Hindustan Times

Dipankar Ghose

Dhrubo Jyoti

Allahabad East-Jaunpur West, as it was called then, would send Jawaharlal Nehru to the Lok Sabha for three consecutive terms. Syama Prasad Mookerjee's Bharatiya Jana Sangh would find its feet. And the Kalelkar Committee would begin an early exploration of issues of caste.

States are reorganised, a caste panel formed: 5 key moments

<h2 style="text-align:center;">Nehru files his papers</h2><p>Then called Allahabad East-Jaunpur West, this double-member constituency in present-day Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh sent Jawaharlal Nehru to the Lok Sabha for three consecutive terms, beginning in 1951-52. 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. The Congress dominated the first three national elections, reducing the Opposition to the low double digits and dominating Parliament. Phulpur, as the constituency is now named, was also where future prime minister Indira Gandhi cut her political teeth, with her door-to-door campaigning for her father in all three elections.</p><h2 style="text-align:center;">Syama Prasad Mookerjee wins</h2>

<p>When the general elections commenced in the Himalayan region of Chini in October 1951, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh was not even a week old. Yet, by the time the results started to be announced next spring, the Sangh had won three seats, with none as important as Calcutta South East, won by the firebrand Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Mookerjee was already a national figure, with his position in the interim government. But he helped lay the foundation of a strong right-wing party, framing a mission that would take a leap forward three decades later, with the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party.</p>

<h2 style="text-align:center;">States reorganisation act</h2><p>The murmurs had already begun in the weeks after independence, and grew into a chorus by the time the government acquiesced to the demand for a separate Telugu-speaking state: Andhra Pradesh. The government’s decision to appoint a States Reorganisation Commission in 1955, and then accept its recommendations the following year, transformed the political landscape of India forever. A raft of new states was created and regional aspirations unleashed that would go on to challenge the Congress’s dominance within the decade.</p><h2 style="text-align:center;">Multi-member constituencies are abolished</h2><p>When the Constitution was adopted in 1950, at its core was the promise of one citizen, one vote. It was a radical departure from pre-independence elections, where the right to cast your vote was dependent on income and property considerations. Yet, for the first two general elections, there was a degree of chaos.</p>

<p>Some Lok Sabha constituencies elected two members instead of one, and in one special case in West Bengal, even three.</p><p>Nehru’s own constituency of Phulpur (then Allahabad East-Jaunpur West) was a double-member seat. (A multi-member constituency elected two members. Usually, one position was reserved for an SC or ST candidate.)</p><p>By the second general election, it was clear that it was a tiresome process to tabulate votes, and educate voters on the correct procedure to cast their franchise, for each of the two candidates. So, in 1961, after recommendations from the Election Commission, multi-member constituencies were abolished for good.</p><h2 style="text-align:center;">The Kalelkar Committee is appointed</h2><p>It might now be forgotten, but in January 1953, the Government of India set up 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, prepare a list of such groups, and suggest measures for their upliftment.</p>

<p>Over two years, the committee prepared a list of more than 2,000 backward castes and tagged about 800 as “most backward”. Its recommendations — which included a caste census in 1961; the classification of all women as backward; and a reservation of 70% of seats in educational institutes for backward classes — were too radical for the government of the day, and were rejected. Even the chairman of the panel, Dattatreya Kalelkar, seemed ambivalent about the suggestions. But they set in motion a churn, by identifying backward communities and emphatically stating that social backwardness, not economic penury, should be the basis for classification. This idea would come full circle three decades later, with the second backward classes commission, headed by BP Mandal.</p>