Era of One-Party Dominance PDF

## 2 Era of One-Party Dominance ### Inside the Chapter - Challenge of Building Democracy - Major Political Parties of India - Party System - Party System in India ### Challenge of Building Democracy Independent India came into existence in very difficult circumstances. In many countries of the wo...

## 2 Era of One-Party Dominance ### Inside the Chapter - Challenge of Building Democracy - Major Political Parties of India - Party System - Party System in India ### Challenge of Building Democracy Independent India came into existence in very difficult circumstances. In many countries of the world, democracy was not accepted as a governance model for their country. The reason behind this was that they wanted to maintain their national unity as they believed democracy may lead to differences and conflicts in the society. Hence, many countries that gained independence from colonialism faced non-democratic rule. These no-democratic regimes were visible in several forms such as nominal democracy with effective control by one leader, one party rule or direct army rule. In case of India, a more difficult path was chosen by the leaders. Our leaders believed in the idea of democracy as well as the critical role of politics in any democracy. They saw politics as a way of solving the problems instead of creating problems. It is the society that decides how it has to govern and regulate itself by adopting different policy alternatives. To resolve the conflicting aspirations of different groups within the society, democratic politics is the appropriate alternative. The most visible things regarding politics are competition and power. The main objective of political activity is and should be based on deciding and pursuing public interest. This route was adopted by our leaders for our diverse nation. ### Setting up of Election Commission Indian Constitution came into effect on 26th January 1950 and at that moment of time India was governed by an interim government. Hence, it became important to establish the first democratically elected government of country through First General Elections. To put the constitution into practice, the Election Commission was set up in January 1950. The first Chief Election Commissioner was Sukumar Sen. As per the observations of the Election Commission; due to the size of our nation it is difficult to conduct fair elections. ### Problems and issues in front of the Election Commission Some of the problems and issues in front of the Election Commission are as follows: - To conduct elections properly, delimitation of electoral constituencies is required by the Election Commission. - Preparation of electoral rolls of the citizens who can vote was an important and difficult task that required more time. During the First draft of the rolls, it was observed that names of around 40 lakh women were not recorded in the Electoral rolls. This was not accepted by the Election Commission and it further advised revision or deletion of data. ## Era of One-Party Dominance - These parties offered a sustained and often principled criticism of the policies and practices of the Congress party, this kept the ruling party under check and often changed the balance of power within the Congress. By keeping a democratic political alternative alive these parties prevented the resentment with the system from turning violent. - These parties also groomed the leaders who were to play a crucial role in the shaping of our country. - In the early years there was a lot of mutual respect between the leaders of the Congress and those of the opposition. The interim government that ruled the country after the declaration of Independence and the first general election included opposition leaders like Dr. Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru often referred to his fondness for the Socialist Party and invited socialist leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan to join in his government. This kind of personal relationship and respect for political adversaries declined after the party competition grew more intense. - The country was quite unique. The inclusive character of the national movement led by the Congress enabled it to attract different sections, groups and interests making it a broad based social and ideological coalition. The key role of the Congress in the freedom struggle thus gave it a head start over others. As the ability of the Congress to accommodate interests and all aspirants for political power steadily declined, other political parties started gaining greater significance. ### Major Political Parties of India **Socialist Party** The origin of the socialist party can be traced back to the mass movement stage of the Indian National Congress which was formed in 1934 by Acharya Narendra Dev. Later on, it was separated to form socialist party in 1948 whose ideology of democratic socialism and criticised capitalism. The Socialist Party went through many splits and reunions leading to the formation of many socialist parties. These included the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party, the Praja Socialist Party and Samyukta Socialist Party. Jayaprakash Narayan, Rammanohar Lohia and SM Joshi were among the leaders of the socialist parties. Many parties in contemporary India, like the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (United) and the Janata Dal (Secular) trace their origins to the Socialist Party. **Bharatiya Jana Sangh** It was formed in 1951 by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee with the ideology of one country one culture and one nation and called for a reunion of India and Pakistan in Akhand Bharat. The party was a consistent advocate of India developing nuclear weapons especially after China carried out its atomic tests in 1964. In the 1950s, Jana Sangh remained on the margins of the electoral politics and was able to secure only 3 Lok Sabha seats in 1952 elections and 4 seats in 1957 general elections to Lok Sabha, In the early years its support came mainly from the urban areas in the Hindi speaking states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The party's leaders included Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Balraj Madhok. **Communist Party of India** In the early 1920, communist groups emerged in different parts of India having a belief of communism. The Communist Party of India was primarily secular, modern and authoritarian. From 1935, the Communists worked mainly from within the fold of the Indian National Congress. A parting of ways took place in December 1941, when the communists decided to support the British in their war against Nazi Germany. AK Gopalan, SA Dange, EMS Namboodiripad. PC Joshi, Ajay Ghosh and P Sundarraya were among the notable leaders of the CPI. The party went through a major split in 1964 following the ideological rift between Soviet Union and China. The pro-Soviet faction remained as the CPI, while the opponents formed the CPI(Marxist). Both these parties continue to exist to this day. **Check** 1. Who was the first chief Election Commissioner? 2. In which system many parties compete elections? 3. Which decade is known as dangerous decade? 4. Who was the founder of the Bhartiya Jana Sangha? 5. Who founded socialist Party? ## Communist Victory in Kerala The PRI (in Spanish) was founded in 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party in Mexico for nearly six decades. It was a symbol of the Mexican Revolution's legacy. PRI was founded by a coalition of political, military leaders, labour and peasant organisations and a number of political groups. It was dubbed ‘the perfect dictatorship’ during its reign of terror had a long-term impact on health for democracy. The citizens have yet to develop full confidence in the free and fair nature of elections. ### Factions The coalition-like character of Congress made it strong and inclusive in the following ways: - A coalition accommodates all those who are participants in the democratic process. It balances and strikes a balance on almost all issues. Competition on almost all issues are the basic characteristics of a coalition. This strategy made opposition difficult to developed because all issues and concerns find their place in the programme and ideology of the Congress. - Coalition nature of Congress developed a greater tolerance of internal differences and accommodates the needs and aspirations of various groups and leaders. Congress did both these things during the freedom struggle and continued doing this even after independence. If a group was not satisfied with the position of the party, groups rather than leaving the party and becoming opposition. Such a group inside the party are called factions. Instead of being a weakness, factions actually became strength of the Congress. The system of factions functioned as a balancing mechanism within the party. ### Emergence of Opposition Parties India had a larger number of diverse and vibrant opposition parties than many other multi-party democracies. Some of these had come into being even before the first general election of 1952. Some of these parties played an important part in the politics of the country in the ‘sixties and seventies. The roots of almost all the non-Congress parties of today can be traced to one or the other of the opposition parties of 1950. All these opposition parties succeeded in gaining only a little representation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies in this period. Yet their presence played a crucial role in maintaining the democratic character of the system. ## Congress Dominance in the First Three General Elections The results of the first general election did not surprise anyone. It was the only party then to have an organisation spread all over the country. And finally, in Jawaharlal Nehru, the party had the most popular and charismatic leader in Indian politics. He led the Congress campaign and toured through the country. When the final results were declared, the extent of the victory of the Congress did surprise many. The party won 364 of the 489 seats in the first Lok Sabha and finished way ahead of any other challenger, The Communist Party of India that came next in terms of seats won only 16 seats. The state elections were held with the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress scored big victory in those elections as well. It won a majority of seats in all the state's except Travancore-Cochin (part of today's Kerala), Madras and Orissa. Finally even in these states the Congress formed the government. So the party ruled all over the country at the national and the state level. As expected, Jawaharlal Nehru became the Prime Minister after the first general election. In the second and the third general elections, held in 1957 and 1962 respectively, the Congress maintained the same position in the Lok Sabha by winning three-fourth of the seats. None of the opposition parties could win even one-tenth of the number of seats won by the Congress. The most significant of these cases was in Kerala in 1957. when a coalition led by the CPI formed the government. Apart from exceptions like this, the Congress controlled the national and all the state governments. The extent of the victory of the Congress was artificially boosted by our electoral system. The Congress won three out of every four seats but it did not get even half of the votes. In 1952, for example, the Congress obtained 45 per cent of the total votes. But it managed to win 74 per cent of the seats. The Socialist Party, the second largest party in terms of votes, secured more than 10 per cent of the votes all over the country. But it could not even win three per cent of the seats. ### Nature of Congress Dominance - India is not the only country to have experienced the dominance of one party. In the world, many other examples of one-party dominance. But there is a crucial difference between these and the Indian experience. - In other cases the dominance of one party was ensured by compromising democracy. In some countries like China, Cuba and Syria the constitution permits only a single party to rule the country. Some others like Myanmar, Belarus, Egypt, and Eritrea are effectively one-party states due to legal and military measures. ## First General Election The general election had to be postponed twice and finally, it was held from October 1951 to February 1952. But this election was referred as the 1952 election because most parts of the country voted in January 1952. It took six months for campaigning, polling and counting to be completed. Elections were competitive as there were on an average more than four candidates for each seat. The results were accepted as fair even by the losers. India’s general election of 1952 became a landmark in the history of democracy all over the world. It proved that democracy could be practised anywhere in the world. In the first general election of 1952, Congress party won 364 seats out of 489 seats and finished far ahead of any other challenger. The Communist Party of India came next in terms of seats and won only 16 seats. State elections were also held with the Lok Sabha elections. Congress scored big victory in state elections as well. It won a majority of seats in all the states except Travancore-Cochin, Madrasand Odisha. Thus, the Congress party ruled all over the country at the national and state level. The Congress maintained the same position in second and third general election held in 1957 and 1962 respectively. It won three-fourth of Lok Sabha seats. No opposition parties could win even one-tenth of the number of seats won by Congress. The Congress won three out of every four seats, but it did not get even half of the votes. In this system of election, the party that gets more votes than others tends to get much more than its proportional share.