The Nehruvian Era continues

The ruling Congress consolidated its position in a post-independent India, benefiting from the absence of a strong Opposition and Jawaharlal Nehru’s popularity and socialist vision.

The house of the people

The Indian National Congress, with Mr. Nehru at the helm, easily claimed a second term in power, with 371 of the 494 Lok Sabha seats. Mr. Nehru called it an “unexciting election”, without “much excitement and without any argument”. The headline on The Hindu’s front page, dated March 30, read: “Nehru chosen leader again”.

INC emerged victorious without a strong and clear Opposition, gaining an extra seven seats (the size of the Lok Sabha had been increased by five). Their vote share increased from 45% to 48%. The ruling party registered the highest vote share in Punjab and the lowest in Himachal Pradesh. The Communist Party of India trailed with 27 seats, followed by the Praja Socialist Party with 19 seats. Congress stood out, but Communists emerged as the biggest political party in Kerala and the Ganatantra Parishad became prominent in Orissa.

There was no official leader of the Opposition at the time.

M.A. Ayyangar, the deputy Speaker in the previous term, served as the Speaker of the House, from February 27, 1956, to April 16, 1962. A lawyer and activist during the freedom struggle, Mr. Ayyangar served as a parliamentarian from before Independence, taking a seat in the Central Legislative Assembly in 1934. During his tenure as Speaker, he cultivated a reputation for being neutral, as someone “who treated all parties with the same amount of impartiality.”.

The politics

Mr. Nehru’s stature and popularity, INC’s role in the freedom struggle and the need for stability post-partition informed voter sentiment in favour of the ruling Congress. The Prime Minister’s focus on building a socialist India with vibrant democratic institutions was reiterated. “Change is essential – change and turn to a new order,” he said on March 29. He had served as the prime minister for a decade now, perhaps “the longest period for a person in high office in any other country”. “There should be change and a shake-up, otherwise one was apt to become static,” he remarked in a speech.

CPI’s win was historic, noted an analysis of the 1957 elections in The Hindu. It won the Assembly election in Kerala, forming India’s first democratically elected communist government and setting a precedent for parliamentary communism. Also historic was the performance of independent candidates, who claimed 42 seats in this Session

The communists’ prominence was partly due to a lack of a better alternative to Congress, and the CPI’s role in shaping the movements of the working class and peasantry. The victory was not an “unequivocal vote” for communism, however. Congress still polled higher than CPI. The Hindu in an editorial attributed this trend to CPI’s “general” propaganda, such as “agrarian reform, removal of unemployment, elimination of corruption, etc. rather than any definite blueprint for action in which the party’s ideology might be more sharply visible”.

The agenda

Mr. Nehru emphasises the new challenges that lay before a new India and the Second Lok Sabha: “We are trying to fight the evils of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, ignorance, superstition and obscurantism within the framework of democratic orientation.”

The government trained its focus on integrating the princely states, since this was the first sitting after the first Delimitation Commission Act, 1952. The Lok Sabha discussed issues of national planning, workers’ education, initiating industrial projects and designing a resilient economic system. Parliament passed the landmark Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, which consolidated anti-dowry laws passed in different States. India’s foray into scientific research and space ambitions propelled around this time too. Mr. Nehru’s government, with support from Vikram Sarabhai and scientist Homi Bhabha, in 1961 identified an area called ‘space research and the peaceful uses of outer space’.

The Lok Sabha also debated the Suez Crisis triggered by Egypt’s nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company in July 1956. Mr. Nehru, in Parliament and outside, disapproved of Egypt’s method amid concerns that the Egyptian coup would impact trade and economy. The Lok Sabha debated a motion in February 1960 for India to withdraw from the Commonwealth. The Hindu also reported on the reunification of Germany, Russia’s growing presence in the Middle East and of Israeli forces operations in the Gaza Strip.

India, however, slightly neglected its deserved role in the global arms race, an editorial in The Hindu noted on April 19, 1957. “…we cannot be absolute pacifists while neighbouring countries continue to arm themselves. The habit of not thinking in military terms is, however, so strong in India that debates on defence in the Central Parliament are rare…”

Congress faced criticism for being “more perturbed by the signs that the hold of the Congress and the country is weakening”, stated an article in The Hindu on March 30. The party’s narrow focus on the economy favoured developing steel mills and Five-Year Plans over investing in education and a free press.

Other sundry concerns, as written to the Editor on March 30, 1957: a request for granting Dearness Allowance to pensioners, promoting domestic tourism, a “great shock” over 25% cut for domestic consumers of electricity, and a lingering threat to the deterioration of the “lovely” Jacaranda Mimosaefolia tree of Coonoor and Wellington.

References

1. “G.V. Mavalankar” report prepared by the Lok Sabha Secretariat in 2018. Source: Digital Sansad
2. Guha, Ramachandra. “Democracy’s Biggest Gamble: India’s First Free Elections in 1952.” World Policy Journal, vol. 19, no. 13.
3. “When a nation voted”, Published in The Hindu on February 13, 2017
4. Election Atlas of India: Parliamentary elections 1952 – 2014, edited by Dr. R. K. Thukral
5. Election Commission of India
6. The video was taken from the Prasar Bharati Archives’ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PbKqwvjSKg
7. The Hindu Archives