The years between 1950 and 1964 witnessed several significant evolutions in India’s democracy. From how politicians campaigned and how citizens voted, to the issues of the day, the third election had a very different feel from the first one. Nehru struggled with electoral politics. The opposition began to clamour to be heard. The Swatantra Party emerged as a force to the Right of the Congress.
Planting the seeds of a new India
It is often assumed that the Nehruvian years were a period of stability in Indian democracy. There were challenges from Left and Right. By the late 1950s, the Congress-led consensus was beginning to fade. The Swatantra Party emerged as a challenging force, pointing out the corrupting influences of what was being called the permit-and-licence raj. Genuine opposition to the Congress’s approach to caste and reservations was emerging.
By the late 1950s, prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s silence on caste was being questioned, not least because it had become clear that caste allegiances had been mobilised during the first two election campaigns. Meanwhile, perhaps the greatest contribution to democracy of the Nehru years was an awareness of the fragility of democracy. India’s founders had written the Constitution with a mix of high ideals and wary realism. This produced a constant vigilance, at least in the strongest leaders.
Nehru, Ambedkar, Shastri: 5 key leaders
Jawaharlal Nehru led a country devastated by over two centuries of plunder; divided by a bloody partition and the killing of its talisman in Mahatma Gandhi; a country that still had to integrate several princely states. BR Ambedkar, already a national icon, had established himself as the country’s leading voice for the marginalised; one of India’s most profound reformers; the man who rose from nothing to lead the arduous task of writing the Constitution. Syama Prasad Mookerjee was included in the prime minister’s first cabinet, becoming independent India’s first minister for industries; and that was just a first step. AK Gopalan of the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) gave his first speech in Parliament, declaring that the Lok Sabha would always “hear from them the voice of the people”. And Lal Bahadur Shastri was tasked by Nehru with acting as election manager for the grand old party.
States are reorganised, a caste panel formed: 5 key moments
A political colossus, Nehru was able to tide over the problems faced by his government, and the unpopularity of individual leaders, every time he hit the campaign trail. Syama Prasad Mookerjee and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh would help lay the foundation of a strong right-wing party. A States Reorganisation Commission was appointed, in 1955. Multi-member constituencies, which elected two members, abolished for good. And the Kakelkar Committee became the country’s first backward classes commission with a specific and hitherto unimagined mission: to determine whether any sections of people other than scheduled castes and tribes were socially and educationally backward, and suggest measures for their upliftment.
A Centre takes shape
India’s first general election resulted in a landslide victory for the Congress, led by prime minister and chief campaigner Jawaharlal Nehru. The party secured 364 seats and nearly 45% of the vote.
By 1962, all seats were single-member constituencies. In Nehru’s final general election campaign, the Congress held on to its dominance and won 361 seats and 44.7% of the votes.
An age of Congress dominance
Only 45.7% of the 173 million registered electors turned up to vote in India’s first ever Lok Sabha election. This may seem like a low figure by today’s standards, but was a significant achievement for a country where the literacy rate was only 18%, and most people had likely never voted before. It also remains the lowest ever voter turnout in the history of Lok Sabha elections.
See how that changed by the early 1960s. View the extent of Congress dominance. And see who else was in the running.
