Big picture
India chose to build a democracy with universal adult franchise at a time when most of its people were poor and illiterate, something many observers thought impossible. The first general elections in 1951–52 were a huge experiment, and they succeeded.
In the first decades, one party, the Indian National Congress, dominated politics, winning election after election. Yet India remained a democracy, with opposition parties, free elections and debate. This chapter explains how and why.
Learning goals
Explain the challenge of establishing democracy and conducting the first general elections.
Explain the Congress's dominance in the first three general elections.
Explain the reasons for Congress dominance.
Explain the Congress as a social and ideological coalition, and how it tolerated factions.
Explain the exception of Kerala in 1957.
Describe the early opposition parties and their role.
Core ideas
1. The first general elections (1951–52)
The Election Commission of India was set up in January 1950; Sukumar Sen was the first Chief Election Commissioner.
Challenges: delimiting constituencies; preparing electoral rolls for about 17 crore eligible voters, most of them illiterate; training officials; and conducting polling across a vast country.
Symbols were assigned to parties so that illiterate voters could identify them; each candidate had a separate ballot box with their symbol (later, ballot papers with names and symbols, and from the 1990s, electronic voting machines).
The elections were held from October 1951 to February 1952. Turnout was more than half of eligible voters. The results were accepted even by the losers, and observers called it a landmark in the history of democracy in the developing world.
Results: the Congress won 364 of 489 Lok Sabha seats. The Communist Party of India came second with 16 seats. The Congress also won most state assemblies.
2. Congress dominance
In the first three general elections (1952, 1957, 1962), the Congress won about three-quarters of Lok Sabha seats, though its vote share was usually less than half (because the opposition was divided and the first-past-the-post system turned a plurality of votes into a majority of seats).
Nature of dominance: unlike one-party rule in some countries (such as Mexico under the PRI, where dominance came partly from restricting democracy), Congress dominance in India occurred within a democratic framework, with free and fair elections and other parties competing.
Reasons for dominance:
Legacy of the national movement: the Congress had led the freedom struggle and was seen as the inheritor of its legacy; it had popular leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru.
Organisational network: it was the only party with a nationwide organisation and was well established before independence.
Social and ideological coalition: it included people of every class, caste, religion, language and region.
Accommodation of factions and diverse interests.
3. The Congress as a social and ideological coalition
The Congress began as a forum of educated professionals in 1885 and became a mass movement in the twentieth century, with many groups joining.
Social coalition: peasants and industrialists, urban and rural people, landlords and peasants, workers and owners, middle and lower classes, and many castes and religions were all represented.
Ideological coalition: it accommodated revolutionaries and pacifists, conservatives and radicals, moderates and extremists, and those of the right, left and centre. It had a "middle path" ideology.
4. Tolerance and management of factions
Groups within a party with different views are called factions. The Congress allowed factions based on ideology or personal ambitions.
Instead of being a weakness, this tolerance was a strength: dissatisfied groups could stay within the party and fight internal battles rather than leave and form opposition parties.
The system of factions acted as a balancing mechanism within the party, and the Congress often absorbed the agenda of opposition parties too.
5. Kerala: an exception
In 1957, the Communist Party of India won the assembly elections in Kerala, the first time anywhere in the world that a Communist party came to power through democratic elections.
E.M.S. Namboodiripad became Chief Minister. The government introduced land reforms and education reforms.
Facing a "liberation struggle" by its opponents, the government was dismissed in 1959 by the central government using Article 356 (President's Rule). The dismissal was controversial, as it was seen as misuse of constitutional emergency provisions.
6. The opposition parties
Party | Founded | Key leaders | Ideology and features |
|---|---|---|---|
Socialist Party | Formed by Congress Socialists, who left the Congress in 1948 | Acharya Narendra Dev, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan | Democratic socialism; criticised the Congress for favouring capitalists and landlords; split into several parties (Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party, Praja Socialist Party, Samyukta Socialist Party) |
Communist Party of India (CPI) | Communist groups in the 1920s | A.K. Gopalan, S.A. Dange, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, P.C. Joshi, Ajay Ghosh | Inspired by the Bolshevik revolution; advocated socialism; after a brief armed uprising (Telangana), took part in elections; split in 1964 into the CPI and the CPI (M) |
Bharatiya Jana Sangh | 1951 | Syama Prasad Mookerjee (founder), Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Balraj Madhok | Emphasised "one country, one culture, one nation"; favoured Hindi as the official language; opposed concessions to minorities; supported India developing nuclear weapons; forerunner of the BJP |
Swatantra Party | August 1959 | C. Rajagopalachari, K.M. Munshi, N.G. Ranga, Minoo Masani | Formed after the Congress's Nagpur resolution on land ceilings and cooperative farming; favoured free enterprise and the private sector, opposed state control of the economy and land ceilings; supported closer ties with the USA |
Role of the opposition:
Opposition parties won only a small share of seats, but they criticised the government and kept it accountable.
They kept alternative ideas alive and offered a democratic outlet for dissent, preventing resentment from turning anti-democratic.
Many opposition leaders had been in the Congress during the freedom struggle and had mutual respect with Congress leaders; Nehru included some of them, such as B.R. Ambedkar and Syama Prasad Mookerjee, in his first cabinet.
A reliable approach to questions
For the first elections, give the dates, the first CEC, the challenges, and results.
For dominance, give the reasons and explain how it differed from undemocratic one-party rule.
For the Congress as a coalition, explain its social and ideological breadth and factions.
For Kerala, give the year, the leader and the dismissal under Article 356.
For opposition parties, give founding year, leaders and ideology.
Connections that matter
Challenges of nation building describes the early challenges the Congress governments faced.
Politics of planned development explains the economic policies of the Congress era.
Challenges to and restoration of the Congress system shows how dominance declined after 1967.
Common mistakes
Saying the Congress won more than half the votes in all elections. It won about three-quarters of seats with less than half the votes.
Saying India was a one-party state. Elections were free, and opposition parties existed.
Mixing up the founders: Jana Sangh (Syama Prasad Mookerjee) and Swatantra Party (C. Rajagopalachari).
Saying the Kerala government completed its term. It was dismissed in 1959.
Revision checklist
I can explain the first general elections and their challenges.
I can explain Congress dominance and its reasons.
I can explain the Congress as a coalition and its factions.
I can explain Kerala 1957.
I can describe the opposition parties and their role.