ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on British colonial rule and its long-term impact on modern politics in India. The continuous interaction of British raj and Indian resistance to it, lasting over several decades generated a new form of national identity and political community. The synthesis of British constitutional norms and political forms with India's indigenous political tradition led to a different outcome from the path that other successor states took. A period of seventy years of vigorous party competition has whittled down institutions and practices of foreign provenance and recast them to fit local moulds and local political environments. The Indian National Congress was the main political party in the Constituent Assembly, which drafted the Indian Constitution, and subsequently formed the government, having won the first General Election. The British responded to increasingly vocal demands for political participation with the Government of India Act of 1935 and its predecessors–the Montagu-Chelmsford Act of 1919 and the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909.
