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.