Class 12 Political Science Chapter 1: Stepwise NCERT Solutions with PDF

6. What are the reasons being used by Nehru for keeping India secular? Do you think these reasons were only ethical and sentimental? Or were there some prudential reasons as well?

Answer:

Reasons why Nehru wanted India to remain secular:

1. All Muslims did not migrate to Pakistan during Partition. Many stayed back in India as a minority, and Nehru wanted them to be treated with dignity and fairness.

2. He strongly supported the idea that Muslims should enjoy full security and democratic rights as equal citizens of India.
   
   

These reasons were not just ethical or sentimental; there were practical reasons too:

1. Secularism helped India pursue its long-term ideals of socialism, equality, liberty, and fraternity.

2. It prevented any one religion from dominating others and ensured equal treatment for all citizens, regardless of faith.
   
   

7. Bring out two major differences between the challenge of nation building for eastern and western regions of the country at the time of Independence.

Answer:

1. Both were Muslim-majority provinces, and it was decided that these would form the new country of Pakistan, divided into West and East Pakistan.

2. There was a serious issue of minorities on both sides. Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan and Muslims in Indian Punjab and Bengal were forced to migrate, leading to massive displacement and suffering.
   
   

8. What was the task of the States Reorganisation Commission? What was its most salient recommendation?

Answer:

The central government set up the States Reorganisation Commission in 1953 to review how state boundaries should be drawn.

1. The Commission suggested that state boundaries should reflect linguistic divisions to respect cultural diversity.

2. Based on its recommendations, the States Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956, creating 14 states and 6 Union Territories.

3. Its most important recommendation was the creation of linguistic states, reorganising boundaries mainly on the basis of language.
   
   

9. It is said that the nation is to a large extent an “imagined community” held together by common beliefs, history, political aspirations and imaginations. Identify the features that make India a nation.

Answer:

1. India is a secular country where people follow different cultures, religions, and languages, yet share unity in diversity.
   
   

2. Political aspirations are fulfilled through a democratic parliamentary system that allows competition within a democratic framework.
   
   

3. India envisioned itself as a welfare state, upholding equality and providing protection to socially disadvantaged groups, religious communities, and cultural minorities.
   
   

10. Read the following passage and answer the questions below:

“In the history of nation-building only the Soviet experiment bears comparison with the Indian. There too, a sense of unity had to be forged between many diverse ethnic groups, religious, linguistic communities and social classes. The scale—geographic as well as demographic—was comparably massive. The raw material the state had to work with was equally unpropitious: a people divided by faith and driven by debt and disease.” —Ramachandra Guha

(a) List the commonalities that the author mentions between India and Soviet Union and give one example for each of these from India.

(b) The author does not talk about dissimilarities between the two experiments. Can you mention two dissimilarities?

(c) In retrospect which of these two experiments worked better and why?

Answer:

(a) Common features between India and the Soviet Union:

1. Both tried to organise states or republics on a linguistic basis.
   
   

2. Both focused on welfare policies through economic and technological development.
   
   

3. In both, boundaries were shaped by geography and population considerations.
   
   

(b) Differences:

1. The Soviet Union eventually broke up into 15 separate republics.
   
   

2. India, despite its diversity, managed to stay united and preserved its integrity.
   
   

(c) Which worked better?

India’s model worked better. It succeeded in maintaining unity while respecting linguistic and cultural diversity, whereas the Soviet Union disintegrated despite similar efforts.