Democracy in India

In this article , we will  deal with topic titled ‘Democracy in India after Independence.’

 

• In India, view of leaders was different from leaders of other countries which gained independence post World War 2
  • World : National Unity was declared to be priority which couldn’t be sustained with democracy as it would bring differences and conflicts
  • India : In-spite of problems like illiteracy , poverty and diversity, our leaders choose Democracy to be main pillar

 

• On 26 Jan 1950, India adopted Constitution. New democratically elected government was need of the hour and for this  election commission of India was set up in January 1950 with a constitutional provision to conduct free and fair elections. Sukumar Sen became the first Chief Election Commissioner.

 

• India has adopted universal adult franchise model of democracy where any person with prescribed condition of age, could vote without any form of discrimination.

 

Many problems were faced by Election Commission

• No election on this scale had ever been conducted in the world before. At that time there were 17 crores eligible voters
• Only 15% of these eligible voters were literate.
• caste ridden, multi religious  and backward society  where voters were prone to vote on irrational basis

 

 

Steps taken by Election Commission of India (ECI)

• Due to illiteracy , Election Commission devised special method of voting – candidates were to be identified by symbols, assigned to each major party and independent candidates, painted on the ballot papers in the box assigned to a particular candidate and ballot was secret.
• Over 224000 polling booths, one for almost every 1000 voters were constructed and equipped with over 2.5 million steel ballot boxes one box for every candidate. Nearly 620,000,000 ballot papers were printed.
• Stable conditions were created for free participation of opposition parties in elections including Jan Sangh & communist party of India (CPI)
• Election Commission trained over 3 lakhs officers and polling staff to conduct the election

 

People’s response to the new political order was tremendous. At certain places, people treated polling as a festival wearing festive clothes, women wearing their jewelry. Despite higher percentage of poverty and illiteracy, the number of invalid votes cast was as low as 0.3% to 0.4%. A remarkable feature was the wide participation of women: at least 40% of women eligible to vote did so.  When the elections results were declared, it was realized that nearly 46% of the eligible voters had cast their vote.

 

 

Result of first elections

• Congress had emerged as the single largest party by winning 364 seats with 45% of total polled votes for Lok Sabha
• Congress formed all the government in all the states and at the centre too. It did not get a majority on its own in four states–Madras, Travancore-Cochin, Orissa, PEPSU but formed governments even there with the help of independents and smaller local parties which then merged with it.
• Communist performance was big surprise and it emerged as the second largest group in the Lok Sabha.
• Princes and big landlords still wielded a great deal of influence in some parts of the country. Their party Gantantra Parishad won 31 seats in Orissa Assembly.
• Despite the numerically dominant position of the congress, the opposition was quite effective in parliament

 

 

Side Note

• During Nehru Period, In 1957, the communist were able to form a government in Kerala, which was the first democratically elected communist government anywhere in the world.