India Since Independence

Essay Category: 1.1 | Last updated: 2026-06-26

PYQs Asked

Is the Colonial mentality hindering India's Success? -2013
Dreams which should not let India sleep. -2015
Why should we be proud of being Indians? -2000
Whither Indian democracy? -1995
How far has democracy in India delivered the goods? -2003
What we have not learnt during fifty years of independence. -1997
What have we gained from our democratic set-up? -2001
In the context of Gandhiji's views on the matter, explore, on an evolutionary scale, the terms Swadhinata, Swaraj and Dharmarajya. -2012

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(Current affairs added over time — recent real-world instances for this theme)

The Emergency at 51 — democracy's gravest stress-test (2026): marking the 51st anniversary of the 1975–77 Emergency, PM Modi called it "a direct assault on the Constitution" and NCERT added it to a Class 9 textbook for the first time. A foundational example for essays on Indian democracy: emergency powers meant to defend the republic were used to suspend rights, censor the press and jail dissenters — yet democracy self-corrected through the 1977 ballot, producing lasting safeguards (the 44th Amendment, judicial course-correction from ADM Jabalpur to Puttaswamy). The deeper lesson — that the threat to liberty is not only formal Emergency but its erosion in "normal" times — and the politics of how a nation remembers its darkest chapter. (The Hindu, 26-06-2026)

(From class notes, NCERT, ancient/medieval/modern history relevant to this theme)

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