Introduction
On
hearing the words politics, what usually spring to mind are images of
government, politicians and their policies or more negatively the idea of
corruption and dirty tricks the words politics derived from the Greek words
polis, meaning the state or community as a whole. Many political thinkers give
their view regarding politics. Aristotle who is father political science says
that man is by nature a political animal in another word it has deep within the instinct of man so, in this article, there is a discussion of the politics of
India has changed from ancient to modern era.
Vedic Period
The main source of the information for the study of early Vedic people is the
Rigveda. Rig Vedic society was a semi-nomadic tribal society with a pastoral
economy. Society was patriarchal and the eldest male of
the Kutumba was the head of the family. The Rig Vedic society
comprises four varnas that were based on the occupation of
individuals. But in the later Vedic period, the society became
differentiated on the basis of Varna (Varna came to be birth-based
rather than profession-based). The proliferate of profession gave rise
to Jatis. The nature of kingship was transformed and rituals
like Rajasuya (Royal coronation) assumed significance in the later
Vedic period.
The polity of the Early Vedic period was basically a tribal polity with the tribal
chief in the center. The tribe was called Jana and the tribal chief
was called Rajana. Rajana looked after the affairs of the tribe with the
help of other tribal members and two tribal assemblies i.e. Sabha and
Samiti. Sabha consists of elder members of the tribe, whereas the Samiti
which mainly dealt with policy decisions and political business. Women are
allowed to participate in the proceedings of Sabha and Vidhata. In
day to day administration, the king was assisted by the two types of Purohita
i.e. Vasishtha and Vishwamitra. The King did not maintain any regular army
as there was no Kingdom as such. In fact Rig, Vedic King did not rule over the
kingdom, but over the tribe.
Medieval Period
This period is known for political fragmentation with the absence of one strong
empire which could encompass a significant portion of India. This period was
dominated by the Rajputs, Colonel Tames Todd asserts that Rajputs were
descendants of the Hunas who were later absorbed into Indian society. The
king’s position was generally hereditary. He was supported by many feudal lords
and wars were frequent between kings on the one hand, and kings and feudal
lords on the other hand.
Kingdoms were divided into Bhuktis (provinces)
which in turn were divided into Visaya (districts) District government was
properly organized. The governor of bhakti (province) was called ‘Uparika’
and the head of a visaya (district) was called ‘visayapati’.
The Uparika and Visayapati were expected to collect land revenue and maintain
law and order in his jurisdiction. However in the Rashtrakuta Kingdom, the
province was called ‘Rashtra’ ruled by a ‘Rashtrapati’, the visaya was a
district and the bhukti was a smaller unit than a visaya.
Below these territorial divisions was the village which was the basic unit of
administration. The village administration was carried on by the village
headman and the village accountant whose posts were generally hereditary. They
were paid by grants of rent-free land.
British Period
British
involvement in India during the 18th century can be divided into two phases’ one
ending and the other beginning at mid-century. In the first half of the century,
the British were a trading presence at certain points along the coast from The 1750s they began to wage war on the land in eastern and southeastern India
and to reap the reward of successful warfare, which was the exercises of
political power. By the end of the century, British rule had been consolidated
over the first conquests and it was being extended up the Ganges valley to
Delhi and over most of the peninsula of southern India. By then the British had
established a military dominance that would enable them in the next fifty years
to subdue all the remaining Indian states of any consequences, either
conquering them or forcing their rulers to become subordinate allies. Towards
the end of the 17th century, India became the focal point of the company’s
trade. The company main settlements had evolved from ‘factories’ or trading
posts into major commercial towns under British jurisdiction.
The
British started to intervene in Indian politics from the 1750s, because of this
condition in India certainly changes. The Mughal Empire had disintegrated and
was being replaced by a variety of regional states, there were conflicts within
some states. By the 1740s rivalry between the British and the French who were
late comers to Indian trade was becoming acute The Anglo- French conflicts that
began in the 1750s ended in 1763 with a British ascendancy in the southeast and
most significantly in Bengal. In India the governors of the company’s
commercial settlements became governors of provinces, huge armies were created,
largely composed of Indian spies but with British regiments and these armies
were used to defend the company’s territories, to coerce neighboring Indian
states and to crush any political internal resistance.
India seem to be suffering not merely from an unfortunate recent history but
from deeply ingrained backwardness. It needed to be improved by firm,
benevolent foreign rule.
After independence
India
started experimenting with ‘democracy’ from August 15, 1947, the day when
British handed over political power to Indians. ‘After achieving political
independence at the cost of one country torn into two, the Indians witnessed
the heartrending tragedy of Partition. The communal fury took around two
million lives. The country that was born on the basis of ‘identity politics’ is
till date limping forward on the basis of ‘Unity in Diversity’ and dreaming to
become a superpower without really addressing the core issues of ‘inclusive
growth’ and ‘sustainable development’.
The
first general election took place in 1951-52 under the newly constituted
Constitution and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister. His
government started implementing Nehruvian or mixed economic policy. After
Nehru’s demise in 1964, Congress faced a chronic leadership crisis, till the
emergence of his daughter Indira Gandhi became the main leader of Congress
after the untimely demise of Shastri Ji in Tashkent after signing the Tashkent
ceasefire declaration with Ayub Khan (the then President of Pakistan). However,
India saw one of its darkest hours since independence when Emergency was
declared, making India a semi-Fascist state for some time. After this phase
India witnessed the rise of Janata Party and Morarji Desai became the first
non-Congress Prime Minister. The 1980s saw Operation Bluestar to flush
out Khalistan militants from the Golden Temple, followed by Indira Gandhi’s
assassination, which led to the infamous 1984 anti-Sikh riots. It
was after the assassination of Indira that the mantle was given to his son
Rajiv Gandhi. He became the youngest PM of India in 1982. His regime was marked
by improved relations with the US, increased foreign economic aid, initiation
of ISRO, infamous Bhopal Gas Tragedy, birth of software and IT industry in
India, Bofors Scandal, and LTTE-Sri Lanka policy fiasco. The second
non-Congress was formed under the stewardship of V P Singh of Janata Dal, who
is well known for implementing Mandal Commission. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated
in 1991 that helped Congress ride back to power. P V Narasimha Rao became the
PM, whose era was remembered by introduction of New Economic Policy, fathered
by Dr Manmohan Singh. The 1990s is also remembered for demolition of the
historic Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Mumbai riots, and emergence of Bharatiya
Janata Party. In May 1996 BJP became the single largest party and Atal Bihari
Vajpayee became PM for just 13 days. During this politically unstable time, the
United Front came to the fore and India saw two Prime Ministers – H.D. Deve
Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral – in quick succession. In 1998, BJP’s Atal Bihari
Vajpayee again became the PM of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
government, whose regime is remembered for historic bus trip to Pakistan,
signing of bilateral Lahore peace declaration, Golden Quadrilateral project,
Kargil War, attack on Indian Parliament, Gujarat riots, etc. The Congress-led
United Progressive Front (UPA) assumed power in 2004 and ruled for 10 years.
During
the Manmohan Singh government, with Sonia Gandhi as the Chairperson of UPA,
India witnessed signing of major nuclear co-operation agreement with the USA,
introduction of new land bill, food bill, and RTI act, and a series of
unprecedented scams (including coal Scam, 2G Spectrum scam, CWG scam, Adarsh
scam, Satyam scam, and many more). In 2014, UPA’s 10 years of rule came to an
end as the BJP led by Narendra Modi won decisively and formed its second NDA
government. Modi has taken PM’s office at a time when India’s growth had dipped
below 5 per cent and inflation hovered around 9 per cent. He has performed well
at the international level including the bold stand taken in WTO. However,
spiralling inflation has remained a concern for the new government. Its moves
aimed at more economic liberalisation have found stiff resistance from the
opposition.
Conclusion
Politics of the
country in the last quarter of 2019 took curious undeterminable and
unpredictable turns. The year ended with nationwide agitations with youth,
students and civil society joining hands to oppose the Citizenship Amendment
Act (CAA), 2019 and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) giving the
opposition a chance to regroup and realign, signaling a possible change in the
national politics. In succession within the first month of the second
term, the BJP government enacted Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on
Marriage) Act, 2019 ending the Islamic practice of ‘triple talaq’ that had been
stalled in Parliament by the opposition since 2017 when it was first
introduced.
Comments
Post a Comment