NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Political science (Politics in India since Independence) Chapter 2 Era of One-Party Dominance

NCERT
SOLUTIONS
CLASS - 12th

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Book Name : Political Science-II Ncert Solutions | Chapter-2 Social Science Political Science

Class : 12th

Subject : Political science

Chapter : 2

Chapter Name : Era of one party dominance

Q1 Choose the correct option to fill in the blanks.

(a) The First General Elections in 1952 involved simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha
and……… (The President of India /State Assemblies/Rajya Sabha /The Prime Minister )
(b) The party that won the second largest number of Lok Sabha seats in the first general
elections was the ………. (Praja Socialist Party/Communist party of India/ Bharatiya
Janata party )
(c) One of the guiding principles of the ideology of the Swatantra Party was ……….
(Working class interests /protection of princely states /economy free from the state
control /Autonomy of States within the union)

Answers.

(a) State Assemblies.

(b) Communist Party of India.

(c) Economy free from state control.

Q2 Match the following leaders listed in List A with the parties in List B.

List A

(a) S.A. Dange

(b) Shyama Prasad Mukherjee

(c) Minoo Masani

(d) Ashok Mehta

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List B

i. Bharatiya Jana Sangh

ii. Swatantra Party

iii. Praja Socialist Party

iv. Communist Party of India

Answers

LIST A LIST B

a. S.A. Dange iv.Communist Party of India

b. Shyama Prashad Mukherjee i.Bharatiya Jana Sangh

c. Minoo Masani ii.Swatantra Party

d. Ashok Mehta iii. Praja Socialist Party

Page : 44 , Block Name : Exercises.

Q3 Four statements regarding one party dominance are given below. Mark each one of them as
true or false.

(a) One party dominance is rooted in the absence of strong alternative political parties.
(b) One party dominance occurs because of weak public opinion.
(c) One party dominance is linked to the Nation's colonial past.
(d) One party dominance reflects the absence of democratic ideals in a country.

Answers.

(a) True.
(b) False.

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Book Name : Political Science-II Ncert Solutions | Chapter-2 Social Science Political Science

(c) True.
(d) False.

Q4 If Bharatiya Janata Party or the Communist Party of India had formed the government after
the first election, in which respects would the policies of the government have been different?
Specify three differences each for both the parties.

Answer. Bharitya Jana Sangh's policies would have been different in these three respects:

a Bharitya Jana Sangh would have primarily given significance to the territorial and political
integration or unification of the country by rejecting any ideas of dismantling the Indian union.

b. Bharitya Jana Sangh would have also given an imperative position to the linguistic unification
of the country by not recognising the diverse set of dialectics present in the country of India.

c. Bharitya Jana Sangh would have imposed the narrative of one culture and one country upon
different sections of society without empowering their needs regarding the conservation of
native and different cultures.

Communist party of India's policies would have been different in these three respects:

a.The respective party would have given primacy to the 'class struggle' present in the country in
economic and political realms.

b. The party would have changed the patterns of distribution of power resulting in the
concentration of authority among the upper class or the ruling sections of the society.

c. They would have established a 'socialistic society' and a political system working or
functioning along the parameters of being a 'welfare state'.

Page : 44 , Block Name : Exercises.

Q5 In what sense was the Congress an ideological coalition ? Mention the various ideological
currents present within the Congress.

Answer. Indian National Congress came into existence in 1885 by A.O. Hume and it became
the platform for the argumentational participation of various sections of society. It is considered
as an ideological coalition because :
(a) It consisted of the intellectual masses from the upper class and educated classes.
(b) It constituted of the moderates and extremists , with different set of ideologies and

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beliefs.
(c) Later on, it also consisted of agricultural masses , which increased the grassroot
ideology within the political party.

Page : 44 , Block Name : Exercises.

Q6 Did the prevalence of a ' one party dominant system' affect adversely the democratic nature
of Indian politics ?

Answer. The one -party dominance in India did not affect its democratic structure because the
establishment of the political and electoral dominance by the Indian National Congress was
primarily done in a democratic atmosphere where the equal expression of electoral and political
rights was given the opposition parties. The dominative structures in authoritative regimes
hinder the exercising of democratic practices in a respective scenario because of the lack of
'system of checks and balances' and 'free and fair elections', which were present in Indian
context.

Q7 Bring out three differences each between Socialist parties and the Communist Party and
between the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Swatantra Party.

Answer. The three differences between the Socialist party and Communist party of India are :

a.The ideology of the Socialist party was primarily concerned with the flourishing of socialism in
the country while on the other hand the Communist Party of India was majorly focused on the
practice and exclusive nature of 'Marxism' in the country of India.

b. The struggle of the Socialist party was primarily on the lines of disinclination with the
capitalists and landlords while as on the contrary , Communist Party of India worked for the
removal of 'class struggle' and exploitation from society.

c. Communist Party of India was considered as a strong alternative to Congress in 1952 but the
Socialist party dislocated itself from the Congress and could not appear as a strong opposition
for its parent political party.

The three differences between the Bharitya Jana Sangh and Swatantra party are:

a. Bharitya Jana Sangh propagated the communitarian unification of the country along the lines
of one culture and one country but on the other hand, Swatantra party gave primacy to the
essence of 'individualism'.

b. Bharitya Jana Sangh was mainly concerned towards the domestic transformation of the

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country but the latter one was concentrated on the globalised incentives of the world.

c. The rigidity of Bharitya Jana Sangh was opposite to the fluidity present in Swatantra party on
the lines of economic and political conceptions.

Q8 What would you consider as the main difference between Mexico and India under one party
domination?

Answer. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of Mexico has also witnessed an era of one
party dominance just like the Indian National Congress in India but both of them are essentially
different because:
(a) The main difference between the two dominative eras was that the former one was
practised under undemocratic conditions and the latter one was legitimised and
accountable due to the prevailing democracy.
(b) The opposition parties in Mexico were only present for formal purposes while as the
Indian National Congress won in complete atmospheric conditions of electoral and
democratic participation.
(c) The PRI in Mexico had some inherent connection with the military representation while
as no military representation was visible in context of India.
(d) In India, Congress dominate for 15 years but PRI dominated the electoral politics for
decades.

Q9 Take a political map of India (with state outlines) and mark:

(a) two states where Congress was not in power at some point during 1952-67
(b) two states where the Congress remained in power through this period.

Answer.
a. Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir.
b. Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

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Page : 45 , Block Name : Exercises

Q10 Read the following passage and answer the questions below :

"Patel, the organisational man of the Congress, wanted to purge the Congress of other political
groups and sought to make it a cohesive and disciplined political party. He…sought to take the
Congress away from its all-embracing character and turn it into a close -knit party of disciplined
cares. Being a 'realist' he looked more for discipline than for comprehension. While Gandhi took
too romantic a view of "carrying on the movement, " Patel's idea of transforming the Congress
into strictly political party with a single ideology and tight discipline showed an equal lack of
understanding of the eclectic role that the Congress, as a government, was to be called upon to
perform in the decades to follow."- Rajini Kothari

(a) Why does the author think that Congress should not have been a cohesive and
disciplined party ?
(b) Give some examples of the eclectic role of the Congress party in the early years.
(c) Why does the author say that Gandhi's view about Congress's future was romantic?

Answer.
a.The author is not in favour of disciplined and cohesive Congress party because the inclusive
nature of the political party is very imperative for its survival in the diverse political and
intellectual realm of dissent and diversity, which helped the party later on to form the
government.

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Book Name : Political Science-II Ncert Solutions | Chapter-2 Social Science Political Science

b. Some eclectic (heterogenous) role played by the Congress in recent years is the increase in
the participation of youth and the individuals belonging to the underprivileged sections of the
society including women , Dalits etc.

c. Gandhi's view about the Congress is considered as 'romantic' by the author primarily because
it was too idealistic for the country of India where the factional politics and fragmented power
were the major concerns for the process of 'nation-building'.

Page : 45 , Block Name : Exercises

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