Era of One-party Dominance . Take a political map of India (with State outlines) and mark: (a) two states where Congress was not in power at some point during - . (b) two states where the Congress remained in power through this period. .
Read the following passage and answer the questions below: “Patel, the organisational man of the Congress, wanted to purge the Congress of other political groups and sought to make of it a cohesive and disciplined political party. He …. sought to take the Congress away from its all-embracing character and turn it into a close-knit party of disciplined cadres. Being a ‘realist’ he looked more for discipline than for comprehension.
While Gandhi took too romantic a view of “carrying on the movement,” Patel’s idea of transforming the Congress into strictly political party with a single ideology and tight discipline showed an equal lack of understanding of the eclectic role that the Congress, as a government, was to be called upon to perform in the decades to follow.” — R ajni K othari (a) Why does the author think that Congress should not have been a cohesive and disciplined party? (b) Give some examples of the eclectic role of the Congress party in the early years. (c) Why does the author say that Gandhi’s view about Congress’ future was romantic? LET US DO IT TOGETHER Make a chart of elections and governments in your State since .
The chart could have the following columns: year of election, name of the winning party, name of ruling party or parties, name of the Chief Minister(s).