Causes of the Cold War

• During World War 2 the United Kingdom, France and the United States aligned another in order to defeat Nazi Germany. The USSR would join this alliance following Operation Barbarossa – the invasion of Russia by Nazi Germany. There were promises that the alliance would continue well after the war.
•  After the war, however,  tensions started rising up. The USA was the strongest power that emerged after the war. It was a superpower in economic and military strengths.
• The USSR was the second most powerful country and it had played a key role in Germany’s defeat in the war. This increased its prestige in the world.
• After the war, in eastern Europe, many countries had communist governments. These nations saw the USSR with favourable eyes. Those that did not, were replaced by governments that looked at the USSR in a similar way
• The USA, as also the western European countries saw communism as a threat to its way of life and towards freedom also.
• The world was polarised into two blocs – the communist powers led by the USSR and the powers opposed to communism led by the USA. The former group comprised mostly eastern European nations while the latter by the western European countries.
• The USA began to view every development in the world as either supportive of or against the rise of communism. It even went to the extent of supporting colonial powers in their subjugation of the people if it meant curbing communism. This was their reasoning behind supporting the colonial domination of France in Indo-China. 
• The arms race by the two powers also was a factor in rising tensions between them. It even extended beyond the far reaches of the Earth itself, when both the superpowers developed technology that would put their respective nations on higher technological footing than its rivals.

On July 7, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal announced a major CBSE syllabus reduction with 30% of the syllabus slashed for the year 2020-21 for classes 9 to 12 because of the reduction in classroom teaching time due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown.

Deleted syllabus of CBSE Class 12 Political Science

• The Cold War was the war of ideologies. The US followed the ideology of liberal democracy and capitalism while the USSR backed the ideology of socialism and communism.
• The Second World War (1939-1945) came to an end with the defeat of the Axis powers led by Germany, Italy and Japan by the Allied forces led by the US, Soviet Union, Britain and France.
• It marked the beginning of the Cold War. The Second World War ended when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, causing Japan to surrender.
• This decision of the US was both criticised and supported. But the consequence of the end of the Second World War was the rise of two new powers on the global stage.
• The United States and the Soviet Union became the greatest powers in the world with the ability to influence events anywhere on Earth.
• But the Cold War inspite of being an intense form of rivalry between great powers, remained a ‘cold’ and not hot or shooting war. It was due to the ‘logic of deterrence’.
• The ‘logic of deterrence’ means when both sides have the capacity to respond against an attack and to cause so much destruction that neither can afford to initiate war.
• The two superpowers and their allies were expected to behave as rational and responsible actors.

An extra constitutional body is an institution of government which is not defined in Constitution of India but are established by a resolution(decision) of union cabinet. For Example Planning Commission, National Development Council etc. Some Important Extra Constitutional Bodies. Authority for creation of the Planning Commission was not derived from the Constitution of India or statute; it is an arm of the Central Government of India. ... In 2014, Narendra Modi government decided to wind down the Planning Commission. It was replaced by the newly formed NITI Aayog.

Sardar Patel was the India’s deputy PM and the home minister during the crucial period immediately following Independence. He played a historic role in negotiating with the rulers of princely states firmly but diplomatically and bringing most of them into the Indian Union.

India faced the following three challenges at the time of independence in 1947 :
(i) The first challenge was to shape a nation that was united, yet accommodative of the diversity in our society. India was a land of continental size and diversity. Its people spoke different languages and followed different culture and religions. At that time it aws widely believed that a country full of such kinds of diversity could not remain together for long.
(ii) The second challenge was to establish democracy. The Constitution had granted fundamental rights and extended right to vote to every citizen. India adopted Representative democracy based on the parliamentary form of goverment.The challenge was to develop democratic practices in accordance with the Constitution.
(iii) The third challenge was to ensure the development and well-being of the entire society and not only of some sections. The Constitution had adopted the principle of equality and provided special protection to socially disadvantaged groups and religious and cultural communities. The real challenge was to evolve effective policies for economic development and eradication of poverty.

The task of the States Reorganisation Commission was to look into the question of redrawing of the boundaries of states.

Its most salient recommendation was that the boundaries of the state should reflect the boundaries of different languages.

Even the opposition parties succeeded in gaining only a token representation in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies yet their presence played a significant role in maintaining the democratic character of the system as examined below :

(i) These parties offered a sustained and often principled criticism of the policies and practices of the Congress Party.

(ii) They kept the ruling party under check and often changed the balance of power within the Congress.

(iii) By keeping the democratic political alternative alive, these parties prevented the resentment with the system from turning anti-democratic.

(iv) These parties also groomed the leaders who were to play a crucial role in shaping of our country.

Its purpose, logic, and effectiveness were well understood. It was the essential military strategy behind containing the Soviet Union and a crucial ingredient in winning the Cold War without fighting the World War III. But in recent decades, deterrence has gone astray, and USA defense policy is worse for the change.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh

UN is generally regarded as the most important international organisation in today’s world.

 (i) It is indispensable and represents the great hope of humanity for peace and progress.

 (ii) It also help countries cooperate to make better living conditions for us all.

New world order generally refer to drastic changes that take place after an important incident. After the collapse of Soviet Union, US became the lone supreme power in the world. 

Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. After attempts made by several countries to persuade Iraq to leave Kuwait failed, the UNO decided to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation by using military force. This was a historic decision made by the UNO and was hailed as the emergence of a ‘new world order.

Gorbachev's decision to allow elections with a multi-party system and create a presidency for the Soviet Union began a slow process of democratization that eventually destabilized Communist control and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

i) Internal weakness of Soviet political and economical institutions.

ii) Soviet Union used much of its resources in maintaining Nuclear and military arsenals.

iii) Communist party was not accountable to the people.

iv) Ordinary people became more knowledgeable about the technology.