Political Science · Political Institutions in India
UGC NET January 2025 Political Science
Passage
The post-independence land-reforms were adopted broadly on the basis of the Kumarappa Committee. This Committee took, as its guiding principle, the elimination of exploitation and giving the land to the tiller. Bihar Pradesh Kisan Sabha (BPKS) was founded in 1929. It established a national presence in 1936 as the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS). Swami Sahajanand Saraswati dominated the provincial organisations, and emerged as the foremost Kisan leader in India, and also headed BPKS in 1935. The formation of the Congress Ministry in Bihar in 1937 accelerated the process of showdown between the two organizations. Zamindars offered their help and co-operation in passing tenancy laws to improve the condition of the tenants. The post-colonial India including Bihar witnessed the emergence of the Congress as the dominant party in the political system. In 1952 elections, Jharkhand Party was the main opposition party inside the state legislature.
The important consequences of the 1952 general elections in Bihar were the emergence of two regional political parties, the Jharkhand Party and the Janta Party. The Janta Party was founded in 1950 by Raja Kamakhya Narayan Singh to build up a traditional opposition to Congress. Its political influence was confined mainly in south-Bihar. Until 1967, Bihar witnessed a one party dominance system i.e. the 'Congress system' as conceptualized by Rajni Kothari. Between 1967-69, elections witnessed a highly fractionalized multi-party system. The decline in the Congress electoral strength benefitted socialists and communists on the one hand, and the Jan Sangha on the other hand.
As per the given passage, who conceptualized the 'Congress system' as one party dominance system?
APartho Ghosh
BBipin Chandra
CRajni Kothari ✓ Correct
DRajendra Prasad
Correct answer: (C) Rajni Kothari — As per the passage, the concept of the Congress system as a one party dominance system was conceptualised by Rajni Kothari, which is option (3).
Explanation
★As per the passage, the concept of the Congress system as a one party dominance system was conceptualised by Rajni Kothari, which is option (3).
★Rajni Kothari was a leading Indian political scientist and the founder of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
★He set out the idea of the Congress system in an influential analysis of Indian politics in the 1960s.
★The Congress system described a pattern in which the Congress was so dominant that opposition parties operated mainly as pressure groups at the margins.
★In this model the real competition took place inside the Congress, among its many factions, rather than between parties.
★The Congress functioned as a broad umbrella accommodating diverse interests, ideologies and social groups.
★Opposition parties influenced policy by pulling factions within the Congress towards their positions, a mechanism Kothari called the system of one party dominance.
★The passage applies this idea to Bihar, where the Congress dominated until 1967.
★The general elections of 1967 marked the weakening of this system across several states, including Bihar.
★Kothari's major work on this theme is his book Politics in India, published in 1970.
★The option Bipin Chandra is wrong, since he was a historian of the national movement, not the author of the Congress system thesis.
★The option Rajendra Prasad is wrong, since he was the first President of India, not a theorist of party systems.
★The option Partho Ghosh does not fit, as he is not associated with this particular concept.
★The Congress system is a standard framework for understanding the dominant party phase of Indian democracy from 1952 to 1967.
★For NET, attribute the Congress system or one party dominance model to Rajni Kothari and his work Politics in India.
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