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Direction: Read the following Passage and Answer the Questions.
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.
Q1: What made the first general election in India unusual in terms of its scale and significance?
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Q2: Where had democracy primarily existed before India's first general election, and what distinguished India from these regions in terms of democracy?
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Q3: What additional aspect of democracy in Europe is mentioned in the passage, particularly concerning voting rights?
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Direction: Read the following Passage and Answer the Questions.
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”.
Q1: Why is the first general election in India often referred to as the "1952 election" despite taking place over several months?
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Q2: How would you describe the competitive nature of the 1952 election, and what was the level of voter participation?
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Q3: How did the results of the 1952 election challenge the initial skepticism, and how were they received by the public, including the losing parties?
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Direction: Read the following Passage and Answer the Questions.
The Congress scored big victory in those elections as well. It won a majority of seats in all the states except Travancore-Cochin (part of today’s Kerala), Madras and Orissa. Finally even in these states the Congress formed the government. So the party ruled all over the country at the national and the state level. As expected, Jawaharlal Nehru became the Prime Minister after the first general election.
Q1: Which political party secured a significant victory in the first general election in India, and where did it not win a majority of seats?
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Q2: Despite not winning a majority of seats in certain states, how did the Congress manage to form governments in those regions?
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Q3: Who became the Prime Minister of India after the first general election, and was this outcome expected?
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Direction: Read the following Passage and Answer the Questions.
The socialists believed in the ideology of democratic socialism which distinguished them both from the Congress as well as from the Communists. They criticised the Congress for favouring capitalists and landlords and for ignoring the workers and the peasants. But the socialists faced a dilemma when in 1955 the Congress declared its goal to be the socialist pattern of society. Thus it became difficult for the socialists to present themselves as an effective alternative to the Congress. Some of them, led by Rammanohar Lohia, increased their distance from and criticism of the Congress party. Some others like Asoka Mehta advocated a limited cooperation with the Congress.
Q1: How did the ideology of democratic socialism set the socialists apart from both the Congress and the Communists in India?
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Q2: What dilemma did the socialists face in 1955, and how did this affect their positioning in Indian politics?
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Q3: How did some prominent socialist leaders, like Rammanohar Lohia and Asoka Mehta, respond to the Congress's shift towards socialism?
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Direction: Read the following Passage and Answer the Questions.
Until a few years ago, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan were also effectively one-party dominant states. What distinguished the dominance of the Congress party in India from all these cases was it happened under democratic conditions. Many parties contested elections in conditions of free and fair elections and yet the Congress managed to win election after election. This was similar to the dominance the African National Congress has enjoyed in South Africa after the end of apartheid.
Q1: How did the dominance of the Congress party in India differ from cases like Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan where one-party rule prevailed?
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Q2: What is the parallel drawn between the Indian Congress party's dominance and the African National Congress in South Africa?
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Q3: How does the context of democratic conditions in India contrast with the one-party dominance in Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan?
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Direction: Read the following Passage and Answer the Questions.
But with every civil disobedience movement it launched, its social base widened. It brought together diverse groups, whose interests were often contradictory. Peasants and industrialists, urban dwellers and villagers, workers and owners, middle, lower and upper classes and castes, all found space in the Congress. Gradually, its leadership also expanded beyond the upper caste and upper class professionals to agriculture based leaders with a rural orientation. By the time of independence, the Congress was transformed into a rainbow-like social coalition broadly representing India’s diversity in terms of classes and castes, religions and languages and various interests.
Q1: How did the social base of the Congress party evolve during the civil disobedience movements in India?
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Q2: How did the leadership of the Congress party transform as it broadened its social base?
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Q3: What was the state of the Congress party's social coalition by the time of India's independence?
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Direction: Read the following Passage and Answer the Questions.
Soon after independence, the party thought that the transfer of power in 1947 was not true independence and encouraged violent uprisings in Telangana. The Communists failed to generate popular support for their position and were crushed by the armed forces. This forced them to rethink their position. In 1951 the Communist Party abandoned the path of violent revolution and decided to participate in the approaching general elections. In the first general election, CPI won 16 seats and emerged as the largest opposition party. The party’s support was more concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Kerala.
Q1: What was the Communist Party of India's initial response to India's independence, and what actions did it take in Telangana?
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Q2: What significant decision did the Communist Party make in 1951, and what was its impact in the first general election?
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Q3: In which regions of India did the Communist Party of India (CPI) find more concentrated support during the early post-independence period?
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Direction: Read the following Passage and Answer the Questions.
Therefore, it has to avoid any extreme position and strike a balance on almost all issues. Compromise and inclusiveness are the hallmarks of a coalition. This strategy put the opposition in a difficulty. Anything that the opposition wanted to say, would also find a place in the programme and ideology of the Congress. Secondly, in a party that has the nature of a coalition, there is a greater tolerance of internal differences and ambitions of various groups and leaders are accommodated. The Congress did both these things during the freedom struggle and continued doing this even after Independence.
Q1: What are the key characteristics that define the approach of a coalition, as described in the passage?
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Q2: How did the Congress party's strategy of compromise and inclusiveness impact the opposition during and after the freedom struggle?
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Q3: How did the Congress party handle internal differences and ambitions of various groups and leaders within its organization?
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Direction: Read the following Passage and Answer the Questions.
In the 1950s Jana Sangh remained on the margins of the electoral politics and was able to secure only 3 Lok Sabha seats in 1952 elections and 4 seats in 1957 general elections to Lok Sabha. In the early years its support came mainly from the urban areas in the Hindi speaking states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The party’s leaders included Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Balraj Madhok. The Bharatiya Janata Party traces its roots to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
Q1: What was the electoral performance of the Jana Sangh in the early years, particularly in the 1952 and 1957 Lok Sabha elections?
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Q2: Where did the Jana Sangh initially receive its main support during the early years, and in which regions did the party gain popularity?
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Q3: Who were some prominent leaders associated with the Jana Sangh during its early years, and how does the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) relate to the Jana Sangh?
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Direction: Read the following Passage and Answer the Questions.
In the early years there was a lot of mutual respect between the leaders of the Congress and those of the opposition. The interim government that ruled the country after the declaration of Independence and the first general election included opposition leaders like Dr. Ambedkar and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in the cabinet. Jawaharlal Nehru often referred to his fondness for the Socialist Party and invited socialist leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan to join his government. This kind of personal relationship with and respect for political adversaries declined after the party competition grew more intense.
Q1: What characterized the relationship between the leaders of the Congress party and those of the opposition during the early years of Indian independence?
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Q2: How did Jawaharlal Nehru demonstrate his willingness to work with leaders from different political backgrounds during the early years of India's independence?
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Q3: What happened to the personal relationships and respect for political adversaries as party competition intensified over time?
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