Challenges of Nation Building — Class 12 Political Science

Independent India faced three immediate challenges of nation building. The first was forging a united nation that still accommodated India's vast diversity, made harder because freedom came with Partition. Partition followed the Muslim League's 'two-nation theory' and the principle of religious majorities; it created two states, but the bifurcation of Punjab and Bengal and the problem of minorities on both sides produced one of history's largest, most violent transfers of population, with about 80 lakh migrants and five to ten lakh killed. Despite this, leaders like Nehru and Gandhi upheld the ideal of a secular nation, enshrined in the Constitution. The second challenge was integrating the 565 princely states; Sardar Patel's firm but diplomatic negotiations and the Instrument of Accession brought almost all into the Union, with Junagadh, Hyderabad (army action, 1948) and Manipur proving difficult. The third challenge was redrawing internal boundaries on a linguistic basis. After Potti Sriramulu's fast and death led to Andhra's creation in 1952, the States Reorganisation Commission (1953) recommended linguistic states, and the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 created 14 states and six union territories, strengthening rather than weakening national unity.