ERA OF ONE-PARTY DOMINANCE

Challenges of Building Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which the people have the authority to choose their governing legislation.

Leaders in many other countries of the world decided that their country could not afford to have democracy. They said that national unity was their first priority and that democracy will introduce differences and conflicts. Therefore many of the countries that gained freedom from colonialism experienced non-democratic rule like military rule or one party state rule etc.

The conditions in India were not very different but the leaders of our freedom struggle are deeply committed to the idea of democracy and also conscious about the critical role of politics in democracy.

They thought Democratic politics was the answer to all different and conflicting aspirations.

So, for conducting elections. The Election commission of India was set up in january 1950.

Holding an election required delimitation or drawing the boundaries of the electoral constituencies. It also required preparing the electoral rolls, or the list of all the citizens eligible to vote. Both these tasks took a lot of time.

The first general election was also the first big test of democracy in a poor and illiterate country like India. Till then democracy had existed only in the prosperous countries, where nearly everyone was literate. But was not on the basis of universal adult franchise whereas India is. 

Preparing for the first general election was a mammoth exercise. No election on this scale had ever been conducted in the world before. At that time there were 17 crore eligible voters, who had to elect about 3,200 MLAs and 489 Members of Lok Sabha. Only 15% of these eligible voters were literate. Therefore the Election Commission had to think of some special method of voting. The Election Commission trained over 3 lakh officers and polling staff to conduct the elections.

The country's first general elections were expected sometime in 1950 itself. The election had to be postponed twice and finally held in 1952.

Elections were competitive -there were on an average of more than four candidates for each seat.

When the results were declared these were accepted as fair even by the losers.

India’s general election of 1952 became a landmark in the history of democracy all over the world. It was no longer possible to argue that democratic elections could not be held in conditions of poverty or lack of education. It proved that democracy could be practiced anywhere in the world.

Congress Dominance in the First Three General Elections

The Congress party, as it was popularly known, had inherited the legacy of the national movement. It was the only party then to have an organisation spread all over the country and Jawaharlal Nehru was at the forefront. He led the Congress campaign and toured through the country.

The state elections were held with the Lok Sabha elections and congress scored a big victory in both elections. The party won 364 of the 489 seats in the first Lok Sabha and finished way ahead of any other challenger. It won a majority of all states except in Travancore-Cochin(of today's Kerala), Madras and Orissa. Even in these states congress formed the government and Jawaharlal Nehru became the first prime minister of India. 

The Communist Party of India that came next in terms of seats won only 16 seats.

In all 3 general elections(1952, 1957, 1962) none of the opposition parties could win even one tenth of the number of seats won by the congress.

In the state assembly elections, the Congress did not get a majority in few cases. The most significant of these cases was in Kerala in 1957 when a coalition led by the CPI formed the government. Apart from exceptions like this, the Congress controlled the national and all the state governments.

Communist Victory in Kerala

The Congress party had the bitter taste of defeat in Kerala. In the assembly elections held in March 1957, the Communist Party won the largest number of seats to the Kerala legislature. ‘‘For the first time in the world, a Communist party government had come to power through democratic elections.’’ In 1959 the Congress government at the Centre dismissed the Communist government in Kerala under Article 356(President's rule)of the Constitution. This decision proved very controversial and was widely cited as the first instance of the misuse of constitutional emergency powers.

The Congress won three out of every four seats but it did not get even half of the votes. It is because India follows the first past the post method. In this system of election, that has been adopted in our country, the party that gets more votes than others tends to get much more than its proportional share. That is exactly what worked in favour of the Congress.

Nature of Congress Dominance 

India is not the only country to have experienced the dominance of one party in the world. But there is a crucial difference between these and the Indian experience. In the rest of the cases the dominance of one party was ensured by compromising democracy which is not in India's case.

Congress party in India formed under democratic conditions. Many parties contested elections in conditions of free and fair elections and yet the Congress managed to win election after election. The roots cause of this extraordinary success is, Congress was seen as inheritor of the national movement. 

The Congress was already a very well-organised party and by the time the other parties could even think of a strategy, the Congress had already started its campaign. In fact, many parties were formed only around Independence or after that. Thus, the Congress had the ‘first off the blocks’ advantage.

Most importantly, the Congress was till recently a national movement, its nature was all inclusive. All these factors contributed to the dominance of the Congress party.

Congress as Social and Ideological Coalition

The Congress began as a party dominated by the English speaking, upper caste, upper middle-class and urban elite. But with every civil disobedience movement it launched, its social base widened.

It brought together diverse groups, whose interests were often contradictory. Peasants and industrialists, urban dwellers and villagers, workers and owners, middle, lower and upper classes and castes, all found space in the Congress. 

So, by the time of Independence, the Congress was transformed into a rainbow-like social coalition broadly representing India’s diversity in terms of classes and castes, religions and languages and various interests.

The Congress was a ‘platform’ for numerous groups, interests and even political parties to take part in the national movement. In pre-Independence days, many organisations and parties with their own constitution and organisational structure were allowed to exist within the Congress like Socilalist party etc.

Tolerance and Management of Factions

Compromise and inclusiveness are the hallmark of a coalition. But the coalition-like character of the Congress gave it an unusual strength.

(i).  A coalition accommodates all those who join it. Therefore, it has to avoid any extreme position and strike a balance on almost all issues.

(ii). In a party that has the nature of a coalition, there is a greater tolerance of internal differences and ambitions of various groups and leaders are accommodated.

The Congress did both these things during the freedom struggle and continued doing this even after Independence.

These groups inside the party are called factions. Some of these factions were based on ideological considerations.

Instead of becoming a weakness, internal factionalism became a strength of the congress. Since there was room within the party for various factions to fight with each other, it meant that leaders representing different interests and ideologies remained within the Congress rather than go out and form a new party.

In the first decade of electoral competition the Congress acted both as the ruling party as well as the opposition. That is why this period of Indian politics has been described as the ‘Congress system’. 

Emergence of Opposition Parties

India had a larger number of diverse and vibrant opposition parties than many other multi-party democracies. Some of these had come into being even before the first general election of 1952.

The roots of almost all the non-Congress parties of today can be traced to one or the other of the opposition parties of the 1950s.

All these opposition parties succeeded in gaining only a token representation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies during this period. Yet their presence played a crucial role in maintaining the democratic character of the system. This kept the ruling party under check and often changed the balance of power within the Congress. 

By keeping democratic political alternative alive,these parties prevented the resentment with the system from turning anti-democratic. 

In the early years there was a lot of mutual respect between the leaders of the Congress and those of the opposition. The interim government(Constituent assembly) that ruled the country after the declaration of

Independence and ‘‘the first general election included opposition leaders like Dr. Ambedkar and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in the cabinet.’’ Thus this first phase of democratic politics in our country was quite unique.

 As the ability of the Congress to accommodate all interests and all aspirants for political power steadily declined, other political parties started gaining greater significance. Thus, Congress dominance constitutes only one phase in the politics of the country. 

Socialist Party

The Congress Socialist Party (CSP) was formed within the Congress in 1934 by socialists such as Jayaprakash Narayana and Acharya Narayan Dev. In 1948, the Congress amended its constitution to prevent its members from having a dual party membership. This forced the Socialists to form a separate Socialist Party in 1948.

They believed in the ideology of democratic socialism which distinguished them both from the Congress as well as from the Communists.

The Socialist Party went through many splits and reunions leading to the formation of many socialist parties.

These included the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party, the Praja Socialist Party and Samyukta Socialist Party.

Jayaprakash Narayan, Achyut Patwardhan, Asoka Mehta, Acharya Narendra Dev, Rammanohar Lohia and S.M. Joshi were among the leaders of the socialist parties.

Many parties in contemporary India, like the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (United) and the Janata Dal (Secular) trace their origins to the Socialist Party.

The Communist Party of India

 In the early 1920s communist groups emerged in different parts of India taking inspiration from the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and advocating socialism as the solution to problems affecting the country.

From 1935, the Communists worked mainly from within the fold of the Indian National Congress.

A parting of ways took place, when the Communists decided to support the British in their war against Nazi Germany.

Soon after Independence, the party thought that the transfer of power in 1947 was not true independence and encouraged violent uprising in Telangana. The Communists failed to generate popular support for their position and were crushed by the armed forces.

This forced them to rethink their position. In 1951 the Communist Party abandoned the path of violent revolution and decided to participate in the approaching general elections. In the first general election, CPI won 16 seats and emerged as the largest opposition party. The party’s support was more concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Kerala.

A. K. Gopalan, S.A. Dange, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, P.C. Joshi, Ajay Ghosh and P. Sundarayya were among the notable leaders of the CPI. The Party went through a major split in 1964 following the ideological rift between Soviet Union and China. The pro-Soviet faction remained as the CPI, while the opponents formed the CPI(M). Both these parties continue to exist to this day.

Bharatiya Jana Sangh

The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was formed in 1951 with Shyama Prasad Mukherjee as its founder-President. Its lineage can be traced back to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) and the Hindu Mahasabha

It emphasised the idea of one country, one culture and one nation and believed that the country could become modern, progressive and strong on the basis of Indian culture and traditions.

The party called for a reunion of India and Pakistan in Akhand Bharat.

It opposed the granting of concessions to religious minorities and agitated against English of being the official language.

The party’s leaders included Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Balraj Madhok. The Bharatiya Janata Party traces its roots to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

Swatantra Party

In 1957, he resigned from the Congress Party. In 1959, he founded the Swatantra Party along with Murari Vaidya and Minoo Masani.

The Swatantra Party wanted the government to be less and less involved in controlling the economy.

The Swatantra Party was against land ceilings in agriculture, and opposed cooperative farming and state trading.

It was also opposed to the progressive tax regime and demanded dismantling of the licensing regime. It was critical of the policy of non-alignment and maintaining friendly relations with the Soviet Union and advocated closer ties with the United States.

He was against the leist lean of the Nehru-led Congress and advocated liberal policies. He was not in favour of Soviet-style socialism and also coined the term ‘License-permit Raj’. 

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