Indian Political Parties and Pressure groups
Political Parties
The Congress Party won an overwhelming majority of seats in the first election, and also won
the 1957 and 1962 elections, though with reduced majorities. It usually got between 42% and
48% of the national vote but, because of the electoral system, won 65% to 75% of the seats in
the Lok Sabha. This dominance in parliament disguised the fact that the Congress Party never
obtained a majority of the votes. It remained in power because the opposition was fragmented,
and it managed to win successive elections during Nehru's lifetime, except in a few areas at a
local level.
The Congress Party had enormous prestige as the leader and heir of the nationalist movement
and because of its links with Gandhi. As such, its supporters came from a wide range of social,
economic and regional backgrounds. It appealed to landowners and capitalists, as well as to the
urban and rural working class. These supporters represented a range of political opinion, giving
the party the character of a broad coalition, with the ability to include and reconcile different
and sometimes competing points of view. Nevertheless, there were deep divisions between the
left and right wings of the party, which was held together largely by Nehru's personality and
leadership. Nehru himself represented left-wing opinion within the party, favoring socialist
policies to transform India economically and socially. However, he was always mindful of the
strong support within the party for more conservative policies and the influential leaders who
supported these policies, such as Patel.
Some historians, such as Nehru's biographer Tariq Ali, believe that Nehru could have achieved
his goal of transforming India more successfully if he had not been restrained by the right wing
of the Congress Party…
By the early 1960s, the Congress Party had lost some of its drive and idealism, and was failing to
attract new supporters or to develop a new generation of leaders. Nehru himself had realized
this, and had tried to introduce measures to revitalize the party before his death in 1964.
During the nationalist struggle for independence, the Communist Party of India had been part
of the Congress but had broken away in 1945. After independence, it promoted the idea of an
armed struggle to liberate India from the rule of the Congress Party, which it accused of serving
British imperial interests and of representing the princes, landlords and bourgeoisie. In 1948, it
supported a peasant uprising in Hyderabad, which resulted in the death of thousands of party
activists and peasants when the Indian army was sent to crush it. The party lost support after it
was banned in several states for launching acts of terrorism. It was also weakened by internal
divisions over policy and leadership.
At the end of 1951, the party changed its tactics, on the advice of the Soviet Union, abandoned
its armed struggle and decided to participate in the first general election. Although it won less
than 5% of the votes, it emerged as the largest opposition party, and therefore the official
opposition. Support for the Communist Party came from peasants, workers, students and the
intelligentsia, and it was stronger in certain regions of India, especially in the south and in
Bengal. In the 1957 state elections, it won a majority in the southern state of Kerala, where it
proceeded to launch land reform and educational reform programs, before the communist
chief minister was removed from office by the central government. On a national level, the
Communist Party improved its position in the 1957 and 1962 general elections, winning nearly
10% of the national vote in 1962. However, a surprise attack by India's communist neighbor
later that year, when the Chinese army invaded parts of northern India, was a serious setback
for the party.
The Socialist Party had also been part of the Congress but broke away in 1948 to function as a
separate party. It accused the Congress Party of betraying the poor, and representing the
landlords and capitalists rather than the workers and peasants. Historians such as Bipan
Chandra believe that the decision seriously weakened the left wing of Congress, and made it
more difficult for Nehru to introduce more radical reforms because of the strength of the
conservative forces within the Congress Party. In the 1952 elections, the Socialist Party won
only 12 seats in the Lok Sabha, although it gained over 10% of the votes, which was more than
any other opposition party and twice as many as the Communists. It later merged with another
party formed by Congress dissidents, the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party (KMPP), which claimed to
be following more closely the teachings of Gandhi. However, later splits weakened the Socialist
Party and support for it declined in subsequent elections.
The Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) was a Hindu nationalist party which challenged the secular
nature of the Indian state. Most of its leaders and active members were also members of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militaristic Hindu nationalist group. Jan Sangh promoted
Hindu culture, religion and traditions and, using the slogan “one country, one culture, one
nation”, wanted to unite all Hindus. It did not have much support in the south because of its
strong support for Hindi as the national language. It was strongly anti-Muslim, and treated
India’s Muslims with suspicion, questioning their loyalty to India. Initially it wanted the reunification of India by absorbing Pakistan, but it later abandoned this aim. It accused Nehru and
the Congress Party of appeasing Muslims. At first Nehru saw Jan Sangh as a challenge because
he knew that it expressed the views of some of the more right-wing members of Congress.
However, in the 1952 general election, Jan Sangh won only 3% of the vote, indicating that there
was little support for a communalist Hindu party.
Pressure Groups
The wide range of religions, languages, culture and ethnic groups, as well as castes, resulted in
the formation of several influential pressure groups.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was a right-wing Hindu nationalist group, whose
members opposed the creation of a secular state in India. They were openly anti-Muslim and
had a vision of India as a land of, and for, Hindus. They portrayed Muslims as a hostile and alien
element in India society. Claiming to be a cultural rather than a political organization, they did
not contest elections, but instead formed uniformed paramilitary cells. At the time of
independence, they drew support from students, refugees and the urban lower middle classes.
According to historian Ramachandra Guha, Nehru believed that they were responsible for much
of the violence that accompanied partition. They were opposed to Gandhi’s efforts to reduce
communal violence in Bengal and Delhi, his conciliatory gestures towards Muslims, and his
announced intention of visiting Pakistan. They promoted a campaign of hatred against Gandhi,
accusing him of being a traitor. It was in this atmosphere that Gandhi was assassinated in
January 1948 by Nathuram Godse, an active supporter of the RSS. Although the RSS itself was
not actively involved in the assassination, the movement was banned for a while and support
for Hindu nationalism declined.
The Akali Dal was a Sikh separatist group campaigning for the establishment of a Punjabispeaking state. Some even wanted an independent Sikh state. In 1955 the Akali Dal held mass
demonstrations demanding greater autonomy for the Sikhs, which were forcefully put down by
the Indian army. After Nehru’s death a reorganization of state borders took place, ostensibly
along linguistic rather than religious lines, and Punjab was separated from Haryana, with
Punjabi and Hindi as their respective official languages.
The Scheduled Caste Federation was established in 1942 by Dr. B.R.
Scheduled Caste – the
Ambedkar, a respected lawyer educated in the United States and Britain. government’s name
As an Independent in the first government, he served as Law Minister
for the Untouchables,
who were outside the
and played a leading role in drafting the constitution. Although the
caste system. Gandhi
Congress Party, and Nehru in particular, denounced “casteism” and put
called them Harijans
in motion legislation to raise the lower castes, Ambedkar criticized the
(Children of God).
Congress government for not doing enough. He believed that
They preferred to be
independence had not meant freedom for the scheduled castes, and he
called Dalits (meaning
oppressed).
described the situation of these caste members as a continuation of the
tyranny, oppression and discrimination that had always existed. The party stood in the 1952
elections but its candidates were defeated, mainly by Congress candidates, in the seats
reserved for the scheduled castes. In the next election, the Congress Party won 64 of the 76
reserved seats. By this time Ambedkar had stopped playing an active role in politics. As a
rejection of Hinduism and its discriminatory caste system, he converted to Buddhism and
focused on persuading his fellow caste members to do the same. The situation of the scheduled
castes was taken up again as a political cause by the Dalit Panthers in the 1970s.
The Death of Nehru
In January 1964, Nehru suffered a stroke, and in May of that year he died. He had dominated
Indian politics for decades, first as a leader of the nationalist movement alongside Gandhi, and
then as the first prime minister of independent India. He is widely admired for his commitment
to democracy and secularism, and for the role he played in establishing a united and
democratic India.
Many historians share similar positive views about the values Nehru prized, his qualities as a
leader and his role in establishing a multi-party democracy in India. Barbara and Thomas
Metcalf observe that his solid support for democratic processes ensured that these became an
entrenched feature of the way democracy functions in India. According to Ramachandra Guha,
Nehru represented the voice of democracy against dictatorship, and of secularism against
narrow communal interests.
Bipan Chandra provides a balanced view, describing Nehru as a visionary leader but one who
failed to find a way of putting his ideals into practice. He points out some of the areas that were
neglected by Nehru’s government, creating problems for the future. These included the
education system, which was not reformed and failed to reach the majority of people; the
failure to launch an effective mass struggle against communalism as an ideology; and the
inadequate implementation of land reforms, leaving a legacy of economic inequality, social
oppression and political violence in rural India. These were some of the political, economic and
social challenges facing India…