Politics in India Since Independence

• 1. The era of One-Party Dominance:

  • First three general elections
  • nature of Congress
  • dominance at the national level
  • uneven dominance at the state level
  • coalitional nature of Congress
  • Major opposition parties.

• 2. Nation-Building and Its Problems:

  • Nehru’s approach to nation-building: Legacy of partition: the challenge of ‘refugee’ resettlement, the Kashmir problem.
  • Organization and reorganization of states; Political conflicts over language.

• 3. Politics of Planned Development:

  • Five- year plans, expansion of state sector, and the rise of new economic interests.
  • Famine and suspension of five-year plans.
  • Green Revolution and its political fallouts.

• 4. India’s External Relations:

  • Nehru’s foreign policy.
  • Sino-Indian war of 1962, Indo-Pak war of 1965 and 1971.
  • India’s nuclear programme and shifting alliances in world politics.

• 5. Challenge to and Restoration of Congress System:

  • Political succession after Nehru.
  • NonCongressism and electoral upset of 1967,
  • Congress split and reconstitution,
  • Congress’ victory in 1971 elections,
  • politics of ‘garibi hatao’.

• 6. Crisis of the Constitutional Order:

  • Search for ‘committed’ Bureaucracy and Judiciary.
  • Navnirman movement in Gujarat and the Bihar movement.
  • Emergency: context, constitutional and extra-constitutional dimensions, resistance to emergency.
  • 1977 elections and the formation of the Janata Party.
  • Rise of civil liberties organizations.

• 7. Regional Aspirations and Conflicts:

  • Rise of regional parties.
  • Punjab crisis and the antiSikh riots of 1984.
  • The Kashmir situation.
  • Challenges and responses in the North East.

• 8. Rise of New Social Movements:

  • Farmers’ movements, Women’s movements, Environment, and Development-affected people’s movements.
  • Implementation of Mandal Commission report and its aftermath.

• 9. Democratic Upsurge and Coalition Politics:

  • Participatory upsurge in the 1990s.
  • Rise of the JD and the BJP.
  • The increasing role of regional parties and coalition politics.
  • UF and NDA governments.
  • Elections 2004 and UPA government.

• 10. Recent Issues and Challenges:

  • Challenge of and responses to globalization: new economic policy and its opposition.
  • Rise of OBCs in North Indian politics.
  • Dalit politics in the electoral and non-electoral arena.
  • Challenge of communalism: Ayodhya dispute, Gujarat riots.

Contemporary World Politics

• 1. Cold War Era in World Politics:

  • Emergence of two power blocs after the Second World War
  • Arenas of the Cold War
  • Challenges to Bipolarity: Non-Aligned Movement,
  • the quest for new international economic order
  • India and the Cold War.

• 2. Disintegration of the ‘Second World’ and the Collapse of Bipolarity:

  • New entities in world politics: Russia, Balkan states, and, Central Asian states,
  • Introduction of democratic politics and capitalism in post-communist regimes.
  • India’s relations with Russia and other post-communist countries.

• 3. US Dominance in World Politics:

  • Growth of unilateralism: Afghanistan, first Gulf War, response to 9/11 and attack on Iraq.
  • Dominance and challenge to the US in economy and ideology.
  • India’s renegotiation of its relationship with the USA.

• 4. Alternative Centres of Economic and Political Power:

  • Rise of China as an economic power in post- Mao Era, creation, and expansion of European Union, ASEAN.
  • India’s changing relations with China.

• 5. South Asia in the Post-Cold War Era:

  • Democratisation and its reversals in Pakistan and Nepal.
  • Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. Impact of economic globalization on the region.
  • Conflicts and efforts for peace in South Asia.
  • India’s relations with its neighbours.

• 6. International Organisations in a Unipolar World:

  • Restructuring and the future of the UN.
  • India’s position in the restructured UN.
  • Rise of new international actors: new international economic organizations, NGOs.
  • How democratic and accountable are the new institutions of global governance?

• 7. Security in Contemporary World:

  • Traditional concerns of security and politics of disarmament.
  • Non-traditional or human security: global poverty, health, and education.
  • Issues of human rights and migration.

• 8. Environment and Natural Resources in Global Politics:

  • Environment movement and evolution of global environmental norms.
  • Conflicts over traditional and common property resources.
  • Rights of Indigenous People.
  • India’s stand-in global environmental debates.

• 9. Globalization and Its Critics:

  • Economic, cultural and political manifestations.
  • Debates on the nature of consequences of globalization.
  • Anti-globalization movements.
  • India is an arena of globalization and struggles against it.