NCERT Solutions Class 8 Social Science Chapter 10 India after Independence

Let’s recall

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

Answer:

The following are three problems that the newly independent nation of India faced:

(i) As a result of Partition, 8 million refugees had come into the country from Pakistan. These people had to be rehabilitated by providing homes and jobs.

(ii)There was the problem of the princely states, almost 500 of them, each ruled by a maharaja or a nawab, each of whom had to be persuaded to join the new nation.

(iii) The new nation also had to lift its masses out of poverty by increasing the productivity of agriculture and by promoting new, job-creating industries.

2. What was the role of the Planning Commission? Answer:

In 1950, the government of India set up a Planning Commission to help design and execute suitable policies for economic development.

3. Fill in the blanks:

(a) Subjects that were placed on the Union List were taxes, defence and foreign affairs.

(b) Subjects on the Concurrent List were forests and agriculture.

(c) Economic planning by which both the state and the private sector played a role in development was called a “mixed economy” model.

(d) The death of veteran Gandhian named Potti Sriramulu sparked off such violent protests that the government was forced to give in to the demand for the linguistic state of Andhra.

4. State whether true or false:

(a) At independence, the majority of Indians lived in villages.

(b) The Constituent Assembly was made up of members of the Congress party.

(d) The Second Five Year Plan focused on the development of heavy industry.

Answer:

(a) True

(b) False

(c) False

(d) True

Let’s discuss

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:

(i)Through this statement in his final speech to the Constituent Assembly, Dr Ambedkar pointed out that political democracy had to be accompanied by economic and social democracy.

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

Answer:

(i)In the 1920s, the Indian National Congress had promised that once the country won independence, each major linguistic group would have its own province.

(ii)However, after independence, the Congress did not fulfill this promise. There was a hesitation to implement this promise because of the Partition.

(iii)The nation had already been divided on the basis of religion. The freedom to India had come along with the tragedy of Partition; more than a million people had been killed in riots between Hindus and Muslims.

(iv)Any further division among the people was considered to be against the nation’s strength and unity.

(v) Prime Minister Nehru and Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel were against the creation of linguistic states. They wanted anything that hindered the growth of nationalism to be rejected, including divisions on the basis of language.

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

(i)People who could not speak Hindi, opposed Hindi as National Language.

(ii)Their leaders threatened to separate from India if Hindi was imposed on them.

iii)The Constituent Assembly finally fixed this issue by declaring Hindi as the "official language" of India and decided that English was to be used in the courts, the services, and communications between one state and another.

8. How was the economic development of India visualised in the early decades after independence?

Answer:

(i)Lifting India and its people out of poverty, and building a modern technical and industrial base were among the major objectives of the new nation.

(ii)In 1950, the government set up a Planning Commission to design and execute suitable policies for economic development.

(iii) A “mixed economy” model was adopted; both the State and the private sector would play important and complementary roles in increasing production and generating jobs.