Glossary of Indian Politics

Chandrashekhar (1927- ), Former PM of India (1990-91), President of the Janata Party (1977-88). Known as a firebrand idealist with revolutionary fervour. Joined the Socialist Movement in 1951 Praja Socialist Party. Founded and edited YOUNG INDIAN, a weekly published from Delhi in 1969. Inspired by JP and his idealist view of life. Established fifteen Bharat Yatra Centres to train social and political workers for mass education and grass root work in backward pockets of the country. Member of the Parliament since 1962 except for a brief period from 1984 to 1989.

CM Chief Minister (of a state in India, analogous to the Prime Minister at the centre).

Communist Party of India Founded 1925, out of the fusion of militant anti-imperialist patriotism and internationalism, of the struggle for national liberation and the class struggle for socialism. The party relies mainly on mass organisations for its activities, fronts and movements, traditional strongholds West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) Formed at the Seventh Congress of CPI held in Calcutta 1964 as a result of a split. The CPI(M) was born in the struggle against revisionism and sectarianism in the communist movement at the international and national level, in order to defend the scientific and revolutionary tenets of Marxism-Leninism and its appropriate application in the concrete Indian conditions. Over the years, the Party has emerged as the foremost Left force in the country. In West Bengal, the CPM-led Left Front government has been in power since 1977 and in Kerala the Front led by CPM has been on and off in power. In 1996 it helped form a United Front of like-minded parties to install a government with Janata Dal party’s H.D.Deve Gowda as Prime Minister.

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Founded 1969 by revolutionary communists belonging to the CPI(M) after the Naxalbari uprising. The Party derives its world outlook from Marxist philosophy and accepts the integrated system of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong.

Cong(I) See Congress.

Congress, Indian National Congress (INC) at the time of inception and through the freedom movement. A political party in India, played crucial role in the Indian Freedom Movement. Started by A.O. Hume in 1882 to gain Indian Public Opinion but gradually evolved and gained mass support and spearheaded the Independence Struggle with Gandhi, Nehru etc. as its leaders. Cong swept the state as well as Parliamentary elections till the 1960s. Indira Gandhi made Congress (I) I standing for Indira, and INC disintegrated. Since then its share in power has been reducing gradually. Present President: Sonia Gandhi.

CPI See Communist Party of India

CPI(M) See Communist Party of India (Marxist)

CPI(ML) See Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)

CPM See Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Crore Ten million

CSE Centre for Science and Environment, an environmental think tank in Delhi.

Dalal Commission agent

Dalit The oppressed and the lowermost section in the Hindu caste hierarchy.

Dharamshala Religious rest houses. Also a place in the UP hills (middle Himalayas) where the Dalai Lama’s Government-in-exile is housed.

Dharna A way of showing dissent and putting moral pressure by sitting at a specific place, originally at the doorstep of the person to whom the view point is to be expressed.

Dravidian A general term for the cultures and languages of the deep south of India, including Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada.

DRDO Defence Research and Development Organisation

DU Delhi University

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