CHAPTER 11 : Era of One-Party Dominance NCERT SOLUTION CLASS 12TH POLITICAL SCIENCE | EDUGROWN NOTES

Very Answer Type Questions:

Q1. How did the dominance of Congress Party in the first three general elections help in establishing a democratic set-up in India?
Answer: The first general election was the first big test of democracy in a poor and illiterate country. Till then democracy had existed only in the prosperous countries. By that time many countries in Europe had not given voting rights to all women. In this context India’s experiment with universal adult franchise appeared very bold and risky. India’s general election of 1952 became a landmark in the history of democracy all over the world. It was no longer possible to argue that domocratic elections could not be held on conditions of poverty or lack of education. It proved that democracy could be practised anywhere in the world. The next two general elections strengthened democratic set-up in India.

Q2. Highlight any two features of ideology of Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
Answer: 1. Bharatiya Jana Sangh laid emphasis on ideology of one country, one culture and one nation.
2. Bharatiya Jana Sangh called for reunity of India and Pakistan in Akhand Bharat.

Q3. Explain the major difference of ideology between that of Congress and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
Answer: The major difference of ideology between Congress and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh was that Bharatiya Jana Sangh emphasised on one party country. One culture, one nation i.e. a Hindu nation or Hindutva whereas Congress formed ideological and social coalitions accommodating social diversities.

Q4. State any two ideologies of the Swatantra Party.
Answer: Swatantra Party was founded by Senior Congress leader C. Rajgopalachari in August 1959:
1. The party believed that prosperity could come only through individual freedom.
2. This party was against land ceilings in agriculture and opposed to cooperative farming.

Q5. How has the method of voting changed from the first General Election of 1952 to the General Election of 2004?
Answer: 1. In the first General Election a box was placed inside each polling booth for each candidate with the election symbol of the candidate. Each voter was given a blank ballot paper to drop into the box, they wanted to vote for.
2. After first two elections, this method was changed. Now ballot paper carried the names and symbols of candidates and the voter stamped against the name of candidate to vote for.
3. In 2004, Electronic Voting Machine were introduced to press the button according to choice of the voter containing the name of candidate and symbol of political party.

Q6. When was Communist Party emerged?
Answer: The Communist Party emerged in 1920 in different parts of India. It took the inspiration from Bolshevik revolution in Russia. The important leaders of CPI were A.K. Gopalan, S.A. Dange, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, P.C. Joshi, Ajay Ghosh etc.

Q7. “India’s experiment with universal adult franchise appeared very bold and risky”. Justify the statement.
Answer: Because:
1. Country’s vast size and electorates made these elections unusual.
2. The year 1952, it was a big test for poor and illiterate country.
3. Till then, democracy had been existed only in the prosperous countries mainly in Europe and North America where everyone was almost literate.

Q8. Mention the aims and goals of Socialist Party of India. Why the party could not prove itself as an effective alternative to the Congress?
Answer: Aims and goals of socialist party of India:
1. The Socialist Party believed in the ideology of democratic socialism to be distinguished from Congress and Communists both.
2. It criticised Congress for ignoring the workers and peasants.
It became difficult for socialist party to prove itself as an effective alternative to Congress because Congress Party declared its goal to be the socialist pattern of society in 1955.

Q9. What were the reasons for dominance of one party system in India?
Answer: The dominance of Congress in India was due to following reasons:
1. Congress was identified with the freedom struggle for building national unity and solidarity.
2. Congress was associated with Mahatma Gandhi’s name.
3. It had a broad based manifesto to include the various section of society.
4. Congress bore a popular appeal of charismatic leader like Mahatma Gandhi, J.L. Nehru, Sardar Patel, Indira Gandhi etc.
5. Congress focused on building role of the party.

Q10. How did India’s first general elections of 1952 become a landmark in the history of democracy all over the world?
Answer: Because:
1. These elections were competitive among various parties.
2. The participation of people was encouraging also.
3. The results were declared in a very fair manner, even to be accepted by the losers in a fair manner.
4. This experiment of India, proved the critics wrong also.

Short Answer Type Questions:

Q1. Describe the organisation of Congress Party as a social and ideological coalitions.
Or
“For a long time Congress Party had been a social and ideological coalition”. Justify the statement. 
Answer: 1. It accommodated the revolutionary conservative, extremist and moderates with all other shades of the centre.
2. Congress became a platform for numerous groups, interests and even political parties to take part in national movement.
3. In pre-independence days, many organisations and parties were allowed to co-exist within the Congress.
4. Some of these like ‘Congress Socialist Party’ later separated from the Congress and became an opposition party.

Q2. How was one party dominance of India different from the other examples of one party dominance in the world?
Or
Examine the comparative analysis of nature of Congress dominance.
Answer: India is not the only country to have dominance of one party but we have some other examples also for the same. But the dominance of one party in India does not compromise democratic spirit of constitution whereas other nations have compromised it:
1. In countries like China, Cuba and Syria are permitted to be ruled by one party only by the constitutional provisions.
2. Myanmar, Belarus, Egypt also experience one party system due to legal and military measurer.
3. In India, Congress dominates on behalf of free and fair elections based on democracy where the losing of other party is also fair.

Q3. “In India, hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country But in politics, hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and eventual dictatorship”.Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Analyse the statement.
Ans: The above mentioned statement speaks of accommodating diversities by the leader of India which was a challenging path to democracy. Our leaders wanted to represent politics as a way of solution of problems in place of making politics a problem.

Q4. Examine the dominance of Congress in the first three General Elections.
Answer: I. In the first election Congress won 364/489 seats as per expectations.
2. The Communist Party next to Congress won only 16 seats.
3. Congress scored higher in state elections also except Travancore- Cochin (Kerala), Madras and Orissa.
4. Hence, country ruled at national and state level both by declaring Pt. J.L. Nehru as the first Prime Minister of India.
5. In second and third elections also, Congress maintained the same position in Loksabha by winning of three fourth seats in the years 1957 and 1962 respectively.

Long Answer Type Questions:

Q1. Describe the various steps taken to hold the first general elections in India. How far these elections were successful?
Answer: The first general elections had to be postponed twice and finally held from October 1951 to February 1952:
1. These elections were referred to as 1952 elections because most parts of country voted in January 1952.
2. It took six months for campaigning, polling and counting to be completed.
3. Elections were competitive because there were on an average more than four candidates for each seat.
4. The level of participation was en-couraging to vote out in the election.
5. The results were declared and accepted as fair even by losers to prove critics wrong.
These elections were successful:
1. The losing of the parties was also accepted as fair.
2. These elections became a landmark in the history of democracy.
3. It was no longer possible to argue that democratic elections could not be held in conditions of poverty or lack of education. Instead, it can be practised anywhere in the world.

Q2. Why was Congress considered as a social and ideological coalition in independence days? Explain.
Answer: The Congress Party became a social and ideological coalition for it merged different social groups alongwith their identity holding different beliefs:
1. It accommodated the revolutionary, conservative, pacifist, radical, extremist and moderates and the right and the left with all other shades of the centre.
2. Congress became a platform for numerous groups, interacts and even political parties to take part in the national movement.
Ideological currents present within the Congress:
(а) In pre-independence days, many organisations and parties with their own constitutions and organisational structures were allowed to exist within the Congress.
(b) Some of these like ‘Congress Socialist Party”, later separated from the Congress and became an opposition party.

Q3. How was the one party dominance in India different from the one party system in Mexico? In your opinion which of the two political systems is better and why?
Answer: There was a difference between one party domination in India and Mexico. In Mexico, this was a one party system only not dominance because:
1. In India, the Congress Party dominated on behalf of popular consensus but Institutional Revolu-tionary Party (PRI) (in Spanish) ruled on behalf of perfect dictatorship.
2. In India, free and fair elections took place, where the losing of election was also fair but in Mexico, elections were based on malpractices, dominated by PRI.
In our opinion one party dominance¬like India is better because this sort of dominance:
1. Accommodates social diversities.
2. Encourage large number of parti-cipation.
3. Ensures democratic spirit as well as maintains the same.
4. Bear respect even for opposition.

Q4. How did opposition parties emerge in India? What was their importance?
Answer: Some of the diverse opposition parties had come into existence before the
first general elections in 1952 as non-Congress parties which succeeded to gain only a taken of representation in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. These parties maintained a democratic character of the system:
1. These offered a criticism based on principles to keep ruling party under check.
2. These parties groomed the leaders also to play a crucial role in shaping the country.
3. In the early years, these was a lot of respect between leaders of Congress and opposition parties i.e. interim government included even opposition leaders like Dr. Ambedkar, Jayaprakash Narayan, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee into the cabinet.