Politics, India

When did INC dominance start to weaken? Why?

1990's. it gave new significance to regional parties based on caste or on linguistic or religious identity.

Who was Gandhi assassinated by? Why was he assassinated?

A Militant Hindu. He thought religious tolerance was a threat to Hindu Nationalism.

What was the East India Company?

A firm created to develop trade between the United Kingdom and India

Why do some people think democracy is a solution in India?

A flexible democracy maybe the only way of holding this patch-work nation together

What are the two national languages of India?

Hindi and English

What is emergency rule? Why did Indira Gandhi implement it?

Law invoked by Indian national government to suspend the constitution by declaring marshal law/.

What is the House of the Peoples? What are its powers and responsibilities?

Lower and more powerful house. (545 members) Chamber of debate between the government and the opposition.

Who is the current prime minister?

Manmohan Singh

How did Indira Gandhi's rule differ from her father's?

She was far more authoritarian. First decade of rule divide the party between her supporters and her detractors.

What is presidential rule?

State level equivalent of emergency rule in India in which the national government takes temporary control of a state by imposing martial law.

What elements does the BJP party have?

Support for secularism, with increasing hindu nationalists sentiment it allowed it to expand its representation to 161 seats, and form a coalition government. Anti Muslum group.

Explain the major attributes of the Muslim League.

To get a gradual transfer of power

What is the Council of States? Is it more or less powerful than the House of the Peoples?

Upper house. (250 members in the 29 states and seven territories; 12 are elected to six year term-the rest are appointed by the president to six year term)

What has been implemented more: emergency rule or presidential rule?

Emergency Rule

Explain the major characteristics and political evolution of the Indian National Congress.

Major Indian political party; began as leading organization of Indian independence movement -An anticolonial movement

What is outsourcing?

Moving the production of goods and services to another country to take advantage of cheap labor or other savings

What is asymmetric federalism?

A system where power is devolved unequally across the country and its constituent regions, often the results of specific laws negotiated between the region and the central government.

What are the major attributes of the Bharatiya Janata Party?

Able to articulate a Hindu nationalist vision

Why did the British opt for a partition between Pakistan and India?

Against this background of growing violence, British opted for patrician creating of the new states of Pakistan and (Independent) India from the South Asian British colony of India in 1947

Why do some people think that democracy is a puzzle in India?

Because how strongly tied to religion the government is.

What are the roles and responsibilities of the president?

Can declare emergency rule, Symbolic, president seeks to identify and facilitate the formation of a workable governing coalition.

What are some of the characteristics of Hinduism?

Governs all aspects of life: rituals and norms of birth, death, marriage, eating, and livelihood.

What happened in 2002 in the state of Gujarat? Who was governor at the time?

Muslims set fire to railcars carrying Hindu activists back from a ceremony at Ayodhya Sonia Gandhi

What has been the greatest challenge to Indian democracy and political stability?

Persistent religious conflict and increasing fundamentalism

Who is the current president of India?

Pranab Mukherjee

What are the powers and responsibilities of the Prime Minister?

Head of government. Is responsible for managing the day-to-day affairs of government and is the state's most important political figure.

What is the caste system?

Hindu hereditary social grouping

How did the British colonists exploit the caste system in India?

In effort to enhance social order, british colonial bureaucrats painstakingly cataloged these various classifications and hierarchies long sanctioned and legitimized by the hindu religion, thereby rending the castes increasingly rigid over time. They are now trying to eliminate the untouchables group and calling themselves Dalits that make up some 170 million people, or about 15 percent of the population.

Who was Jawaharlal Nehru? How long was he in power? What was his political platform?

India first prime minister and successor to Mahatma Gandhi as leader of the INC. (1947- 1964)

Who are the untouchables (or the Dalits)?

India's outcaste groups, including tribal aboriginals and those who traditionally performed unclean duties

What were some of the advantages India had when establishing democracy?

Its lengthy, gradual, and inclusive independence movement generated a powerful and widespread sense of national identity. Most Indians came to identify themselves not through their region, caste, or religion but as citizens of a new republic. Indians were well schooled in both Western Philosophy and the day to day practices of liberal democracy. Inherited liberal ideas, traditions, well-functioning civil state and standing army.