NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Social Science History Chapter 12 – India After Independence

Three problems struck India as a newly independent nation:

1. Partition has resulted in the influx of 8 million refugees from Pakistan into the country. These people needed to find housing and work.

2. The Maharajas and Nawabs of the princely states (nearly 500 in total) had to be convinced to join the new nation.

3. It was necessary to develop a political structure that would best fulfill the Indian people's ambitions and expectations.

The Planning Commission was established to assist in the establishment of appropriate policies for India's economic development.

1. Subjects that were placed on the Union List were taxes, defence and foreign affairs. 
2. Subjects on the Concurrent List were forest and agriculture. 
3. Economic planning by which both the state and the private sector played a role in development was called a mixed-economy model.
4. The death of Potti Sriramulu sparked off such violent protests that the government was forced to give in to the demand for the linguistic state of Andhra. 

1. True.
2. False.
3. False.

4. True.

According to Dr. Ambedkar, political democracy must be accompanied by economic and social democracy. Giving people the opportunity to vote would not necessarily eliminate other inequities, such as those between the rich and the poor, or between upper and lower castes. He believed that India needed to work hard to eliminate all forms of economic and social inequity. Only then would the Constitution's guarantee of political equality (i.e., one vote for every adult Indian citizen) be meaningful. Otherwise, India would be a land of paradoxes, adhering to the idea of "one man, one vote, and one value" in politics while rejecting the concept of "one man, one value" in economic and social lives.

In the 1920s, Congress pledged that once the country became independent, each major language group would be given its own province. It did not, however, take any steps to keep this commitment after independence. This was done for a reason. India had already been religiously divided. A million people were killed in riots as a result of the Partition. It was deemed impossible to create new divisions. Further differences in the country, according to Congress leaders, will only harm the country's unity and progress. They believed that the most important thing for India to do was to remain strong and united while it worked to become a nation and that anything that hampered the progress of nationalism ought to be opposed.

People from the south who did not speak Hindi were opposed to Hindi being declared the national language. If Hindi was imposed on them, they vowed to break away from India. The Constituent Assembly eventually agreed that Hindi would be India's "official language," but English would be used in courts, services, and inter-state communications.

 India's economic development was envisioned in the early decades after independence as follows:

1. Objectives- The new nation's main goals included lifting India and Indians out of poverty and developing a modern technical and industrial basis.

2. Planning Commission and Five Year Plans- A Planning Commission was established to assist in the establishment and implementation of appropriate economic development policies.

3. Mixed Economy- It was decided to use a mixed-economy model. Both the state and the private sector would play vital and complementary roles in expanding production and creating jobs under this economic arrangement.

4. Prioritizing heavy industry and dams- The Second Five-Year Plan was established in 1956. This was heavily focused on the development of heavy industries like steel and the construction of huge dams.

Many criticized the emphasis on heavy industry and the attempt to regulate the economy (which would guide economic policy for the following few decades). This strategy was criticized because:

1. It placed little attention on agriculture.

2. It disregarded primary education.

3. It failed to consider the environmental consequences of focusing on science and machinery.