30 July 2022

30 July 2022 – Daily Mains Answer Writing & Model Answer

Q1. Examine the factors that harmed the social fabric of India after independence. What was the leadership’s response to these challenges?

Paper & Topic: GS I à Post Independence India

Model Answer:

Introduction:

• The end of colonial rule in India occurred on August 15, 1947, and the country found itself on the cusp of a new period in which the challenge was to construct a powerful nation. While India gained independence from the British, it still needed to gain independence from the social, economic, and political issues that had proven a stumbling block to its development.

Body:

THE ISSUES THAT AFFECTED INDIA’S SOCIAL FABRIC INTEGRITY POST-INDEPENDENCE:

• British Indian provincial boundaries have been set and changed haphazardly, with no regard for cultural and linguistic cohesiveness. The majority of provinces were bilingual and multicultural, and several former princely states were merged into them following independence. There was a demand for provinces that were linguistically similar.
• India had a population of almost 340 million people when it won independence. At the time, only roughly 41 million people were literate.
• The refugee crisis arose as a result of India’s partition. By mid-1948, over 5.5 million non-Muslims had entered India, while a substantial number of Muslims had fled to Pakistan.
• India’s poverty rate was around 80%, or around 250 million people, at the time of independence. Famines and starvation forced India to seek outside assistance to ensure its food security.
• The Naxalite Movement was a revolutionary movement in Bengal that was initiated by the Naxalbari, a Maoist-inspired organisation in Andhra Pradesh. The Andra Naxalites were primarily active in two states: Telangana and Srikakulam, which bordered Odisha. In both states, the issue of land and forest was a source of contention. The tribals and peasants were the principal casualties.
• The recession was exacerbated by the mid-70s oil crisis, and all of these events together resulted in riots, large-scale unrest, strikes, and a loss of support for the Congress among the poor and middle classes.
• Violence erupted between Hindus and Muslims. The government, both at the centre and at the state level, was crippled by ideological differences.
• The assassination of the Nirankari sect’s leader sparked the terrorist movement led by Bhindranwale and Amrik Singh.

THE LEADERSHIP’S RESPONSE TO SOCIAL CHALLENGES POST-INDEPENDENCE:

• Article 370 of the Indian Constitution is adopted by the Indian Constituent Assembly, granting Jammu and Kashmir unique status and internal autonomy.
• Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru announces India’s first five-year plan, which establishes the Nehruvian paradigm of economic planning and development. The five-year plan, which is modelled after the Soviet model, also develops a model of mixed economy and big government that is typical to India.
• The States Reorganization Commission’s recommendations led to the reorganisation of India’s states in 1955. Because this was done based on the people’s native tongue, each state has some cultural cohesion.
• The government eliminated patrimonial feudalism and, as a result, the rajas’ secret purses and compensations were also abolished.
• People have migrated from villages to towns and cities as a result of education. Hindi and other national languages are receiving more attention. In all of India’s states, the policy of learning three languages at the school level has been implemented.
• The Community Development Programs (CDPs) were established on October 2, 1952, with the goal of improving the lives of rural people. The Panchayati Raj programme was implemented on October 2, 1959′′, originally in the states of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, to overcome some of the difficulties in the implementation of these schemes.
• The development programmes were to be implemented by the chosen leaders of the rural people at three levels, namely the village, the block, and the district, in response to the ‘felt needs’ of the rural classes.
• Several programmes for the welfare of city dwellers and industry workers were implemented.
• The Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 and the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 were passed by the Indian government. To discourage child labour, legislation was also enacted.

Conclusion:

• It should be highlighted that the secularism and federalism concepts enshrined in Indian constitutional law are the cornerstones of Indian democracy. Indian democracy is a complex paradigm with a wide range of socioeconomic, religious, and cultural diversity. Western political analysts believed that the Indian democratic model would not last long. India’s strong devotion to constitutional ideals, on the other hand, allowed it to not only survive as a nation, but also to emerge as the leader of the newly independent countries.

Q2. How did the state of Punjab become a hotbed of insurgency? What tactics were used to combat the insurgency? Discuss.

Paper & Topic: GS I àPost Independence India

Model Answer:

Introduction:

• In the face of enormous diversity and forces pulling her in diverse directions, India emerged as a cohesive nation after independence. The Khalistan movement in the late twentieth century, which sought to carve out an independent state from what was then India and some portions of Pakistan with a large Sikh population, was one of the most powerful “self-determination” movements. Pakistan supported the Punjab insurgency both openly and secretly, while other factors such as Punjabi speakers feeling neglected, Sikhs desiring a separate state, and other issues such as the Satluj Yamuna Link and Chandigarh as Punjab’s sole capital created the groundwork.

Body:

Factors that contributed to the advent of insurgency in Punjab include:

• 1947 India’s partition – For Sikhs, India’s independence was not a happy occasion, and division left them bitter at the loss of their traditional lands to Pakistan.
• The Punjabi Suba Movement was the catalyst for the fight for a separate Sikh state. The Akali Dal, a political organisation dominated by Sikhs, aimed to establish a separate Sikh Suba or Province.
• The Akali Dal’s demand for separate states was denied by the States Reorganization Commission, which was established to investigate the demand for separate states by linguistic groupings.
• Down 1966, however, the Indira Gandhi administration gave in after a series of violent riots.
• The state was divided into Punjab, which is Punjabi-majority, Haryana, which is Hindi-majority, and Chandigarh, which is a Union Territory. Himachal Pradesh absorbed several of the state’s steep regions.
• The Anadpur Sahib resolution, on the other hand, revived Sikh fervour and sowed the roots of the Khalistan movement. The resolution called for the state of Punjab to be given autonomy, specified regions that would be part of a distinct state, and sought the opportunity to write its own internal constitution. The Anandpur Sahib Resolution was passed. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a religious scholar who had been travelling around Punjab promoting a return to the Khalsa or a more conventional form of Sikhism, was a supporter of the Anandpur Sahib resolution.
• At first, the movement led by Akali leader Sant Harchand Singh Longowal and party chairman Parkash Singh Badal was based on nonviolence. However, as the talks dragged on without a breakthrough, radicals led by Bhindranwale began to take control of the movement.
• Demands for separate nationhood for Punjab were met with violent riots and the assassination of high-ranking members of the Indian administration.
• Finally, the spiral of violence culminated in Operation Blue Star, which was initiated in June 1984 to clear terrorists from the Golden Temple. The procedure resulted in the death of Bhindranwale. Indira Gandhi was assassinated four months later by two of her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for the operation.

How was this violent insurgency dealt with:

• Both the union and state governments handled the early phase of the insurgency as a law and order crisis, refusing to consider the possibility of a burgeoning Sikh insurgency until 1984. This stage had low violence and a low base, necessitating pre-emptive multi-pronged actions involving multiple aspects of national authority, failing which the situation could worsen. Both Akali and Congress political leaders fought for political supremacy, blaming each other for people’s problems and failing to address the political, economic, and social reasons of the unrest. The dynamic produced a political vacuum, which Sikh religious fanatics filled.
• In the second phase, counter-insurgency measures were strengthened on a bigger scale, with a greater focus on border areas to combat cross-border movement and weapon supply, as well as diplomatic actions to fight any external assistance for terrorists.
• However, with rising unrest and terrorists taking the Golden Temple, Operation Bluestar was launched to flush out the terrorists and bring the rising violence to a halt. In 1984, the Army was given permission to enter the temple, which neutralised the terrorists inside, but the operation caused significant collateral damage, with a large number of civilians killed and the Akhal Takht damaged. This further alienated the Sikhs, leading to massive demonstrations against the government, culminating in the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two sikh bodyguards, and subsequent violence against Sikhs.
• Later, the Rajiv-Longowal Accord was made, laying the groundwork for peace, but all of the commitments could not be kept owing to differences, leading to Longowal’s assassination by Sikh militant organisations.
• Violence lasted until 1995, when chief minister Beant Singh was assassinated by a suicide bomber. As public support grew, security forces were able to efficiently eradicate anti-state combatants through intelligence-based operations, paving the path for a peaceful Punjab.

Conclusion:

• India continues to wage a solitary, excruciatingly slow, but ultimately successful war against terrorism funded and supported by Pakistan. With their enormous expertise, the Indian Security Forces have developed new counter-insurgency strategies. The extraordinary peace dividend in the state of Punjab exemplifies the effectiveness of these tactics. The Punjab campaign is one of the world’s most recent, successful, and successful counter-insurgency campaigns. This was made possible in large part by a well-coordinated grand strategy and tactical innovations on the ground. The Sikh masses played a key part in reducing violence in the province, and Punjab later became one of India’s most successful states.