Direction for [ Question No: 551 To 556 ] :
Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options.
The strength of Indian democracy lies in its tradition, in the fusion of the ideas of democracy and national independence which was characteristic of the Indian national movement long before independence. Although the British retained supreme authority over India until 1947, the provincial elections of 1937 provided real exercise in democratic practice before national independence. During the Pacific War, India was not overrun or seriously invaded by the Japanese and after the War was over, the transfer of power to a government of the Indian Congress Party was a peaceful one as far as Britain was concerned. By 1947, 'Indianization' had already gone far in the Indian Civil Service and army, so that the new government could start with effective instruments of central control.
After independence, however, India was faced with two vast problems, the first, that of ethnic diversity and the aspirations of sub-nationalities. The Congress leadership was more aware of the former problem than of the second; as a new political elite which had rebelled not only against the British Raj, but also against India's social order; they were conscious of the need to initiate economic development and undertake social reforms, but as nationalists who had led a struggle against alien rule on behalf of all parts of India, they took the cohesion of the Indian nation too much for granted and underestimated the centrifugal forces of ethnic division, which were bound to be accentuated rather than diminished as the popular masses were more and more drawn into politics. The Congress Party was originally opposed to the idea of recognizing any division of India on a linguistic basis and preferred to retain the old provinces of British India which often cut across linguistic boundaries; it was only in response to strong pressures from below that the principle of linguistic States was conceded as the basis of a federal 'Indian Union'. The rights granted to the States created new problems for the Central Government. The idea of making Hindi the national language of a united India was thwarted by the recalcitrance of the speakers of other important Indian languages, and the autonomy of the States rendered central economic planning extremely difficult.
Land reforms remained under the control of the States and many large-scale economic projects required a degree of cooperation between the Central Government and one or more of the States which it was found impossible to achieve. Coordination of policies was difficult even when the Congress Party was in power both in the States and at the Centre; when a Congress government in Delhi was confronted with non-Congress parties in office in the States, it became much harder.
