embargo on the sale of arms to South Africa. In 1985, the United Kingdom and United States imposed economic sanctions on the country. Under pressure from the international community, the National Party government of Pieter Botha sought to institute some reforms, including abolition of the pass laws and the ban on interracial sex and marriage. The reforms fell short of any substantive change, however, and by 1989 Botha was pressured to step aside in favor of F.W. de Klerk. De Klerk's government subsequently repealed the Population Registration Act, as well as most of the other legislation that formed the legal basis for apartheid. A new constitution, which enfranchised blacks and other racial groups, took effect in 1994, and elections that year led to a coalition government with a nonwhite majority, marking the official end of the apartheid system.

VIETNAM WAR l

The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States (with the aid of the South Vietnamese) attempting to prevent the spread of communism. Engaged in a war that many viewed as having no way to win, U.S. leaders lost the American public's support for the war. Since the end of the war, the Vietnam War has become a benchmark for what not to do in all future U.S. foreign conflicts.

Ho Chi Minh Comes Home l

There had been fighting in Vietnam for decades before the Vietnam War began. The Vietnamese had suffered under French colonial rule for nearly six decades when Japan invaded portions of Vietnam in 1940. It was in 1941, when Vietnam had two foreign powers occupying them, that communist Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh arrived back in Vietnam after spending

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More At @Aj_ebooks thirty years traveling the world. Having gained support for their cause in northern Vietnam, the Viet Minh announced the establishment of an independent Vietnam with a new government called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945. The French, however, were not willing to give up their colony so easily and fought back. For years, Ho had tried to court the United States to support him against the French, including supplying the U.S. with military intelligence about the Japanese during World War II. Despite this aid, the United States was fully dedicated to their Cold War foreign policy of containment, which meant preventing the spread of Communism. This fear of the spread of Communism was heightened by the U.S. "domino theory," which stated that if one country in Southeast Asia fell to Communism then surrounding countries would also soon fall. To help prevent Vietnam from becoming a communist country, the U.S. decided to help France defeat Ho and his revolutionaries by sending the French military aid in 1950.

France Steps Out, U.S. Steps In l

In 1954, after suffering a decisive defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the French decided to pull out of Vietnam. At the Geneva Conference of 1954, a number of nations met to determine how the French could peacefully withdraw. The agreement that came out of the conference (called the Geneva Accords) stipulated a cease fire for the peaceful withdrawal of French forces and the temporary division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel (which split the country into communist North Vietnam and non-communist South Vietnam). In addition, a general democratic election was to be held in 1956 that would reunite the country under one government. The United States refused to agree to the election, fearing the communists might win. With help from the United States, South Vietnam carried out the election only in South Vietnam rather than countrywide. After eliminating most of his rivals, Ngo Dinh Diem was elected. His leadership, however, proved so horrible that he was killed in 1963 during a coup supported by the United States..

First U.S. Ground Troops Sent to Vietnam l

As the fighting between the Viet Cong and the South Vietnamese continued, the U.S. continued to send additional advisers to South Vietnam. When the North Vietnamese fired directly upon two U.S. ships in international waters on August 2 and 4, 1964 (known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident), Congress responded with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This resolution gave the President the authority to escalate U.S. involvement in Vietnam. President Lyndon Johnson used that authority to order the first U.S. ground troops to Vietnam in March 1965.

Johnson's Plan for Success l

President Johnson's goal for U.S. involvement in Vietnam was not for the U.S. to win the war, but for U.S. troops to bolster South Vietnam's defenses until South Vietnam could take over. By entering the Vietnam War without a goal to win, Johnson set the stage for future public and troop disappointment when the U.S. found themselves in a stalemate with the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. From 1965 to 1969, the U.S. was involved in a limited war in Vietnam. Although there were aerial bombings of the North, President Johnson wanted the fighting to be limited to South Vietnam. By limiting the fighting parameters, the U.S. forces would not conduct a serious ground assault into the North to attack the communists directly nor would there be any strong effort to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Viet Cong's supply path that ran through Laos and Cambodia). UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Surprise Attack l

On January 30, 1968, the North Vietnamese surprised both the U.S. forces and the South Vietnamese by orchestrating a coordinated assault with the Viet Cong to attack about a hundred South Vietnamese cities and towns. Although the U.S. forces and the South Vietnamese army were able to repel the assault known as the Tet Offensive, this attack proved to Americans that the enemy was stronger and better organized than they had been led to believe. The Tet Offensive was a turning point in the war because President Johnson, faced now with an unhappy American public and bad news from his military leaders in Vietnam, decided to no longer escalate the war.

Nixon's Plan for "Peace with Honor" l

In 1969, Richard Nixon became the new U.S. President and he had his own plan to end U.S. involvement in Vietnam. President Nixon outlined a plan called Vietnamization, which was a process to remove U.S. troops from Vietnam while handing back the fighting to the South Vietnamese. The withdrawal of U.S. troops began in July 1969. To bring a faster end to hostilities, President Nixon also expanded the war into other countries, such as Laos and Cambodia, a move that created thousands of protests. To work toward peace, new peace talks began in Paris on January 25, 1969.

When the U.S. had withdrawn most of its troops from Vietnam, the North Vietnamese staged another massive assault, called the Easter Offensive (also called the Spring Offensive), on March 30, 1972. North Vietnamese troops crossed over the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at the 17th parallel and invaded South Vietnam. The remaining U.S. forces and the South Vietnamese army fought back.

The Paris Peace Accords l

On January 27, 1973, the peace talks in Paris finally succeeded in producing a cease-fire agreement. The last U.S. troops left Vietnam on March 29, 1973, knowing they were leaving a weak South Vietnam who would not be able to withstand another major communist North Vietnam attack.

Reunification of Vietnam l

After the U.S. had withdrawn all its troops, the fighting continued in Vietnam. In early 1975, North Vietnam made another big push south which toppled the South Vietnamese government. South Vietnam officially surrendered to communist North Vietnam on April 30, 1975. On July 2, 1976, Vietnam was reunited as a communist country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

DECOLONIZATION OF ASIA AND AFRICA, 1945-1960 l

Between 1945 and 1960, three dozen new states in Asia and Africa achieved autonomy or outright independence from their European colonial rulers. There was no one process of decolonization. In some areas, it was peaceful, and orderly. In many others, independence was achieved only after a protracted revolution. A few newly independent countries acquired stable governments almost immediately; others were ruled by dictators or military juntas for decades, or endured long civil wars. Some European governments welcomed a new relationship with their former colonies; others contested decolonization militarily. The process of decolonization coincided with the new Cold War

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More At @Aj_ebooks between the Soviet Union and the United States, and with the early development of the new United Nations. The creation of so many new countries, some of which occupied strategic locations, others of which possessed significant natural resources, and most of which were desperately poor, altered the composition of the United Nations and political complexity of every region of the globe. In the mid to late 19th century, the European powers colonized much of Africa and Southeast Asia. During the decades of imperialism, the industrializing powers of Europe viewed the African and Asian continents as reservoirs of raw materials, labor, and territory for future settlement. In most cases, however, significant development and European settlement in these colonies was sporadic. However, the colonies were exploited, sometimes brutally, for natural and labor resources, and sometimes even for military conscripts. In addition, the introduction of colonial rule drew arbitrary natural boundaries where none had existed before, dividing ethnic and linguistic groups and natural features, and laying the foundation for the creation of numerous states lacking geographic, linguistic, ethnic, or political affinity. l

During World War II Japan, itself a significant imperial power, drove the European powers out of Asia. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, local nationalist movements in the former Asian colonies campaigned for independence rather than a return to European colonial rule. In many cases, as in Indonesia and French Indochina, these nationalists had been guerrillas fighting the Japanese after European surrenders, or were former members of colonial military establishments. These independence movements often appealed to the United States Government for support. While the United States generally supported the concept of national self-determination, it also had strong ties to its European allies, who had imperial claims on their former colonies. The Cold War only served to complicate the U.S. position, as U.S. support for decolonization was offset by American concern over communist expansion and Soviet strategic ambitions in Europe. Several of the NATO allies asserted that their colonial possessions provided them with economic and military strength that would otherwise be lost to the alliance. Nearly all of the United States' European allies believed that after their recovery from World War II their colonies would finally provide the combination of raw materials and protected markets for finished goods that would cement the colonies to Europe. Whether or not this was the case, the alternative of allowing the colonies to slip away, perhaps into the United States' economic sphere or that of another power, was unappealing to every European government interested in postwar stability. Although the U.S. Government did not force the issue, it encouraged the European imperial powers to negotiate an early withdrawal from their overseas colonies. The United States granted independence to the Philippines in 1946.

However, as the Cold War competition with the Soviet Union came to dominate U.S. foreign policy concerns in the late 1940s and 1950s, the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations grew increasingly concerned that as the European powers lost their colonies or granted them independence, Sovietsupported communist parties might achieve power in the new states. This might serve to shift the international balance of power in favor of the Soviet Union and remove access to economic resources from U.S. allies. Events such as the Indonesian struggle for independence from the Netherlands (1945-50), the Vietnamese war against France (1945-54), and the nationalist and professed socialist takeovers of Egypt (1952) and Iran (1951) served to reinforce such fears, even if new governments did not directly link themselves to the Soviet Union. Thus, the United States used aid packages, UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks technical assistance and sometimes even military intervention to encourage newly independent nations in the Third World to adopt governments that aligned with the West. The Soviet Union deployed similar tactics in an effort to encourage new nations to join the communist bloc, and attempted to convince newly decolonized countries that communism was an intrinsically nonimperialist economic and political ideology. Many of the new nations resisted the pressure to be drawn into the Cold War, joined in the "nonaligned movement," which formed after the Bandung conference of 1955, and focused on internal development. l

The newly independent nations that emerged in the 1950s and the 1960s became an important factor in changing the balance of power within the United Nations. In 1946, there were 35 member states in the United Nations; as the newly independent nations of the "third world" joined the organization, by 1970 membership had swelled to 127. These new member states had a few characteristics in common; they were non-white, with developing economies, facing internal problems that were the result of their colonial past, which sometimes put them at odds with European countries and made them suspicious of European-style governmental structures, political ideas, and economic institutions. These countries also became vocal advocates of continuing decolonization, with the result that the UN Assembly was often ahead of the Security Council on issues of self-governance and decolonization. The new nations pushed the UN toward accepting resolutions for independence for colonial states and creating a special committee on colonialism, demonstrating that even though some nations continued to struggle for independence, in the eyes of the international community, the colonial era was ending. p p p

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ART & CULTURE Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites Remains Act (2017 amendment) : 1. amends 2010 act, to allow construction for public purpose (communication/ transportation etc) within 100 m No-construction zones around national monuments 2013 CAG report 1. 1/3rd National monuments encroached. Lack of manpower to guard them. 2. Deterioration due to pollution

Champaran 1917 (first CDM under Gandhi) 1. Khurki system, British planters used to pay money to ryots by mortgaging their lands and compelling them to sow indigo. 2. Teen Kahitya system - teen katha land out of one bigha was reserved for indigo (Neel) farming. 3. Rajendra Prasad, Acharya J.P Kriplani, Brij Kishor Prasad and Maulana Mazrul Haq joined Gandhiji to resolve issues.

Paika rebellion -Odisha 1. 200 years ago in 1817, a valiant uprising of soldiers led by Buxi Jagabandhu (Bidyadhar Mohapatra) took place in Khurda. 2.

It took place when British East India Co. wrested rent-free land given to Paiks for their military service to Kingdom of Khurda

Padmavati is based on fictionalised epic poem, written in 1540 C.E. by Malik Muhammad Jayasi. The poem deals with the 1303 C.E. siege of Chittorgarh by Delhi Sultan Ala-u-din Khilji, who was allegedly motivated by his desire for Queen Padmini. Padmini, who is believed to have committed jauhar (self-immolation) instead of falling in the hands of the Sultan after Chittorgarh fell to the invaders.

Rabindranath Tagore Idea and approach to Nationalism: 1. He was a renowned Bengali poet, and Asia’s first Nobel Laureate. 2. In his critique of Nationalism he highlighted materialist, commercial & profiteering face of Nationalism. 3. In 1905, he participated in Swadeshi movement by writing patriotic songs against injustice & irrationality of British act of Partitioning of Bengal. But soon after when the movement turned violent he turned his face. 4. He even returned his Knighthood in Opposition to Jalianwala massacre 1919. 5. Tagore maintained that British colonialism found its justification in the ideology of nationalism, as the colonisers came to India and other rich pastures of the world to plunder and so further the prosperity of their own nation. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks 6. Tagore saw Indian Nationalism as sort of a Xenophobia where Indians were asking British to leave. He said that the British as people may stay here and India is more than capable of giving them a place. But Indians have much to learn from the West. Their values can be combined with ours to make ourselves better. So, he refused the argument that Indian values of 3000 year old are stronger and more valid that the British ones. He said that Indians have such class divisions within that to overlook them and argue for abolition of class division between the British and the Indians is hypocrisy. 7. He protested vehemently against Ramsay McDonald’s’ 1932 Communal Awards. 8. He was also an unifying force among national leaders like Nehru and Bose. Gandhi named him as “Mahatma”. 9. As a fighter of imperialism and supporter of equality he supported ideals of Communism and also was disillusioned by the Militant nationalism that came in the backdrop of partition. 10. A preacher of unified India ingrained in the national anthem of our country.

Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya (Mahamana) 1. Eminent educationist, politician , Bharat Ratna. 2. founder of Banaras Hindu University (1916). 3. one of early leaders of Hindu Mahasabha (founded by V D Savarkar) but was a passionate advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity 4. BJP/RSS have its origins in Hindu Mahasabha. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a precursor to BJP. 5. Gandhiji gave him the title “Mahamana” 6. He popularised the phrase Satyameva Jayate, from the Mundaka Upanishad, which means Truth Alone Triumphs. 7. He was an avid journalist and writer, he launched an English newspaper, The Leader. He was chairman of Hindustan Times. 8. Congress President 4 times. Opposed Congress’ participation in Khilafat movement. Formed Congress Nationalist Party 1934.

Women Freedom fighters and their contribution in later half of 20th century 1. Indira Gandhi - First Women PM. Under her India experienced Green/White revolution, became nuclear power 2. Vijay Laxmi Pandit - 1st women president of UNGA, ambassador to US/USSR and balancing India during cold war 3. Vibha Farooqui - estb National Federation Indian Women, which pioneered village empowerment work for women aiding in economic participation and social emancipation 4. Sucheta Kriplani - 1st women CM of an India state 5. Aruna Asaf Ali - Participated in CDM, QIM. Post independence she played role of an able diplomat and campaigned for world peace. Received Int’l Lenin Peace Prize 1964 and Bhart Ratna 1997

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More At @Aj_ebooks Role of foreign women in freedom struggle 1. Annie Besant - home rule movt 1916, also helped in spreading education 2. Sister Nivedita - follower of swami Vivekananda, critic of Bengal partition and British for poor state of Indian economy 3. Madeline sade - aka mira ben, undertook khadi tour and popularized Gandhian campaign throughout world. 4. Mirra Alfassa(The Mother) - She played an important role in motivating women like Annie Besant and Nellie Sen Gupta through her spiritual teachings.Worked with Sri Aurobindo in his ashram.

Prehistoric Rock Paintings in India l

The distant past when there was no paper or language or the written word, and hence no books or written document, is called as the Prehistoric period.

Piecing together of information deduced from old tools, habitat, bones of both animals and human beings and drawings on the cave walls scholars have constructed fairly accurate knowledge about what happened and how people lived in prehistoric times.

Paintings and drawings were the oldest art forms practiced by human beings to express themselves using the cave wall as their canvas.

(1) Paleolithic Age Art l

The prehistoric period in the early development of human beings is commonly known as the ‘Old Stone Age’ or ‘Palaeolithic Age’.

We did not get any evidence of paintings from lower or middle paleolithic age yet.

In the Upper Palaeolithic period, we see a proliferation of artistic activities.

Subjects of early works confined to simple human figures, human activities, geometric designs, and symbols.

Paintings found here can be divided into three categories: Man, Animal, and Geometric symbols.

Some of the characteristics of these early paintings are: 1. Human beings are represented in a stick-like form. 2. A long-snouted animal, a fox, a multi-legged lizard are main animal motifs in the early paintings (later many animals were drawn). 3. Wavy lines, rectangular filled geometric designs and a group of dots also can be seen. 4. Superimposition of paintings – earliest is Black, then red and later White.

In the late historic, early historic and Neolithic period the subjects of paintings developed and figures like Bulls, Elephants, Sambhars, Gazelles, Sheep, Horses, styled human beings, tridents and rarely vegetal motifs began to see.

The richest paintings are reported from Vindhya range of Madhya Pradesh and their Kaimurean extension into U.P.

These hills are fully Palaeolithic and Mesolithic remains. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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There are two major sites of excellent prehistoric paintings in India: (1) Bhimbetka Caves, Foothills of Vindhya, Madhya Pradesh. (2) Jogimara caves, Amarnath, Madhya Pradesh.

Bhimbetka Caves l

Continuous occupation of the caves from 100,000 B.C– 1000 A.D

Thus, it is considered as an evidence of long cultural continuity.

Consists of nearly 400 painted rock shelters in five clusters. Paintings are linear representations, in green and dark red, of huge animal figures, such as Bisons, Tigers, Elephants, Rhinos and Boars beside stick-like human figures.

Mostly they are filled with geometric patterns.

Green paintings are of dances and red ones of hunters.

(2) Mesolithic period Art: l

The largest number of paintings belongs to this period.

Themes multiply but the paintings are small in size.

Hunting scenes predominate

Hunters in groups armed with barbed spears pointed sticks, arrows, and bows.

Trap and snares used to catch animals can be seen in some paintings.

Mesolithic people loved to point animals.

In some pictures, animals are chasing men and in others, they are being chased by hunter men.

Animals painted in a naturalistic style and humans were depicted in a stylistic manner.

Women are painted both in nude and clothed.

Young and old equally find places in paintings.

Community dances provide a common theme.

Sort of family life can be seen in some paintings (woman, man, and children).

(3) Chalcolithic period Art: l

Copper age art.

The paintings of this period reveal the association, contact and mutual exchange of requirements of the cave dwellers of this area with settled agricultural communities of the Malwa Plateau.

Pottery and metal tools can be seen in paintings.

Similarities with rock paintings: Common motifs (designs/patterns like cross-hatched squares, lattices etc)

The difference with rock paintings: Vividness and vitality of older periods disappear from these paintings.

Some of the general features of Prehistoric paintings l

Used colours, including various shades of white, yellow, orange, red ochre, purple, brown, green and black.

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But white and red were their favourite.

The paints used by these people were made by grinding various coloured rocks.

They got red from haematite (Geru in India).

Green prepared from a green coloured rock called Chalcedony.

White was probably from Limestone.

Some sticky substances such as animal fat or gum or resin from trees may be used while mixing rock powder with water.

Brushes were made of plant fiber

Use of many geometrical patterns.

Scenes were mainly hunting and economic and social life of people.

The figure of flora, fauna, human, mythical creatures, carts, chariots etc can be seen.

More importance for red and white colours.

Arts of Indus Valley Civilization l

The arts of Indus Valley civilisation, one of the earliest civilisations of the world, emerged during the second half of the third millennium (Bronze Age).

The forms of art f ound from various sites of civilisation include sculptures, seals, pottery, goldornaments, terracotta figures, etc.

Their delineation of human and animal figures was highly realistic in nature.

Modelling of figures was done in an extremely careful manner.

Two major sites of Indus Valley civilization, along the river Indus are: North – cities of Harappa; South – Mohenjo-Daro.

The site showcase one of the earliest examples of civic planning.

Houses, markets, storage facilities, offices, etc. arranged in a grid-like pattern.

In this pattern, roads were cut across one another in 90-degree angle and the city was divided into blocks.

There was also a highly developed drainage system.

While Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro are situated in Pakistan, the important sites excavated in India are: p

Lothal, Surkotada, Dholavira – Gujarat

Rakhigarh and Banwali – Haryana

Ropar – Punjab

Kalibangan and Balatha – Rajasthan

Materials used: Stone, Bronze, Terracotta, Clay etc. The arts of Indus valley which are excavated yet are: Stone Statues: l

Stone statues found in Indus valley sites are excellent examples of handling the 3D volume. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Two major stone statues are:

1. Bearded Man (Priest Man, Priest-King) l

Found in Mohenjo-Daro.

Bearded man’s figure made of Steatite.

The figure interpreted as a priest and is draped in a shawl coming under the right arm and covering the left shoulder.

The shawl is decorated with trefoil pattern.

The eyes are elongated and half closed as in a meditative concentration.

2. Male Torso l

Found in Harappa (only major art element found in Harappa).

Made of Red Sandstone.

There are socket holes in the neck and shoulders for the attachment of head and arms.

Legs are broken.

The shoulders are well baked and the abdomen slightly prominent.

One of the well carved and finished work.

Bronze Casting: l

Bronze casting was practiced in wide scale in almost all major sites of the civilization.

The technique used for Bronze Casting was Lost Wax Technique.

Human as well as animal figures are present in the Bronze casting.

Amongst animal figures the buffalo with its uplifted head, back and sweeping horns and the goat are artistic merits.

Metal casting continued even after the Indus valley civilization through late Harappan, Chalcolithic people, etc.

Examples of Bronze casting are: 1. Dancing Girl 2. Bull from Mohenjo-Daro

Terracotta: l

Terracotta figures are more realistic in Gujarat sites and Kalibangan.

The most important terracotta figures are those represent Mother Goddess.

Mainly found in Mohenjo-Daro.

These figures are usually crude standing figures.

The pellet eyes and beaked nose of the figure are very crude (constructed in a rudimentary way).

Mouth is indicated by a narrow opening.

Seals: l

Thousands of seals were discovered from the sites, usually made of steatite, and occasionally of agate, chert, copper, faience and terracotta, with beautiful figures of animals such as unicorn bull, rhinoceros, tiger, elephant, bison, goat, buffalo, etc.

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The purpose was mainly commercial.

They were also used as amulets, carried on the persons of their owners, perhaps as modern identity cards.

Standard Harappan seal was 2 x 2 square inches.

Every seal is engraved in a pictographic script which is yet to be deciphered.

Some seals were also been found in Gold and Ivory.

Eg: Pashupati Seal

The seal depicts a human figure seated cross legged.

An elephant and a tiger are depicted to the right side of the figure, while on the left a rhinoceros and a buffalo are seen.

Two antelopes (deer) are shown below the seat (nearby his feet).

The figure has a three horned head.

Pottery: l

Indus valley pottery consists of very fine wheel made wares, very few being handmade.

Plain pottery is more common than painted ware.

Plain pottery is generally red clay, with or without a fine red or grey slip.

The black painted ware has a fine coating of red slip on which geometric and animal designs are executed in glossy black paint.

After baking a clay model, it was painted with black colour.

High polishing was done as a finishing touch.

Motifs are vegetal and geometric forms.

Designs are simple.

Beads, Ornaments and Cosmetics: l

The Harappan men and women decorated themselves with a large variety of ornaments produced from every conceivable materials ranging from precious metals and gemstones to bone and baked clay.

White necklaces, fillets, armlets and finger rings were commonly worn by both sexes.

Jewellery found at Mohenjo-Daro and Lothal include necklaces of gold and semiprecious metal stones, copper bracelets and beads, gold earrings and head ornaments.

A cemetery has been found at Farmona in Harappa where dead bodies were buried with ornaments.

Well developed bead industries were present at Chauhudaro and Lothal.

Some beads were made of two or more stones cemented together.

Also made models of animals, especially monkeys and squirrels, used as pin head and beads.

Spinning of cotton and wool was very common (both rich and poor practiced spinning).

Men and women wore two separate pieces of attire similar to dhoti and shawl.

Shawl covered the left shoulder passing below right arm.

They were conscious of fashion. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Different hair styles were in vogue and beard was popular.

Cinnabar was used as a cosmetic and face-paint, lipstick and collyrium (eyeliner) were also known to them.

Arts of the Mauryan Period l

Sixth century B.C. marks the beginning of new religious and social movements in the Gangetic valley in the form of Buddhism and Jainism (Sramana/Shraman Tradition).

Magadha emerged as a powerful kingdom and consolidated its control over the other religions.

By the third century, a large part of India was under Maurya control.

Ashoka emerged as the most powerful king of the Maurya dynasty.

Religious practices had many dimensions during this period.

Worship of Yakshas and Mother Goddess was prevalent during that time.

Yaksha worship was very popular before and after the advent of Buddhism and it was assimilated in Buddhism and Jainism.

Construction of stupas and viharas (dwelling place of monks) became part of the Buddhist tradition.

However, in this period, apart from stupas and viharas, stone pillars, rock cut caves and monumental figure sculptures were carved in several places.

Pillars l

Even though constructing pillars are very old, Mauryan pillars are different from the pillars in the other parts of the world (like Achaemenian pillars) as they are rock cut pillars thus displaying the carver’s skills.

Stone pillars were erected all over the Mauryan Empire.

The uppermost elements of a pillar or column is known a capital.

The top portion of the pillar was carved with figures like a bull, lion, elephant, etc.

All the capital figures (usually animals) are vigorous and carved standing on a square or circular abacus.

Abacuses are decorated with stylized lotuses.

Mauryan pillar capital found at Sarnath popularly known as the Lion Capital is the finest example of Mauryan sculpture tradition.

Lion Capital, Sarnath l

The Lion Capital discovered more than a hundred years ago at Sarnath, near Varanasi, is generally referred as Sarnath Lion Capital.

It is one of the finest examples of sculpture from Mauryan period and was built by Ashoka in commemoration of‘Dhammachakrapravartana’ or the first sermon of Buddha.

Originally it consists of five components: 1. The pillar shaft. 2. The lotus bell or base.

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More At @Aj_ebooks 3. A drum on the bell base with four animals proceeding clockwise (abacus). 4. Figure of four majestic addorsed (back to back) lions 5. The crowning element, Dharamchakra/Dharmachakra. l

Dharamchakra (the fifth component said above), a large wheel was also a part of this pillar. However, this wheel is lying in broken condition and is displayed in the site museum of Sarnath.

The capital has four Asiatic lions seated back to back and their facial muscularity is very strong.

They symbolize power, courage, pride and confidence.

The surface of the sculpture is heavily polished, which is typical of the Mauryan period.

Abacus (drum on the bell base) has the depiction of a chakra (wheel) in all four directions and a bull, a horse, an elephant and a lion between every chakra.

Each chakra has 24 spokes in it.

This 24 spoke chakra is adopted to the National Flag of India.

The circular abacus is supported by an inverted lotus capital.

The capital without the shaft, the lotus bell and crowning wheel has been adopted as the National Emblem of Independent India.

In the emblem adopted by Madhav Sawhey, only three Lions are visible, the fourth being hidden from view. The abacus is also set in such a way that only one chakra can be seen in the middle, with the bull on the right and horse on the left.

A lion capital has also been found at Sanchi, but is in a dilapidated condition.

A pillar found at Vaishali is facing towards the north, which is the direction of Buddha’s last voyage.

Yakshas and Yakshinis l

Large statues of Yakshas and Yakshinis are found at many places like Patna, Vidisha and Mathura.

They are mostly in the standing position.

Their polished surface is distinguished element.

Depiction of faces is in full round with pronounced cheeks and physiognomic detail.

They show sensitivity towards depicting the human physique.

Finest example is Yakshi figure from Didarganj, Patna.

Didarganj Yakshi l

The life-size standing image of a Yakshi holding a chauri (flywhisk) from Didarganj near Patna is another good example of the sculpture tradition of Mauryan period.

It is a tall well proportioned, free standing sculpture in round made in sandstone with a polished surface.

The chauri is held in the right hand, whereas the left hand is broken.

The image shows sophistication in the treatment of form and medium.

The sculpture’s sensitivity towards the round muscular body is clearly visible.

The hair is tied in a knot at the back and the back is clear.

Flywhisk in the right hand is shown with incised lines continued on the back of the image. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Rock cut Architectures l

Ashoka also patronized many rock cut architectures during his period

The majority of these belongs to Buddhism.

The rock-cut cave carved at Barabar hills is a good example of Mauryan rock cut architectures.

Lomus Rishi Cave, Barabar Hills l

Rock-cut cave carved at Barabar Hills near Gaya in Bihar is known as Lomus Rishi Cave.

It is patronized by Ashoka for Ajeevika sect.

The facade of the cave is decorated with the semicircular Chaitya (worship place) arch as the entrance.

An elephant frieze carved in high relief on the chaitya.

The interior hall of this cave is rectangular with a circular chamber at the back.

Entrance is located on the side wall of the hall.

Stupas and Chaityas: l

Stupa, chaitya and vihara are part of Buddhist and Jain monastic complex, but the largest number belongs to the Buddhist religion.

One of the best examples of the structure of a stupa is in the third century B.C. at Bairat, Rajasthan.

The Great Stupa at Sanchi was built with bricks during the time of Ashoka and later it was stone and many new additions were made.

Stupa consisted of a cylindrical drum and a circular anda with a harmika and chhatra on the top which remains consistent throughout with minor variations and changes in shape and size.

Gateways were also added in the later periods.

Depiction of Buddha in Chaityas l

During the early period, Buddha is depicted symbolically through footprints, stupas, lotus throne, chakra, etc.

Thus, the events from life of Buddha, the Jataka stories, etc. were depicted on the railings and torans of the stupas.

The main events associated with the Buddha’s life which were frequently depicted were events related to birth, renunciation, enlightment, dhammachakrapravartana (first sermon), and mahaparinirvana (death).

Among Jataka stories that are frequently depicted are Chhadanta Jataka, Ruru Jataka, Sibi Jataka, Vidur Jataka, Vessantara Jataka and Shama Jataka.

Indian Architecture after the Mauryan Period l

From the second century BCE onwards, various rulers established their control over the vast Mauryan Empire: the Shungas, Kanvas, Kushanas and Guptas in the north and parts of central India; the Satavahanas, Ikshavakus, Abhiras, Vatakas in southern and western India.

The period also marked the rise of the main Brahmanical sects such as the Vaishnavas and Shaivas.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Places where important sculptures are seen Some of the finest sculptures of this period are found at Vidisha, Barhut (M.P), Bodhgaya (Bihar), Jaggaypetta (Andhra Pradesh), Mathura (UP), Khandagiri-Udayagiri (Odisha), Bhaja near Pune (Maharashtra). Barhut l

Barhut sculptures are tall like the images of Yaksha and Yakshini in the Mauryan period.

Modelling of the sculpture volume is in low relief maintaining linearity.

Relief panels are depicted by narratives and clarity in the narratives are enhanced by selecting main events.

Narrative panels are shown with fewer characters, but as the time progress, apart from the main character in the story, others have also started appearing in the picture space.

One such narrative shows Queen Mahamaya/Mayadevi’s (mother of Siddhartha Gautama) dream.

On the other hand, the depiction of a Jataka story is very simple – narrated by clubbing the events according to the geographical location of the story like the depiction of Ruru Jataka where the Bodhisattva deer rescuing a man on his back.

Such Jataka stories became part of stupa decoration.

Sanchi l

The next phase of cultural development at Sanchi stupa-1, Mathura and Vengi in Andhra Pradesh is noteworthy in the stylistic progression.

Stupa-1 at Sanchi has upper as well as lower pradakshinaptha or circumambulatory path.

It has four beautifully decorated Torans (Gateways) depicting various events from the life of Buddha and Jataka stories.

Figure compositions are high in relief, filling up the entire space.

Symbols continued to be representing Buddhas or past Buddhas.

Mathura, Sarnath, Amaravati and Gandhara Schools l

In the first century CE onwards, Gandhara (now in Pakistan), Mathura in UP and Vengi in Andhra Pradesh emerged as important centres of art.

Buddha in the symbolic form got a human form in Mathura and Gandhara.

The sculptural tradition in Gandhara had the confluence of Bactria, Parthia (both were Indo-Greeks) and the local Gandhara tradition.

The local sculptural tradition of Mathura became so strong that the tradition spread to other parts of northern India. The best example is the stupa sculpture found at Sanghol in the Punjab.

The Buddha image at Mathura is modelled on the lines of earlier Yaksha images, whereas in Gandhara it has Hellenistic features. [Hellenistic art is the art of the Classical period dating from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE to the emergence of ancient Rome].

Images of Vaishnava and Shaiva faiths are also found at Mathura, but Buddhist images are found in large numbers. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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The images of Vishnu and Shiva are represented with their Ayudhas (weapons).

Characteristics of the different architectural schools are explained below with a suitable example from each.

Seated Buddha at Sarnath, UP: l

The image of Buddha from Sarnath made of chunar sandstone belongs to the late fifth century CE.

The Buddha is shown seated on a throne in Padmasana.

It represents Dhammachakrapravartana (first sermon) as can be seen from the figures on the throne.

The panel below the throne depicts a Chakra (wheel) in the centre and a deer on either side with his disciples.

Thus, it is the representation of the historic event of Dhammachakrapravartana or the preaching of dhamma.

It is the finest example of Sarnath School of sculpture.

The face is round, the eyes are half closed, the lower lip is protruding, and the roundness of cheeks has reduced as compared to the earlier images from the Kushana period at Mathura.

The hands are shown in Dhammachakrapravartana Mudra.

The Ushanisha has circular curled hairs.

The aim of the sculptures in ancient India had always been to represent the Buddha as a great human being who achieved Nibbana (cessation of anger and hate).

Buddha Head, Taxila, Gandhara: l

The Buddha head from Taxila in the Gandhara region, now in Pakistan, dates back to the second century CE and belongs to the Kushanas period.

It shows the hybridized pictorial convention that developed during the Gandhara period.

It has Greeko-Roman elements.

The Buddha Head has typical Hellenistic elements.

The curly hair of Buddha is thick having a covered layer of shape and linear strokes over the head.

The forehead plane is large having protruding eyeballs, eyes are half closed and the face and cheeks are NOT round like the images of other parts of India.

There is a certain amount of heaviness in the figures of Gandhara region.

The ears are elongated, especially the ear lobes.

The treatment of the form bears linearity and the outlines are sharp.

The surface is smooth and the image is very expressive.

The expression of calmness is the centre point of attraction.

Amaravati stupa, Andhra Pradesh: l

Vengi in Andhra Pradesh has many stupas like Jagayyapetta, Amaravati, Bahattiprolu, Nagarjunakonda, etc.

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Amaravati has a Mahachaitya and had many sculptures.

Like Sanchi stupa, Amaravati stupa also has pradakshinapatha enclosed within a vedika on which many narrative sculptures are depicted.

The domical stupa structure is covered with relief stupa sculpture slab which is a unique feature.

The torana of the Amaravati stupa has disappeared over a period of time.

Bodies are shown with three bends (Tribanga), and the sculpture composition is more complex than Sanchi.

The Dream of Queen Mayadevi has also been depicted here.

Independent Buddha images are also found at Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda and Guntapalle.

Guntapalle is a rock cut cave near Eluru, Andhra Pradesh. Gandhara l

Mathura

Amaravati

Hellenistic art, GreekoRoman elements along with traditional elements.

Buddha is muscular.

Rich carving and great

symbolism.

Indigenous in the beginning

Completely indigenous.

Mostly made of red

but later influenced by Gandhara.

Highly polished and rich

Less symbolism.

carvings. l

Curly hair and elongated ears.

sand stone. l

Not much refined

compared to Gandhara. l

Flowing type dress.

Hair not always curly.

Initially made of stone and

Most of the works are on

later stucco used.

Buddha mostly represented by symbols.

Beauty is less when compared to Gandhara and Mathura.

marbles.

Cave tradition in western India l

In the western India, many Buddhist caves dating back to the second century BCE onwards have been excavated.

Ajanta: l

The famous cave site in western India is Ajanta.

It is located in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra.

It has 29 caves, including 4 chaitya caves.

It has the large Chaitya-Vihara and is decorated with sculpture and paintings (murals).

Ajanta is the only surviving example of the painting of the first century BCE and the fifth century BCE. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Some of the vihara caves here are unfinished.

The important patrons of Ajanta were Varahadeva, the Prime Minister of Vakataka king Harisena; Upendragupta, the local king of the region and feudatory of Harisena; Buddhabadra and Mathurasena.

Major paintings are in cave Nos. 1, 2, 16 and 17.

The paintings have a lot of typological variations.

Figures in the paintings are heavy like the sculptures of western India.

The themes of the paintings are events from the life of Buddha, the Jatakas and Avadanas.

Ellora: l

Another important cave site located in Aurangabad is Ellora.

It is located 100kms away from Ajanta.

There are 32 Buddhist, Brahamanical and Jain caves.

It is unique art historic site in the country as it has monasteries associated with the three religions dating from fifth century CE onwards to eleventh century CE.

It is also unique in terms of stylistic eclecticism, i.e., the confluence of many styles at one place.

There are 12 Buddhist caves having many images belonging to Vajrayana Buddhism.

Buddhist caves are big in size and are of a single, double and triple storey.

The triple storey of Ellora is a unique one.

Most of the caves of Brahamanical faith are dedicated to Shaivism.

The different avatars of Vishnu are also depicted here.

Cave no.16 is known as Kailas Leni/ kailasa temple.

It is a rock cut temple which is carved out of a single rock.

It was built in the 8th century CE.

The grand sculpture of Ravana attempting to lift Mount Kailash, with his full might is a landmark in Indian art.

Elephanta caves and other sites: l

Elephanta caves located on Elephanta Island near Mumbai were originally a Buddhist site which was later dominated by the shaivite faith.

It is contemporary with Ellora.

The other noteworthy cave site is Bagh located near Indore, MP.

The Bagh cave also contains paintings and a painting which represents a group of dancers resembles the Garba Dance of North India (originated in Gujarat).

The sculpture of Maheshmurti (Shiva at centre and heads of Bhairava and Uma on either side) is located here.

Cave tradition in Eastern India l

Like in western India, Buddhist caves have been excavated in eastern India, mainly in the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

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Guntapalle is among unique sites where the structural stupas, viharas and the caves are excavated at one place.

Another important cave site is the Udayagiri-Khandagiri caves located in Odisha.

These caves are scattered and have inscriptions of Kaharvela Kings.

According to the inscription, the caves were meant for Jain monks.

There are numerous single cell excavations here.

Early Temples The shrines of the temple were three kinds: 1. Sandhara type: with pradakshinapatha. 2. Nirandara type: without pradakshinapatha. 3. Sarvatobhadra type: which can accessed from all sides. l

Some of the important temple sites of this period are Deogarh (UP), Eran, Nacha-kuthara and Udayagiri near Vidisha in MP, etc.

These temples are simple structures consisting of a veranda, a hall and a shrine at the rear.

Later Mural Traditions l

Even after Ajanta, very few sites with paintings have survived which provide valuable evidences to reconstruct the tradition of painting.

The sculptures too were plastered and painted and the tradition of cave excavation continued further in many places where sculpting and painting were done simultaneously.

Badami: l

One of the examples of later Mural tradition is Badami, Karnataka.

It was the capital of the western Chalukyan dynasty, which ruled the region from 543 to 598 CE.

With the decline of the Vakataka rule, the Chalukyas established their power in the Deccan.

The Chalukya king, Mangalesha, patronized the excavations of Badami caves. He was the younger son of the Chalukya king, Pulikeshi I, and the brother of Kirtivarman-I.

The cave No. 4 is popularly known as Vishnu cave and in the inscriptions patron (Mangalesha) records his Vaishnava affiliation.

Murals under Pallava, Pandava and Chola kings: l

The tradition of painting extended further down south in Tamil Nadu in the preceding centuries with regional variations during the regime of Pallava, Pandya and Chola dynasties.

The Pallava kings, who succeeded the Chalukyas in parts of the south India, were also patrons of the arts.

Mahendravarman (Pallava) who ruled the 7th century CE was responsible for building temples at Panamalai, Mandagapattu, and Kanchipuram.

The inscriptions at Mandagapattu mentions Mahendravarman I with numerous titles such as Vichitrachitta (curious minded), Chitrakarapuli (tiger among artists), Chaityakari (temple builder), which shows his interests in art activities. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Tirumalaipuram caves and Jaina caves at Sittanvasal are some of the surviving examples.

The tradition of building temples and embellishing them with carvings and paintings continued during the reign of the Chola kings who ruled over the region from 9th to the 13th

But it was in the 11th century, when the Cholas reached their zenith of power, the masterpieces of Chola art and architecture began to appear.

The temples of Brihadeswara at Tanjore, Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Darasuram were built during the reign of Rajaraja Chola and Rajendra Chola.

The important paintings of Chola period can be seen at Nartamalai and Brihadeswara temples.

In Brihadeswara temple, the paintings were executed on the walls of the narrow passage surrounding the shrine.

Two layers of paints were found when they were discovered.

The upper/outer layer was painted during the Nayaka period, in the 16th century.

Vijayanagara Mural: With the decline of the Chola dynasty in the 13th century, the Vijayanagara dynasty captured and brought under its control the reign from Hampi to Trichy with Hampi serving as its capital. l

The paintings at Tiruparakunram, near Trichy, done in the 14th century represent the early phase of the Vijayanagara style.

In Hampi (Karnataka), the Virupaksha temple has paintings on the ceiling of its mandapa narrating vents from dynastic history and episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Among the important panels are the one which shows Vidyaranya, the spiritual teacher of Bukkaraya Harsha.

In Lepakshi, near Hindupur, in present Andhra Pradesh, there are glorious examples of Vijayanagara paintings on the walls of the Shiva temple.

Nayaka paintings in the 17th and 18th centuries are seen in Thiruparakuram, Sreerangam, and Tiruvarur (all in Tamil Nadu).

Kerala Mural: l

Kerala painters (16th to 18th century) evolved a pictorial language and technology of their own while discriminately adopting certain stylistic elements from Nayaka and Vijayanagara schools.

The painters evolved a language taking cues from contemporary traditions like Kathakali and Kalam Ezhuthtu using vibrant and luminous colours, representing human figures in three dimensions.

Some of the other traditional Murals are: l

Pithora – Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Maithili – Bihar

Warli – Maharashtra

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More At @Aj_ebooks Temple Architecture and Sculpture – Hindu, Buddhist and Jain Basic form of a Hindu temple 1. Garbhagriha: l

It literally means ‘womb-house’ and is a cave like a sanctum.

The Garbhagriha is made to house the main icon (main deity) which is itself the focus of much ritual attention.

2. Mandapa: l

It is the entrance to the temple.

Some temples have multiple mandapas in different sizes named as Ardhamandapa, Mandapa, and Mahamandapa.

3. Shikhara or Vimana: l

They are mountain like the spire of a free-standing temple.

Shikhara is found in North Indian temples and Vimana is found in South Indian temples.

4. Amalaka: l

It is a stone disc like structure at the top of the temple and they are common in North Indian temples.

5. Kalasha: l

It is the topmost point of the temple and commonly seen in North Indian temples.

6. Antarala (vestibule): l

Antarala is a transition area between the Garbhagriha and the temple’s main hall (mandapa).

7. Jagati: l

It is a raised platform for sitting and praying and is common in North Indian temples.

8. Vahana: l

It is the mount or vehicle of the temple’s main deity along with a standard pillar or Dhvaj which is placed axially before the sanctum.

Classification of Indian Temples Indian temples can be classified into two broad orders as l

Nagara (in North India)

Dravida (in South India)

At times, the Vesara style of temples as an independent style created through the mixing of Nagara and Dravida orders.

The placement of an image in a temple is carefully planned: for instance, river goddesses (Ganga and Yamuna) are visually found at the entrances in a Nagara temple, Dwarapalas are usually found on the gateway or gopurams of Dravida temples, similarly mithunas (erotic images), navagrahas ( the 9 auspicious planets) and Yakshas are also placed at the entrances to guard them. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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The ashtadikpalas (deities of direction) face eight key directions on the outer walls of the sanctum and/or on the outer walls of the temple.

The Nagara or North Indian Temple Architecture l

Nagara is the style of temple architecture which became popular in Northern India.

It is common here to build an entire temple on a stone platform with steps leading up to it.

Unlike in south India, it doesn’t usually have elaborate boundary walls or gateways.

Earliest temples had only one shikhara (tower), but in the later periods, multiple shikharas came.

The garbhagriha is always located directly under the tallest tower.

Nagara temples can be subdivided mainly into three – based on the shikhara type. 1. Latina/ Rekha-Prasada: l

It is the simple and most common type of shikhara.

It is square at the base and the walls curve or slopes inwards to a point on top.

2. Phamsana type shikhara: l

They are broader and shorter than Latina type.

Their roof is composed of several slabs that gently rise to a single point over the centre of the building, unlike the Latina ones which look like sharply rising towers.

3. Valabhi type shikhara: l

These are rectangular buildings with a roof that rises into a vaulted chamber.

The edge of the vaulted chamber is round, like the bamboo or wooden wagons that would have been drawn by bullocks in ancient times.

The form of this temple is influenced by ancient building forms that were already in existence.

We can also classify the Nagara Temples on the basis of region as follows: Central India l

The ancient temple sin UP, MP and Rajasthan share many traits and the most visible is that they are made of Sandstone.

1. Dashavatara Vishnu Temple, Deogarh, UP: l

Even though the patrons and donors of the temple are unknown, it is believed that this temple was built in the early 6th century CE.

This is a classical example of the late Gupta period.

This temple is in the Panchayatana style of architecture. [Panchayatana is an architectural style where the main shrine is built on a rectangular plinth with four smaller subsidiary shrines at the four corners and making it a total of five shrines – i.e., Pancha.

2. Temples at Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh: l

The temples at Khajuraho were made in the 10th century, about 400 years after the temple at Deogarh and the complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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The temples were patronized by Chandela kings.

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We can see how dramatically the shape and style of the nagara temple architecture had developed.

The temples at Khajuraho are all made of Sandstone.

The largest temple at Khajuraho is the Kandariya Mahadeva temple which is attributed to king Ganda.

There are some Jain temples as well as a Chausanth Yogini temple.

Chausanth Yogini is a temple of small square shrines dedicated to esoteric devis or goddesses associated with the rise of Tantric worship after the 7th.

West India l

There are too numerous temples in the northwestern parts of India, including Gujarat and Rajasthan, and stylistically extendable, at times, to western Madhya Pradesh.

The stones to build temples ranges in colour and type.

While sandstone is the commonest, a grey to black basalt can be seen in some of the 10th to 12th-century temple sculptures. Sun temple, Modhera, Gujarat: p The temple dates back to the early 11th century and was built by Raja Bhimdev I of the Solanki

dynasty. p The Solanks were a branch off later Chalukyas. p There is a massive rectangular stepped tank called Surya Kund in front of it. p The hundred square metre rectangular pond is perhaps the grandest temple tank in India.

East India l

East Indian temples include those found in the North-East, Bengal, and Odisha and each of these three areas produces a distinct type of temple.

Assam: l

An old 6th century sculpted door frame from DaParvatia near Tezpur and another few stray sculptures from Rangagora Tea Estate near Tinsukia in Assam bear witness to the import of the Gupta idiom in that region.

Kamakhya temple, a Shakti peeth, is dedicated to goddess Kamakhya and was built in the 17thcentury.

Bengal: l

The style of sculptures during the period between the 9th and 11th centuries in Bengal (including Bangladesh) and Bihar is known as the Pala style, named after the ruling dynasty at that time.

That style in the mid 11th and mid 13th centuries is named after the Sena kings.

While the Palas are celebrated as patrons of Buddhist monastic sites, the temple of the region is known to express the Vanga style.

The most prominent of these was the shape of the sloping or curving side of the bamboo roof of a Bengali hut. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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This feature was eventually even adopted in Mughal buildings and is known as across India as the Bangla Roof (word Bungalow derived from this).

Odisha (Kalingia Architecture): The main architectural features of Odisha temples are classified in three orders: l

Rekhapida/ Rekha deula/ rathaka deula: Rekha means line and it is a tall straight building with a shape of a sugar loaf. It covers the garbhagriha.

Pidhadeula: It is a square building with a pyramid shaped roof and is mainly found for housing the outer dancing and offering halls.

Khakradeula: It is a rectangular building with a truncated pyramid shaped roof. Temples of the female deities are usually in this form (garbhagriha usually) and will have a resemblance with Dravidian temples of the south. p In general, here the Shikhara called Deul in Odisha is vertical almost until the top when it sud-

denly curves sharply inwards. p Mandapas in Odisha are called Jagamohanas. p The ground plan of the main temple is almost always square, which, in the upper reaches of its

superstructure becomes circular in the crowning p The exterior of the temple is lavishly curved while their interiors are generally quite bare. p Odisha temples usually have outer walls.

1. Sun temple, Konark, Odisha: p It is built around 1240 on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. p The temple is set on a high base, its walls covered in extensive, detailed ornamental carving. p These include 12 pairs of enormous wheels sculpted with spokes and hubs, representing the

chariot wheels of the sun God who, in mythology, rides a chariot driven by 8 horses, sculpted here at the entrance staircase. 2. Jagannatha temple, Puri, Odisha: p It is also located on the eastern coast, at Puri, Odisha. p The temple is a part of Char Dham (Badrinath, Dwaraka, Puri, Rameswaram) pilgrimages

that a Hindu is expected to make in one’s lifetime. p When most of the deities in the temples of India are made of stone or metal, the idol of

Jagannatha is made of wood which is ceremoniously replaced in every twelve or nineteen years by using sacred trees. p The temple is believed to be constructed in the 12th century by King Anatavarman Chodaganga

Deva of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty. p The temple is famous for its annual Ratha Yatra or Chariot festival.

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More At @Aj_ebooks The Dravida or South Indian Temple Architecture l

Unlike the nagara temple, the Dravida temple is enclosed within a compound wall.

The front wall has an entrance gateway in its centre, which is known as Gopura/ Gopuram.

The shape of the main temple tower is known as Vimana (shikhara in nagara style).

The vimana is like a stepped pyramid that rises up geometrically rather than the curving shikhara of north India.

A large water reservoir or a temple tank enclosed in the complex is general in south Indian temples.

Subsidiary shrines are either incorporated within the main temple tower or located as a distinct, separate small shrine beside the main temple.

The north Indian idea of multiple shikharas rising together as a cluster was not popular in Dravida style.

At some of the most sacred temples in south India, the main temple in which the garbhagriha is situated has, in fact, one of the smallest towers.

Pallavas: l

The Pallavas were one of the ancient south Indian dynasties that were active in Andhra region from the 2nd century onwards and moved south to settle in Tamil Nadu.

Their history is better documented in the inscriptions in stone and several monuments.

Although they were mostly Shaivites, several Vaishnava shrines also survived from the reign, and there is no doubt that they were influenced by the long Buddhist history of the Deccan.

The early buildings of Pallavas were rock-cut; while the later ones were structural (structural buildings were well known to them when rock cut ones being excavated).

The early buildings are generally attributed to Mahendravarman I, contemporary of Chalukya king, Pulikeshi II of Karnataka.

Narasimhavarman I, who was also known as Mamalla, acceded the throne around 640 CE.

He expanded the empire and also inaugurated most of the building work at Mahabalipuram which is known after him as Mamallapuram.

The shore temple at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu l

It is a structural temple and was built during the reign of Narasimhavarman II, also known as Rajasimha.

The temple is facing east towards the sea and has three shrines – east and west to Shiva and the middle for Vishnu (Anantashayana). The Pallava temple architecture can be classified into four groups according to the rulers and the features of temples they constructed.

a. Mahendravarman Group: p Early temples of the Pallavas belong to King Mahendravarman I (7th century). p They were rock-cut temples (may be influenced by rock-cut architecture). p G. Manndagapattu, Mahendravadi, Tircuchirapally, etc. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks b. Narasimha/Mamalla Group: p It is the second stage of Pallava architecture which started when Narasimhavarman I (Mamalla)

came to the throne. p The architecture is represented by Monolithic rocks. p The monolithic rathas and mandapas of Mamallapuram are examples. p The five rathas are popularly known as Panchapandava rathas.

c. Rajasimha Group: p The group was under Narasimhavarman II who was also known as Rajasimha. p He introduced the structural temples and Gopura style in Pallava architecture. p The Kailasnath temple at Kanchi and the Shore temple at Mahabalipuram are examples.

d. Nandivaram Group: p Architecture mainly under the Pallava king, Nandivaram Pallava. p They also represented structural temples. p The temples were generally small compared to the other groups. p The Vaikundaperumal temple, Tirunelveli and Mukteswara temple are examples.

Cholas p The best example of Chola temple architecture is the Brihadeswara temple at Tanjore. p The temple is also known as Rajarajeswara temple. p It was completed around 1009 by Rajaraja Chola and is the largest and tallest of all Indian

temples. p Painted Murals and sculptures decorate the walls surrounding the sanctum.

The Vesara or the Deccan Temple Architecture l

The buildings in the Deccan region are hybridized style, which contains both elements from nagara and Dravida architectural styles and is known in some ancient texts as the Vesara style (not all temples of Deccan are the vesara type).

The vesara style became popular after the mid 7th century.

Chalukyas l

Ravan Phadi cave, Aihole, Karnataka: p The Ravan Phadi cave at Aihole is an example of the early Chalukya style which is known for

its distinct sculptural style. l

Lad Khan Temple at Aihole, Karnataka: p The temple is dedicated to Shiva and is one of the oldest Hindu temples. p Built in the 5th century by the Kings of the Chalukya Dynasty.

Durga Temple at Aihole, Karnataka: p The temple is built in between 7th and 8th century. p The architecture of the temple is predominantly Dravida with Nagara style also in certain areas.

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Temples at Pattadakkal, Karnataka: p There are ten temples at Pattadakkal including a Jain temple and is a UNESCO world Heri-

tage Site. p A fusion of various architectural styles can be seen here.

Rashtrakutas l

By about 750 CE, the early western Chalukya control of the Deccan was taken by the Rashtrakutas.

Their greatest achievement in architecture is the Kailasnath Temple at Ellora.

The Jain temple at Pattadakkal was also built by Rashtrakutas.

Hoyasalas l

With the waning Chola and Pandya power, the Hoyasalas of Karnataka grew into prominence in south India and became the most important patrons centred at Mysore.

The three main temples of Hoyasala are the temples at Belur, Halebid and Somanathpuram.

The most characteristic feature of these temples is that they grow extremely complex with so many projecting angles emerging from the previously straightforward square temple so that the plan of these temples starts looking like a star.

As the plan looks like a star, it is known as stellate plan.

They are usually made out of soapstone.

Temples at Halebid, Karnataka l

The temple is also known as Hoyasaleswara temple.

Built in dark schist stone by the Hoyasala king Vishnuvardhan in 1150.

Dedicated to Shiva as Nataraja and contains a large hall for the mandapa to facilitate music and dance.

Vijayanagara l

The Vijayanagara Empire, which was founded in the 14th century, attracted a number of international travelers such as the Italian, Nicoclo di Conti, the Portuguese Domingo Paes, Fernao Nuniz and Duarte Barbosa and the Afghan Abd, al- Razzaq, who have left vivid accounts of the city.

Buddhist and Jain Architectural Developments The period of 5th to 14th centuries was not only the period of the development of Hindu temples but also were the equally vibrant period for the Buddhist and Jain architectures. Buddhist Architecture l

When the Gupta empire crumbled in the 6th century CE, the eastern region of Bihar and Bengal, historically known as Magadha, appears to have remained unified whilst numerous small Rajput principalities sprang up to the west.

In the 8th century, the Palas came to power in the region.

The 2nd Pala ruler, Dharmapala, became immensely powerful and established an empire by defeating the powerful Rajput Pratiharas. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Dharmapala consolidated an empire whose wealth lay in a consolidation of agriculture along the fertile Ganges plain and international trade.

Bodhgaya, Bihar: l

Bodhgaya became a pilgrimage site since Siddhartha achieved enlightenment here and became Gautama Buddha.

The Mahabodhi Temple at Bodhgaya is an important reminder of the brickwork of that time.

The first shrine here, located at the base of the Bodhi Tree, is said to have been constructed by King Ashoka.

The vedika (fence) around it is said to be Post-Mauryan, of about 100 BCE.

Many sculptures in the temple are dated to the 8th century Pala period.

The actual Mahabodhi temple as it stands now is largely a colonial period reconstruction of the old 7th

The design of the temple is unusual and is neither Dravida nor nagara style.

Nalanda, Bihar: l

The monastic University of Nalanda is a Mahavihara as it is a complex of several monasteries of various sizes.

Only a small portion of this ancient learning centre has been excavated till date, as most of it lies buried under contemporary civilization, making further excavations almost impossible.

Most of the information about Nalanda is based on the records of Xuan Zang/Hsuan Tsang (Chinese traveller).

It states that the foundation of the monastery was laid by Kumaragupta I in the 5th century CE.

Jain Architecture l

Jains were also prolific temple builders like Hindus and their sacred shrines and pilgrimage spots can be found across the country.

The oldest Jain pilgrimage sites are to be found in Bihar.

In the Deccan, some of the most architecturally important Jain sites can be found at Ellora and Aihole.

Karnataka has a rich heritage of Jain shrines and the Sravana Belagola, the famous statue of the Gomateswara, the granite statue of Lord Bahubali which stands eighteen metre, is the world’s tallest monolithic free-standing structure.

It was commissioned by Camundaraya, the General-in-Chief and Prime Minister of the Ganga Kings of Mysore.

Gujarat and Rajasthan have been strongholds of Jainism since early times.

The Jain temples at Mount Abu (Dilwara Temples) were constructed by Vimal Shah.

One can see a complex of temples carved of white marble

The temples are famous for its unique patterns on very ceilings, and graceful bracket figs along the domed ceiling.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Bronze sculptures of India l

We know that Indian sculptures were masters in terracotta sculpturing and carving in stones. They were masters in the bronze medium too.

Bronze is Copper + Tin.

The ‘Cire-Perdu’ or ‘Lost Wax’ technique for casting was learnt as long ago as the Indus Valley Civilization.

The ‘Dancing Girl’ in tribhanga posture found from Mohenjo-Daro is the earliest bronze sculpture datable to 2500 BCE.

Sculptors discovered the process of making alloys of metals by mixing copper, zinc and tin which called Bronze.

Bronze sculptures and statuettes of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain icons have been discovered from many regions of India dating from the 2nd century AD until the 16th century AD.

North India l

Dancing girl – Mohanjadaro.

Chariot – Daimabad (Maharashtra) datable to 1500 BCE.

The figure appears youthful and proportionate in comparison with the Kushana style.

In the typical bronze from Dhanesar Khera, UP, the folds of the drapery are treated as in the Mathura style, i.e., in a series of dropping down curves.

Sarnath style bronze have fold less drapery and an outstanding example is that of the Buddha image at Sultanganj, Bihar, which is a quiet monumental bronze figure.

Vakataka bronze images of Buddha from Phophnar, Maharashtra are contemporary with the Gupta period bronzes. They show the influence of the Amaravati style of Andhra Pradesh in the 3rdcentury and at the same time, there is a significant change in the draping style of monk’s robe.

Buddha’s right hand in Abhaya Mudra is free so that the contemporary drapery clings to the right side of the body contour. The result is a continuous flowing line on this side of the figure.

South India l

The bronze casting technique and making of bronze images of traditional icons reached a high stage of development in south India during the medieval period.

Among the Pallava period bronze of the 8th century, the best one is the icon of Shiva seated in Ardhaparyanka asana (one leg kept dangling). The right hand is in the Achamana Mudra gesture, suggesting that he is about to drink poison.

Although bronze images were modeled and cast during the Pallava period in the 8th and 9th centuries, some of the most beautiful and exquisite statues were produced during the Chola period in Tamil Nadu from 10th to 12th century AD.

The well known dancing figure of Shiva as Nataraja was evolved and fully developed during the Chola period and since then many variations of this complex bronze image have been modeled.

A wide range of Shiva iconography was evolved in the Tanjore region of Tamil Nadu.

The 9th century Kalyanasundara Murti is highly remarkable for the manner in which panigrahana (ceremony of marriage) is represented by two separate statuettes. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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The union of Shiva and Parvati is very ingeniously represented in the Ardhanarisvra in a single image. Beautiful independent figurines of Parvati have also been modelled, standing in the graceful tribhanga posture.

Nataraja l

Shiva is associated with the end of the cosmic world with which his dancing position is associated.

In this Chola period bronze sculpture, he has been shown balancing himself on his right leg and suppressing the apasmara, the demon of ignorance or forgetfulness, with the foot of the same leg.

At the same time, he raises his left hand in Bhujangatrasita stance, which represents tirobhava that is kicking away the veil of maya or illusion from the devotee’s mind.

His four arms are outstretched and the main right hand is posed in Abhayahasta or the gesture suggesting.

The upper right hand holds the damura, his favourite musical instrument to keep on the beat tala.

The upper left hand carries a flame while the main left hand is held in the Dolahasta and connects with the Abhayahasta of the right hand.

His hair locks fly on both the sides touching the circular jvala mala or the garland of flames which surrounds the entire dancing figure.

Indo-Islamic Architecture l

In the 7th and 8th centuries CE, Islam spread towards Spain and India.

These architectural entities or categories showcasing multiple styles are known as Indo-Saracenic or Indo-Islamic Architecture.

By the 12th century, India was already familiar with monumental construction in grandiose settings.

Certain techniques and embellishments were prevalent and popular, such as trabeation (the use of beam rather than arches or vaulting), brackets, and multiple pillars to support a flat roof or a small shallow dome.

The arches in early constructions were shaped in wood and stone, and were unable to bear the weight of the domes/top structures.

Such arches needed to be constructed with voussoirs (series of interlocking blocks) and fitted with keystones.

Categories of Styles The study of Indo-Islamic architecture is conventionally categorized as follows: 1. The Imperial Style (Delhi sultanate) 2. The Provincial styles (Mandu, Gujarat, Bengal and Jaunpur) 3. The Mughal Style (Delhi, Agra and Lahore) 4. The Deccani style (Bijapur and Golconda) l

Amongst provincial styles, the architecture of Bengal and Jaunpur is regarded as distinct.

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Gujarat was said to have a markedly regional character for patrons borrowed elements from the regional temple traditions such as torans, lintels in mihrabs, carving of bell and chain motifs, and carved panels depicting trees, for tombs, mosques and dargahs.

The 15th century white marble dargah of Sheikh Ahmad Khattu of Sarkhej is a good example of provincial style and it heavily influenced the forms and decoration of Mughal tombs.

Decorative Forms l

These forms include designing on plasters through incisions or stucco.

The designs were either left plain or covered with colours.

Motifs were also painted on or carved in stones.

These motifs include varieties of flowers, both from sub-continent and places outside, particularly Iran.

The lotus bridge fringe was used to great advantage in the inner curves of the arches.

The walls were also decorated with Cypress, Chinar, and other trees as also with flower vases.

Many complex designs of flower motifs decorating the ceiling were also to be found on textiles and carpets.

In the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, tiles were also used to surface the walls and the domes.

Popular colours were blue, turquoise, green and yellow.

Subsequently the techniques of tessellation (mosaic designs) and pietra dura (cut and fit technique) were made use of for surface decoration, particularly in the dodo panels of the walls.

At times, Lapis Lazuli (a kind of blue stone) was used on the interior walls or on canopies.

Arabesque (surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils), calligraphy, Jalis (perforated stone or latticed screen), etc. were other decorative works.

Constructing Materials l

The walls in all buildings were extremely thick and were largely constructed of rubble masonry, which were easily available.

These walls were then cased over with chunam or limestone plaster or dressed stone.

An amazing ranges of stones were utilized for construction such as quartzite, sandstone, buffs, marbles, etc.

Polychrome tiles were used to great advantage to finish the walls.

From the 17th century onwards, bricks were also used for construction and in this phase there was more reliance on local materials.

Forts l

Building monumental forts with embattlement was a regular feature in medieval times, often symbolizing the seat of power of a king.

When such a fort was captured by an attacking army, the vanquished ruler either lost his complete power or his sovereignty. This was because he had to accept the suzerainty of the victorious king. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Commanding heights were utilized to great advantage to construct forts.

Another feature was concentric circles of outer walls as in Golconda that the enemy had to breach these at all stages before getting in.

Some of the famous forts are the Fort of Chittor (Rajasthan), Gwalior (MP), Daulatabad-earlier Devgiri (Maharashtra), and Golconda (Hyderabad).

The Chittorgarh fort is the largest fort in Asia and was occupied for the longest length of time as the seat of power.

Minars l

Another form of sthamba or tower was the minar, a common feature in the sub-continent.

The most striking minars of medieval times are the Qutub Minar in Delhi and Chand Minar at Daulatabad.

The everyday use of the minar was for the azaan or call to prayer.

Its phenomenal height, however, symbolized the might and power of the ruler.

Eg: Qutub Minar l

It was built in the 13th century and the Qutub complex in which the minar is present is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The construction of the bottom storey of the minar was started by Qutub-ud-din Aibak (Delhi Sultanate) and his successor Iltumish completed it by adding three more storeys.

However Firoz Shah Tughlaq replaced the top storey which was damaged in a lightning and also added one more storey.

Hence now it has five storeys and a height of nearly 234 feet (about 73 m) making it the second tallest minar in India (first is Fateh Burj, Punjab).

The Qutub Minar also came to be associated with the much revered saint of Delhi, Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki.

The minar is a mixture of polygonal and circular shapes.

It is largely built on red and buff stone with some use of marble in the upper storeys.

It is characterized by high decorative balconies and bands of inscriptions intertwined with foliated designs.

Tombs l

Monumental structures over graves of rulers and royalty was a popular feature of medieval India.

Some well known examples of such tombs are those of Ghyasuddin Tughlaq, Humayun, Adur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, Akbar, and Itmaduddaula.

Eg: Taj Mahal l

Taj Mahal was built in Agra by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum (a kind of large tomb) for his deceased wife Mumtaz Mahal.

It was commissioned in the year of 1632 and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Taj Mahal was the apogee of the evolutionary architectural process in medieval India.

The Taj complex is entered through a monumental red sandstone gateway, the opening arch of which beautifully frames the mausoleum.

The tomb is laid out in a Chahar Bagh (garden), crisscrossed with paths and water courses, interspersed with pools and fountains.

Towards the west of the white marble faced tomb lies a red sandstone mosque and a similar construction in the east to maintain balance.

l l

The marbles for the building was quarried from the Makrana Mines, Rajasthan. These are stone carvings in high and low relief on the walls, the delicate carving of marble into jails and graceful volutes (spiral ornament on the pillars), and the creation of arabesque with pietra dura on walls and tombstones and geometric designs with tessellation.

The art of calligraphy is used with the inlay of jasper in white marble to unite Quranic verses.

Calligraphy provides a decorative element on the walls and a continuous connection with the almighty.

Eg: Gol Gumbad, Karnataka l

It is situated in the Bijapur district of Karnataka.

It is the mausoleum of Muhammed Adil Shah, the 7th sultan of the Adil Shahi Dynasty of Bijapur (1498-1686).

The tomb is a complex building such as a gateway, a Naqqar Khana, a mosque and a sarai located within a large walled garden.

Gumbad is a square building topped with a circular drum over which rests a majestic dome, giving the building its nomenclature.

It is built of dark grey basalt and decorated plaster work.

The dome of Gol Gumbad is the largest in the world.

Sarais l

Sarais were largely built on a simple square or a rectangular plan and were meant to provide temporary accommodation for Indian and foreign travelers, pilgrims, merchants, traders, etc.

Structures for common people l

One of the architectural features of medieval India was also a coming together of styles, techniques, and decorations in public and private spaces for non-royal sections of the society.

These include buildings for domestic usage, temples, mosques, Khanqahs and dargahs, commemorative gateways, pavilions in the buildings and gardens, bazaars, etc.

Jama Masjid l

Large mosques spanning huge spaces also dotted the landscapes of the Indian sub-continent in medieval times.

Congregational prayers were held here every Friday afternoon, which required the presence of minimum of forty Muslim male adults. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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At the time of prayers, a khutba was read out in the name of the ruler and his laws for the realm were also read out.

In medieval times, a city had one Jama Masjid which, along with its immediate surroundings, became the focus of the lives of the people, both Muslim and Non-Muslim.

This happened because a lot of commercial and cultural exchanges were concentrated here besides religious and indirect political activity.

Generally, such a mosque was large with an open courtyard, surrounded on three sides by cloisters and the Qibla Liwan in the west.

It was here that the mihrab and mimbar for the Imam were located.

People faced the mihrab while offering prayers as it indicated the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca.

Indian Philosophy: Orthodox and Heterodox Schools Indian Philosophy or Hindu Philosophy is generally classified into 6 orthodox schools (astika) and 3 heterodox (nastika) schools. Difference between Astik schools and Nastik schools The basic difference between the two branches of Hindu Philosophy schools is said to be based on the recognition of Vedas. Orthodox schools recognize the authority of Vedas while heterodox schools don’t believe in the authority of Vedas. Six Orthodox Schools (Classical Schools) of Indian Philosophy The 6 classical schools (shatdarshan) are Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshik, Purva Mimansa and Uttar Mimansa (Vedanta). Almost all Indian schools of thought accepted the theory of karma and rebirth, and the ideal of moksha is conceived as liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. Moksha/ liberation is considered as the highest goal of human struggle. Sankhya Philosophy Sankhya is the oldest philosphy. It was put forward by Kapila. Sankhya philosophy provided the materialistic ontology for Nyaya and Vaisheshik, but there is very little original literature in Sankhya. It is generally believed that Sankhya Philosophy is dualistic and not monistic because it has two entities, purush (spirit) and prakriti (nature) in it. Samkhya emphasizes the attainment of knowledge of self by means of concentration and meditation. Sankhya holds that it is the self-knowledge that leads to liberation and not any exterior influence or agent. Samkhya forms the philosophical basis for Yoga. In Samkhya, the necessity of God is not felt for epistemological clarity about the interrelationship between higher Self, individual self, and the universe around us. Purush vs Prakriti: In the beginning, the philosophy was materialistic as it talked only about Prakrithi, but later the element of purush was also added to it. While Purusha is posited as the only sentient being, ever existent, and immaterial, Prakriti is said to be the material basis of this universe, composed of three basic elements (Gunas) – namely Tamas, Rajas, and Sattva.

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More At @Aj_ebooks Yoga Philosophy Yoga presents a method of physical and mental discipline. The Yoga presents a practical path for the realization of the self whereas the Samkhya emphasizes the attainment of knowledge of self by means of concentration and meditation. Releasing Purush from Prakriti by means of physical and mental discipline is the concept of Yoga. Founder of Yoga is Pathanjai. Yoga does not require belief in God, although such a belief is accepted as help in the initial stage of mental concentration and control of the mind. Nyaya Philosophy Nyaya Philosophy states that nothing is acceptable unless it is in accordance with reason and experience (scientific approach). Founder of this philosophy is Gautam and the principles are mentioned in Nyaya Sutras. Nyaya says that the world is real and the philosophy does not follow a monist view. Nyaya philosophy relies on several pramanas i.e. means of obtaining true knowledge as its epistemology. According to it, the pradhan pramana or principal means of obtaining knowledge is pratyaksha pramana i.e. the knowledge obtained through the 5 senses. There are also other pramanas like anumana (inference, through which we can obtain true knowledge) and shabda pramana (a statement of an expert). Vaisheshik Philosophy The classical Indian philosophy Vaisheshik was the physics of ancient times. It propounded the atomic theory of its founder Kannada. At one time Vaisheshik was regarded as part of the Nyaya philosophy since physics is part of science. But since physics is the most fundamental of all sciences, Vaisheshik was later separated from Nyaya and put forth as a separate philosophy. Purva mimansa (mimansa) The word Mimamsa means to analyze and understand thoroughly. Purva Mimamsa examines the teachings of the Veda in the light of karma-kanda rituals, ie karma-mimamsa system is called purvamimamsa. Purva mimansa (or briefly mimansa) lays emphasis on the performance of the yagya for attaining various spiritual and worldly benefits. Hence this philosophy relies on the Brahmana (and samhita) part of the Vedas. Uttara Mimamsa (Vedanda) Vedanta says that the world is unreal, Maya. Vedanta is monistic, in other words, it says that there is only one reality, Brahman. Vedanta lays emphasis on brahmagyan, hence relies on the Upanishad part of the Vedas. Vedanda has its roots in Sankya Philosophy. There are three sub-branhces for Vedanda : 1. Absolute Monism of Shankara 2. Vishishtha Advaita or qualified monism of Ramanuja 3. Dvaita of Madhva Three Heterodox Schools of Indian Philosophy Schools that do not accept the authority of vedas are by definition unorthodox (nastika) systems. The following schools belong to heterodox schools of Indian Philosophy. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks Carvaka It is characterised as a materialistic and aesthetic school of thought. Accepted direct perception as the surest method to prove the truth of anything. Insists on joyful living. Also known as Lokayata, Carvaka is a materialistic school of thought. Its founder was Carvaka, author of the Barhaspatya Sutras in the final centuries B.C. Jain Philosophy Already in existence by 6th century B.C, it was revived by Mahavira, the 24th Jain Tirthankara. According to Jainism, Nirvana or liberation is obtained through three jewels: Right Philosophy, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct (Tri-ratna). Right conduct implies 5 absinences: not to lie, not to steal, not to strive for luxury and not to strive for possessions, not to be unchaste and not to injure (Ahimsa). Ajivika Philosophy A related philosophy which some classify under the heterodox sytem is Ajivika Philosophy. The Ajivikas may simply have been a more loosely-organized group of wandering ascetics (shramanas or sannyasins). Some of its prominent figures were Makkhali Gosala and Sanjaya Belatthaputta. This was an ascetic movement of the Mahajanapada period in the Indian subcontinent. Buddhist Philosophy It is a system of beliefs based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautma. Buddhism is a non-theistic philosophy whose tenets are not especially concerned with the existence or non-existence of God. Four Noble Truths in Buddhism are the following. 1. There is suffering 2. There is a cause of suffering 3. There is a cessation of suffering 4. There is a way to the cessation of suffering Buddhists philosophy of life to get ‘Nirvana’ from suffering is based on the following eight principles: 1. Right Faith (Samyak Dristi) 2. Right Resolve (Samyak Sankalpa) 3. Right Speech (Samyak Vakya) 4. Right Action (Samyak Karmanta) 5. Right Living ( Samyak Ajiva) 6. Right Thought (Samyak Smriti) 7. Right concentration (Samyak Samadhi) 8. Right Effort (Samyak Vyayama) Buddhist Councils There were four Buddhist Councils. These Buddhist Councils are considered as the four milestones in the history of Buddhism. In order to address the issues during that period in Buddhism. They are as follows

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More At @Aj_ebooks First Buddhist Council l

Venue: In Sattaparnaguha Cave situated outside Rajgriha (the modern city of Rajgir).

Year: 486 BC.

King: Ajatasatru, son of King Bimbisara (Haryanka Dynasty).

Presiding Priest: Venerable Maha Kasyapa with 500 monks.

Took place 3 months after the Buddha’s Passing.

The First Buddhist Council collected together and arranged the Buddhist Scriptures known as the Pali Tipitaka.

Second Buddhist Council l

Venue: Vaishali.

Year: 386 BC

King: Kalasoka (Shisunaga Dynasty).

Presiding Priest: Sabakami.

Took place 100 years after the Buddha’s passing.

In order to settle a serious dispute on Vinaya.

Third Buddhist Council l

Venue: Pataliputra (today’s Patna).

Year: 250 BC.

King: Ashoka (Maurya Dynasty).

Presiding priest: Mogaliputta Tissa (Upagupta).

Fourth Buddhist Council l

Venue: Kundalavana, Kashmir.

Year: 72 AD

King: Kanishka (Kushan Dynasty) ,was a patron of Buddhism and was instrumental in spreading the religion in north-western borders of India.

Presiding Priest: Vasumitra; deputed by Asvaghosha.

The fourth Buddhist Council had to deal with a serious conflict between the Sarvasthivada teachers of Kashmir and Gandhara.

Origin of classical dances Most of the classical dance forms originated in temples. Worshipping was the main aim. Although every dance form evolved from different regions, their roots are the same. The roots can be traced from the Sanskrit text – ‘Natya Shastra’. The first compilation of Natya Shastra is dated between 200BCE and 200CE. Rasanubhuti: The 9 Rasas The Rasanubhuti is the ultimate aim of these dance forms. Natya Shastra speaks of Nava Rasas. They are as following: 1. Shringar: Love 2. Hasya: Humorous UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks 3. Karuna: Sorrow 4. Raudra: Anger 5. Veer: Heroism 6. Bhayanak: Fear 7. Bibhats: Disgust 8. Adbhoot: Wonder 9. Shanta: Peace Unlike folk dances, classical dances are all about technicalities and strict rules. Acharya Nandikeshawara’s ‘Abhinaya Darpan’ and Sharangdev’s ‘Sangeeth Ratnakar’ (Nartanadhyaya), along with the Natya Shastra forms the foundation of technicalities of all the classical dance forms (which includes their body movements, rasa, bhava etc). There are Nine Classical Dances as recognized by Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Let’s have a look at these classical dances – one by one.

Bharatnatyam A dance that encompasses Bhav, Rag, Ras and Taal is ‘Bharatanatyam’. Also called as ‘Sadir’, it was conventionally performed by Devadasis (girls offered to God in the temple) in Hindu Temples of South India. Thus, also known as ‘Dasiattam’. Developed in the Tanjore and other regions of South India prominently Tamil Nadu, this could possibly be the Oldest Classical Dance form of India (around 2000 years old). It follows the convention of Natya Shastra in true spirit. Abhinaya Darpan and Sangeet Ratnakar guide the technique and grammar of body movements. The word meaning of Bharatnatyam l

Bha: Bhava which means emotions

Ra: Rag meaning musical notes.

Ta: Taal meaning the Rhythm.

Natyam: The Sanskrit word for Drama.

The evidence of Bharatanatyam l

Silappatikaram (where its existence was mentioned in this ancient Tamil epic).

Brihaddeshwara temple was a major center for Bharatnatyam since 1000CE.

The Gopurams of Chidambaram display the poses of Bharatnatyam, chaaris, and Karanas that are carved in the stones.

The makeup used for Bharatanatyam l

Immense and charismatic makeup (hair as a single bun is tied just before the plaits).

The eye-catching costume (bright colored Sari- today the costume comes in 7 pieces that are worn simply, for men – dhoti).

Glowing ornaments.

The music and instruments used for the Bharatanatyam l

Carnatic Style, Vocalists Called – Nattuvanar (normally Guru).

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Verses are usually in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit.

Mridangam, Nadaswaram, Nattuvangam, Flute, Violin veena etc.

The revival of Bharatanatyam from ancient to modern day platform l

Rukmini Devi Arundale created a Renaissance. Before her, this art was almost dead. She raised this art form to a Puritan form.

Kathak The graceful dance of North India origin ‘Kathaa’ ‘Kahe’ so ‘Kathak’ ‘Kahave’, the one who tells stories is Kathakaar or Kathak. Also known as ‘Natwari Nrutya’. Kathak is one of the most charming dance forms of India. The themes of Kathak revolve around Stories of Ramayan, Mahabharat, and Krishna. Apart from this, Kathak encompasses presentations on manifold subjects. Raslila of Braj is quite akin to Kathak. A Solo Dance form but group compositions on themes with perfect synchronization steals the heart. The specialties of Kathak l

Kathak is world famous for its spectacular footwork, amazing spins, Nazakat and Padhant (Chanting of bols, toda, tukdas by dancer himself and then performing). This is the distinctive feature of Kathak.

It creates a nexus between the dancer and audience.

The body movements are quite straight as compared to Bend movements of South Indian Dances.

The costume, makeup, and ornaments used for Kathak l

Traditionally, Sari, Ghagra-Choli, Chudidar Frock – Jacket, Dupatta for women and men can wear Chudidar Kurta and Dupatta tied at the waist.

This dance-drama may have costumes as per the character.

Makeup is not much heavy but is quite sharp and Fine to reflect the expressions. A bun or long plaits with garland looks beautiful.

Mostly white—yellow pearl ornaments are used.

The music and instruments used for Kathak dance form l

Hindustani Music: Lyrics may be in Hindi, Brij, Sanskrit or any other regional language.

Instruments like Pakhawaj, Tabla, Sarangi, Sitar, Harmonium, Flute, Sarod, etc. are used.

Odissi The long-established dance form in the serene surroundings of Shri Jagannath Temple in Odisha is famous as ‘Odissi’. It has its mention in the oldest Sanskrit Text – Natya Shastra as Audramagdhi. In ancient days this dance form filled with Bhakti ras was a part of worship to God at Jagannath temples. Thus we find many sculptures in dance position inside the temple. It has a combination of Lasya and Tandav. Graceful and mesmerizing, it appears like waves of the ocean. Odissi is famous for its presentations on poet Jayadev’s fabulous work. Two styles of traditional Odissi 1. Maharis (Devadasis or Temple Girls). 2. Gotipua ( Performed by Boys). UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks The costumes used for the Odissi dance forms l

It is made up of traditional material (Dhoti for men- Sari for women) from Odisha. Today fully stitched costume is available.

A crown is worn by female dancers which are prepared in Jagannathpuri.

White colored flowers are adorned on the bun.

Like every other dance form, jewelry remains the same but is of silver colored. Ghunghroos too form part of this dance.

The music and instruments used l l

The South Indian, as well as North Indian Music, is employed for the dance. The Pakhavaj, Tabla, Swarmandal, Harmonium, Sitar, Flute, Violin, and Cymbals.

The revival of Odissi dance forms l

Sanjukta Panigrahi, Sonal Mansingh, Kumkum Mohanty, Anita Babu, Sujata Mohapatra etc. contributed to the upliftment and popularization of Odissi.

Kuchipudi The Kuchipudi was originated from the place named ‘Kuchipudi’ in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh around 3rd century BCE, Kuchipudi Dance form is a long-established dance-drama style. Tirtha Narayana Yati and his disciple Siddhendra Yogi organized and founded the modern version of Kuchipudi which we see today. Kuchipudi gradually developed as a solo dance form and today we can see both male and female performing it. Kuchipudi are themes related to Vaishnavism, Lord Krishna, Rukmini, Satyabhama and other myths. Kuchipudi also holds certain specialties of Bharatnatyam and Odissi as well. Kuchipudi vs Bharatanatyam l

Bharatnatyam costume has three fans of dissimilar lengths. While Kuchipudi dress has only one frill/fan lengthier than the lengthiest fan in the former.

In Bharatnatyam, there is no side Pallu but in Kuchipudi separate pallu is stitched seen on the left side.

Two buns are used in Kuchipudi while only one in Bharatnatyam.

The repertoire of Kuchipudi l

The repertoire of Kuchipudi is similar to that of Bharatanatyam:

Kuchipudi has a specialty called- ‘Tarangam’ in which the dancer performs on the top of the brass plates.

And sometimes balances some pot on the head. This makes the dance form extremely unique.

The costume and makeup of Kuchipudi l

The makeup is similar to that of Bharatnatnatyam.

A dancer in a female role would wear a Sari with light makeup. Today the stitched costume is available.

The traditional Kuchipudi was perf ormed by all males and their attire was quite simple ‘Angivastra’also known as Bagalbandi and a dhoti.

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More At @Aj_ebooks The music and instruments used for the Kuchipudi dance l

Based on Carnatic music the language is usually Telugu.

Mridangam, cymbals, veena, flute and Tambura.

The famous dancers in Kuchipudi l

Raja-Radha Reddy.

Yamini Reddy.

Vaijayanti Kashi.

Uma Rama Rao etc.

Kathakali Dazzling classical dance of Kerala is Kathakali. ‘Katha’= Story or tale, ‘Kali’= Performance and Art. Its roots are in ancient ‘Kutiyattam’ (Classical Sanskrit Dance Drama) and ‘Krishnattam’ (Dance-Drama depicting Stories of Hindu God Krishna). Movements in Kathakali are influenced by ancient martial arts and athletic tradition. It is basically a Dance-Drama. Kathakali was traditionally a male-dominated dance and now females are too welcomed in this dance form. Kathakali is also famous for its huge elaborate costumes, amazing make-up style, face masks, and ornaments. The main themes used in Kathakali l

Mythological themes include Ramayan, Mahabharat, Bhagvat Purana, etc.

Also modern day Kathakali dancers present stories and plays of Shakespeare.

The makeup for Kathakali l

According to the role of the dancer, his face is colored/painted.

The colors are made in rice paste with vegetable colors and applied on the face.

The Green for Noble characters.

Tati (Red) for evil like Ravana.

Kari (black) for hunters and monsters.

Yellow for women etc.

The famous artists of Kathakali l

Kalamandalam Krishna Prasad.

Kalamandalam Kesavan Namboodiri.

Kalamandalam Gopi etc.

Mohiniattam Another graceful Classical Dance of Kerala, Mohiniattam is Lasya inspired dance with soft, calm and gentle movements. Characterized as Feminine, usually done by women. The word ‘Mohini’ is related to the charming women avatar of Lord Vishnu – to end the evil powers. Mohiniattam also connotes, beautiful dancing women. The graceful and most beautiful, Mohiniattam is mesmerizing. The text ‘Hastha Lakshanadeepika’ is followed (for hand gestures and facial expressions) that has an elaborate description of mudras. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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More At @Aj_ebooks The costumes for Mohiniyatam l

Mohiniyattam has a unique White/Off-White Costume.

the prominent one-sided hairstyle (bun) also called as ‘Kuduma’.

Adorable ornaments make it unique.

The revival of Mohiniyattam l

In 1930, Nationalist Malayalam poet Vallathol Narayan Menon helped to repeal the ban on temple dancing in Kerala as well as established the Kerala Kalmandalam dance school and gave encouragement for its training and practice.

Mukundraj, Krishna Panicker, Thankamony as well as Guru and Dancer Kalamandalam Kalyanikutty Amma gave their heroic contribution in reviving the traditional art form.

Manipuri The Manipuri dance form named after its region of origin, ‘Manipur’ is also known as ‘Jogai’. It was traditionally performed as a dance – drama on devotional songs, Manipuri showcases the love between Radha- Krishna through Raaslila. Manipuri is a combination of two culture- Indian and SouthEast Asian. The Manipuri dance form is categorized as Tandav or Lasya. The beautifully soft and graceful dance form, Manipuri has significant movements of hands and upper body. A curvy body structure with a pleasant smile, decorative, shiny costumes, and ornaments, Manipuri is indeed a mesmerizing dance form. Another uniqueness of this dance form is that, while Ghunghroos (Bells) glorify the classical dances of India, they are not worn in Manipuri. The themes used in Manipuri dance forms l

Mostly influenced by Hindu Vaishnavism themes.

It also includes themes related to Shaivism and Shaktism and regional deities.

Tandav Manipuri depicts themes of Shiv, Shakti or Krishna as warrior.

Lasya theme includes Love inspired stories of Radha-Krishna.

The Manipuri Raslila: Three styles 1. Tal Rasak: It is accompanied by clapping. 2. Danda Rasak: The synchronous beat of two sticks where dancers position creates geometric patterns. 3. Mandal Rasak: The Gopis make a circle while Krishna attains the center. The Music and instruments used in Manipuri dance l

The expressions used in Manipuri are from the poetry of Jayadev, Vidyapti, Chandidas, Govindadas and Gyandas that may be in Sanskrit, Maithili, Brij or any other language.

Pung ( A barrel Drum ) and small kartals (Cymbals) are employed in dance as well and not restricted to accompaniment alone.

Other instruments include Sembong, Harmonium, Pena (String Instrument), Flute(Wind Instrument), Esraj and Shankh (conch).

The costumes of Manipuri dance l

The female dancers wear decorative barrel-shaped drum like long stiff skirt till bottom with decorative

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More At @Aj_ebooks embellishments. Dark colored velvet blouse covers the upper part of the body and a traditional veil is worn over hair that falls gracefully over the face. l

The male dancers adorn themselves with dhoti kurta white turban, a folded shawl over the left shoulder and the drum strap over the right shoulder.

The costume for the character of Lord Krishna is Yellow dhoti, dark velvet jacket, and crown of peacock feathers.

Sattriya Sattriya is the traditional dance –drama of Assam. Sattriya was recognized in 2000 as Classical Dance by Sangeet Natak Akademi. It is influenced by Vaishnavism and the modern form of Sattriya is attributed to the 15th century Bhakti Movement Scholar and Saint Srimanta Sankaradev. Since 15th Century, Sattriya grew as a part of Vaishnav Bhakti Movement in Hindu Monasteries called ‘Sattra’. Sattras are the dance community halls (namghar) of monastery temples. The themes and styles used in Sattriya l

The themes performed are mostly on Radha-Krishna and other myths.

Dramas written by Sankardev are typically presented.

Sattriya performance integrated two styles: One Masculine (Paurashik Bhangi — energetic and with jumps) and Feminine (Stri Bhangi—Lasya or delicate).

Both male and female perform this beautiful, expressive dance openly on the modern platform.

The costumes used for Sattriya l

Male—Dhoti, chadar, paguri (turban).

Female—Ghuri, chadar, Kanchi (waist cloth) made up of materials manufactured in Assam.

The play and Character specific costumes are also seen in Sattriya.

Masks are used for special characters (like demons) sometimes.

Traditional Assamese jewelry is employed.

The music and instruments used for Sattriya l

Borgeet of Sankardev and Madhavdev.

Khol (two faced asymmetrical drum).

Cymbals- Manjira Bhortal.

Flute, Violin, Harmonium etc.

Hindustani and Carnatic Music Carnatic music is a system of music associated with the southern part of Indian sub continent. Hindustani music is associated with North India and is deeply influenced by Persian and Islamic music system. Similarities l

Although there are stylistic differences, the basic elements of swara, raga and tala as foundation of both Carnatic and Hindustani are same.

Hindustani music originated in the Vedic period, while Carnatic music originated during the Bhakti movement. Thus both are having great association with religion. UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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Carnatic is one of two main sub-genres of India classical music that evolved from ancient Hindu traditions, the other sub-genre being Hindustani music, which emerged as a distinct form due to Persian and Islamic influences in North India.

Both the music evolved with Sanskrit language scripts in itself and through Vedic traditions.

The central notions in both these system is that of a melodic mode or raga, sug to a rhythmic cycle or tala.

Differences l

Origin of Hindustani music is earlier than Carnatic music. It synthesizes with Vedic chants, Islamic traditions and Persian Musiqu-e-Assil style. Carnatic is Comparatively pure and was developed in 15th 16th century during Bhakti movement and also get boost in 19th -20th century.

Main emphasis in Carnatic music is on vocal music and most compositions are to be sung, involving gayaki style. In Hindustani music vocal- centric group is required. Many instruments are designed to accompany the singer.

The major vocal forms of Hindustani music are Dhrupad, khayal, Tarana, Thumri, Dadra and Gazals. While Carnatic music embraces several varieties of improvisation consist of Alpana, Niraval, kalpnaswaram and Ragam Thana pallavi.

There are two categories of Classical Music l

Hindustani Music is practiced in Northern Parts of India

Carnatic Music is practiced in the Southern parts of India Areas of differences

Carnatic

Hindustani

Ragas

72 ragas

6 major ragas

Instruments

Veena, Mridangam and Mandolin

Tabla, Sarangi, Sitar and Santoor

Influence

Indigenous

Afghan Persian and Arab

Sub-styles

Only one particular prescribed

Several substyles

style of singing Freedom

No freedom to improvise

Scope to do variations and improvise

Vocal and instruments

Both have equal importance

More importance to vocal

Theatre Forms in India: The Indian theatre has a tradition going back to at least 5000 years. The earliest book on dramaturgy anywhere in the world was written in India. It was called Natya Shastra, i.e., the grammar or the holy book of theatre by Bharat Muni. Its time has been placed between 2000 B.C. to 4th Century A.D. In different regions of India, there are religious festivals, fairs, gatherings, ritual offerings, prayers, almost throughout the year. During these occasions, traditional theatre forms are presented. Traditional theatre forms have definitely been influenced by industrial civilization, industrialization, and urbanization. The socio-cultural aspects of these influences should be carefully studied. Traditional theatre forms have a common distinguishing feature that is the element of simplicity.

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UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

More At @Aj_ebooks KOODIYATTAM l

This theatre form originated in Kerala but the exact date of its inception is not known. It is based on Sanskrit theatre traditions

It is considered to have been introduced in India by the Aryans.

Koodiyattam is the oldest existing classical theatre form in the entire world, having originated much before Kathakali and most other theatrical forms. It is considered to be at least 2000 years old.

Traditionally, Koodiyattam is presented by Chakyars, a temple caste of Kerala, and Nangiars, the women of Nambiar caste.

Koodiyattam, unlike the most other theatre forms allows an active role for women. The Nangiars recite shlokas and play female characters.

Conventional in its make-up, costume as well as form, it is an elaborate blend of symbolic gestures, stylised movements and chanted dialogue and verse in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Malayalam.

Bhand Pather l

Traditional theatre form of Kashmir,

Unique combination of dance, music and acting,

Music is provided with surnai, nagaara and dhol,

Actors of Bhand Pather are mainly from the farming community, the impact of their way of living, ideals and sensitivity is discernible.

Swang l

Originally the theatre was mainly music-based.

Musical folk-drama evolved in 18th century.

The softness of emotions, accomplishment of rasa alongwith the development of character can be seen in this theatre form.

Swang incorporates suitable theatrics and mimicry (or nakal) accompanied by song and dialogue. It is dialogue-oriented rather than movement-oriented.

The two important styles of Swang are from Rohtak and Haathras.

In the style belonging to Rohtak, the language used is Haryanvi (Bangru) and in Haathras, it is Brajbhasha.

Nautanki l

Usually associated with Uttar Pradesh.

Before the advent of cinema in India, it was the most popular form of entertainment prevalent in these areas.

The most popular centres of this traditional theatre form are Kanpur, Lucknow and Haathras.

The meters used in the verses are: Doha, Chaubola, Chhappai, Behar-e-tabeel,

There was a time when only men acted in Nautanki but nowadays, women have also started taking part in the performances. Among those remembered with reverence is Gulab Bai of Kanpur.

UPSC Mains GS PAPER-I SHORT NOTES — by Vikas Sangwan

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