1st Lok Sabha 1952-1957
The Beginning of ’Mr. Nehru’s Cabinet’
The partition, Congress’s role in the freedom struggle, Jawaharlal Nehru’s appeal and a growing need for stability — democratic and economic — informed the anatomy and ambition of the first Lok Sabha.
The house of the people
The first Lok Sabha session saw Jawaharlal Nehru at the helm. There was no official Leader of the Opposition at the time – the title got official recognition only in 1977 with the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act. Several leaders of the freedom struggle found a place in the Ministry. Congress leader Abdul Kalam Azad became India’s first minister of education, national resources and scientific research; Gulzarilal Nanda was India’s first minister of planning and river valley schemes. “All the newcomers have considerable experience of affairs of business”, and some held “close and detailed knowledge of the subjects which they will be called upon to administer,” The Hindu observed.
In addition to the three original categories of officials — Cabinet Ministers, Minister of State and Deputy Ministers — a fourth distinction of Ministers of Cabinet rank was added in the make-up of the Indian parliament.
Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar, famously called ’Dadasaheb’, served as the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha. He was a “Statesman, a pioneer and a founding father”, responsible for establishing “rules, procedures, conventions and customs that suited the varied composition of a new-born nation”, the Lok Sabha secretariat noted. In Mr. Nehru’s eyes, Dadasaheb was the ’Father of the Lok Sabha’.
The politics
The Congress Party won a decisive victory in the first General Elections. It won more seats than all Opposition parties combined (364) and commanded 45% of all votes. The Communist Party of India (CPI) emerged as the runner up – winning 16 out of the 49 seats. Socialist Party (India) followed, with Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohiya securing 12 seats of the 254 it contested. The Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS), formed by Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who aimed to consolidate the Hindus into a solid voting bloc, won three of the 49 seats it contested. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s Scheduled Caste Federation (SCF) secured only two of the 35 seats it contested. Ravi Narayan Reddy from the CPI received the largest majority, surpassing even Mr. Nehru’s vote share.
Congress’s landslide popularity didn’t echo as much in Madras, Hyderabad and Travancore-Cochin, regions that vanquished under the CPI. With the CPI as the biggest single group, The Hindu predicted Delhi may witness a repeat of the “fireworks” which at the time were already displayed at the State level.
Still, assorted in composition, the Opposition was “animated by a common impulse to make things none too easy for the Government”, The Hindu noted. They would be tasked with “striking a just balance between the claims of different interests to representation and the overriding need for harmony and efficiency”.
The agenda
A desire for peace informed the anatomy and ambition of the first Lok Sabha. The partition, Congress’s role in the freedom struggle, Mr. Nehru’s individual magnetism and growing need for stability (democratic and economic) shaped voter sentiment. The Hindu’s editorial took note of the palpable feeling “that the country has settled down sufficiently to allow of free play for the party politics that is inseparable from Parliamentary democracy”.
Mr. Nehru spoke against communalism which could bring ’ruin and death to the country’; affirmed INC’s commitment to ban untouchability and landlordism; vowed to fight the ’monster of casteism’ while appreciating Opposition leaders including Jayaprakash Narayan and Mr. Ambedkar. In some regions, he appealed to women and urged them to cast off their purdahs.
In an article published in the World Policy Journal, historian Ramachandra Guha documented Mr. Nehru’s expansive election campaigning spread over nine weeks: in 1951, Mr. Nehru travelled 25,000 miles, by air, car, train and even a boat. He was met with loud chants of “Pandit Nehru Zindabad” (long live Pandit Nehru), to which Mr. Nehru responded with a chant that defined India’s first elections: “Naya Hindustan Zindabad” (glory to the new India), Mr. Guha wrote.
The tenure of Mr. Nehru’s first Cabinet ended on April 4, 1957.
References
- “G.V. Mavalankar” report prepared by the Lok Sabha Secretariat in 2018. Source: Digital Sansad
- Guha, Ramachandra. “Democracy’s Biggest Gamble: India’s First Free Elections in 1952.” World Policy Journal, vol. 19, no. 13.
- “When a nation voted”, Published in The Hindu on February 13, 2017
- Election Atlas of India: Parliamentary elections 1952 – 2014, edited by Dr. R. K. Thukral
- Election Commission of India
- The video was taken from the Prasar Bharati Archives’ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PbKqwvjSKg
- The Hindu Archives