07 September 2022

MAINS QUESTIONS – DAILY QUESTIONS & MODEL ANSWERS:

Q1. What were the reasons for the Non-Aligned Movement’s (NAM) formation? What part did India play in its development? Examine NAM’s achievements and shortcomings in accomplishing its stated goals. (250 words)

Paper & Topic: GS I à Post Independence India

Model Answer:

Introduction:

• During the fall of the colonial system and the independence movements of peoples in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and other parts of the world, and during the height of the Cold War, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was conceived and founded. The Non-Aligned Movement was founded as a group of countries that did not want to openly align with either the US or the Soviet Union, preferring to stay independent or neutral. The Movement was founded in 1955 at the Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, Indonesia. The “Ten Principles of Bandung,” which were declared at the Conference, were NAM’s guiding principles.

Body:

India’s contribution to the creation of the NAM:

• The importance of India in the development and maintenance of the NAM cannot be overstated.
• Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, was not only one of the Movement’s founding founders, but also the driving force behind the values that NAM came to represent.
• In reality, India’s Ambassador to the United Nations, V.K Menon, originated the term “non-alignment.”
• Nehru’s efforts in support of NAM were shaped by his country’s experience as a newly independent nation free of colonialism, both of which helped many other newly independent states join the movement.
• NAM was led by India and Nehru, who expressed the concerns of newly formed nation states that were being actively pressured and persuaded by the two Cold War powers to choose between two, opposing political and social regimes.
• Instead, India and the NAM promoted the notion of nonalignment and a country’s right to determine its own destiny, while also emphasising the need of multilateralism, nonviolence, and international collaboration in resolving international conflicts.
• Using NAM as a forum, India promoted her desire for peace and collaboration over conflict and hostility.

NAM’s achievements:

• NAM aided republics that were enslaved by colonialism in achieving independence.
• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NAM) aided its members in preserving their national security and territorial integrity.
• By avoiding the two armed blocs, the United States and the Soviet Union, NAM helped to create an environment conducive to peace, justice, equality, and international collaboration.
• NAM provides a global platform for members’ voices to be heard.
• During the Cold War, the movement was active in opposing the superpowers’ armaments race.
• It has advocated for international peace, justice, and liberty. It has spoken out against all types of injustice, including the 1956 Suez Crisis, Israel’s aggressive actions, and the unilateral US invasion on Iraq.
• The development of a New International Economic Order (NIEO) based on increased economic cooperation and justice has been promoted by NAM. In reality, the Non-Aligned countries were substantially responsible for the inaugural UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 1964.
• The NAM has persuaded affluent countries that continuing to deprive the third world has a negative impact on the global economy and their own prosperity.
• The movement has succeeded in establishing a strong international front, representing third-world countries in international organisations, including the United Nations.

NAM’s Limitations:

• The world has returned to bipolarity, with the United States leading one side and China-Russia leading the other. Syria, which is split apart by civil conflict, is a great illustration of this, with both the US and Russia establishing influence.
• The rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region as a result of China’s assertiveness, and the US acting as a check on China’s expansionist strategy.
• Climate change is a serious problem all across the world.
• Changing US policy, protectionism, widespread terrorism, and the Middle East’s nuclearization.
• Other difficulties confronting the NAM include the need to maintain international law principles, eliminate weapons of mass destruction, combat terrorism, and defend human rights.
• NAM is also up against a challenge in making the UN more successful in addressing the requirements of all of its member states in order to maintain international peace, security, and stability, as well as achieving justice in the international economic system.
• The Movement’s long-term aims, on the other hand, have yet to be accomplished.

Conclusion:

• Faced with unmet goals and numerous new obstacles, the Non-Aligned Movement is urged to maintain a prominent and leading role in current international affairs in defence of its member states’ interests and priorities, as well as for the attainment of world peace and security.

Q2. Nehru advocated for the integration of tribal people into Indian society by making them an integral part of the Indian nation while preserving their own identity and culture. Elucidate. (250 words)

Paper & Topic: GS I à Post Independence India

Model Answer:

Introduction:

• The government’s tribal integration policy prioritised the preservation of the tribal people’s unique social and cultural legacy. ‘The first problem we have to face there [in the tribal areas] is to inspire them [the tribal people] with confidence and to make them feel at one with India, and to realise that they are part of India and have an honoured place in it,’ said Jawaharlal Nehru, the main influence in shaping the government’s attitude toward the tribals. At the same time, ‘India should represent not just a defending but also a liberating force to them.’ Nehru believed that Indian nationalism could accommodate the indigenous people’s diversity.

Body:

The integration of indigenous people into Indian society was a Nehruvian aim:

• There were two major perspectives to how tribals should be treated in Indian society. One strategy was to leave the tribal people alone, free of modern influences from outside their society, and allow them to remain as they were.
• The second strategy was to fully integrate them into Indian society as rapidly as possible. The demise of the tribal way of life was not to be lamented; rather, it was to be embraced as a sign of their ‘upliftment.’
• Both of these techniques were rejected by Jawaharlal Nehru. The first method, which he saw as insulting, was to treat the indigenous people “like museum specimens to be examined and written about.”
• He argued that the tribal people “could not be left closed off from the world as they were.”
• Isolation was in any case impossible at this point, because the outside world’s penetration had progressed too far, and ‘it was neither possible nor desired to isolate them.’
• According to Nehru, the second option of enabling them to “be absorbed by the bulk of Indian humanity” or absorption by the use of regular outside forces was similarly incorrect.
• This would result in the tribals’ social and cultural identity, as well as its numerous virtues, being lost.
• Rather than these two approaches, Nehru advocated for integrating tribal people into Indian society, making them a vital part of the Indian nation while also preserving their own identity and culture.

The tribal Panchsheel policy of Nehru:

• The Nehruvian method had two main tenets: ‘the tribal areas must progress,’ and ‘they must progress in their own way.’ Progress did not imply “a rote replication of what we have in other regions of India.” Whatever was excellent in the rest of India will “gradually be absorbed by them.”

Jawaharlal Nehru created the following five principles for pursuing tribal policies, popularly known as Tribal Panchsheel:

• People should develop in accordance with their own talent, and alien values should not be imposed.
• Land and forest rights of tribes should be honoured.
• The work of administration and development should be taught to tribal groups.
• Tribal communities should not be over-administered or overburdened by a plethora of programmes.
• The human character that has evolved should be judged, not by statistics or the amount of money spent.

Conclusion:

• Nehru’s approach was founded on a nationalist policy toward tribals that had been in place since the 1920s, when Gandhiji established ashrams in tribal areas and encouraged constructive activity. Rajendra Prasad, India’s first President, and other significant political leaders endorsed this approach after independence.