week 3: “ indira is india, india is indira ” lecture 6
DESCRIPTION
Week 3: “ Indira is India, India is Indira ” Lecture 6. Prof Prerna Singh . After Nehru?. Pressing Problems . Foreign: War with Pakistan (1965). War with Pakistan. Pressing Problems . Foreign: War with Pakistan (1965) Domestic: Question of National Language . Pressing Problems . - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Week 3: “Indira is India, India is Indira”
Lecture 6
Prof Prerna Singh
AfterNehru?
Pressing Problems Foreign:
◦ War with Pakistan (1965)
War with Pakistan
Pressing Problems Foreign:
◦ War with Pakistan (1965)
Domestic:◦ Question of National Language
Pressing Problems Foreign:
◦ War with Pakistan (1965)
Domestic:◦ Question of National Language◦ Problem of Food Shortages
Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India, 1964-1966
Indira Gandhi
Why Indira? Vote getter
Could be controlled
Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, 1966-1977, 1980-1984
Indira Gandhi
Forged direct link with masses Populist “socialist” initiatives
Split the Congress Party◦ Congress (Indira)
Establishment of powerful connection with the masses
Drive towards personalization and centralization of power
“Indira is India, India is Indira”
Highly Controversial Figure
Savior of the Masses or Tyrannical Villain
Amma or ‘Nazi Priestess’
Indira Gandhi
Common Scholarly Assessment:
Deinstitutionalizing India◦ Weakening Congress party,
bureaucracy and other institutions
◦ Undermining Indian democracy
Revisionist Assessment: Situated Mrs Gandhi’s
problems in the context of the number and magnitude of the problems
Indira Gandhi
Was Mrs Gandhi more a cause or consequence of the personalization and deinstitutionalization of the Indian polity?
Indira Gandhi
Ashis Nandy: Psychoanalysis of
Indira, as a politician and Indian society
Indira Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi with a young Indira Nehru
What kind of mass sentiments allow authoritarian politics to come to the fore?
Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦ Crisis of National Faith Rise of Post-Independence generation Cracks in the Nehruvian edifice are beginning to show
Humiliating defeat in Sino-Indian War Low economic growth Agricultural Problem High poverty Abysmal social services
Vast numbers of illiterate, rural, disgruntled poor Land grab programs Rise of Revolutionary Class Movements
Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik
Against Gandhi, Nehru “Pure Politics” Gandhi as an aberration Tough politics for Tough Times Middle classes and intelligentsia cheered her on as a
“real leader”
Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik◦ Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder
Economic problems Lack of growth Corruption
Social Unrest Protests, Strikes, Riots, bandhs
Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik◦ Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder ◦ Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing
its appeal
Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik◦ Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder ◦ Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing
its appeal Economic interests over civil liberties
Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:
◦Crisis of National Faith
◦Idea that India needed Realpolitik
◦Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder
◦Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing its appeal
Samuel Huntington (1968): Importance of political institutions, esp
political parties Social mobilization in the absence of
strong political parties leads to political instability
Indira Gandhi
Personalization and deinstitutionalization of Congress and other institutions
Personalization and Deinstitutionalization had begun before Mrs Gandhi Inherited weak, faction-ridden Congress
+ Economic distress Socio-political Mobilization
= Crisis of Governability
Indira Gandhi
…product of the situationBUT greatly aggravated situation
Indira Gandhi
Established direct link with votersBUTUndermined the party
Made electoral promisesBUT Party not strong enough to fulfill these
promises
Indira Gandhi
Populist “socialist” initiatives:
Nationalization of banks
Abolition of privy purses
BUT left untouched:
Poverty Provision of
essential social services
Land redistribution
Indira Gandhi
Personalization of Power and Politicization of Institutions
Party
Abandoned even nominal intra-party democracy
Made state party structures subservient to central high command
Appointed key functionaries
Promoted “yes men”
State Institutions: Civil Service Judiciary Parliament Constitution
Next Week…Indira Gandhi’s Darkest Hours