Political Re-Alignment in India

IN A SUPERFICIAL VIEW, the twenty-year history of the Indian Republic falls into two equal but very different phases, neatly coinciding respectively with the decades of the 'fifties and the 'sixties. In a similar view, the election1 held in March I97I marks the start of a third phase, equally different from the first and the second and perhaps destined to fill out the decade of the 'seventies. The calendar of the decades certainly corresponds to the calendar of some of the most significant Indian events: India was proclaimed a Republic at the start of I950, when the Constitution was adopted, making the country the largest adult franchise democracy in the world. Thereafter, for ten years India enjoyed a degree of political stability which could be the envy of all the new nations of Asia and Africa and many others as well. The conflict with China, which began in the 'sixties, started India hurtling down a perilous slope: the political fabric was torn into parochial shreds, disorder became a way of life in large parts of the country, the political leadership proved unable to cope with the problem, and the ruling Congress party split at the end of i969. Recovery began in 1970, with a basic reorganisation of the political party system: the gains of this process gave such a startling demonstration in the March I97i election that they won plaudits all over the world for India's parliamentary system, although until only recently it had become the fashion in the West to predict its doom. But the fortunes of an ancient country do not move up or down with such suddenness; there are hidden linkages between the opposite phases, which are probably all the more potent for being invisible to the naked eye. Despite appearances to the contrary the basic movement of Indian politics has been guided from below by a steadily moving causal chain. The changes reflected in the last general election are indeed basic, marking a

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