The road to 1967: crisis, unrest and non-Congressism

Detail

1. Political setting: a weak start for Indira Gandhi

• India had two Prime Ministers die within two years. Nehru died in May 1964 and Lal Bahadur Shastri died in January 1966. Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in January 1966.
• She had little experience, and the Congress was split into rival groups. The opposition saw this as a chance to defeat the Congress in the fourth general election (February 1967).
• At the same time the country faced an economic crisis, unrest in society and communal violence. Together, these came to be called the "road to 1967".

2. Economic crisis (1965-67)

• The monsoons failed again and again, causing drought
• Farm output fell and food ran short.
• India had to buy more foodgrains from abroad. The drought was the worst India had seen in the 20th century [2].

• India's balance of payments (the record of money coming into and going out of a country) had been under strain for about ten years. Food imports made the gap much wider in the two years before 1966 [2].

• Foreign-exchange reserves fell. These are the dollars and other foreign money a country keeps to pay for imports.

• Industrial output and exports fell.
• Military spending rose after the wars of 1962 (China) and 1965 (Pakistan). This took money away from development and planning.
• Plan holiday (1966-69)
• The Fourth Five-Year Plan could not start on time.
• Three Annual Plans were used instead (1966-67, 1967-68 and 1968-69). This pause is called the "plan holiday".
• The Fourth Plan finally began in 1969.

3. Devaluation of the rupee (June 1966)

• Devaluation means the government officially lowers the value of its currency against foreign currencies. Imports become dearer and exports become cheaper.
• Date: 6 June 1966 [2].
• Rate: the rupee went from Rs 4.76 to Rs 7.50 per US dollar [2] (NCERT: from under Rs 5 to over Rs 7). This rate stayed in place until December 1971 [2].
• Size: the rupee's value was cut by about 36.5 per cent [2]. Seen from the other side, a dollar now cost about 57 per cent more in rupees.
• First change since 1949: the rupee's official value (its par value) had not changed for about 17 years. The last devaluation was in September 1949, when the rupee fell along with the British pound [2].
• Seen as US pressure: many people believed the move was made under pressure from the USA and from aid-giving bodies. India depended on US food aid and foreign loans at the time.
• What happened next
• Prices went up, and ordinary people were hurt the most.
• People protested about food, prices and jobs through bandhs (a full shutdown of an area) and hartals (a strike in which shops and work close as a protest).
• The government treated these protests as a law-and-order problem, not as signs of real hardship.
• This made people more bitter and weakened support for the Congress before 1967.

4. Radical and communal currents

• Struggles by the Left: communist and socialist parties led struggles for greater equality. These included land struggles by peasants and strikes by workers.
• Naxalbari uprising (May 1967)
• It was an armed revolt by peasants against landlords in Naxalbari, in Darjeeling district, West Bengal.
• Its leaders were Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal, local leaders of the CPI(M) [3].
• In 1969 it led to the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), or CPI(ML). This party broke away from the CPI(M).
• The CPI(ML) believed in armed struggle to bring about revolution [3].

• Today the government calls the movement that grew out of Naxalbari Left-Wing Extremism (LWE), or "Naxalism" [3]. Its later course belongs to the Emergency chapter (1975).

• Communal violence: the period saw some of the worst Hindu-Muslim riots since independence.

• Neville Maxwell's prediction
• Maxwell was a British journalist. He wrote a series called "India's Disintegrating Democracy" in The Times, London, in 1967.
• He said the fourth general election would be the last one India held democratically.
• He predicted that the army would become the only force able to keep order.
• His prediction proved wrong. India held the election, and power changed hands peacefully in several states.

5. Non-Congressism

• Definition: non-Congressism was a strategy in which opposition parties with very different beliefs agreed to work together against the Congress. They did this so that anti-Congress votes would not be split.
• Why the strategy was needed
• The Congress usually won less than half the votes.
• The first-past-the-post system gives a seat to whoever gets the most votes, even if that is short of a majority.

• So when the opposition split its votes among many parties, the Congress won most seats.

• How the strategy worked

• Anti-Congress fronts were formed in some states. Parties as different as the communists, socialists, the Swatantra Party and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh came together.
• Seat adjustments were made in other states. Parties agreed not to put up candidates against each other in chosen seats.

• The parties saw a chance in Indira Gandhi's inexperience and in the Congress's internal quarrels.

• Ram Manohar Lohia: the man behind the idea

• He was born in 1910 and died on 12 October 1967, a few months after the election [4].
• He was a founder member of the Congress Socialist Party (CSP). He and other CSP members left the Congress in 1948 [4].
• He later led the Socialist Party and the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP).
• He edited the journals Mankind and Jan.
• He supported reservation for backward castes and opposed the use of English in public life.

• He gave non-Congressism its name.

• Lohia's argument

• Congress rule was undemocratic and against the poor.

• Non-Congress parties had to unite to win democracy back for the people.

• What came after

• The same idea shaped the 1977 election, when the Janata Party defeated the Congress.
• Later it shaped coalition politics after 1989, when anti-Congress alliances such as the National Front were formed.

Prelims Hooks

• Rupee devaluation: 6 June 1966. The rate went from Rs 4.76 to Rs 7.50 per US dollar, and the rupee's value fell by about 36.5 per cent. The previous devaluation was in September 1949.
• Plan holiday: 1966-69, made up of three Annual Plans. The Fourth Five-Year Plan began in 1969.
• Naxalbari: the uprising took place in May 1967 in Darjeeling district, West Bengal. Its leaders were Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal.
• Trap: the CPI(ML) was formed in 1969 as a breakaway from the CPI(M), not from the CPI.
• "India's Disintegrating Democracy": written by Neville Maxwell in The Times (London), 1967. It predicted that the army would rule India.
• Non-Congressism is linked to Ram Manohar Lohia. It is not linked to J.P. Narayan or to C. Rajagopalachari of the Swatantra Party.
• Lohia's journals: Mankind and Jan. He led the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP).
• Bandh vs hartal: a bandh is a full shutdown of an area. A hartal is a protest strike in which work and shops close.

Mains Points

• The economy and the vote: the 1966 devaluation, drought and rising prices show how an economic crisis can quickly weaken a ruling party. These factors explain why the Congress did badly in 1967 (GS-I, post-independence consolidation).
• Protest seen only as a law-and-order problem: treating bandhs and hartals as a matter for the police, and ignoring the hardship behind them, made people more bitter. This is a lesson for how governments should respond to mass protest (GS-II, governance).
• Indian democracy proved stronger than predicted: Maxwell expected the army to take over. Instead, the 1967 election changed governments peacefully. This answered those who doubted that democracy could work in a poor, diverse country.
• Non-Congressism as an early model of coalition politics
• Strength: parties pooled their votes to defeat a dominant party within the first-past-the-post system.
• Weakness: the partners had very different beliefs, so the alliances often broke up. This happened in the state governments after 1967 and in the Janata government after 1977.
• Why it matters today: the same pattern can be seen in coalition politics after 1989.