Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow : It is not necessary that all pla

Question

Q. Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow : It is not necessary that all planning always has to be centralised; nor is it that planning is only about big industries and large projects. The ‘Kerala Model’ is the name given to the path of planning and development charted by the State of Kerala. There has been a focus in this model on ............... . Despite low per capita incomes, and a relatively weak industrial base, Kerala achieved nearly total literacy, long life expectancy, low infant and female mortality, low birth rates and high access to medical care.

(a) What is meant by centralised planning ?

(b) In which two ways is decentralisation better than centralisation ?

CBSECBSE Class XII Board 2020Subjective· 5mImportance★★★★★

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Concept understanding — Nation Building Challenges

Nation Building Challenges – A First Look

Imagine a country has just won freedom after a long struggle. The old rulers are gone. Now, a new government must turn a collection of regions, languages, religions, and communities into one nation. That process — of creating a unified, stable, and functioning country from a diverse and often divided society — is nation building.

The challenges are not about building roads or bridges (that is infrastructure). They are deeper: how do you make people who see themselves as Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, or tribal first, also see themselves as Indian first? How do you decide on a national language when dozens are spoken? How do you give power to people who have never had it, without causing chaos?

The Core Idea

Important

Nation building challenges are the political, social, and economic problems that a newly independent or post-conflict country faces when trying to create a shared national identity, a stable government, and a unified territory.

The three most fundamental challenges are:

Unity and Integration – Holding together a diverse population (different languages, religions, cultures, regions) without force.
Establishing Legitimacy – Getting people to accept the new government as the rightful authority, not just a replacement for the old rulers.
Economic and Social Development – Lifting people out of poverty and inequality so that the nation feels real and worth belonging to.

Why These Are Hard – The Intuition

Think of a family with several siblings who have very different personalities and interests. After the parents are gone, the siblings must decide: will they stay together as one household, or split apart? Who will lead? How will money be shared? If one sibling feels ignored, they might want to leave.

A country is like that, but with millions of people. The challenges are:

Regionalism – "We are Marathis, why should Delhi tell us what to do?"
Linguistic conflict – "If Hindi is the national language, my Tamil children will never get government jobs."
Religious tension – "Will the new state treat my community fairly?"
Economic disparity – "The coastal regions are rich, but our inland villages have no schools. Why should we feel part of this nation?"
Refugees and displacement – Partition of India in 1947 created millions of refugees overnight. Where do they go? Who feeds them?

The Precise Statement

Nation building challenges = the set of problems arising from the need to: Integrate diverse social groups into a single political community Establish a legitimate, functioning state apparatus Distribute resources and opportunities fairly across regions and communities Manage the transition from colonial or authoritarian rule to democratic governance

A Concrete Example: India After 1947

India faced all these challenges at once:

| Challenge | What It Meant |

|-----------|---------------| …

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The Kerala Model and Decentralised Planning

Centralised planning concentrates decision-making at the national or state level, while decentralisation shifts power to local bodies; Kerala's development model prioritised human development—education, health and social welfare—over heavy industrialisation, achieving remarkable social indicators despite modest economic growth.

Understanding centralised planning

Centralised planning refers to a system in which all major economic decisions—what to produce, how much to invest, where to locate industries, how to allocate resources—are made by a single authority at the national or state level. In India's early decades after independence, the Planning Commission in New Delhi designed Five Year Plans that determined priorities for the entire country. State governments and local bodies had little autonomy; they implemented directives handed down from above. This approach allowed for coordinated action on large projects like dams, steel plants and national highways, but it also meant that local needs and conditions were often overlooked.

Why decentralisation works better

Decentralisation transfers planning authority and resources to local governments—panchayats in villages, municipalities in towns. Two clear advantages stand out.

First, local bodies understand ground realities. A village council knows whether the community needs a new well, a school building or a health clinic far better than a planner sitting in a distant capital. Decisions become more relevant and responsive to actual needs, reducing waste and mismatch.

Second, decentralisation deepens democracy. When people participate directly in planning—attending gram sabhas, voicing priorities, monitoring spending—they hold officials accountable and develop a stake in outcomes. Power is no longer remote; it becomes something citizens can see, touch and influence in their daily lives.

Note

The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments in the early 1990s gave constitutional status to panchayats and municipalities, marking India's formal shift toward decentralised governance.

The Kerala Model: a different path

Kerala chose a distinctive route. Instead of pouring resources into heavy industry and large infrastructure projects—the hallmark of centralised planning elsewhere—the state focused on human development. Two areas received sustained attention and investment.

Education was the first pillar. Kerala expanded primary and secondary schooling, especially for girls, and invested in teacher training and literacy campaigns. The result was near-universal literacy, a rarity in India at the time and a foundation for everything that followed. …

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Same / Similar Concept — real previous-year questions on the same or a closely similar concept, not this exact question.

CBSE 2025Set 59/6/11 markMCQ
$Q. Assertion (A) : The first challenge after getting independence was to keep India united. Reason (R) : India's Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Minister, Sardar Patel played an important role in the unification of India. Options : (A) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of the Assertion (A). (B) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true, but Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of the Assertion (A). (C) Assertion (A) is false, but Reason (R) is true. (D) Assertion (A) is true, but Reason (R) is false.$
›Reveal solutionSolution
Both statements are true: keeping India united was indeed the first major challenge after independence, and Sardar Patel's role in integrating the princely states was crucial to meeting that challenge—making (R) the correct explanation of (A).

When the British announced they would leave India in 1947, they also declared that the 565 princely states—territories that had enjoyed varying degrees of autonomy under paramountcy—would be free to choose: join India, join Pakistan, or remain independent. This created an immediate existential threat. If even a handful of strategically located states chose independence or acceded to Pakistan, the new Indian Union would be fragmented, surrounded by hostile or neutral enclaves, and possibly unviable as a nation. The challenge was not merely administrative but went to the heart of whether India would survive as a single political entity.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, took charge of the States Department alongside his secretary V.P. Menon. Between the announcement of independence and August 15, 1947, Patel orchestrated a campaign of persuasion, pressure, and occasionally coercion to secure the accession of princely states. He appealed to rulers' sense of shared geography, culture, and economic interest, while making it clear that independence was not a realistic option in the new political landscape. By Independence Day, all but three states—Junagadh, Hyderabad, and Kashmir—had acceded to India.

The holdouts required firmer action:

Junagadh, a small state in Gujarat with a Muslim ruler and Hindu majority, initially acceded to Pakistan despite having no land connection to it. Patel authorized a police action, and after a plebiscite the state joined India.

Hyderabad, the largest and wealthiest princely state in the Deccan, was ruled by a Nizam who hoped to remain independent. After more than a year of negotiations failed and communal violence escalated, Patel launched Operation Polo in September 1948, integrating Hyderabad into the Union within days.

Kashmir acceded to India in October 1947 amid a tribal invasion from Pakistan, though its final status remained contested. …
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CBSE 2019Set 59/2/11 mark
$Q. Name any one international organisation that campaigns for the protection of human rights.$
(OR)
$Highlight any one security challenge faced by the newly independent countries of Asia and Africa.$
›Reveal solutionSolution

Part (a): Amnesty International is a leading international organisation campaigning for the protection of human rights; Part (b): a key security challenge of the newly independent Asian and African states was the threat of military conflict, both external and internal.

Part (a)

Among the international organisations that campaign for human rights, the most prominent is Amnesty International. Founded in 1961, it works to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights by conducting careful research, mobilising public pressure through its global membership, and advocating for the release of prisoners of conscience and against torture, the death penalty and discrimination. Crucially, it operates independently of any government, political ideology or religion, which allows it to criticise abuses wherever they occur. (Human Rights Watch is another valid example.) …
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The Kerala Model and Decentralised Planning

Understanding centralised planning

Why decentralisation works better

The Kerala Model: a different path

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