the Indian Constitution

Why Does a Country Need a constitution?

• A Constitution helps serve as a set of rules and principles that all persons in a country can agree upon as the
basis of the way in which they want the country to be governed.

• The constitution also defines the nature of a country’s political system. For example, Nepal’s earlier Constitution
stated that the country was to be ruled by the King and his council of ministers.

• The Constitution often lays down rules that guard against this misuse of power by our political leaders. For
examples: In the Indian Constitution, many laws contained in the section on Fundamental Rights.

• In a democracy, the Constitution also ensures that a dominant group does not use its power against other, less
powerful people or groups.

• The Constitution helps to protect us against certain decisions that we might take that could have an
adverse effect on the larger principles that the country believes in. For example, it is possible that many people
who live in a democracy might come to strongly feel that party politics has become so harsh that we need a
strong dictator to set this right however, in the long run, dictatorial rule will be not fit.

Key Features of Indian Constitution

Introduction

• The long experience of oppressive rule under the colonial state convinced Indians that free India should be a
democracy in which everyone should be treated equally and be allowed to participate in government.

• The Constituent Assembly was formed in 1946 which comprised of 300 members who met periodically for the
next three years to write India’s Constitution.
→ Various things are kept in mind while drawing up Constitution as the country was made up of several different
communities who spoke different languages, belonged to different religions, and had distinct cultures.

Various Key features of India Constitution

1. Federalism: It means existence of more than one level of government in the country. In India, there are three
level of government - centre, state and Panchayati Raj. The Constitution defines the power of each government.
2. Parliamentary Form of Government: Constitution of India guarantees universal adult suffrage
for all citizens means that the people of India have a direct role in electing their representatives. Also,
every citizen of the country, irrespective of his/her social background, can also contest in elections.

3. Separation of Powers: According to the Constitution, there are three organs of the State - the legislature, the
executive and the judiciary.
→ The legislature refers to our elected representatives. 
→ The executive is group of people who are responsible for implementing laws and running the government. 
→ The judiciary refers to the system of courts in this country.
• Each organ checks other acts as a check on the other organs of the State which ensures the balance of
power between all three.

4. Fundamental Rights: These rights protect citizens against the arbitrary and absolute exercise of power by the
State. These rights are given to individuals against the State as well as against other individuals.
→ The Constitution also guarantees the rights of minorities against the majority.

5. Secularism: A secular state is one in which the state does not officially promote any one religion as the state
religion. India, officially do not have any religion. Directive Principles of State Policy
The Fundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution include:

• Right to Equality: All persons are equal before the law. This means that all persons shall be equally protected by
the laws of the country.
→ It also states that no citizen can be discriminated against on the basis of their religion, caste or sex.
• Right to Freedom: This includes the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to form
associations, the right to move freely and reside in any part of the country, and the right to practise any
profession, occupation or business.

• Right against Exploitation: The Constitution prohibits trafficking, forced labour, and children working under 14
years of age.

• Right to Freedom of Religion: Every person has the right to practise, profess and propagate the religion of their
choice.

• Cultural and Educational Rights: The Constitution states that all minorities, religious or linguistic, can set up their
own educational institutions in order to preserve and develop their own culture.

• Right to Constitutional Remedies: This allows citizens to move the court if they believe that any of their
Fundamental Rights have been violated by the State.
 Resources

• Definition: Anything that can be used to satisfy a need is a resource.

What makes a thing Resource

→ Utility or usability is what makes an object or substance a resource. Example includes Water, textbook etc.

→ Some resources have economic value while some do not. Example: Metals may have an economic value, a
beautiful landscape may not. But both satisfy human needs so these are considered as resource.

• Some resources can become economically valuable with time. Example: Grandmother’s home remedies are not
economically valuable today. But if they are patented and sold by a medical firm tomorrow, they could become
economically valuable.

• Important factors that can change substances into resources:

→ Time
→ Technology

• People themselves are the most important resource. Their ideas, knowledge, inventions and discoveries that
lead to the creation of more resources.

• Each invention leads to many others. Example: The discovery of fire led to the practice of cooking
and other processes while the invention of the wheel ultimately resulted in development of newer modes of
transport.

Types of Resources

• There are three types of resources:

→ Natural
→ Human made 
→ Human

• Resources that are drawn from Nature and used without much modification are called natural resources. For
example: air, water, soil, minerals etc.

• The resources which are created from natural resources through human resources are known as human made
resources. For example: buildings, bridges, roads etc.

• People are human resources. It refers to the quantity and abilities of the people.

Natural Resources

• Many of natural resources are free gifts of nature.

• These can be used directly but in some cases we have to use tools and technology may be
needed to use a natural resource to utilize it in best possible way.

• Natural resources are classified into different groups depending upon their level of development and use;
→ Origin
→ Stock
→ distribution

• On the basis of their development and use resources it can be classified into two groups:
→ Actual resources: Those resources whose quantity is known. These resources are being used in the present. For
Example: The dark soils of the Deccan plateau in Maharashtra
→ Potential resources: Those whose entire quantity may not be known and these are not being used at present.
This is due to the present level of technology is not advanced enough to easily utilise these resources. For
Example: The uranium found in Ladakh is a potential resource that could be used in the future.

• Based on their origin it can be classified into two groups:

→ Abiotic resources: Non-living resources. Example includes Soil, Water, rocks etc.

→ Biotic resources: Living resources. Example includes Plants and animals.

• On the basis of Stock:

→ Renewable resources: Those which get renewed or replenished quickly. For example, solar energy, soil, forest
etc.

Some of these are unlimited and are not affected by human activities such as solar or wind energy while careless
use of certain renewable resources like water, soil and forest can affect their stock.

→ Non-renewable resources: Those which have a limited stock. For example: Coal, Petroleum etc.

Once the stocks are exhausted it may take thousands of years to be renewed or replenished. Therefore, they are
considered as non-renewable.

• On the basis of their distribution resources:

→ Ubiquitous: Resources that are found everywhere like the air we breathe, are ubiquitous. For Example: air,
water etc.

→ Localised: Resources that are found in only certain places are localised. For Example: Copper, Iron Ore etc.

• The distribution of resources is unequal over earth and depends upon number of physical factors like terrain,
climate and altitude.

Human Made Resources

• Natural substances become resources only when their original form has been changed. For Example: Iron ore
was not a resource until people learnt to extract iron from it.

• Technology is also a human made resource.

Human Resources

• People use the nature in the best possible way using their knowledge, skill and the technology. Therefore, they
considered as human resources.

• Education and health help in making people a valuable resource.

• Improving the quality of people’s skills so that they are able to create more resources is known as human
resource development.

Conserving Resources

• Using resources carefully and giving them time to get renewed is called resource conservation.
• Sustainable development is the development meets the needs of present and also conserve them for
the future.

• Principles of Sustainable development:

→ Respect and care for all forms of life
→ Improve the quality of human life
→ Conserve the earth’s vitality and diversity
→ Minimise the depletion of natural resources
→ Change personal attitude and practices toward the environment
→ Enable communities to care for their own environment.

• It is our duty to ensure that:

→ All uses of renewable resources are sustainable
→ The diversity of life on the earth is conserved
→ The damage to natural environmental system is minimised.
 How when and where

How Important are Dates?

• Earlier, history was synonymous with dates.

• History is about finding out how things were in the past and how things have changed.

• Previously, history was an account of battles and big events such as:
→ The year a king was crowned.
→ The year he was married and had a child.
→ The year he fought a particular war or battle.
→ The year he died.
→ The year the next ruler succeeded to the throne.

• Now, historians look more towards why and how things happen and not on when things happened.

Which dates?

• The dates we select become vital because we focus on a particular set of events as important.

• If the focus of study changes, a new set of dates will appear significant.

How do we periodise?

• We divide history into different periods in an attempt to capture the characteristics of a time, its central
features as they appear to us.

British classification of Indian History

• In 1817, James Mill, a Scottish economist and political philosopher, in his book 'A History of British India' divided
Indian history into three periods:

→ Hindu
→ Muslim
→ British

• According to Mill, all Asian societies were at a lower level of civilisation than Europe.

Another Classification of Indian history

• Historians have usually divided Indian history into ‘ancient’, ‘medieval’ and ‘modern’.

• This division too has its problems.

→ Because this periodisation is borrowed from the West where the modern period was associated with the
growth of all the forces of modernity – science, reason, democracy, liberty and equality.

→ Medieval was a term used to describe a society where these features of modern society did not exist.

• Many historians refers British rule period as ‘colonial’ because in this rule:

→ People did not have equality, freedom or liberty.

→ No economic growth and progress took place.

What is colonial?
• The British came to conquer the country and establish their rule, subjugating local nawabs and rajas.

• British established control over the economy and society, collected revenue to meet all their expenses, bought
the goods they wanted at low prices, produced crops they needed for export

• British rule brought about in values and tastes, customs and practices.
• When the subjugation of one country by another leads to these kinds of political, economic, social and cultural
changes, we refer to the process as colonisation.

How do We Know?

• Historians used various sources in writing about the modern history of India or last 250 years of Indian history.

Administration produces records

• The official records of the British administration are one of the important sources.

• Every instruction, plan, policy decision, agreement, investigation was written as British believed that the act of
writing was important.

• British set up record rooms attached to all administrative institutions as they felt that all important documents
and letters needed to be carefully preserved.

Surveys become important

• The British believed that a country had to be properly known before it could be effectively administered,
therefore, practice of surveying became common under the colonial administration.

• By the early nineteenth century detailed surveys were being carried out to map the entire country.

• In the villages, revenue surveys were conducted to know the topography, the soil quality, the flora, the fauna,
the local histories, and the cropping pattern.

• From the end of the nineteenth century, Census operations were held every ten years which provide
detailed records of the number of people in all the provinces of India, noting information on castes,
religions and occupation.

• Other surveys such as botanical surveys, zoological surveys, archaeological surveys, anthropological surveys,
forest surveys also done.

What official records do not tell

• Official records do not tell what other people in the country felt, and what lay behind their actions.

• We need to look these things in unofficial records which are more difficult to get than official records.

• Sources of Unofficial records:

→ Diaries of people
→ Accounts of pilgrims and travellers
→ Autobiographies of important personalities
→ Popular booklets in the local bazaars
→ Newspapers
→ Written ideas of  Leaders and reformers
→ Written records of poets and novelists.
Limitation of Unofficial records

• They were produced by those who were literate.

• From these, we can't understand how history was experienced and lived by the tribals and the peasants, the
workers in the mines or the poor on the streets.
 Civilising the Native, Educating the Nation

How the British saw Education

The tradition of Orientalism

• In 1783, William Jones arrived in Calcutta who was a linguist.

→ He had studied Greek and Latin at Oxford, knew French and English, Arabic and Persian.
→ At Calcutta, he started learning Sanskrit language, grammar and poetry.
→ Soon he was studying ancient Indian texts on law, philosophy, religion, politics, morality, arithmetic, medicine
and the other sciences.

• Englishmen like Henry Thomas Colebrook and Nathaniel Halhed were also busy discovering the ancient Indian
heritage, mastering Indian languages and translating Sanskrit and Persian works into English.

• Together with them, Jones set up the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and started a journal called Asiatic Researches.

• Jones and Colebrook went about discovering ancient texts, understanding their meaning, translating them, and
making their findings known to others.
→ They believed this project would help the British learn from Indian culture and also help Indians
rediscover their own heritage, and understand the lost glories of their past.
→ In this process, the British would become the guardians of Indian culture as well as its masters.

• Influenced by such ideas, many Company officials argued that the British ought to promote Indian rather than
Western learning.

• They felt that institutions should be set up to encourage the study of ancient Indian texts and teach Sanskrit
and Persian literature and poetry.

• In 1781, a madrasa was set up in Calcutta to promote the study of Arabic, Persian and Islamic law

• In 1791, the Hindu College was established in Banaras to encourage the study of ancient Sanskrit texts that
would be useful for the administration of the country.

• Not all officials shared these views and many criticised the Orientalists.

“Grave errors of the East”

• From the early nineteenth century many British officials began to criticise the Orientalist vision of learning.

• According to them, knowledge of the East was full of errors and unscientific thought.

• James Mill was one of those who attacked the Orientalists and declared that the aim of education ought to be
to teach what was useful and practical.
→ So, Indians should be made familiar with the scientific and technical advances that the West had made, rather
than with the poetry and sacred literature of the Orient.

• By the 1830s the attack on the Orientalists became sharper.

→ Thomas Babington Macaulay saw India as an uncivilised country that needed to be civilised.
→ According to him, no branch of Eastern knowledge could be compared to what England had produced.

• Macaulay gave importance to the need to teach the English language.

• He felt that knowledge of English would allow Indians to read some of the finest literature the world had
produced.
→ It would make them aware of the developments in Western science and philosophy.
→ Thus, it is a way of civilising people, changing their tastes, values and culture.

• The English Education Act of 1835 was introduced.

→ The decision was to make English the medium of instruction for higher education and to stop the promotion of
Oriental institutions like the Calcutta Madrasa and Banaras Sanskrit College.

Education for commerce

• In 1854, the Court of Directors of the East India Company in London sent an educational despatch to the
Governor-General in India come to be known as Wood’s Despatch which emphasised once again the practical
benefits of a system of European learning, as opposed to Oriental knowledge.

• It said, European learning would enable Indians to recognise the advantages that flow from the expansion of
trade and commerce, and make them see the importance of developing the resources of the country.

• Wood’s Despatch also argued that European learning would improve the moral character of Indians and would
make them truthful and honest.

• Following the 1854 Despatch, education departments of the government were set up to extend control over all
matters regarding education.

What Happened to the Local Schools?

The report of William Adam

• In the 1830s, William Adam, a Scottish missionary, toured the districts of Bengal and Bihar and asked by the
Company to report on the progress of education in vernacular schools.

• Adam found that there were over 1 lakh pathshalas in Bengal and Bihar imparting education to over 20 lakh
children.
→ These institutions were set up by wealthy people, or the local community.

• The system of education was flexible.

→ There were no fixed fee
→ There were no printed books
→ There were no separate school building
→ There were no benches or chairs
→ There were no blackboards
→ There were no system of separate classes
→ There were no roll-call registers
→ There were no annual examinations
→ There were no regular time-table.

• Adam discovered that this flexible system was suited to local needs.
→ For example, classes were not held during harvest time when rural children often worked in the
fields.

New routines, new rules

• Up to the mid-nineteenth century, the Company was concerned primarily with higher education.

• After 1854 the Company decided to improve the system of vernacular education.

• Each guru was asked to submit periodic reports and take classes according to a regular timetable.

• Teaching was now to be based on textbooks and learning was to be tested through a system of annual
examination.
• Students were asked to pay a regular fee, attend regular classes, sit on fixed seats, and obey the new rules of
discipline.

• Pathshalas which accepted the new rules were supported through government grants.

• The new rules and routines affected the children from poor peasant families negatively as new system
demanded regular attendance, even during harvest time.

• Inability to attend school came to be seen as indiscipline, as evidence of the lack of desire to learn.

The Agenda for a National Education

• From the early nineteenth century, many thinkers from different parts of India began to talk of the need for a
wider spread of education.

• Some Indians felt that Western education would help modernise India
→ They urged the British to open more schools, colleges and universities, and spend more money on education.

• There were other Indians who reacted against Western education. Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore
were two such individuals.

“English education has enslaved us” (Mahatma Gandhi's view on Indian Education)

• According to Mahatma Gandhi, the colonial education created a sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians.

• It made them see Western civilisation as superior, and destroyed the pride they had in their own culture.

• Mahatma Gandhi wanted an education that could help Indians recover their sense of dignity and self-respect.

• As per Mahatma Gandhi, western education focused on reading and writing rather than oral knowledge; it
valued textbooks rather than lived experience and practical knowledge.

• He argued that education ought to develop a person’s mind and soul.

• Literacy – or simply learning to read and write – by itself did not count as education.

Tagore’s “abode of peace” (Rabindranath Tagore's view on Indian Education)

• Rabindranath Tagore started the Santiniketan in 1901.

• Tagore felt that childhood ought to be a time of self-learning, outside the rigid and restricting discipline of the
schooling system set up by the British.

• Teachers had to be imaginative, understand the child, and help the child develop her curiosity.

• According to Tagore, the existing schools killed the natural desire of the child to be creative, her sense of
wonder.

• Tagore was of the view that creative learning could be encouraged only within a natural environment.
→ So he set up santiniketan, 100 kilometres away from Calcutta in a natural setting, where living in harmony with
nature, children could cultivate their natural creativity.

Difference in Gandhi and Tagore view about Indian Education

• Gandhiji was highly critical of Western civilisation and its worship of machines and technology. Tagore wanted
to combine elements of modern Western civilisation with what
he saw as the best within Indian tradition.

• Gandhiji considered work with their hands, learn a craft, and know how different things operated as education
while Tagore emphasised the need to teach science and technology at Santiniketan, along with art, music and
dance.
 The Making of The National Movement: 1870s – 1947

The Emergence of Nationalism

• India was the people of India where all the people irrespective of class, colour, caste, creed, language, or
gender resides.

• The British were exercising control over the resources of India.

• The political associations were started forming after 1850, especially those that came into being in the 1870s
and 1880s.

• The important ones were the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, the Indian Association, the Madras Mahajan Sabha, the
Bombay Presidency Association, and of course the Indian National Congress.

• The Arms Act was passed in 1878, disallowing Indians from possessing arms. 

• In the same year the Vernacular Press Act was also enacted in an effort to silence those who were critical of
the government.

• The Indian National Congress was established when 72 delegates from all over the country met at Bombay in
December 1885.
→ The early leadership – Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Badruddin Tyabji, W.C. Bonnerji,
Surendranath Banerji, Romesh Chandra Dutt, S. Subramanian Iyer, among others – was largely from Bombay and
Calcutta.

A nation in the making

• The Congress in the first twenty years was “moderate” in its objectives and methods.

• It demanded that Indians be placed in high positions in the government. 

→ For this purpose, it called for civil service examinations to be held in India as well.

• The early Congress also raised a number of economic issues.

“Freedom is our birth right”

• By the 1890s many Indians began to raise questions about the political style of the Congress. 

• In Bengal, Maharashtra and Punjab, leaders such as Bepin Chandra Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat
Rai started exploring more radical objectives and methods.

• Tilak raised the slogan, “Freedom is my birth right and I shall have it!”

• In 1905 Viceroy Curzon partitioned Bengal.

→ The partition of Bengal infuriated people all over India.

• The Swadeshi movement sought to oppose British rule and encourage the ideas of self-help, swadeshi
enterprise, national education, and use of Indian languages.

• The Congress split in 1907 however the two groups reunited in December 1915.

• In 1916, the Congress and the Muslim League signed the historic Lucknow Pact.
The Growth of Mass Nationalism

• The First World War altered the economic and political situation in India.

• The government increased taxes on individual incomes and business profits.

• Increased military expenditure and the demands for war supplies led to a sharp rise in prices.

• Gandhiji arrived in India in 1915 from South Africa is well known for leading successful movement against racist
regimes.

The Rowlatt Satyagraha

• In 1919 Gandhiji gave a call for a satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act passed by British that curbed freedom of
expression and strengthened police powers.

• The Rowlatt Satyagraha turned out to be the first all-India struggle against the British government.

• In April 1919, there were a number of demonstrations and hartals in the country and the government used
brutal measures to suppress them.

• The Jallianwala Bagh atrocities, administered by General Dyer in Amritsar on Baisakhi day (13 April), were a part
of this repression.

Khilafat agitation and the Non-Cooperation Movement

• The leaders of the Khilafat agitation, Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali initiated a full-fledged Non-Cooperation
Movement.

• Gandhiji supported their call and urged the Congress to campaign against Jallianwala massacre, the
Khilafat wrong and demand swaraj.

• The Non-Cooperation Movement gained momentum through 1921-22.

• Thousands of students left government- controlled schools and colleges.

• British titles were surrendered and legislatures boycotted.

People’s initiatives

• Different classes and groups, interpreting Gandhiji’s call in their own manner.

• In Kheda, Gujarat, Patidar peasants organised non-violent campaigns against the high land revenue
demand of the British.

• In coastal Andhra and interior Tamil Nadu, liquor shops were picketed.

• In the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, tribals and poor peasants staged a number of “forest satyagrahas”.

• In Sind (now in Pakistan), Muslim traders and peasants were very enthusiastic about the Khilafat call.

• In Bengal too, the Khilafat-Non-Cooperation alliance gave enormous communal unity and strength to the
national movement.
• In Punjab, the Akali agitation of the Sikhs sought to remove corrupt mahants – supported by the British.

• In Assam, tea garden labourers demanded a big increase in their wages.

The happenings of 1922-1929

• Mahatma Gandhi abruptly called off the Non-Cooperation Movement when in February 1922 when a crowd of
peasants set fire to a police station in Chauri Chaura.

• Two important developments of the mid-1920s were the formation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
a Hindu organisation, and the Communist Party of India.

• The decade closed with the Congress resolving to fight for Purna Swaraj (complete independence) in 1929
under the presidentship of Jawaharlal Nehru.

The March to Dandi

• In 1930, Gandhiji declared that he would lead a march to break the salt law.

• Gandhiji and his followers marched from Sabarmati to the coastal town of Dandi where they broke the
government law by gathering natural salt found on the seashore, and boiling sea water to produce salt.

• The Government of India Act of 1935 prescribed provincial autonomy and the government announced elections
to the provincial legislatures in 1937.

• In September 1939, after two years of Congress rule in the provinces, the Second World War broke out.

Quit India and Later

• Mahatma Gandhi decided to launch 'Quit India' movement against the British in the middle of the Second
World War.

• Gandhiji and other leaders were jailed at once but the movement spread.

Towards Independence and Partition

• In 1940 the Muslim League had moved a resolution demanding “Independent States” for Muslims
in the north-western and eastern areas of the country.

•  In 1937, the Congress rejected the League’s wish to form a joint Congress-League government in the United
Provinces which annoyed the League.

• At the end of the war in 1945, the British opened negotiations between the Congress, the League and
themselves for the independence of India.
→ The talks failed because the League saw itself as the sole spokesperson of India’s Muslims.
• The Congress did well in the “General” constituencies but the League’s success in the seats reserved for
Muslims persisted with its demand for “Pakistan”.

• After the failure of the Cabinet Mission, the Muslim League declared mass agitation for winning its Pakistan
demand.

• 16 August, 1946 was announced as a “Direct Action Day” by the League.

→ On this day, riots broke out in Calcutta, lasting several days.

• By March 1947 violence spread to different parts of northern India.

• Millions of people were forced to flee their homes.
• Partition also meant that India changed, many of its cities changed, and a new country – Pakistan – was born.

India After Independence

A New and Divided Nation

• Due to partition, 8 million refugees had come into India from what was now Pakistan.

• There was about 500 princely states each ruled by a maharaja or a nawab, each of whom had to be persuaded
to join the new nation.

• There were divisions between high castes and low castes, between the majority Hindu community and Indians
who practised other faiths.

A Constitution is Written

• Between December 1946 and November 1949, three hundred Indians had a series of meetings and decided on
the formation of the Indian Constitution on 26 January, 1950.

• The features of Indian Constitution:

→ The adoption of universal adult franchise.
→ Guaranteed equality before the law to all citizens, regardless of their caste or religious affiliation.
→ Offered special constitutional rights to the poorest and the most disadvantaged Indian citizens along with the
former Untouchables, the Adivasis or Scheduled Tribes were also granted reservation in seats and jobs.

• The Constituent Assembly spent many days discussing the powers of the central government versus those of
the state governments.

• The Constitution sought to balance claims by providing three lists of subjects: 

→ Union List (subjects such as taxes, defence and foreign affairs): Centre
→ State List (subjects such as education and health): States
→ Concurrent List (subjects such as forests and agriculture): The Centre and the states

• Another major debate in the Constituent Assembly concerned language which ended with Hindi would be the
“official language” of India, English would be used in the courts, the services, and communications between one
state and another.

• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was the chairman of the Drafting Committee and under his guidance the document was
finalised.

How were States to be Formed?

• A States Reorganisation Commission was set up, which submitted its report in 1956, recommending the
redrawing of district and provincial boundaries to form compact provinces of Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Tamil,
Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu speakers respectively.

• The large Hindi-speaking region of north India were broken up into several states.

• In 1960, the bilingual state of Bombay was divided into separate states for the Marathi and Gujarati speakers.

• In 1966, the state of Punjab was divided into Punjab and Haryana, the former for the Punjabi speakers and the
latter for the rest.
Planning for Development

• In 1950, the government set up a Planning Commission to help design and execute suitable policies for
economic development.

• In 1956, the Second Five Year Plan was formulated which focused strongly on the development of
heavy industries such as steel, and on the building of large dams.

The Nation, Sixty Years On

• On 15 August 2007, India celebrated sixty years of its existence as a free nation.

• That India is still united, and that it is still democratic.

• As many as thirteen general elections have been held since Independence, as well as hundreds of state and
local elections. 

• There is a free press, as well as an independent judiciary.

• On the other hand, despite constitutional guarantees, the Untouchables or, as they are now referred to, the
Dalits, face violence and discrimination.

• The Constitution recognises equality before the law, but in real life some Indians are more equal than others.
 Human Resources

Distribution of Population

• The way in which people are spread across the earth surface is known as the pattern of population distribution.

• The distribution of population in the world is extremely uneven.

→ More than 90 per cent of the world’s population lives in about 30 percent of the land surface.

• Crowded areas: South and south east Asia, Europe and north eastern North America.

• Almost three-quarters of the world’s people live in two continents Asia and Africa.

• Sixty percent of the world’s people live in just 10 countries.→ These are China, India, USA, Indonesia, Brazil,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Russian Fed. and Japan.

Density of Population

• Population density is the number of people living in a unit area of the earth’s surface.
→ It is normally expressed as per square km.

• The average density of population in the whole world is 51 persons per square km. 

• South Central Asia has the highest density of population.

Factors affecting distribution of Population

Geographical Factors

• Topography: People always prefer to live on plains rather than mountains and plateaus because these areas are
suitable for farming, manufacturing and service activities.
→ Example: The Ganga plains are the most densely populated areas of the world while mountains like Andes,
Alps and Himalayas are sparsely populated.

• Climate: People usually avoid extreme climates that are very hot or very cold.
→ Example: Sahara Desert is very hot and polar regions of Russia, Canada and Antarctica are cold are sparsely
populated.

• Soil: Fertile soils provide suitable land for agriculture.

→ Example: Fertile plains such as Ganga and Brahmaputra in India, Hwang-He, Chang Jiang in China and the Nile
in Egypt are densely populated.

• Water: People prefer to live in the areas where fresh water is easily available.
→ Example: The river valleys of the world are densely populated while deserts have spare population.

• Minerals: Areas with mineral deposits are more populated.

→ Example: Diamond mines of South Africa and discovery of oil in the Middle east lead to settling of people in
these areas.

Social, Cultural and Economic Factors

• Social: Areas of better housing, education and health facilities are more densely populated.
→ Example: Pune.
• Cultural: Places with religion or cultural significance attract people.
→ Example: Varanasi, Jerusalem and Vatican city.

• Economic: Industrial areas attract large number of people as it provide employment opportunities. → Example:
Osaka in Japan and Mumbai in India.

Population Change

• Population change refers to change in the number of people during a specific time.

• The change happens due to changes in the number of births and deaths.

• Until the 1800s, the world’s population grew steadily but slowly
→ Large numbers of babies were born, but they died early too as there were no proper health facilities.
→ Also, Sufficient food was not available for all the people.

• In 1804, the world’s population reached one billion.

• In 1959, the world’s population reached 3 billion which is often called population explosion.
• In 1999, 40 years later, the population doubled to 6 billion.
→ The main reason for this growth was that with better food supplies and medicine, deaths were reducing, while
the number of births still remained fairly high.

Natural Growth Rate

• Birth rate: The number of live births per 1,000 people.

• Death rate: The number of deaths per 1,000 people. 

• Migrations is the movement of people in and out of an area.

• The difference between the birth rate and the death rate of a country is called the natural growth rate.

• The population increase in the world is mainly due to rapid increase in natural growth rate.

Migration

• Migration is another way by which population size changes.

• Emigrants are people who leave a country.

→ Countries like the United States of America and Australia have gained in-numbers by in-migration or
immigration.

• Immigrants are those who arrive in a country.

→ Sudan is an example of a country that has experienced a loss in population numbers due to out-migration or
emigration.

Patterns of Population Change

• Rates of population growth vary across the world.

• Countries like Kenya have high population growth rates as they had both high birth rates and death rates.

• Countries like United Kingdom, population growth is slowing because of both low death and low birth rates.
Population Composition

• Population composition refers to the structure of the population.

→ It talks about age, sex, literacy level, health condition, occupation and income level of population.

• Population pyramid, also called an age-sex pyramid is a way to study the population composition of a country.

• A population pyramid shows

→ The total population divided into various age groups, example: 5 to 9 years, 10 to 14 years.
→ The percentage of the total population, subdivided into males and females, in each of those groups.

• There are two groups of dependents

→ Young dependents (aged below 15 years)
→ Elderly dependents (aged over 65 years)

• Those between the age of 15 years and 65 years are working age and are the economically active.

• The population pyramid tells us how many dependents there are in a country.

• The population pyramid of a country in which birth and death rates both are high is broad at the base and
rapidly narrows towards the top because although, many children are born, a large percentage of them die in
their infancy, relatively few become adults and there are very few old people.
→ Example: Kenya.
• The countries where death rates (especially amongst the very young) are decreasing, the pyramid
is broad in the younger age groups, because more infants survive to adulthood.
→ These countries contain a relatively large number of young people and which means a strong and expanding
labour force.
→ Example: India.

• The countries where death rates are decreasing allow numbers of people to reach old age.
→ Example: Japan.
 Important Questions

Q1. The first world war altered the economic and Political situation in India. write three such changes that
occurred.
Ans.
 The economic and political situation in India was altered by the First World War.
 The Colonial Government of India ended up massively increasing the expenditure for defence.
 The Colonial Government increased the taxes on business profits and individual incomes.
 Business groups of India started to insist on more opportunities for development as the Indian industries
had expanded during the war.
 There was a sharp rise in prices due to Increased demands for war supplies and military expenditure,
which in turn posed lots of difficulties for common people.
 Fabulous profits were reaped by business groups due to war which was completely in contrast to the
situation of the common man.
 The First World War created a situation where imports from other countries into India started reducing
and there was higher demand for goods like rails, cloth, jute bags.

Q2. What was Rowlatt act? why was satyagraha call given by Gandhiji in 1919? What did it lead to?
Ans.
 The Rowlatt Act was passed by the British government to increase their grip on power over the common
folk. This law was passed in March 1919 by the Imperial Legislative Council which gave them the power to
arrest any person without any trial.
 Gandhiji asked Indian people to observe 6 April 1919 as a day of non – violence to this act, as a day of
“humiliation and prayer”
 The Rowlatt satyagraha turned out to be the first all India struggle against the British although it was
restricted to cities.
 There were a number of demonstrations and strikes in the country and the British used brutal measures
to supress them
 The Jallianwala Bagh atrocities, inflicted by General Dyer, were a part of this repression.
 After learning about the massacre, Rabindranath Tagore expressed the pain and anger of the country by
renouncing his knighthood.

Q3. What did BR Ambedkar mean when he said that “In politics we will have equality and in social and economic
life we will have inequality”?
Ans.
 In his final speech to the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Ambedkar pointed out that political democracy had to
be accompanied by economic and social democracy.
 Giving the right to vote would not automatically lead to the removal of other inequalities such as
between rich and poor, or between upper and lower castes.
 With the new Constitution/ he said, India was going to enter into a life of contradictions.
 In politics (i.e. every citizen will have right to vote or contest to election or to form or join a political party)
we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality.
 In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote one value.
 But in our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure continue to
deny the principle of one man one value.
Q4. Give an account of the success and failures of the country during over 69 years if its Independence.
Ans.
Successes :
 India is still united and it is still democratic. Many foreign observers had felt that India could not survive
as a single country. Others believed that it would come under military rule. As many as thirteen general
elections have been held since independence, as well as hundreds of state and local elections.
 There is a free press and an independent judicially.
 The fact that people speak different languages or practice different faiths has not come in the way of
national unity.
Failures:
 Deep divisions are still there. Despite constitutional guarantees, people belonging to the lowest castes,
such as Dalits face violence and discrimination. In many parts of rural India, they are not allowed access
to water sources, temples, parks, and other public places.
 The gulf between the rich and the poor has grown over the years. Some groups of people avail all
facilities while many others continue to live below the poverty line.
 Our Constitution provides equality before the law but in real life, this does not happen. Some Indians are
more equal than others.

Q5. What consequences were there of the new rules and routine over the earlier pathshala students who
accepted the British rules?
Ans.
 After 1854, a decision was taken to improve the system of vernacular education. The Company appointed
a number of government pundits.
 Each pundit was given the charge of four to five schools. Each guru was asked to submit periodic reports
and take classes according to regular time-table.
 Textbooks were introduced and a system of annual examination was also introduced. Students were
asked to pay a regular fee, attend regular classes and obey the new rules of discipline.
 Those pathshalas which accepted the new rules were given grants by the government.
 The new rules and systems affected the children of peasants; especially those from poor families.
Children had to skip the classes during harvest season. But irregular attendance was seen as indiscipline.