• Rights are very essential part for the very sustenance of a democracy. Without rights, democracy will become meaningless and ineffective.
• For democratic elections, it is necessary that citizens should have the right to express their opinions, form political parties and take part in political activities.
• Rights protect minorities from the oppression of majority. They ensure the majority cannot do whatever it likes.
• The government is expected to protect citizen’s rights. But sometimes elected government may not protect or may even attack the rights of their own citizens. So, some rights need to be placed higher than the government so that it cannot violate them.

Economic crisis formed the background to Hitler’s rise to power. Hitler was born in Austria and spent his youth in poverty. In the First World War, he joined the army and acted as messenger in the front. The Treaty of Versailles and the defeat of Germany in World War I made him furious and horrified. In 1919, he joined a small group called the ‘German Workers Party’ and renamed it after taking over that party as, ‘The National Socialist German Workers’ Party’. This party later on, came to be known as the ‘Nazi Party’.

The Election Commission monitor the election in the following ways:
 (i) It takes decisions on every aspect of conduct and control of elections from the announcement of elections to the declaration of the results.
(ii) It implements code of conduct and punishes the candidate or party that violates it.
(iii) During election period, the EC can order the government to follow some guidelines, to prevent use and misuse of governmental power to enhance its chances to win the elections, or to transfer some government officials.
 (iv) When on election duty, government officers work under the control of the EC and not the government.

• NHRC is an independent commission set up by the law in 1993.
• Like the Judiciary, the commission is independent of the government.
• The commission is appointed by the President and includes retired judges, officers and eminent citizens.
• It does not bear the burden of deciding cases. So it can focus on helping the victims secure their human rights.
• These include all the rights granted to the citizens by the constitution.
• The NHRC cannot punish the guilty. That is the responsibility of the courts.
• Like any court, it can summon witnesses, question any government official, demand any official paper, visit any prison for inspection or send its own team for on-the-spot inquiry.

• The spread of the railways from the 1850s created a new demand for timber.
• Railway was needed for the spread of trade in India. To run locomotives, wood was needed as fuel and to lay railway lines, sleepers were required to hold the tracks together.
• As the railway tracks spread, a large number of trees were felled. The government gave contracts to individuals to supply timber.
• These contractors began cutting trees indiscriminately.

By the measures given below, poverty can be reduced in future in India
(i) Attaining sustainable higher economic growth rate.
(ii) By increasing stress on universal free and essential primary education.
(iii) By providing sufficient medical facilities even in the rural areas, so that the population growth rate could be minimised.
(iv) By focussing on empowerment of the women and economically weaker sections of the society.

Socialists took over the government in Russia through the October Revolution of 1917. The fall of monarchy in February 1917 and the events of October are normally called the Russian Revolution.

The Nazi ideology did not believe in equality among people but only in a racial hierarchy. According to this, the Nordic German Aryans were at the top and the Jews were at the bottom. All other coloured people were placed in between. Hitler interpreted the ideas of Darwin and Spencer to suit his own views. While Darwin and Spencer proposed the idea of Natural Selection and Survival of the Fittest, Hitler wanted human intervention to ensure the elimination of other races. According to him, such races were not fit for survival and should be eliminated to make place for the purest race; the Nordic German Aryans.

Hitler’s ideology was also related to the geopolitical concept of Lebensraum, or living space. He believed in acquiring new territories to spread the race of the Nordic German Aryans.

• They occur during the monsoon, as well as in October and November.
• These disturbances affect the eastern coastal regions of India.
• They originate over the Andaman sea and are often very destructive.