NCERT Textbook - Era of One Party Dominance | Indian Polity for UPSC CSE PDF Download

 Page 1


Credit: Shankar
In this chapter…
The challenge of nation-building, covered in the last chapter, was 
accompanied by the challenge of instituting democratic politics. Thus, 
electoral competition among political parties began immediately after 
Independence. In this chapter, we look at the first decade of electoral 
politics in order to understand
•	 the 	 establishment	of	a 	 system	 of 	 free 	 and	fair 	elections;	
•	 the 	 domination	of 	 the 	Congress 	party	in	 the	years	immediately		 	
	 after	Independence;	and	
•	 the 	 emergence	of 	opposition 	parties	and 	their	policies.
This famous sketch 
by Shankar appeared 
on the cover of his 
collection – Don’t Spare 
Me, Shankar. The 
original sketch was 
drawn in the context of 
India’s China policy. But 
this cartoon captures 
the dual role of the 
Congress during the era 
of one-party dominance.
chap 2_PF.indd   26 9/6/2022   3:57:55 PM
2024-25
Page 2


Credit: Shankar
In this chapter…
The challenge of nation-building, covered in the last chapter, was 
accompanied by the challenge of instituting democratic politics. Thus, 
electoral competition among political parties began immediately after 
Independence. In this chapter, we look at the first decade of electoral 
politics in order to understand
•	 the 	 establishment	of	a 	 system	 of 	 free 	 and	fair 	elections;	
•	 the 	 domination	of 	 the 	Congress 	party	in	 the	years	immediately		 	
	 after	Independence;	and	
•	 the 	 emergence	of 	opposition 	parties	and 	their	policies.
This famous sketch 
by Shankar appeared 
on the cover of his 
collection – Don’t Spare 
Me, Shankar. The 
original sketch was 
drawn in the context of 
India’s China policy. But 
this cartoon captures 
the dual role of the 
Congress during the era 
of one-party dominance.
chap 2_PF.indd   26 9/6/2022   3:57:55 PM
2024-25
Challenge of building democracy
You now have an idea of the difficult circumstances in which 
independent India was born. You have read about the serious 
challenge of nation-building that confronted the country right in the 
beginning. Faced with such serious challenges, leaders in many other 
countries of the world decided that their country could not afford 
to have democracy. They said that national unity was their first 
priority and that democracy will introduce differences and conflicts. 
Therefore many of the countries that gained freedom from colonialism 
experienced non-democratic rule. It took various forms: nominal 
democracy but effective control by one leader, one party rule or direct 
army rule. Non-democratic regimes always started with a promise of 
restoring democracy very soon. But once they established themselves, 
it was very difficult to dislodge them.
The conditions in India were not very different. But the leaders of 
the newly independent India decided to take the more difficult path. 
Any other path would have been surprising, for our freedom struggle 
was deeply committed to the idea of democracy. Our leaders were 
conscious of the critical role of politics in any democracy. They did not 
see politics as a problem; they saw it as a way of solving the problems. 
Every society needs to decide how it will govern and regulate itself. 
There are always different policy alternatives to choose from. There 
are different groups with different and conflicting aspirations. How 
do we resolve these differences? Democratic politics is an answer to 
this question. While competition and power are the two most visible 
things about politics, the purpose of political activity is and should be 
deciding and pursuing public interest. This is the route our leaders 
decided to take.
Last year you studied how our Constitution was drafted. 
You would remember that the Constitution was adopted on  
26 November 1949 and signed on 24 January 1950 and it came into 
effect on 26 January 1950. At that time the country was being ruled 
by an interim government. It was now necessary to install the first 
democratically elected government of the country. The Constitution 
had laid down the rules, now the machine had to be put in place. 
Initially it was thought that this was only a matter of a few months. The 
Election Commission of India was set up in January 1950. Sukumar 
Sen became the first Chief Election Commissioner. The country’s first 
general elections were expected sometime in 1950 itself. 
What’s so special 
about our being a 
democracy? Sooner 
or later every country 
has become a 
democracy, isn’t it?
                In India,…. 
…hero-worship, plays a part 
in its politics unequalled 
in magnitude by the part 
it plays in the politics of 
any other country….But in 
politics, .. ..hero-worship is a 
sure road to degradation and 
eventual dictatorship.
 
Babasaheb Dr. B.R. 
Ambedkar 
Speech in Constituent 
Assembly  
25 November 1949
“
“
2
chapter
era of one-party 
dominance
chap 2_PF.indd   27 9/6/2022   3:57:55 PM
2024-25
Page 3


Credit: Shankar
In this chapter…
The challenge of nation-building, covered in the last chapter, was 
accompanied by the challenge of instituting democratic politics. Thus, 
electoral competition among political parties began immediately after 
Independence. In this chapter, we look at the first decade of electoral 
politics in order to understand
•	 the 	 establishment	of	a 	 system	 of 	 free 	 and	fair 	elections;	
•	 the 	 domination	of 	 the 	Congress 	party	in	 the	years	immediately		 	
	 after	Independence;	and	
•	 the 	 emergence	of 	opposition 	parties	and 	their	policies.
This famous sketch 
by Shankar appeared 
on the cover of his 
collection – Don’t Spare 
Me, Shankar. The 
original sketch was 
drawn in the context of 
India’s China policy. But 
this cartoon captures 
the dual role of the 
Congress during the era 
of one-party dominance.
chap 2_PF.indd   26 9/6/2022   3:57:55 PM
2024-25
Challenge of building democracy
You now have an idea of the difficult circumstances in which 
independent India was born. You have read about the serious 
challenge of nation-building that confronted the country right in the 
beginning. Faced with such serious challenges, leaders in many other 
countries of the world decided that their country could not afford 
to have democracy. They said that national unity was their first 
priority and that democracy will introduce differences and conflicts. 
Therefore many of the countries that gained freedom from colonialism 
experienced non-democratic rule. It took various forms: nominal 
democracy but effective control by one leader, one party rule or direct 
army rule. Non-democratic regimes always started with a promise of 
restoring democracy very soon. But once they established themselves, 
it was very difficult to dislodge them.
The conditions in India were not very different. But the leaders of 
the newly independent India decided to take the more difficult path. 
Any other path would have been surprising, for our freedom struggle 
was deeply committed to the idea of democracy. Our leaders were 
conscious of the critical role of politics in any democracy. They did not 
see politics as a problem; they saw it as a way of solving the problems. 
Every society needs to decide how it will govern and regulate itself. 
There are always different policy alternatives to choose from. There 
are different groups with different and conflicting aspirations. How 
do we resolve these differences? Democratic politics is an answer to 
this question. While competition and power are the two most visible 
things about politics, the purpose of political activity is and should be 
deciding and pursuing public interest. This is the route our leaders 
decided to take.
Last year you studied how our Constitution was drafted. 
You would remember that the Constitution was adopted on  
26 November 1949 and signed on 24 January 1950 and it came into 
effect on 26 January 1950. At that time the country was being ruled 
by an interim government. It was now necessary to install the first 
democratically elected government of the country. The Constitution 
had laid down the rules, now the machine had to be put in place. 
Initially it was thought that this was only a matter of a few months. The 
Election Commission of India was set up in January 1950. Sukumar 
Sen became the first Chief Election Commissioner. The country’s first 
general elections were expected sometime in 1950 itself. 
What’s so special 
about our being a 
democracy? Sooner 
or later every country 
has become a 
democracy, isn’t it?
                In India,…. 
…hero-worship, plays a part 
in its politics unequalled 
in magnitude by the part 
it plays in the politics of 
any other country….But in 
politics, .. ..hero-worship is a 
sure road to degradation and 
eventual dictatorship.
 
Babasaheb Dr. B.R. 
Ambedkar 
Speech in Constituent 
Assembly  
25 November 1949
“
“
2
chapter
era of one-party 
dominance
chap 2_PF.indd   27 9/6/2022   3:57:55 PM
2024-25
28                                                                         Politics in India sinc Independence
A cartoonist’s impression of the election committee formed by the Congress to choose party 
candidates in 1951. On the committee, besides Nehru: Morarji Desai, Rafi  Ahmed Kidwai,  
Dr B.C. Roy, Kamaraj Nadar, Rajagopalachari, Jagjivan Ram, Maulana Azad, D.P. Mishra,  
P.D. Tandon and Govind Ballabh Pant.
But the Election Commission discovered that it was not going to 
be easy to hold a free and fair election in a country of India’s size. 
Holding an election required delimitation or drawing the boundaries 
of the electoral constituencies. It also required preparing the electoral 
rolls, or the list of all the citizens eligible to vote. Both these tasks took 
a lot of time. When the first draft of the rolls was published, it was 
discovered that the names of nearly 40 lakh women were not recorded 
in the list. They were simply listed as “wife of …” or “daughter of …”. 
The Election Commission refused to accept these entries and ordered 
a revision if possible and deletion if necessary. Preparing for the first 
general election  was a mammoth exercise.  No election  on this scale 
had ever been conducted  in the world before. At that time there 
were 17 crore eligible voters, who had to elect about 3,200 MLAs and 
489 Members of Lok Sabha. Only 15 per cent of these eligible voters 
were literate. Therefore the Election Commission had to think of some 
special method of voting. The Election Commission trained over 3 
lakh officers and polling staff to conduct the elections. 
It was not just the size of the country and the electorate that made 
this election unusual. The first general election was also the first big 
test of democracy in  a poor and illiterate country. Till then democracy 
had existed only in the prosperous countries, mainly in Europe and 
North America, where nearly everyone was literate. By that time 
many countries in Europe had not given voting rights to all women. 
In this context India’s experiment with universal adult franchise 
That was a good 
decision. But what 
about men who still 
refer to a woman as 
Mrs. Somebody, as if 
she does not have a 
name of her own?
Credit: Shankar, 20 May 1951
chap 2_PF.indd   28 9/6/2022   3:57:56 PM
2024-25
Page 4


Credit: Shankar
In this chapter…
The challenge of nation-building, covered in the last chapter, was 
accompanied by the challenge of instituting democratic politics. Thus, 
electoral competition among political parties began immediately after 
Independence. In this chapter, we look at the first decade of electoral 
politics in order to understand
•	 the 	 establishment	of	a 	 system	 of 	 free 	 and	fair 	elections;	
•	 the 	 domination	of 	 the 	Congress 	party	in	 the	years	immediately		 	
	 after	Independence;	and	
•	 the 	 emergence	of 	opposition 	parties	and 	their	policies.
This famous sketch 
by Shankar appeared 
on the cover of his 
collection – Don’t Spare 
Me, Shankar. The 
original sketch was 
drawn in the context of 
India’s China policy. But 
this cartoon captures 
the dual role of the 
Congress during the era 
of one-party dominance.
chap 2_PF.indd   26 9/6/2022   3:57:55 PM
2024-25
Challenge of building democracy
You now have an idea of the difficult circumstances in which 
independent India was born. You have read about the serious 
challenge of nation-building that confronted the country right in the 
beginning. Faced with such serious challenges, leaders in many other 
countries of the world decided that their country could not afford 
to have democracy. They said that national unity was their first 
priority and that democracy will introduce differences and conflicts. 
Therefore many of the countries that gained freedom from colonialism 
experienced non-democratic rule. It took various forms: nominal 
democracy but effective control by one leader, one party rule or direct 
army rule. Non-democratic regimes always started with a promise of 
restoring democracy very soon. But once they established themselves, 
it was very difficult to dislodge them.
The conditions in India were not very different. But the leaders of 
the newly independent India decided to take the more difficult path. 
Any other path would have been surprising, for our freedom struggle 
was deeply committed to the idea of democracy. Our leaders were 
conscious of the critical role of politics in any democracy. They did not 
see politics as a problem; they saw it as a way of solving the problems. 
Every society needs to decide how it will govern and regulate itself. 
There are always different policy alternatives to choose from. There 
are different groups with different and conflicting aspirations. How 
do we resolve these differences? Democratic politics is an answer to 
this question. While competition and power are the two most visible 
things about politics, the purpose of political activity is and should be 
deciding and pursuing public interest. This is the route our leaders 
decided to take.
Last year you studied how our Constitution was drafted. 
You would remember that the Constitution was adopted on  
26 November 1949 and signed on 24 January 1950 and it came into 
effect on 26 January 1950. At that time the country was being ruled 
by an interim government. It was now necessary to install the first 
democratically elected government of the country. The Constitution 
had laid down the rules, now the machine had to be put in place. 
Initially it was thought that this was only a matter of a few months. The 
Election Commission of India was set up in January 1950. Sukumar 
Sen became the first Chief Election Commissioner. The country’s first 
general elections were expected sometime in 1950 itself. 
What’s so special 
about our being a 
democracy? Sooner 
or later every country 
has become a 
democracy, isn’t it?
                In India,…. 
…hero-worship, plays a part 
in its politics unequalled 
in magnitude by the part 
it plays in the politics of 
any other country….But in 
politics, .. ..hero-worship is a 
sure road to degradation and 
eventual dictatorship.
 
Babasaheb Dr. B.R. 
Ambedkar 
Speech in Constituent 
Assembly  
25 November 1949
“
“
2
chapter
era of one-party 
dominance
chap 2_PF.indd   27 9/6/2022   3:57:55 PM
2024-25
28                                                                         Politics in India sinc Independence
A cartoonist’s impression of the election committee formed by the Congress to choose party 
candidates in 1951. On the committee, besides Nehru: Morarji Desai, Rafi  Ahmed Kidwai,  
Dr B.C. Roy, Kamaraj Nadar, Rajagopalachari, Jagjivan Ram, Maulana Azad, D.P. Mishra,  
P.D. Tandon and Govind Ballabh Pant.
But the Election Commission discovered that it was not going to 
be easy to hold a free and fair election in a country of India’s size. 
Holding an election required delimitation or drawing the boundaries 
of the electoral constituencies. It also required preparing the electoral 
rolls, or the list of all the citizens eligible to vote. Both these tasks took 
a lot of time. When the first draft of the rolls was published, it was 
discovered that the names of nearly 40 lakh women were not recorded 
in the list. They were simply listed as “wife of …” or “daughter of …”. 
The Election Commission refused to accept these entries and ordered 
a revision if possible and deletion if necessary. Preparing for the first 
general election  was a mammoth exercise.  No election  on this scale 
had ever been conducted  in the world before. At that time there 
were 17 crore eligible voters, who had to elect about 3,200 MLAs and 
489 Members of Lok Sabha. Only 15 per cent of these eligible voters 
were literate. Therefore the Election Commission had to think of some 
special method of voting. The Election Commission trained over 3 
lakh officers and polling staff to conduct the elections. 
It was not just the size of the country and the electorate that made 
this election unusual. The first general election was also the first big 
test of democracy in  a poor and illiterate country. Till then democracy 
had existed only in the prosperous countries, mainly in Europe and 
North America, where nearly everyone was literate. By that time 
many countries in Europe had not given voting rights to all women. 
In this context India’s experiment with universal adult franchise 
That was a good 
decision. But what 
about men who still 
refer to a woman as 
Mrs. Somebody, as if 
she does not have a 
name of her own?
Credit: Shankar, 20 May 1951
chap 2_PF.indd   28 9/6/2022   3:57:56 PM
2024-25
Era of One-party Dominance                                                                                    29 
 Let’s re-search
Ask the elders in your family and neighbourhood about their 
experience of participating in elections.
•	 Did 	anyone	 vote 	 in	 the	 first	or	second	general	election? 	Who	 did 	 	
	 they 	 vote	 for	 and 	why?
•	 Is 	 there	someone 	 who	 has	used	all	the 	three	methods	of	voting?	 	
	 Which	 one	did 	they	prefer? 	
•	 In	 which	ways	do	they	 find	 the 	elections 	of	those	 days	different		
	 from	the	present	ones?
Changing methods of voting 
 
These days we use an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) to record voters’ 
preferences. But that is not how we started. In the first general election, it 
was decided to place inside each polling booth a box for each candidate 
with the election symbol of that candidate. Each voter was given a blank 
ballot paper which they had to drop into the box of the candidate they 
wanted to vote for. About 20 lakh steel boxes were used for this purpose. 
A presiding officer from Punjab described how he 
A sample of the 
ballot paper 
used from 
the third to 
the thirteenth 
general 
elections to Lok 
Sabha
prepared the ballot boxes—“Each box had to have 
its candidate’s symbol, both inside and outside it, 
and outside on either side, had to be displayed the 
name of the candidate in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi 
along with the number of the constituency, the 
polling station and the polling booth. The paper 
seal with the numerical description of the candidate, 
signed by the presiding officer, had to be inserted in 
the token frame and its window closed by its door 
which had to be fixed in its place at the other end by means 
of a wire. All this had to be done on the day previous to the 
one fixed for polling. To fix symbols and labels the boxes 
had first to be rubbed with sandpaper or a piece of brick. I 
found that it took about five hours for six persons, including 
my two daughters, to complete this work. All this was done 
at my house.”
Electronic Voting 
Machine
After the first two elections, this method was changed. Now the ballot paper 
carried the names and symbols of all the candidates and the voter was required 
to put a stamp on the name of the candidate they wanted to vote for. This method 
worked 	 for 	 nearly	 forty 	 years. 	 Towards	 the	 end	 of	 1990s	 the	 Election 	 Commission	
started using the EVM. By 2004 the entire country had shifted to the EVM.
chap 2_PF.indd   29 9/6/2022   3:57:56 PM
2024-25
Page 5


Credit: Shankar
In this chapter…
The challenge of nation-building, covered in the last chapter, was 
accompanied by the challenge of instituting democratic politics. Thus, 
electoral competition among political parties began immediately after 
Independence. In this chapter, we look at the first decade of electoral 
politics in order to understand
•	 the 	 establishment	of	a 	 system	 of 	 free 	 and	fair 	elections;	
•	 the 	 domination	of 	 the 	Congress 	party	in	 the	years	immediately		 	
	 after	Independence;	and	
•	 the 	 emergence	of 	opposition 	parties	and 	their	policies.
This famous sketch 
by Shankar appeared 
on the cover of his 
collection – Don’t Spare 
Me, Shankar. The 
original sketch was 
drawn in the context of 
India’s China policy. But 
this cartoon captures 
the dual role of the 
Congress during the era 
of one-party dominance.
chap 2_PF.indd   26 9/6/2022   3:57:55 PM
2024-25
Challenge of building democracy
You now have an idea of the difficult circumstances in which 
independent India was born. You have read about the serious 
challenge of nation-building that confronted the country right in the 
beginning. Faced with such serious challenges, leaders in many other 
countries of the world decided that their country could not afford 
to have democracy. They said that national unity was their first 
priority and that democracy will introduce differences and conflicts. 
Therefore many of the countries that gained freedom from colonialism 
experienced non-democratic rule. It took various forms: nominal 
democracy but effective control by one leader, one party rule or direct 
army rule. Non-democratic regimes always started with a promise of 
restoring democracy very soon. But once they established themselves, 
it was very difficult to dislodge them.
The conditions in India were not very different. But the leaders of 
the newly independent India decided to take the more difficult path. 
Any other path would have been surprising, for our freedom struggle 
was deeply committed to the idea of democracy. Our leaders were 
conscious of the critical role of politics in any democracy. They did not 
see politics as a problem; they saw it as a way of solving the problems. 
Every society needs to decide how it will govern and regulate itself. 
There are always different policy alternatives to choose from. There 
are different groups with different and conflicting aspirations. How 
do we resolve these differences? Democratic politics is an answer to 
this question. While competition and power are the two most visible 
things about politics, the purpose of political activity is and should be 
deciding and pursuing public interest. This is the route our leaders 
decided to take.
Last year you studied how our Constitution was drafted. 
You would remember that the Constitution was adopted on  
26 November 1949 and signed on 24 January 1950 and it came into 
effect on 26 January 1950. At that time the country was being ruled 
by an interim government. It was now necessary to install the first 
democratically elected government of the country. The Constitution 
had laid down the rules, now the machine had to be put in place. 
Initially it was thought that this was only a matter of a few months. The 
Election Commission of India was set up in January 1950. Sukumar 
Sen became the first Chief Election Commissioner. The country’s first 
general elections were expected sometime in 1950 itself. 
What’s so special 
about our being a 
democracy? Sooner 
or later every country 
has become a 
democracy, isn’t it?
                In India,…. 
…hero-worship, plays a part 
in its politics unequalled 
in magnitude by the part 
it plays in the politics of 
any other country….But in 
politics, .. ..hero-worship is a 
sure road to degradation and 
eventual dictatorship.
 
Babasaheb Dr. B.R. 
Ambedkar 
Speech in Constituent 
Assembly  
25 November 1949
“
“
2
chapter
era of one-party 
dominance
chap 2_PF.indd   27 9/6/2022   3:57:55 PM
2024-25
28                                                                         Politics in India sinc Independence
A cartoonist’s impression of the election committee formed by the Congress to choose party 
candidates in 1951. On the committee, besides Nehru: Morarji Desai, Rafi  Ahmed Kidwai,  
Dr B.C. Roy, Kamaraj Nadar, Rajagopalachari, Jagjivan Ram, Maulana Azad, D.P. Mishra,  
P.D. Tandon and Govind Ballabh Pant.
But the Election Commission discovered that it was not going to 
be easy to hold a free and fair election in a country of India’s size. 
Holding an election required delimitation or drawing the boundaries 
of the electoral constituencies. It also required preparing the electoral 
rolls, or the list of all the citizens eligible to vote. Both these tasks took 
a lot of time. When the first draft of the rolls was published, it was 
discovered that the names of nearly 40 lakh women were not recorded 
in the list. They were simply listed as “wife of …” or “daughter of …”. 
The Election Commission refused to accept these entries and ordered 
a revision if possible and deletion if necessary. Preparing for the first 
general election  was a mammoth exercise.  No election  on this scale 
had ever been conducted  in the world before. At that time there 
were 17 crore eligible voters, who had to elect about 3,200 MLAs and 
489 Members of Lok Sabha. Only 15 per cent of these eligible voters 
were literate. Therefore the Election Commission had to think of some 
special method of voting. The Election Commission trained over 3 
lakh officers and polling staff to conduct the elections. 
It was not just the size of the country and the electorate that made 
this election unusual. The first general election was also the first big 
test of democracy in  a poor and illiterate country. Till then democracy 
had existed only in the prosperous countries, mainly in Europe and 
North America, where nearly everyone was literate. By that time 
many countries in Europe had not given voting rights to all women. 
In this context India’s experiment with universal adult franchise 
That was a good 
decision. But what 
about men who still 
refer to a woman as 
Mrs. Somebody, as if 
she does not have a 
name of her own?
Credit: Shankar, 20 May 1951
chap 2_PF.indd   28 9/6/2022   3:57:56 PM
2024-25
Era of One-party Dominance                                                                                    29 
 Let’s re-search
Ask the elders in your family and neighbourhood about their 
experience of participating in elections.
•	 Did 	anyone	 vote 	 in	 the	 first	or	second	general	election? 	Who	 did 	 	
	 they 	 vote	 for	 and 	why?
•	 Is 	 there	someone 	 who	 has	used	all	the 	three	methods	of	voting?	 	
	 Which	 one	did 	they	prefer? 	
•	 In	 which	ways	do	they	 find	 the 	elections 	of	those	 days	different		
	 from	the	present	ones?
Changing methods of voting 
 
These days we use an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) to record voters’ 
preferences. But that is not how we started. In the first general election, it 
was decided to place inside each polling booth a box for each candidate 
with the election symbol of that candidate. Each voter was given a blank 
ballot paper which they had to drop into the box of the candidate they 
wanted to vote for. About 20 lakh steel boxes were used for this purpose. 
A presiding officer from Punjab described how he 
A sample of the 
ballot paper 
used from 
the third to 
the thirteenth 
general 
elections to Lok 
Sabha
prepared the ballot boxes—“Each box had to have 
its candidate’s symbol, both inside and outside it, 
and outside on either side, had to be displayed the 
name of the candidate in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi 
along with the number of the constituency, the 
polling station and the polling booth. The paper 
seal with the numerical description of the candidate, 
signed by the presiding officer, had to be inserted in 
the token frame and its window closed by its door 
which had to be fixed in its place at the other end by means 
of a wire. All this had to be done on the day previous to the 
one fixed for polling. To fix symbols and labels the boxes 
had first to be rubbed with sandpaper or a piece of brick. I 
found that it took about five hours for six persons, including 
my two daughters, to complete this work. All this was done 
at my house.”
Electronic Voting 
Machine
After the first two elections, this method was changed. Now the ballot paper 
carried the names and symbols of all the candidates and the voter was required 
to put a stamp on the name of the candidate they wanted to vote for. This method 
worked 	 for 	 nearly	 forty 	 years. 	 Towards	 the	 end	 of	 1990s	 the	 Election 	 Commission	
started using the EVM. By 2004 the entire country had shifted to the EVM.
chap 2_PF.indd   29 9/6/2022   3:57:56 PM
2024-25
30                                                                         Politics in India sinc Independence
appeared very bold and risky. An Indian editor called it “the 
biggest gamble in history”.  Organiser, a magazine, wrote 
that Jawaharlal Nehru “would live to confess the failure 
of universal adult franchise in India”. A British member of 
the Indian Civil Service claimed that “a future and more 
enlightened age will view with astonishment the absurd farce 
of recording the votes of millions of illiterate people”. 
The elections had to be postponed twice and finally held 
from October 1951 to February 1952. But this election is 
referred to as the 1952 election since most parts of the 
country voted in January 1952. It took six months for 
the campaigning, polling and counting to be completed. 
Elections were competitive – there were on an average more 
than four candidates for each seat. The level of participation 
was encouraging — more than half the eligible voters turned 
out to vote on the day of elections. When the results were 
declared these were accepted as fair even by the losers. 
The Indian experiment had proved the critics wrong. The 
Times of India held that the polls have “confounded all those 
sceptics who thought the introduction of adult franchise 
too risky an experiment in this country”. The Hindustan 
Times claimed that “there is universal agreement that the 
Indian people have conducted themselves admirably in the 
largest experiment in democratic elections in the history of 
the world”. Observers outside India were equally impressed. 
India’s general election of 1952 became a landmark in the 
history of democracy all over the world. It was no longer 
possible to argue that democratic elections could not be held 
in conditions of poverty or lack of education. It proved that 
democracy could be practiced anywhere in the world. 
Maulana Abul Kalam 
Azad (1888-1958): 
original name — Abul 
Kalam Mohiyuddin 
Ahmed; 	scholar 	 of	
Islam; 	freedom	fighter 	
and 	Congress	leader;	
proponent of Hindu-
Muslim 	unity; 	 opposed 	
to 	Partition;	member	 of 	
Constituent 	Assembly;	
Education Minister in 
the first cabinet of  free 
India.
Congress dominance in the first  three  
general elections
The results of the first general election did not surprise anyone. The 
Indian National Congress was expected to win this election. The 
Congress party, as it was popularly known, had inherited the legacy 
of the national movement. It was the only party then to have an 
organisation spread all over the country. And finally, in Jawaharlal 
Nehru, the party had the most popular and charismatic leader in 
Indian politics. He led the Congress campaign and toured through 
the country. When the final results were declared, the extent of the 
victory of the Congress did surprise many. The party won 364 of the 
489 seats in the first Lok Sabha and finished way ahead of any other 
challenger. The Communist Party of India that came next in terms 
of seats won only 16 seats. The state elections were held with the 
chap 2_PF.indd   30 9/6/2022   3:57:56 PM
2024-25