Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was a great supporter of the planning process. He explained the idea ll s and purposes of planning in a series of letters he wrote to the chief ministers of the different states in a letter of 22 December 1952 ........ Behind the first five year plan lies the conception of india unity and of a mighty co- operative effort  of all the peoples of India we have to remember always that it is not merely the governmental ma cc hinery that counts in all this but even more so the enthusiasm and fellow travellers towards the next goal that they and we have set before us. 

India gained freedom soon after the devastation of the second world war. At that time a new internation body the united nations formed in 1945 was in its infancy the 1950 and 1960 saw the emergence of the cold war that is power rivalries and ideological conflicts between the USA and the USSR with both countries creating military alliances. This was also the period when colonial empires were collapsing and many countries were ataninig independence. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who was also the foreign minister of newly independent India developed free India foreign policy in this context non alignment formed the bedrock of this foreign policy. Led by statesmen from Egypt yugoslavia indonesia ghana and india the non aligned movement urged countries not to join either of the two major alliances but this policy of staying away from alliances was not matter of remaining isolated or neural the fomer means remaining aloof from world affairs whereas non aligned countries such as india played an active role in meditating between the American and soviet alliances they tried to prevent war often taking a humanitarian and moral stand  against war however for one reason or another many non aligned countries including.

Between December 1946 and November 1949, some three humdred indians had a series of meetings on the country political future the meeting of this constitution assembly were held in new Delhi but the participants came from all over India and from different political parties these discussions resulted in the framing of of the Indian constitution which came into effect on 26 January 1950. One feature of the constitution was its adoption of universal adult franchise all indians above the age of 21 would by allowed to vote in state and national alactions. This was a revolutionary step for never before had indians.

India gained freedom soon after the devastations of the second would war. At that time a new international body the United nations formed in 1945 was in its in fancy the 1950 and 1960 saw the emergence of the cold that  war is power rivalries and ideological  conflict  between. 

In 1956 the year the states of India were reorganised on the  basis of language the parliament of sri Lanka them Ceylon introduced an act recognising sinhala as the sole official language of the country this mads sinhala the maimum of instruction in  all state school and colleges in public examinations and in the north of the courts. The new art was opposed by the Tamil speaking minority who lived in  the north of the courts my language said one tamil mp you deny me everything you are hoping for Divided Ceylon warned another adding bo not fear I assure you that you will have a Divided Ceylon an opportunity member himself sinhala speaking predicted that if the government did not change its mind and insisted on the act being passed two torn little bleeding states might yet arise out of one bottle state . For several decades now a civil was has ratesd in sri Lanka whose roots tiots in the imposition of the sinhala languages on the tamil speaking minority. And another south Asian  country Pakistan  was divided into  two  when the Bengali speakers of the east felt that their language was being suppressed bt  contrast India has managed to survive  as a single nation in  part  because the many regional languages were given freedom.

Mahatma gandhi as you know was against violent movement. He babruptly called off the non cooperation  movement when in February 1922 a crowd of peasants set fire to a poilice station in chauri chaura. Twenty two policemen were killed on that day the peasants were provoked because the police had fired on their peaceful demonstration once the non cooperation  movement was over gandhiji followers stressed that the congress must undertake constructive work in the rural areas other leaders such as chitta Ranjan  Das and motilal Nehru argued that the party should fight .electione to the councils and enter them in order to influence government  polici  through sincere social work in villages in the mid 1920 the Gandhinagar  were able to extend their support base this proved to the be very useful in launching the civil disobedience movement in 1930 .

One of the most vocal amongst the low caste leaders was jyotirao phule born in 1827 he studied in school set up by Christian missiontian on growing up the developed his own ideas about the injustices of caste society he set out to attack the brahmans claim that they were superior to others since they were Aryans phule argued that the Aryans were foreigners who had lived here from before the coming.

Gradually by the second half of the nineteenth century people from within the  Non -  Brahman castes began organising movementents against caste discrimination and demanded social equality and justice. The satnami mm ovement in central India was founded by ghasidas who worked among the le as therworkers and organised a movement of improve their social status. In eastern bengal haridas thakur matua sect worked among chandala cultivators. Haridas questioned br aa hmanival texts that supported the caste system in what is present day kerala a guru from ezhava caste. Shri Narayana among chandala cultivators haridas question brahmanical texts that supported the caste system in what is present day kerala a guru from ezhava caste Shri Narayana guru proclaimed the ideals of unity for his people he argued against treating people unequally on the basis of caste differences. According to him all humankind belonged to the same caste one of his famous statements was oru jati oru matam oru daivam manushyanu one caste one religion one God for humankind all these sacts were founded by leaders who came from non Brahman castes and worked amongst them they tried to change those habits and pr as cities which provoked the contempt of dominant .

Some of the social reformers we have been discussing also criticised caste inequalities Remmohun Roy translated an old Buddhist text that was critical of caste. The Prarthana samaj adhered to the tradition of bhakti that believed in spiritual equality of all castes. In Bombay the paramhans Mandali was founded in 1840 to work for the abolution of caste. Many of these reformers and members of reform associations were people of upper castes. Often, in secret meetings these reformers would violate caste taboos on food and touch in as effort of get rid of the gold of caste prejudice in their lives. There were also others who questioned the injustices of the caste social order. During the course of the nineteenth century christian missionaries began setting up schools for tribal groups and lower caste children these children were thus equipped with some resources toake their way into a changing world at the same time the poor began leaving their villages to look for jobs that were opening up in to cities there was work in the factories that were coming up and jobs in municipalities. You have read about the expansion of cities in chapter 6 think of the new created 

The Company fights Back.   

Unnerved the scale of the upheaval the company decided to repress the revolt with all its might, it brought reinforcements from england passed new laws so that the rebels could be convicted with ease and then moved into the storm centres of the revolt Delhi was recaptured from the rebels force in September 1857 .