Question

"The 1960s were labelled as the 'dangerous decade' in India." Explain any two reasons for this.

Hint:

Explain two reasons: unresolved poverty and social divisions, and the wars, droughts, economic crisis and leadership changes of the decade.

Answer 1

Step 1: Understand the label:
The decade after 1960 is called the dangerous decade. The label comes from a book which feared that India might break up under its many problems. NCERT explains two main reasons.

Step 2: Reason 1: Unsolved national problems:
Poverty, inequality, and divisions of religion, language and region had not been solved.
These problems could have led to the breaking of the country, and many outsiders doubted that democracy would survive.

Step 3: Reason 2: Wars, droughts and crisis of leadership:
India fought China in 1962 and Pakistan in 1965. Then two droughts caused food shortages, price rise and an economic crisis, and the rupee was devalued in 1966.
Nehru died in 1964 and Shastri in 1966, so the leadership change was also uncertain. In 1967 the Congress lost many states.

Final Answer:
Serious unresolved problems and a run of wars, droughts, economic crisis and changes of leader made the 1960s a dangerous decade.