History of India (1947–present)

File:Nehru firstspeech.jpg

Jawahar Lal Nehru making his first speech in Independent India

On August 15, 1947, the Republic of India became a dominion within the Commonwealth of Nations under the leadership of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Lord Louis Mountbatten, and later Chakravarti Rajagopalachari served in the office of the Governor General of India.

Concurrently the Muslim northwest and east of British India was separated into the nation of Pakistan. Violent clashes between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs followed this partition.

Political Integration of India

Main Article: Political Integration of India

British India consisted of 17 provinces and a few hundred princely states. The provinces were given to India or Pakistan, some provinces were partitioned and then given to the two nations. However, the princely states were given a right to either remain independent or join either nation. Not all princely states joined India on the day of independence on 15 August 1947.

• • Hyderabad - the state's occupation by Indian troops between September 13 - September 17, 1948 and its incorporation as a state of India the next year.

• • The area of Kashmir in the far north of the subcontinent quickly became a source of controversy (see Terrorism in Kashmir) that erupted into the First Indo-Pakistani War which lasted from 1947 to 1949. Eventually a cease fire was agreed to that left India in control of two thirds of the contested region.

Constitution

Main Article: Constitution of India

The Constituent Assembly of India adopted India's Constitution, drafted by a committee headed by B. R. Ambedkar, on November 26, 1949. India became a secular republic within the Commonwealth after promulgating its constitution on January 26, 1950.

External link to the constitution

The 1950s and 1960s

After independence, the Congress Party, the party of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, ruled India under the influence first of Nehru and then of his daughter Indira Gandhi and of his grandson Rajiv Gandhi, with the exception of two brief periods in the 1970s and 1980s. Prime Minister Nehru governed the nation until his death in 1964. Under Nehru the country launched a policy of industrial expansion based on heavy industries through a number of five year plans. Nehru foreign policy emphasized non-alignment and India was consequently a central member of the Non-Aligned Movement. It started tentative relations with the USSR in response to the United States' burgeoning relationship with Pakistan.

Military Conflicts

In 1961, after continual petitions for a peaceful handover, India invaded and annexed the Portuguese colony of Goa on the west coast of India.

In 1962 China and India engaged in the brief Sino-Indian War over the border in the Himalayas. The war was a complete rout for the Indians and led to a refocussing on arms build-up and an improvement in relations with the United States.

In 1965 in the Second Kashmir War India and Pakistan again went to war, with India again remaining victorious. In 1971, India intervened in a civil war taking place in Pakistan's eastern Bengal half; the clash resulted in the independence of East Pakistan, which became known as Bangladesh.

The 1970s, and Emergency

Main Articles: Bangladesh Liberation War, Indian Emergency, Janata Party

In 1966, power passed to Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, who served as Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977. Meanwhile trouble brewed up in the Indian protectorate of Sikkim against the rule of the Chogyal. After a referendum held, the people voted to make Sikkim India's 21st state. On 26 April, 1975, Sikkim formally became a part of India. In 1975, beset with deepening political and economic problems as well as threats to her power, Gandhi declared a state of emergency and suspended many civil liberties, a controversial move that thrust India into a two-year standstill. (See Indian Emergency.) Seeking a mandate at the polls for her policies, she called for elections in 1977, only to suffer electoral defeat at the hands of Morarji Desai, who headed the Janata Party, an amalgamation of five opposition parties. In 1979, Desai's Government crumbled. Charan Singh formed an interim government, which was followed by Gandhi's return to power in January 1980.

The 1980s

On October 31, 1984, assassins killed Indira Gandhi, and the Congress (I) - for "Indira" - Party chose her son Rajiv Gandhi to take her place. His government fell in 1989 amidst allegations of corruption. V.P. Singh and then Chandra Shekhar in turn succeeded as Prime Minister.

After the 1989 elections, although Rajiv Gandhi and Congress won a plurality of seats, he did not succeed in forming a government with a clear majority. The Janata Dal, a union of opposition parties, formed a government with the help of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the right and of the communists on the left. This loose coalition collapsed in November 1990, and for a short period of time a breakaway Janata Dal group supported by Congress (I) controlled the government, with Chandra Shekhar as Prime Minister. That alliance also collapsed, resulting in national elections in June 1991.

The Era of Coalitions

On May 27, 1991, while Rajiv Gandhi campaigned in Tamil Nadu on behalf of Congress (I), a female suicide bomber from the LTTE killed herself, him, and many more people when she set off the bomb in her belt by leaning forward while garlanding him. In the elections, Congress (I) won 213 parliamentary seats and put together a coalition, returning to power under the leadership of P.V. Narasimha Rao. This Congress-led government, which served a full 5-year term, initiated a gradual process of economic liberalisation and reform, which has opened the Indian economy to global trade and investment. India's domestic politics also took new shape, as traditional alignments by caste, creed, and ethnicity gave way to a plethora of small, regionally-based political parties.

The final months of the Rao-led government in the spring of 1996 suffered the effects of several major political corruption scandals, which contributed to the worst electoral performance by the Congress Party in its history. The Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged from the May 1996 national elections as the single-largest party in the Lok Sabha but without enough strength to prove a majority on the floor of that Parliament. Under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP coalition lasted in power 13 days. With all political parties wishing to avoid another round of elections, a 14-party coalition led by the Janata Dal emerged to form a government known as the United Front, under the former Chief Minister of Karnataka, H.D. Deve Gowda. His government lasted less than a year, as the leader of the Congress Party withdrew his support in March 1997. Inder Kumar Gujral replaced Deve Gowda as the consensus choice for Prime Minister of a 16-party United Front coalition.

Into the 21st century

In November 1997, the Congress Party again withdrew support for the United Front. New elections in February 1998 brought the BJP the largest number of seats in Parliament--182--but this fell far short of a majority. On March 20, 1998, the President inaugurated a BJP-led coalition government with Vajpayee again serving as Prime Minister. On May 11 and 13, 1998, this government conducted a series of underground nuclear tests, prompting United States President Clinton and Japan to impose economic sanctions on India pursuant to the 1994 Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act.

In April 1999, the BJP-led coalition government fell apart, leading to fresh elections in September. The National Democratic Alliance - a new coalition led by the BJP - gained a majority to form a government with Vajpayee as Prime Minister in October 1999.

In January 2004 Vajpayee recommended early dissolution of the Lok Sabha and General elections. The Congress Party-led alliance won a plurality of seats in election held in May 2004, leading to Manmohan Singh becoming Prime Minister.