information on
INDIA
India is a grand country. It is the seventh
largest country in the world and the second most populated
country in the world. Many see India as a sub-continent rather
than a country. There exist in different parts of India,
different cultures, languages, manners as well as different
historical backgrounds and influences of the same historical
events. The official name for the country is Republic of India.
The Indians call their country INDIA. There are also two other names for India less known
outside India; BHARAT and HINDUSTAN. ndia was a British
colony. It earned its independence from the British on
15/08/1947. Day before that Pakistan which was created as a
result of partition of British India was established and flanked
on two sides of India: West Pakistan which is called today
Pakistan, and east Pakistan, now an independent state called
Bangladesh. After its independence, the political leaders of
India adopted the liberal democratic system for the country.Since its independence, India has transformed a lot. When India attained independence in 1947, its population was around 400 million people. Now there are billion people in India. India is the largest democracy in the world. It has the biggest number of people with franchise rights and the largest number of political parties, which take part in election campaign.
Before its independence, India was never a single country but a bunch of different entities. Many predicted that India, because of diversities in its cultures, religion, languages, castes, manners, local histories, nationalities and identities, would not survive as a single democratic country, but would break up into smaller countries.
Since independence, India had many political problems. During independence the most burning issues were the riots between the Hindus and Muslims while the Sikhs were siding with Hindus. Another issue was convincing the Princely states not to declare independence or join Pakistan but to join the Indian Union. India also had a few wars with its neighbors on border issues.
India also has many internal problems. Different communities with different identities - regional, language, caste, religion - demanded different rights for their communities. Some communities demanded more autonomy for their cultures within the Indian states. Others demanded autonomous states within the Indian Union, while the others demanded to be independent from India.
With all its problems India survives as a single state with democratic character.
After independence, the Congress Party,
the party of Mahatma Gandhi and
Jawaharlal Nehru, ruled India under the influence first of Nehru and
then his
daughter and grandson, with the exception of two brief periods in the
1970s and
1980s.
Prime Minister Nehru governed India until
his death in 1964. He was
succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri, who also died in office. In 1966,
power passed
to Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977. In
1975,
beset with deepening political and economic problems, Mrs. Gandhi
declared a
state of emergency and suspended many civil liberties. Seeking a mandate
at the
polls for her policies, she called for elections in 1977, only to be
defeated by
Moraji Desai, who headed the Janata Party, an amalgam of five opposition
parties.
