India After Independence

NCERT Solution

Question 1: Name three problems that the newly independent nation of India faced.

Answer: The three problems that the newly independent nation of India faced are as follows:

Rehabilitation of a large number of refugees.
Assimilation of princely states.
Ensuring the unity of a country which is full of diversity.

Question 2: What was the role of the Planning Commission?

Answer: The Planning Commission was to formulate policies which would guide the economic development. Productivity and employment opportunities were to be increased through proper implementation of those policies.

Question 3: Fill in the blanks:

Subjects that were placed on the Union List were _________, _________ and _________.

Answer: taxes, defence and foreign affairs
Subjects on the Concurrent List were _________ and _________.

Answer: forests and agriculture
Economic planning by which both the state and the private sector played a role in development was called a _________ _________ model.

Answer: Mixed economy
The death of _________ sparked off such violent protests that the government was forced to give in to the demand for the linguistic state of Andhra.

Answer: Potti Sriramulu

Question 4: State whether true or false:

At independence, the majority of Indians lived in villages.
The Constituent Assembly was made up of members of the Congress party.
In the first national election, only men were allowed to vote.
The Second Five Year Plan focused on the development of heavy industry.

Answer: (a) True, (b) False, (c) False, (d) True

Question 5: What did Dr Ambedkar mean when he said that “In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life we will have inequality”?

Answer: By political equality, Dr. Ambedkar meant the universal adult franchise which gave equal rights to all citizens. By socioeconomic inequality, he meant the income disparities among people.

Question 6: After Independence, why was there a reluctance to divide the country on linguistic lines?

Answer: The partition of the country along communal lines changed the mindset of the nationalist leaders. They wanted to prevent further divisions in the country on sectarian lines.

Question 7: Give one reason why English continued to be used in India after Independence.

Answer: Some leaders believed that English should be done away with and Hindi should be promoted as the national language. But this idea was opposed by the leaders from non-Hindi areas. They did not want an imposition on Hindi on the people of those areas. Finally, it was decided that while Hindi would be the ‘official language’; English would be used for communication among various states.

Question 8: How was the economic development of India visualised in the early decades after Independence?

Answer: Removing poverty and building a modern technical and industrial base were important objectives for the new nation. The Planning Commission was set up in 1950 to plan and execute policies for economic development.

Question 9: Who was Mira Ben? Write about her life and values.

Answer: Mira Ben lived with Mahatma Gandhi in his ashram. She was born in 1892 in Britain and her original name was Madeleine Slade. He father worked as an officer in the Royal Navy. She was so influenced by the ideals of Gandhi that she came to India to live in his ashram. She was a true Gandhian and was at the forefront of the freedom movement of India. She continued to live in India for many years even after the independence. Later on, she went to live in Austria where she breathed her last in 1982. She was conferred the Padma Vibhushan for her contribution to the nation.