Day 21 – Q 1.Many other countries got liberated from the colonial rule around the time of India’s independence. However, many of those failed or got embroiled into internal civil wars. What made India a success story then? Analyse.

1. Many other countries got liberated from the colonial rule around the time of India’s independence. However, many of those failed or got embroiled into internal civil wars. What made India a success story then? Analyse.  

 कई अन्य देश भारत की स्वतंत्रता के समय औपनिवेशिक शासन से मुक्त हो गए। हालाँकि, उनमें से कई विफल हो गए या आंतरिक गृह युद्धों में उलझ गए। ऐसे में भारत एक सफल कहानी कैसे बन पाया? विश्लेषण करें।

Introduction:

The period after Second World War saw the emergence of most countries of Asia & Africa as independent nations. Generally, the colonial powers were not willing to give up their hold on the colonies and left only when they found that it was not possible to maintain their rule any more.

Body

During the Second World War, many imperialist countries had been ousted from their colonies, but after the war they tried to re-establish their rule. For some time they succeeded in doing so but were ultimately forced to withdraw. The achievement of independence was the result primarily of the struggles of the peoples of the colonies.

The independence of India was of great importance in the history of freedom movements in Asia and Africa. India had, however, been partitioned & along with it, another independent state, Pakistan, also came into being.

India, A success story

• Visionary Leadership: strong and staunch leaders like Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shahstri, Patel, etc set the course in the direction of unity and development and provided a stable constitutional regime. Example Sardar Patel integrated the princely states with the Indian democracy. Pandit Nehru framed the economic framework and foreign policy for the country.
• Spirit of Gandhism: Gandhi’s values of satyagraha, non violence, passive resistance etc demonstrated during the freedom struggle inspired the nature of movements in India after independence e. g. Bhoodan movement
• Unity in diversity: India being a multi ethnic, multi cultural nation has always followed the idea of unity in diversity and the principle of  Vasudeva Kutumbakam (whole world as one family)
• Constitutional framework: India has a strong constitution based on the ethos of democracy, unity, integrity, secularism, balanced federation etc and a clear provision and roles for different institution.
• Political structure: India has a stable political structure based on democratic values. It has set up Election Commission on 1950 for free and fair election and has given universal adult franchise to its citizen.

India always had a far sighted reach towards dimensions like communalism, regionalism etc. and has a vision to maintain its internal stability but many countries has failed to maintain their internal stability like Myanmar, Libya, Sri Lanka eg persecution of minorities in Myanmar. Also, Countries in South east Asia, Africa are facing legitimacy crisis even today cause of their lopsided political structure. 

Conclusion

India’s struggle for independence was unique in its nature because of the people involved in it and their cordial attitude and unity with each other negating caste race religion etc. The constitutional framework it has adopted has ensured peace and solidarity.