NCERT Book Class 12 Political Science (Politics In India Since Independence) Chapter 1 Challenges of Nation Building

Credit: Sunil Janah

In this chapter…
The first few years in the life of independent India were full of challenges.
Some of the most pressing ones concerned national unity and
territorial integrity of India. We begin the story of politics in India since
In a moment of ndependence by looking at how three of these challenges of nation-
optimism, Hindus and building were successfully negotiated in the first decade after 1947.
Hindus and Muslims in • Freedom came with partition, which resulted in large scale violence
Kolkata in 1947 marked and displacement and challenged the very idea of a secular India.
the end of communal
violence by jointly flying • The integration of the princely states into the Indian union needed
the flags of India and urgent resolution.
Pakistan from trucks
patrolling the city. • The internal boundaries of the country needed to be drawn afresh to
This rare photograph meet the aspirations of the people who spoke different languages.
captured the joy of
freedom and the tragedy In the next two chapters we shall turn to other kinds of challenges faced
of partition in India and by the country in this early phase.
in Pakistan.

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