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HCS (Haryana)Stage 2: Main Written Examination

Post-Independence Consolidation and Reorganisation

What the official syllabus says

General Studies-I (Paper III), Main Written Examination:

  • Post-independence consolidation and reorganization within the country.

Topics in detail

Partition and its aftermath

  • Refugees and their resettlement in Punjab, Delhi, Bengal and the north-east (new townships such as Faridabad)
  • Communal violence and the restoration of order

Integration of the princely states

  • Sardar Patel, V.P. Menon and the States Department; the Instrument of Accession and merger agreements
  • Junagadh, Hyderabad (1948) and Jammu and Kashmir
  • The French and Portuguese territories: Puducherry, Goa (1961), Dadra and Nagar Haveli
  • Abolition of privy purses (1971)

Reorganisation of states

  • The language question: the Dhar Commission and the JVP Committee (1948–49)
  • Potti Sriramulu and the formation of Andhra State (1953)
  • The States Reorganisation Commission (Fazl Ali) and the States Reorganisation Act, 1956
  • Later reorganisations: Maharashtra and Gujarat (1960), Nagaland (1963), Punjab and Haryana (1966), the north-eastern states (1972, 1987), Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand (2000), Telangana (2014), Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as Union Territories (2019)
  • Issues left by reorganisation: boundary and river-water disputes, shared capitals

Building the nation

  • Making the Constitution and the first general elections (1951–52)
  • Planning: the Planning Commission (1950), the mixed economy, the early Five-Year Plans
  • Land reforms, abolition of zamindari, the Bhoodan movement
  • Community Development (1952) and Panchayati Raj (Balwantrai Mehta Committee, 1957)
  • The Official Language question and the Official Languages Act, 1963
  • The Green Revolution (Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh) and Operation Flood

Politics and foreign policy

  • Non-alignment and Panchsheel; the wars of 1962, 1965 and 1971
  • Regional and ethnic movements (Punjab, Assam, the north-east) and how they were handled
  • The Emergency (1975–77) and the restoration of democracy
  • Coalition politics, reservations for backward classes (the Mandal Commission), and the economic reforms of 1991

Reorganisation at a glance

YearChange
1953Andhra State formed from the Telugu-speaking areas of Madras
1956States Reorganisation Act: states on broadly linguistic lines
1960Bombay State divided into Maharashtra and Gujarat
1966Punjab Reorganisation Act: Haryana formed; hill areas to Himachal Pradesh; Chandigarh a Union Territory
2000Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand formed
2014Telangana formed from Andhra Pradesh

Economic and social consolidation

  • The Industrial Policy Resolutions of 1948 and 1956 and the public sector
  • The priorities of the First (agriculture) and Second (heavy industry, the Mahalanobis model) Five-Year Plans
  • Nationalisation of major banks (1969)
  • The Untouchability (Offences) Act (1955) and the Hindu Code Bills (1955–56)
  • Reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in legislatures, jobs and education

Integration of the north-east and border regions

  • The Naga, Mizo and Assam movements; accords such as the Mizo Accord (1986) and the Assam Accord (1985)
  • The Punjab crisis of the 1980s and the Punjab Accord (1985)
  • Special provisions for regions: the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, Article 371

Overlaps

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