The New
State
Throughout history, India has absorbed and
modified to suit its needs, the best from all the
civilisations with which it has come into
contact. Once again the fledgling nation
demonstrated the maturity and wisdom of its
ancient traditions, and the truth of its claim
that it was opposed, not to the people or the
civilisation of Britain and the West, only to its
imperial domination. India chose to remain within
the British Commonwealth of Nations. It also
adopted the British system of Parliamentary
Democracy, and retained the judicial,
administrative, defence and educational
structures and institutions set up by the
British. India is today the largest and most
populous democracy on earth, with universal adult
suffrage.
The Indian Constitution, adopted when India
became a Republic on January 26, 1950, safeguards
all its people from all forms of discrimination
on grounds of race, religion, creed or sex. It
guarantees freedom of speech, expression and
belief, assembly and association, migration,
acquisition of property and choice of occupation
or trade.
The
Indian Parliament consists of two houses: The
Rajya Sabha or Council of States, and the Lok
Sabha or House of Representatives. The former
consists of 250 members, mainly elected and some
nominated by the President, and is presided over
by the Vice-President. The Lok Sabha is made up
of 543 members elected from the States and Union
Territories. All legislation requires the
approval of both Houses. The President is the
Head of State, and is appointed through the votes
of an electoral college drawn from both Houses
and from the Legislature of the constituent
States. The Prime Minister is the head of the
Government, and is the leader of the majority
party in the Lok Sabha. The President appoints
ministers on his advice.
Members of the State Legislative Assemblies or
Vidhan Sabhas are elected through universal adult
franchise. Each State has a Chief Minister who is
the leader of the majority party of the Assembly.
Elections are supervised by the Election
Commission, an independent body. An independent
judiciary is the guardian and interpreter of the
Constitution, and the Supreme Court is the
highest tribunal in the land, at the apex of the
state High Courts. The Civil Services implement
government policies freely and fairly. Entrance
to these Services is by annual public
examinations open to all.
The achievement of independence was but the
first step towards creating a modern nation.
Jawaharlal Nehru spelt it out very clearly,
"We talk of freedom, but today political
freedom does not take us very far unless there is
economic freedom. Indeed, there is no such thing
as freedom for a man who is starving or for a
country that is poor." Today, economic
development and social justice are the priorities
of the Indian government.
India Today
India's vanguard role in the international
anti-colonial struggle has given her natural
moral leadership of the Third World in its quest
for international peace, equality and justice.
Refusing to be drawn into the dangerous
confrontationalist politics of super power
rivalries, India was a moving force behind the
formation of the Nonaligned Movement (NAM) in
1961. Nonalignment does not mean neutrality, it
means a principled approach to international
issues. In consonance with the spirit of the
movement, India has always sought close bilateral
relations and cooperation at all levels with
countries of both the Western and Socialist
blocs, as well as with other nonaligned nations.
The relevance of nonalignment has not diminished
in the post USSR era, but the movement has had to
redefine its perspective in the context of
increasing polarity between the affluent,
developed nations of the North, and the
economically developing nations of the South. The
main thrust of the movement now is to assert the
independence of the South against the hegemony of
the North, and to resist the interventionist
political pressures of aid conditionalities.
At the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, India strongly
asserted the position of the countries of the
South that environmental problems cannot be
tackled in isolation from economic and
developmental issues. Pointing out that the
affluent nations consume a disproportionately
enormous share of the earth's resources and
create most of its industrial pollution, India
joined the developing countries in insisting on
complete national sovereignty over natural
resources, and demanded that they be suitably
compensated for restraining economic growth in
order to preserve these assets in the interests
of global survival.
The international prestige enjoyed by the
country has enabled India to take a leading role
in multilateral initiatives toward finding
solutions to some of the critical issues of the
day, such as nuclear disarmament, apartheid, the
rights of the Palestinian people, protection of
the environment and the evolution of a more just
international economic order. Mutual respect and
cooperation have also been the basis of India's
relationship with her neighbours.
The South Asia Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC), established in December
1985, provides a valuable forum for the promotion
of regional cooperation among its seven member
states - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. SAARC is based on
the principles of sovereign equality, territorial
integrity, political independence, mutual benefit
and non interference in the internal affairs of
other states. The U.N. Declaration of the Indian
Ocean as a Zone of Peace, which India has
consistently supported, is another step in the
direction of peace and stability in the area.
The moral authority vested in India as a
legacy of its anticolonial stand, has enabled it
to play a vigorous and principled role in all
international fora, including the United Nations,
in efforts to banish all forms of exploitation
from the world.
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