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India Since Independence QUOTES

India Since Independence QUOTES

1 " Perhaps the attitude for us to take towards our many failures is the one adopted by Gopal Krishna Gokhale towards those of the Moderate nationalists: Let us not forget that we are at a stage of the country’s progress when our achievements are bound to be small, and our disappointments frequent and trying. That is the place which it has pleased Providence to assign to us in this struggle, and our responsibility is ended when we have done the work which belongs to that place. It will, no doubt, be given to our countrymen of future generations to serve India by their successes; we, of the present generation, must be content to serve her mainly by our failures. For, hard though it be, out of those failures the strength will come which in the end will accomplish great tasks.9 "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

2 " One should not mistake gentleness and civility of character for weakness. They criticise me for my weakness, but this is too large a country with too many legitimate diversities to permit any so-called “strong man” to trample over people and their ideas.’14 "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

3 " Indira Gandhi was to put it pithily in August 1972 when asked to list India’s achievements since 1947: ‘I would say our greatest achievement is to have survived as a free and democratic nation.’4 "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

4 " For example, the elective principle was first introduced by the British in the Indian Councils Act of 1892. The Congress and its nationalist precursors, and the Indian Press, had been demanding elections to the councils, elected majorities in them, and greater powers to the non-official members of councils for many years before that. Nationalist demands had already far exceeded what was granted in 1892. "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

5 " What W.H. Morris-Jones wrote in 1966 is equally valid today: ‘The combination of political stability with establishment of a free, and freely moving, political system is what we entitled to call India’s political miracle.’5 "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

6 " since 1977, seven governments at the Centre have fallen because of their losing majority in the Lok Sabha. "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

7 " While persisting poverty has been the most important failure in India’s post-independence development, the survival of the democratic structure has been its grandest success. "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

8 " The power of the people in a democracy is the ‘liberating deluge’ that can, and we are sure will, sweep away the accumulated dirt of the ages. This is, of course, all the more reason for the preservation and deepening of democracy in India. "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

9 " In 1965–66, as compared to 1950–51, installed capacity of electricity was 4.5 times higher, the number of town and villages electrified was 14 times higher, hospital beds 2.5 times higher, enrolment in schools was a little less than three times higher and, very importantly, admission capacity in technical education (engineering and technology) at the degree and diploma levels was higher by 6 and 8.5 times respectively. "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

10 " since 1989, all-India elections have been fought over such non-issues as the Bofors and hawala scandals, the reconstruction of a non-existing temple, reservations of a few thousand jobs in government service, the merits of a Vajpayee over a foreign-born Sonia Gandhi, or victory over a few hundred intruders in Kargil. "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

11 " A legacy, especially of a prolonged movement, tends to endure for a long time. But no legacy, however strong and sound, can last forever. It tends to erode and become irrelevant unless it is constantly reinforced and developed and sometimes transcended in a creative manner to suit the changing circumstances. "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence

12 " In particular, secular, democratic elements must distinguish between religion as philosophy, spiritual experience, guide to morality and psychological solace and religion as dogma, bigotry and a vehicle for communalism. "

― Bipan Chandra , India Since Independence