CÁLCULO DE LA RESISTENCIA PARA CADA MURO DE

In 1950 India’s new constitution went into effect. The government became a republic. It has an elected president and parliament. Although the president is the head of state, the prime minister and cabinet members hold the real power.

Government leaders and policies.Jawaharlal Nehru faced a difficult task as the first prime minister of India. Many forces divided his country from the start. There were several religions, many languages, and the caste system. Nehru hoped to unite India. He wanted to separate religion from government and give people more individual rights. Nehru also set India on its path of nonalignment.This meant that India did not ally with either the United States or the Soviet Union.

Nehru died in 1964. Two years later his daughter,Indira Priyadarshini Nehru Gandhi,became the prime minister. Her goal was to carry out her father’s ideas. Indira Gandhi ran the Indian government for nearly 20 years. Some of her actions, however, angered people. Many Indians turned against her. In 1977 they voted her out of office. Three years later voters elected her prime minister again.

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Analyzing InformationWhat did Nehru mean when he said “the soul of the nation, long suppressed, finds utterance”?

India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, made a state visit to the United States in December 1956.

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Religious Divisions and the Partitioning of India, 1947

Interpreting Maps The partitioning of India created conflicts among the country’s main religious groups.

■ Skills Assessment: Human Systems Which two religious groups were fighting for control of Kashmir?

Interpreting the Graph Religious groups in India identi- fied by the 1941 British census included Hindu, Muslim, Christ- ian, Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain faiths. Most of the former British colony’s Muslims became citizens of Pakistan as a result of the par- tition of 1947. Which religious group probably dominated India’s political scene following independence?

Religious Groups in India, 1941 Religious Groups in India, 1941

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ASIA SINCE 1945 Gandhi faced a difficult problem on her return. Sikhs from the province of

Punjab were fighting for self-rule. They had killed a number of government officials. In 1984 Gandhi ordered the Indian army to storm the Sikh base, which was the Golden Shrine in Amritsar, their holiest place of worship. About 1,000 people died in the attack. The Sikhs promised to get revenge. A few months later, two of Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards assassinated her. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, took over as prime minister. He was a popular leader, but his party lost power.

In 1989 a new prime minister, V. P. Singh, was elected. He wanted to improve the rights of the lower castes. Violent protests forced him to resign in 1990. Most people thought voters would return Rajiv Gandhi to power. Before the election, though, Gandhi was assassinated. Several years of unrest followed as more than 20 political parties fought for power. In 1998 Atal Bihari Vajpayee was elected prime minister. Vajpayee, like his predecessors, expressed his desire for better relations with Pakistan. In spite of this, clashes between troops from both countries continued. By 2000 the fighting between India and Pakistan had taken a frightening turn. Both countries had built and tested nuclear weapons.

Social and economic problems. Nehru followed socialist ideas for India’s economy. From 1947 onward, India has had a mixed economy.This occurs when private compa- nies own some industries and the government owns the rest. To help the economy grow, India followed a series of Five-Year Plans. These plans worked very well. By the end of the 1980s, Indian farms were growing more food. The textile and steel industries were strong. The country also was exporting many finished products, such as clothing and bicycles. In spite of this growth, India still had a huge problem. Its population was growing too fast. In 1950 the Indian population was about 360 million. Within about 30 years, it had grown to about 685 million. The nation’s economy could not keep up with the population increase. By the late 1980s, the average annual income was $300. Millions of Indians had no jobs. Cities were crowded and housing was short. Many millions barely managed to stay alive from day to day.

In the 1990s, India tried to find new solutions to its problems. As the government became more open to foreign investors and trade, the economy grew. At the same

Indira Gandhi was involved in India’s political scene for most of her life. Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru. Like her father, she became involved in nationalist activities while India was fighting for its independence.

Indira Gandhi followed in her father’s footsteps when she became India’s prime minister in 1966. She surprised many people who believed she was incapable of doing the job. Instead, Gandhi showed herself to be a powerful ruler whose leadership helped India to become a key force in world affairs. How might Indira Gandhi’s childhood have prepared her for political leadership?

Indira Gandhi (1917–1984)

Indira Gandhi, India’s prime minister from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1984, bridged the country’s transition from colony to independent republic.

time, though, the population continued to grow. By 2000 India had over 1 billion people. If this rate continues, India will have more people than any other country by 2050. These people will live on just 2 percent of the world’s land area.

READING CHECK: Making Predictions What effect do you think India’s population growth will have on the nation’s future?

Foreign relations. In world affairs, India tried to build friendships with both communist countries and the West. This nonalignment became a model for other countries. A number of new African and Asian nations followed India’s lead. By staying neutral, these countries hoped to get aid from both sides.

India’s foreign policy did not solve all its problems. In 1950 China occupied Tibet. The Tibetans rebelled, but the Chinese crushed the revolt. For a long time before this, India had backed the Dalai Lama,Tibet’s Buddhist religious leader and political head. When the Chinese took control of Tibet, the Dalai Lama and some of his Buddhist followers fled to India. There they formed a government in exile. During the next few years, relations between India and China became even more difficult.

India began to move away from nonalignment in the 1970s and established close ties with the Soviet Union. Then, in the 1980s, India became interested in better relations with the United States. Even so, India would not take sides in the Cold War. By the 1990s, India’s policies had changed, and it began to take a more open approach to foreign affairs.

The continuing problem of Kashmir. India and Pakistan faced a difficult problem in the northern state of Kashmir. The problem began with partition in 1947. Kashmir’s ruling prince, who was Hindu, at first tried to avoid joining either country. On the one hand, Pakistan claimed Kashmir because three quarters of its people were Muslim. On the other hand, Nehru’s family was from Kashmir and he had ties with the area. He sent Indian troops to back the Hindu prince.

Muslims and Hindus in Kashmir fought each other for control. This led to fight- ing between Indian and Pakistani soldiers. In 1949 the United Nations set a cease-fire line. At that point, India held two thirds of Kashmir. Still, the question of Kashmir’s nationality was not answered. India and Pakistan continued to fight on and off throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1980s, border clashes and other violence between rebel groups became more common. Such flare-ups continued into the early 2000s. By 2004, more than 20,000 people had been killed.

READING CHECK: Finding the Main Idea What challenges with foreign affairs did India face?