India after independence speech
Answers
Explanation:
As Paul R. Brass says:
“In some ways, it is possible to view Independence and the adoption in the early years after Independence of a new Constitution as another stage in the evolution of India toward representative government in a process that dates back to the Indian Councils Act of 1861 and continues through the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909, the Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms of 1919, and the Government of India Act of 1935”.But the new Constitution, which was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, and came into force on 26 January 1950, has some new features, providing a sharp break with the British colonial past.
It adopted the Westminster model of parliamentary government as against the mixed parliamentary-bureaucratic authoritarian system inherited from British India. The new Constitution included a chapter on Fundamental Rights, and also on Directive Principles, which were not there in the 1935 Act. The introduction of adult suffrage was also a new feature. The Indian polity became a mix of the unitary and federal forms of government.
The new leadership was equally interested in bringing about socio-economic reforms for which the model of a ‘socialistic pattern of society” was adopted. The contradiction thus introduced between civil liberties and governmental control has been a subject of political protests.
In addition to fundamental rights, the Constitution made special provisions for the oppressed castes and tribes by listing them in a Schedule and thus designating them as scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs). The British divided Indian society along religious lines by creating separate electorates, as part of their policy of ‘divide and rule’. But the new leadership of independent India discarded this colonial practice.
However, there was unanimity on giving special protection and privileges to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, who had allegedly suffered from discrimination at the hands of the upper caste Hindus, and who constitute the majority of India’s poor