India after Independence

Integration of princely states

• There were about 562 princely states at independence. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Home Minister, and V. P. Menon persuaded most of them to sign the Instrument of Accession (defence, external affairs and communications) and later merger agreements.
• Difficult cases:
  • Junagadh: the Nawab chose Pakistan. After people protested, a plebiscite was held in February 1948 and the state joined India.
  • Hyderabad: the Nizam wanted independence and the Razakars led violence. "Operation Polo", a police action in September 1948, integrated it.
  • Kashmir: after a tribal invasion from Pakistan, Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947. The issue went to the UN.
• Others: Goa was taken from the Portuguese in 1961 (Operation Vijay). Pondicherry and other French territories were transferred in 1954 (de jure in 1962). Sikkim became a state in 1975 (36th Amendment).

Reorganisation of states

• The Dhar Commission (1948) and the JVP Committee (Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya) were wary of linguistic states.
• Potti Sriramulu died after a 56-day fast (December 1952). Andhra State was formed in 1953, the first linguistic state.
• The States Reorganisation Commission (1953) had Fazl Ali as chairman, with K. M. Panikkar and H. N. Kunzru. It led to the States Reorganisation Act, 1956: 14 states and 6 UTs.
• Later states:

Year	State
1960	Maharashtra and Gujarat (from Bombay)
1963	Nagaland
1966	Haryana (and Himachal as a UT)
1971/72	Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya
1975	Sikkim
1987	Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa
2000	Chhattisgarh (1 Nov), Uttarakhand (9 Nov), Jharkhand (15 Nov)
2014	Telangana (2 June)
2019	J&K and Ladakh became UTs
2020	Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu merged

Nation-building under Nehru

• The Constitution was adopted in 1950. The first general election was held in 1951–52 (Chief Election Commissioner Sukumar Sen).
• Planning:
  • The Planning Commission was set up in 1950.
  • The First Plan (1951–56) followed the Harrod–Domar model and focused on agriculture.
  • The Second Plan (1956–61) followed the Mahalanobis model and focused on heavy industry: the Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur steel plants.
  • The Industrial Policy Resolution 1956 set up a mixed economy.
• Land reforms: zamindari was abolished. Bihar's 1950 Act was challenged in court, which led to the 1st Amendment (1951) and the Ninth Schedule. Tenancy reform and land ceilings followed.
• Bhoodan (1951) and Gramdan, led by Vinoba Bhave.
• Science and technology: IITs (Kharagpur, 1951), the Atomic Energy Commission (1948, Homi Bhabha), and ISRO (1969).
• Foreign policy: non-alignment. The Bandung Conference (1955) and NAM (1961).

Wars and security

Year	War	Outcome
1947–48	Kashmir	UN-brokered ceasefire; Line of Control precursor
1962	China	Defeat; Aksai Chin lost
1965	Pakistan	Tashkent Declaration (1966)
1971	Pakistan	Bangladesh created; 93,000 prisoners; Simla Agreement (1972)
1999	Kargil	Operation Vijay

• Nuclear tests: Pokhran-I (1974) "Smiling Buddha"; Pokhran-II (1998) Operation Shakti.

From the 1960s to 1991

• Lal Bahadur Shastri: "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan"; the Green Revolution (M. S. Swaminathan, HYV seeds, Punjab and Haryana).
• Indira Gandhi:
  • bank nationalisation (1969), when 14 banks were nationalised;
  • abolition of privy purses (26th Amendment, 1971);
  • "Garibi Hatao" (1971);
  • the 1971 war.
• JP movement (1974):
  • It started as a student movement in Bihar and Gujarat's Nav Nirman.
  • Jayaprakash Narayan called for "Sampoorna Kranti" (Total Revolution) at Gandhi Maidan, Patna, on 5 June 1974.
• Emergency (25 June 1975 – 21 March 1977):
  • It followed the Indira Gandhi v. Raj Narain verdict of the Allahabad High Court.
  • It brought press censorship and mass arrests (MISA), and the 42nd Amendment.
• Janata government (1977) under Morarji Desai, the first non-Congress government at the Centre. The 44th Amendment undid much of the 42nd.
• The 1980s:
  • Operation Blue Star (1984) and Indira Gandhi's assassination;
  • the Bhopal gas tragedy (1984);
  • Rajiv Gandhi: telecom and computers, the 52nd Amendment (anti-defection), Panchayati Raj Bills, and the IPKF in Sri Lanka (1987).
• Mandal Commission: the B. P. Mandal report (1980) was implemented by V. P. Singh in 1990, giving 27% OBC reservation, upheld in Indra Sawhney (1992). B. P. Mandal was from Bihar.

Since 1991

• The 1991 crisis: a balance-of-payments crisis, with foreign reserves covering only about two weeks of imports. The response was LPG reforms (liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation) under P. V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.
• 73rd and 74th Amendments (1992).
• The coalition era (1989–2014) and the rise of regional parties. In Bihar this was the Lalu Prasad era and later Nitish Kumar.
• 2000: three new states were formed, including Jharkhand on 15 November 2000, Birsa Munda's birth anniversary.
• Rights-based laws: RTI (2005), MGNREGA (2005), Forest Rights Act (2006), RTE (2009) and the Food Security Act (2013).
• Since 2014:
  • GST (2017);
  • the demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes (November 2016);
  • Article 370 made inoperative (2019);
  • the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (2023).

Exam tip: UPSC GS I asks "post-independence consolidation", which usually means integration, linguistic reorganisation, planning and the 1960s crises. Bihar papers love JP's movement and land reform. Jharkhand papers ask about the long statehood movement, which is covered in the Jharkhand history unit.