Chapter – 3

The Story of Indian Democracy

In this post we have given the detailed notes of class 12 Sociology Chapter 3 (The Story of Indian Democracy) in English. These notes are useful for the students who are going to appear in class 12 board exams.

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Democracy

• Democracy is the rule of the people, by the people, for the people.
• In other words, democracy is a system in which the system of governance is run by the public themselves or by the representatives elected by the people.
• Democracy can be mainly divided into two parts.

Direct democracy

• In this type of system, all citizens participate in the process of social decision themselves.
• This type of arrangement is effective in areas where the population is low.

Representative democracy

• In this type of democracy, all the citizens elect their representatives by election, and they run the representative governance system.

Central Values of Democracy

• Democracy is not a new ideology; it has been in the world for a long time.
• Examples of democratic systems can be seen in many ancient regions and stories.
• The present democracy is a blend of modern ideas and traditional ideas.

India and Democracy

• The idea of democracy in India begins even before independence.
• In the Karachi session held in 1931, the first demand for purna swaraj was made.
• This increased the influence of democratic ideology and human rights in India.
• After independence, representative democracy was adopted in India and powers were divided at four different levels.
  • Parliament at the Central Level
  • Legislative Assembly at state level
  • Municipal corporations in cities at regional level
  • Panchayati Raj in villages at regional level

Indian Constitution

• The Indian Constitution is the largest written constitution in the world.
• Its construction was started in 1946 and completed by the end of 1949.
• It took about 2 years, 11 months and 18 days to make the Indian Constitution.
• About 64 lakhs were spent to build it
• The Indian Constitution describes the Indian system of governance, the relations between the state and the center and the functions of the main organs of the state.
• The framing of the Indian Constitution was one of the most important tasks of nation building.
• The Indian Constitution was drafted by big leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar
• The formation of the Indian Constitution was completed on November 26, 1949
• It took about 2 years, 11 months, and 18 days to build and about 64 lakhs were spent.
• It came into force on 26 January 1950.
• In this way, after long discussions and many problems, the Constitution of India was prepared.

Constitution of Constituent Assembly

• The Indian Constituent Assembly was constituted by a resolution given by the Cabinet Mission
• Under this, a total of 389 members were elected in the Constituent Assembly, out of which 296 members were elected from British India and 93 members were elected from the princely states.
• In each province and princely states in the country, the seats were divided according to the proportion of the population there.
• The Congress did well in the elections and remained in majority in almost all regions.
• The Muslim League boycotted the Constituent Assembly and continued to demand a separate country Pakistan for itself.
• About 82% of the members in the Indian Constituent Assembly belonged to the Congress party.

Discussions

• Every subject was seriously discussed in the Indian Constituent Assembly.
• Although the Congress had a majority in the Constituent Assembly, leaders of different ideologies were present within the Congress.
• There were many leaders in the Congress who were inspired by socialism.
• Some leaders were influenced by communal parties.
• On the contrary, some leaders were completely secular.
• In this way, there were people of different ideologies within the Congress, due to which serious discussions were held on every subject in the Constituent Assembly
• In all these discussions, the public of the country also had a deep influence because every discussion in the Constituent Assembly was published in the newspapers and criticized and supported in the press, thus the public also had an influence on the decisions of the Constituent Assembly.

Tribals and their rights

• Jaipal Singh ji said in the Constituent Assembly that tribals are not a minority based on numbers, but they need protection.
• They have been deprived of resources from the very beginning.
• Considering them primitive and backward, society has neglected them.
• Due to which they are forced to live a backward life, it is very important to include them in the mainstream and provide them with rights.

Oppressed or downtrodden person

• There was a long debate about Dalits in the Constituent Assembly
• During the national movements, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar’s demand for separate constituencies for Dalit castes was opposed by Mahatma Gandhi and said that by doing so, the Dalit community would be completely cut off from the rest of the society.
• Jai Angappa said that Harijans are not a minority, but they have always been deprived of resources and political power by other sections of the society, due to which they have always been a victim of pain, neither were they given opportunities for education, nor were they given participation in governance.
• Hearing all these arguments, it was suggested in the Constituent Assembly that.
  • Untouchability will be eradicated.
  • Hindu temples to be opened for all castes.
  • People from lower castes will be given reservation in legislature and government jobs.

Panchayati Raj

• Panchayati Raj was introduced to further strengthen the regional governance system in India.
• In 1992, the Panchayati Raj system was included in the Indian Constitution by the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Indian Constitution.
• One-third of the seats were reserved for women by the 74th Amendment and 17 per cent of the one-third seats were reserved for women belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
• Under the Panchayati Raj system, every person above 18 years of age in the village votes and elects the panches.
• All these panches together form the gram panchayat and the head of this gram panchayat is called sarpanch.

Functions of Panchayat

• Making plans and programs for economic development
• Promote programs that encourage social justice and social welfare.
• Imposition and collection of fees, passenger taxes, fines, and other types of taxes.

Panchayati Raj in Tribal Areas

• A large part of tribal areas were excluded from the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution, perhaps because policymakers at that time did not want to interfere in traditional political institutions
• For example, the three Garos, Khasis and Jaintias in Meghalaya have had their own old political institutions and are functioning efficiently.
• For example, in the Khasi political system, each dynasty had its own council called ‘Darbar Kur’ and it worked under the direction of the head of the dynasty.

Democratization and Equality

• Despite being a democratic system, large scale inequality can be seen in India.
• This inequality exists mainly on the basis of caste, religion, colour and culture
• Inequality is reinforced by different individuals belonging to different groups, communities and castes

Political Party

• An organization with a common political ideology and purpose is called a political party
• The main objective of this organization is to get government power and use it according to its ideology.

Pressure Group

• When certain sections of the society feel that their demands and interests are not being accepted, they form a group and work to put pressure on the political party.
• They represent sections of the society that are not politically empowered and believe that their needs are not being met by the political system.

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