ISC History Previous Year Question Paper 2018 Solved for Class 12
Maximum Marks: 80
Time allowed: Three hours
- Candidates are allowed additional 15 minutes for only reading the paper. They must NOT start writing during this time.
- Answer Question 1 (Compulsory) from Part I and five questions from Part II, choosing two questions from Section A, two
- questions from Section B and one question from either Section A or Section B.
- The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ].
Part—I (20 Marks)
Answer all questions.
Question 1. [20 x 1]
(i) What was the significance of Attlee’s Declaration of 20th February, 1947 ?
(ii) Name the Indian nationalist leader who played a vital role in the integration of princely states with the Indian Union.
(iii) Mention the principle on which the first general election in India (1952) was based.
(iv) With reference to the Congress party in the 1960s, what is meant by the term Syndicate ?
(v) What is the significance of the Historic Eight Documents ?
(vi) Who was the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India ?
(vii) Why was Operation Blue Star launched ?
(viii) What are the five principles of peaceful co-existence mutually agreed upon by India and China known as ?
(ix) Mention the controversial issue that led to the outbreak of the First Indo-Pak War (1948-1949).
(x) Name the Report (published in 1974) that deals with issues related to the status of women in India.
(xi) Name two alliances signed between Italy, Germany and Japan.
(xii) Explain the term island hopping with reference to the war in the Pacific.
(xiii) Why was there a temporary truce between the KMT and CCP in 1936 ?
(xiv) What part did the Mau Mau secret society play in the Kenyan struggle for freedom from British rule ?
(xv) Why did Stalin establish the Cominform ?
(xvi) Who introduced the policies of the Glasnost and Perestroika in the USSR ?
(xvii) Which organisation led the movement against communism in Poland ?
(xviii) Name the two democrat Presidents who were sympathetic to the demands of black Americans ?
(xix) Who wrote the book The Feminine Mystique that sparked off the Second Wave of American Feminism in the 20th century ?
(xx) What was the immediate reaction of the Arab states to the creation of the new
Answer:
(i) The significance of Atlee’s Declaration was that the Indians should settle their issues by 1947 and the British would leave India by July 1948. He also announced the appointment of Lord Mountbatten as Viceroy in place of Lord Wavell.
(ii) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played a crucial role in integrating the princely states with the Indian Union.
(iii) On the basis of the principle of ‘Universal Adult Suffrage’ the first general election in India was held.
(iv) The term ‘Syndicate’ was the informal name given to a group of powerful and influential leaders who controlled the Congress party. The party was led by Congress President K. Kamraj and included many powerful leaders like Atulya Ghosh, S. K. Patil, N. Sanjeeva Reddy.
(v) The significance of the Historic Eight Documents lies in the fact that these documents outline the ideological principles on which the Naxalite Communist movement in India was based.
(vi) Morarji Desai was the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India.
(vii) Operation Blue Star was an Indian military operation, which occurred in June, 1984. It was ordered by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, to flush out the militant members of the Khalistan who were hidden inside the holy Golden Temple in Amritsar.
(viii) Panchsheel Pact (1954) indicates the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence. These were first formally enunciated in the Agreement on Trade and Intercourse between the Tibet region of China and India.
(ix) The Kashmir conflict was the disputed issue that led to the outbreak of the first Indo-Pak War (1948-49).
(x) Towards Equality (1974) was the first Report that deals with the issues related to the status of women in India.
(xi) Anti-Comintern Pact (1936) and Tripartite Pact or Berlin Pact (1940) were the two alliances signed between Italy, Germany and Japan. ,
(xii) “Island Hopping” is the phrase given to the strategy employed by the United States to gain military bases and secure many small islands in the Pacific.
(xiii) The Second United Front was the brief alliance between the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) and Communist Party of China (CPC) to resist the Japanese invasion during the Second Sino-Japanese War, which suspended the Chinese Civil War from 1937 to 1941.
(xiv) Dominated by the Kikuyu tribe, Meru tribe and Embu tribe, the Mau Mau fought against the White European Colonist- settlers in Kenya, the British Army, and the local Kenya Regiment.
(xv) Stalin wanted to tighten his grip on the communist satellite states so he formed Come in form.
(xvi) Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the policies of Glasnost and Perestroika in USSR.
(xvii) Solidarity led the movement against communism in Poland.
(xviii) J. F. Kennedy and L. B. Johnson and Roosevelt were the two democrat Presidents who were sympathetic to the demands of black Americans.
(xix) Betty Friedan was an American writer, activist, and feminist who wrote the book The Feminine Mystique.
(xx) Violence erupted almost immediately, feeding into a spiral of reprisals and counter-reprisals. Israel was immediately attacked by neighboring Arab states.
Part-II (60 Marks)
Answer five questions in all, choosing two questions from Section A, two questions from Section B and one question from either Section A or Section B.
Section-A
Question 2.
(a) Why was there a change in the attitude of the British government towards India at the end of World War II? [6]
(b) List the main proposals of the Cabinet Mission Plan. [6]
Answer:
Following reasons were responsible for a change in the attitude of the British towards India after the World War II.
- The collapse of British imperial power can be traced directly to the impact of World War II.
- The catastrophic wars in Europe and Asia between 1940 and 1942, destroyed Britain’s financial and economic independence, which was the real foundation of it’s imperial system.
- It also erased the old balance of power on which the British security —at home and abroad—had largely depended.
- Although Britain was one of the victorious allies, the defeat of Germany had been mainly the work of Soviet and American power, while that of Japan had been almost entirely an American triumph.
- Britain had survived and recovered the territory that was lost during the war, but its prestige and authority, not to mention its wealth, had been severely reduced.
- The British found themselves locked into an imperial end game from which every exit was blocked except the trapdoor to oblivion.
(b) Following were the main proposals of the Cabinet Mission Plan.
- There was to be a Union of India, embracing British India and the Indian states.
- The Union, that is, the federal centre, should have exclusive control of foreign affairs, defence and communications.
- Provinces were to have complete autonomy and were to exercise all powers except those vested in the centre.
- The provinces of British India were to form three groups, Group A comprising the Hindu majority provinces of Madras, Bombay, C. P, U. P., Bihar and Orissa, Group B comprising the Muslim majority provinces of Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Baluchistan and Sind and Group C consisting of Bengal and Assam.
- Each group was to settle its own constitution, the representatives of all of them together with the representatives of the Indian states who would join the Union were to meet in a Constituent Assembly to draft a constitution for the Union.
- The entire set-up may, if thought necessary will be revived after ten years or periodically every ten years.
Question 3.
(a) Examine the role of the Syndicate in the appointment of Lai Bahadur Shastri as Prime Minister of India. [6]
(b) Give a brief account of the circumstances that led to the split in Congress, in 1969. [6]
Answer:
(a) Syndicate was the informal name given to a group of Congress leaders who were in control of the party’s organisation. It was led by K. Kamraj, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. When Nehru passed away, K. Kamraj, the President of the Congress party consulted party leaders, members of the syndicate and members of the Parliament.
The members of the syndicate convinced the leaders of the Congress party to come in favour of Lai Bahadur Shastri. As a result, he was unanimously chosen as the leader of the Congress parliamentary party and thus became the country’s next Prime Minister. He was a non-controversial leader from Uttar Pradesh who had been a minister in Nehru’s cabinet for many years. He was known for his simplicity and his commitment towards his principles. Thus, Lai Bahdur Shastri owed his position to the support he received from the Syndicate.
(b) The factional rivalry between the Syndicate and Indira Gandhi came out in the open in 1969. Following President Zakir Hussain’s death, the post of the President of India fell yacant that year. Despite Indira Gandhi’s reservations, the Syndicate managed to nominate her long time rival and the then Speaker of the Lok Sabha, N. Sanjeeva Reddy, as the official Congress candidate for the coming Presidential elections.
Indira Gandhi retaliated by encouraging the then Vice-President V.V. Giri to file his nomination as an independent candidate. After silently supporting V.V. Giri, Indira Gandhi openly called for a ‘conscience vote’ which meant that the MPs and MLAs from the Congress should be free to vote the way they wanted.
V.V. Giri won the election and the defeat of the official Congress candidate formalized the split in the party. The Congress President expelled the Prime Minister from the Party. By November 1969, the Congress group led by the Syndicate came to be known as the Congress (Organisation) and the group led by Indira Gandhi came to be known as the – Congress (Requisitionists).
Question 4.
(a) Trace the developments leading to the rise of the Naxal Movement in West Bengal. [6]
(b) What measures did the government adopt to suppress the Naxal Movement ? [6]
Answer:
(a) The term Naxalites comes from Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a section of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI (M) led by Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal initiated an uprising in 1967. On 18th May 1967, the Siliguri Kishan Sabha, of which Jangal was the president, declared their support for the movement initiated by Kanu Sanyal, and their readiness to adopt armed struggle to redistribute land to the landless. The following week, a sharecropper near Naxalbari village was attacked by the landlord’s men over a land dispute. On 24th May, when a police team arrived to arrest the peasant leaders, it was ambushed by a group of tribals led by Jangal Santhal, and a police inspector was killed. This event encouraged many Santhal tribals and other poor people to join the movement and to start attacking local landlords.
- A large number of urban elites were also attracted to the ideology, which spread through Charu Majumdar’s writings, particularly the ‘Historic Eight Documents’ which formed the basis of Naxalite ideology.
- Practically all Naxalite groups trace their origin to the CPI (ML).
- Around 1971 the Naxalites gained a strong presence among the radical sections of the student movement in Calcutta. Students left school to join the Naxalites.
- Majumdar, to encrourage more students into his organisation, declared that revolutionary warfare was to take place not only in the rural areas as before, but now everywhere and spontaneously.
- Majumdar declared an “annihilation line”, a dictum that Naxalites should assassinate individual “class enemies” (such as landlords, businessmen, university teachers, police officers, politicians of the right and left) and others.
(b) Government has adopted both violent and peaceful strategies to tackle threats posed by the Naxals. But lately it seems that the government is keener to follow peaceful strategy of development as a tool to dissuade potential recruits from joining armed struggle in Naxal hit areas.
Modernisation of Armed Forces : The Government closely monitors the situation and provides supplements and further coordinates their efforts in several ways. These include providing Armed Police Forces, modernisation and upgradation of the State Police and their Intelligence apparatus under the scheme for Modernisation of State Police Forces (MPF scheme). Moreover the government provided helicopters for anti-Naxal operations, assistance in training of State Police through the Ministry of Defence and further development of the Central Police Organisations and the Bureau of Police Research and Development.
Scheme of Special Infrastructure : To cater to the critical infrastructure gaps, that cannot be covered under the existing schemes. These relate to requirements of mobility for the police/security forces by upgrading existing roads, tracks in inaccessible areas, providing secure camping grounds and helipads at strategic locations in remote and interior areas, measures to enhance security in respect of police stations.
Central Scheme : Central Scheme for assistance to civilian victims/family of victims of terrorist attacks, Communal and Naxal violence is the broad aim of the scheme.
Integrated Action Plan : The Planning Commission implemented the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for 78 Selected Tribal and Backward Districts for accelerated development. The aim of this initiative was to provide public infrastructure and services in contiguous districts. The nature of major projects taken up by the districts under the IAP include construction of school buildings / school furniture, Anganwadi Centers, drink ig water facilities, rural roads, Panel at Bhawans / Community Halls, go downs DS shops, livelihood activities, skill development / training’s, minor irrigation works, electric lighting, health centres/facilities.
Civic Action Programme : Under this scheme financial grants are sanctioned to CAPF’s in order to undertake civic action in the affected states. This was a successful scheme which aimed at building bridges between the local population and the security forces. The Government of India’s approach of focusing on development and security related interventions helped tackle the problem of LWE.
Question 5.
(a) State the objectives of the Khalistan Movement under the leadership of the Akali Dal. [6]
(b) Discuss the consequences of the Khalistan Movement. [6]
Answer:
(a) Objectives of the Khalistan Movement:
- The transfer of the federally administered city of Chandigarh to Punjab.
- The transfer of Punjabi-speaking and contiguous areas of Haryana to Punjab.
- Decentralization of States under the existing constitution, limiting the Central Government’s role.
- The call for land reforms and industrialization of Punjab, along with safeguarding the rights of the weaker sections of the population.
- The enactment of an all India Gurudwara (Sikh house of worship) Act.
- Protection of minorities residing outside Punjab, but within India.
- Reservation of government’s recruitment quota restricting the number of Sikhs in armed forces.
(b) (1) Practically, the whole Union List and a good number of items of the Concurrent List were thus ousted from the control of the Central government.
2. The other Sikhs did not support the Akali demand. The Akhalis failed to win over the support of the Sikh President of India. They could not win over the Sikh Chief Minister of the state of Punjab to their side.
3. In the 1980s, some of the members of Khalistan turned to militancy.
4. This resulted in counter militancy operations by the Indian security forces.
5. In one such operation, Operation Blue Star in June 1984 Indian forces entered the Holy Golden Temple to overpower the militants who took shelter there. Death of Bhindranwale and Amrik Singh. The operation led to loss of lives on both sides. The Sikhs started widespread criticism of the Indian government. In the meantime, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated.
6. There were large scale disturbances started and a number of Sikhs were killed.
7. After the assassination of Indira Gandhi an agreement called the ‘Punjab Accord’ or Rajiv – Longwal Accord took plate. Longowal was assassinated.
8. It was then decided that the AnandapurSaheb Resolution would be referred to the Sarkaria Commission. It was also decided that some Hindi-speaking areas of Punjab would be transferred to Haryana. The accord recognized the religious, territorial and economic demands of the Sikh that were thought to be non-negotiable under Indira Gandhi’s tenure.
9. Operation Black Thunder was launched by the Central Government inl988 to flush out remaining militants in a more organised way.
Question 6.
Discuss the causes and consequences of the Indio-Pak war of 1965. [12]
Answer:
The Indo-Pak War of 1965 was the culmination of a series of disputes between India and Pakistan.
Causes:
Partition of India : The partition of India even led to dispute over sharing of river waters. The water of nearly all the rivers – Indus, Chenab, Sutlej, Beas and Ravi flowed from India. In 1948 India stopped the water of these rivers.
Indus Water Treaty Dispute : A dispute ensued and the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 was signed between Nehru and Ayub Khan. After this Pakistan was to use waters of Jhelum, Chenab and Indus while India was to use the waters of Sutlej, Beas and Ravi.
Dispute over Border : The boundary commission tried to settle the border dispute. A dispute ensued over Rann of Kutch in 1965. Pakistan attacked near Kutch border. India referred the dispute to UN. Seeing this as India’s weakness, Pakistan tried to outrage Kashmir. On 5th August, 1965 Pakistan . stationed troops along the LOC.
Consequences:
Defeat of Pakistan : The war began following Pakistan’s Operation Gibraltar, which was designed to infiltrate irregular “Jihadi” forces into Jammu and Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against the rule by India. Pakistan faced a shameful defeat in the war.
Tashkent Declaration : War ended in a United Nations mandated ceasefire and the subsequent issuance of the Tashkent Declaration.
Attitude of Pakistan : At the conclusion of the War, many Pakistanis considered the performance of their military to be positive. 6th September is celebrated as Defence Day i n Pakistan, in commemoration of successful defence of Lahore against the Indian Army.
- After the Tashkent declaration the two nations got disillusioned and Z. A. Bhutto, Pakistani’s premier said that the Hindu Culture was determined to devour Islamic Culture.
- Pakistan showed hard postures to solve Kashmir dispute.
- Pakistan allowed China to use road in Gilgit, an area of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
- Disputes even emerged over the use of Ganga waters and construction of Farakka barrage.
- With this, the relations between the two countries further reached at its lowest level in 1971, which resulted in the emergence of a civil war in East Pakistan.
Section—B
Answer any two questions.
Question 7.
With reference to the aggressive foreign policies of Italy and Japan, explain how the following events made war more likely and worldwide in scope :
(a) Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia. [6]
(b) Attack on Pearl Harbour-motives, events and
impact. [6]
Answer:
(a) Italy’s Invasion of Abyssinia :
Italy, under the leadership of Benito Mussolini, advocated an aggressive foreign policy. It showed an unflagging interest in European diplomacy.
The sole ambition of Italy was to restrict the re-birth of German military power. As a matter of fact, Italy formed nexus with other European powers. Italy supported the Dollfuss government in Austria in 1934 when Austrian Nazis tried to crush the government with the clandestine German assistance.
Subsequently, Italy and France formed a Franco-Italian Alliance in 1935 to guarantee Austrian independence. Union of Austria with Germany (Anschluss) was forbidden in the Treaty of Versailles.
Italy negotiated the Stresa front that was formed in 1935 with the two democratic western powers, France and Britain.
However, there was a change in equations in the Italy’s foreign policy. Britain concluded a naval agreement with Germany without the acknowledgement of France and Italy.
In October, 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia with the aim of forming a small African Empire, gaining prestige and trade. By this time, Mussolini made Italy a super imperialist power.
The main reason behind the invasion of Abyssinia was that he aimed to boost the popularity of the regime by providing an outlet for over-population in Italy. Abyssinia was the main target as it was the only independent country. At the same time, Abyssinian forces were poorly equipped and could not resist Italian attack.
The League of Nations took punitive measures against the unjust invasion of Abyssinia. However, the League could not maintain international collective security, which was one of the aspects of the League. Thus, the League failed to protect Abyssinia as Mussolini could not be deterred.
The second Italo-Abyssinian war was also called the Rape of Ethiopia, which lasted seven months in 1935-36. It is often regarded as precursor to World War-II and a demonstration of the inefficiency of the League.
(b) Attack on Pearl Harbour-motives, events and impact:
The Japanese government decided to attack Pearl Harbour after the United States cut off US oil exports to Japan in the summer of 1941. Japan relied on the United States for eighty percent of its oil, and without US oil supplies its navy would be unable to function. While attacking Pearl Harbour the Japanese hoped to cripple or destroy the US Pacific fleet so that the Japanese navy would have free reign in the Pacific and get the oil supply easily.
The United States also had an obvious interest in these natural resources, and in response to the Japanese aggression, the U.S. Congress placed restrictions on doing business with Japan. And, if that weren’t enough, Japanese assets in the United States were frozen.
President Roosevelt moved the US Pacific Fleet from California to Pearl Harbour in 1939. This move was a threat to Japan, who wanted to expand in the Pacific. Military leaders and politicians saw a war between the U.S. and Japan as inevitable, with the solution being to attack first. Japan did just that.
Events and Impacts : The American people were shocked, bewildered, surprised, and angered by the attack. On December 8th, President Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress in the Capital. In his address, Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war against Japan. Three days later, Japan’s allies Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, and Congress reciprocated the same day. All previous domestic opposition to US entry into the war ceased. The United States was now immersed in a war that it would conduct simultaneously in Europe and the Pacific.
Question 8.
(a) Give a brief account of the post-war struggle between the KMT and the CCP. [6]
(b) Explain the causes for the victory of the Communists. [6]
Answer:
(a)The end of the World War-II did not mark the end of conflict in China. However, the defeat of Japan sparked a race between the KMT and CCP to regulate vital resources and population centres in Northern China and Manchuria.
The CCP and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA; the name by which communist forces were now known) conquered mainland China and on October 1st, 1949, the People’s Republic of China was established, with its capital at Beijing (the city’s former name restored). The factors that brought this about were complex and subjected to widely varying interpretation, but the basic fact remained a communist military triumph growing out of a profound and popularly based revolution.
The process may be perceived in three phases: (1) from August 1945 to the end of
1946, the Nationalists and Communists raced to take over Japanese-held territories, built up their forces, and fought many limited engagements while still conducting negotiations for a peaceful settlement; (2) during 1947 and the first half of 1948, after initial Nationalist success, the strategic balance turned in favour of the Communists; and (3) the communists won a series of smashing victories beginning in the latter part of 1948 that led to the establishment of the People’s Republic.
(b) The causes for the victory of the Communists in China are enumerated as follows:
Chiang’s Kuomintang government was filled with incompetent and corrupt officials. The people especially hated the tax collectors, who were commonly called “blood-sucking devils.” Chiang himself held dictatorial powers, but his orders were often ignored. He had little success in rallying Chinese nationalism to win an unpopular war against the Communists.
Economic discontent in the cities led to thousands of labour strikes. Students, newspaper editors and intellectuals protested against Chiang’s Nationalist government. They demanded an end to the civil war and the creation of a government that included the Communists. The Nationalists responded with censorship, beatings, mass arrests and even assassinations. This repression drove many to the Communist’s cause.
The Nationalist government seemed to care only for city business interests and rural landlords while ignoring the suffering of the peasants. The corrupt government administrators helped landlords take back their lands that the Communists had handed over to the peasants. The government often punished peasants for participating in Mao’s land-distribution programs. Thus, the disgruntled peasants started to support the claims of the Communists.
Communist propaganda took full advantage of all the Nationalist failures. Mao focused on winning over the peasants to gain their support in the civil war. “The battle for China,” he said, “is a battle for the hearts and minds of the peasants.”
Question 9.
The basic cause of conflict lay in the differences of principles between the communist and democratic states. In this context, explain how the following events led to the development of the Cold War :
(a) The Truman Doctrine. [6]
(b) The Marshall Plan. [6]
Answer:
(a) The Truman Doctrine : The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. The Truman Doctrine implied American support for other nations which were allegedly threatened by Soviet communism. The Truman Doctrine became the foundation of American foreign policy and led to the formation of NATO in 1949, a military alliance that is still in effect.
As per Truman Doctrine, the policy of the United States was to support people who were resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. Truman made a plea in the midst of the Greek Civil War (1946 – 9). He argued that if Greece and Turkey did not receive the aid, they would inevitably fall to communism with grave consequences throughout the region.
In fact, the Doctrine set a precedent for American assistance to anticommunist regimes throughout the world, no matter how undemocratic, and for the creation of a set of global military alliances directed against the Soviet Union.
In 1952, both Greece and Turkey joined NATO, a military alliance, to guarantee their stability.
The Truman Doctrine was informally extended to become the basis of American Cold War policy throughout Europe and around the world. It shifted American foreign policy towards the Soviet Union from detente to a policy of containment of Soviet expansion as advocated by diplomat George Kennan.
(b) The Marshall Plan : European integration after 1945 was aided by the Cold War. America extended massive financial help for reviving Europe’s economy under the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan, officially known as the European Recovery Program, was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $13 billion in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War-II.
The plan was in operation for four years beginning on April 3, 1948. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-tom regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, improve European prosperity and prevent the spread of Communism.
The Marshall Plan aid was divided amongst the participant states roughly on a per capita basis. A larger amount was given to the major industrial powers, as it was thought that their resuscitation was essential for general European revival.
About eighteen European countries received benefits of this plan. Although offered participation, the Soviet Union refused Plan benefits, and also blocked benefits to Eastern Bloc countries, such as Hungary and Poland. Under the Marshal Plan, the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation was established in 1948 to channel aid to the west European countries. It became a forum where the western European countries began to cooperate on trade and economic issues.
The Council of Europe, established in 1949, was another step forward in political cooperation. The process of economic integration of European capitalist countries proceeded step by step escalating the cold war.
Question 10.
(a) Give an account of the factors that led to emergence of the Second Wave Feminist Movement in the USA, in the 1960s. What was the impact on the status of women in America ? [6]
(b) Evaluate Dr. Martin Luther King’s role in the Civil Rights Movement in the USA. [6]
Answer:
(a) The women’s movement of the 1960s led to a new wave of feminism that addresses the national issues of gender.
Beginnings of the Second Wave : After a brief period of inertia, the women’s movement gained momentum with the onset of the 1960s. Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, helped pave the way for the new phase of women’s liberation. President John F. Kennedy organized the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, which helped usher the changes such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, making wage discrimination a federal crime, and the end of gender discrimination in federal workplaces. Moreover, women were included in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when gender discrimination was outlawed in addition to racial discrimination.
As a result, three major campaigns launched during the decade to create what is known as the second wave of feminism. These campaigns were represented by individuals within the following classifications : Liberal Feminism, Radical Feminism and Conservative Feminism. These groups clashed throughout the 1960s and early 1970s over the roles and rights of women in the society, and the movement eventually came to a climax over the Equal Rights Amendment. Let’s take a look at those involved in the movement.
Liberal Feminism : The liberal feminists, sometimes known as social feminists, attempted to promote liberation and address the inequality between men and women through political tact and diplomacy. The National Organization for Women (NOW), founded in 1966, was a powerful political arm of the liberal feminists and was led by individuals such as Betty Friedan, who served as the President.
Radical Feminism : The radical feminists of the era supported a more revolutionary and militant agenda in regard to women’s liberation. Radical feminists, such as Shulamith Firestone and Judith Brown, believed that men, and the institutions created by men, had oppressed every aspect of the woman.
The Conservative Movement : The antithesis to the liberal and radical versions of the women’s liberation movement was the conservative feminist movement. Phyllis Schlafly’s writings in ‘A Choice, Not an Echo ’ became a leading platform for the conservative movement. The conservative movement rejected the idea of radical change in regard to socio-economic and gender equality. Instead, the conservatives believed in two principles : maintaining the status quo of female societal roles and self-fulfillment, which was considered more of a moderate approach.
Benefits to Women : It focused on discussing and changing a broad range of public and private injustices,
including: discriminatory laws and policies, sexuality and sexual identity; marriage and child-rearing workplace environment; reproductive rights and violence against women (rape and battering). Formation of local, state, and federal government groups on behalf of women as well as many independent organizations that fought for women, and human, rights human rights and women’s social and civil equality were now becoming a major part of the country’s political agenda.
It sought to create new, fully human and positive image of women in both pop culture and the media to fight the negative images and messages commonly in circulation.
Impact:
- This wave saw the passage of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972.
- The government through the different legislations has tried to do away with gender discrimination.
- President J.F. Kennedy brought in the Equal Pay Act which was passed by the US Congress in 1963. According to this act, the employer may not pay lower wages to the employees of one gender that it pays to the other gender employees within the same establishment with equal skill, responsibility and similar working conditions.
(b) Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights movement in the United States from the mid- 1950’s until he was assassinated in 1968. He was involved in helping to orchestrate the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He was elected to lead the boycott because he was fresh and skilful at commanding an audience. The . boycott led to 382 days of avoiding the buses. In 1957, King, along with other associates, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to organise a movement known as Black Churches. After 1960, King publicly encouraged students to use non-violent methods during the ‘sit-in’ protests.
‘The Student non-violent Coordinating Committee’ was formed out of this. In 1963, during the Birmingham, Alabama protests, he was arrested and jailed, and it was here he wrote out his theory of non-violence. After this, plans were made for a massive demonstration in Washington, where he delivered his ‘I have a dream’ speech. By 1968, the years of protesting were wearing thin on King. In the same year, while, he stood on a balcony of a Motel, he was shot and killed by James Earl Ray. The killing of the King, sparked riots and protests across the country. This made way for the emergence of Black Power.
Question 11.
With reference to the Israeli-Palestine conflict in the Middle East, discuss the causes, course and consequences of the Six Day War of 1967. [12]
Answer:
Between 1965 and 1967 Syria, with the aid of Russian advisers and military supplies, bombarded Israeli settlements in Galilee from gun emplacements on the Golan Heights. This culminated in a major air battle between Israeli and Syrian fighter planes on 7th April, 1967.
The Events of 1967 : In a surprise attack on 5th June, 1967 the Israeli air force destroyed the bulk of the Egyptian air force on the ground.
Israeli armoured forces started destroying the Egyptian tanks in the Sinai and took over Gaza and the greater part of the Sinai within two days.
At midnight on 8th June, a cease-fire came into effect among Israel, Jordan and Egypt.
Immediate Consequences : Israel got the possession of the Sinai desert up to the Suez Canal, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East of Jerusalem including the Old City and the Golan Heights. It announced a policy of territories for peace. It meant withdrawal of the war to secure borders to be negotiated for complete peace and recognition in exchange. In the meantime, there was a fierce battle as Israeli tanks climbed on the Golan Heights under the cover firing of Syria. On 10th June, it was captured by Israel and the war came to an end with a call for a cease-fire by the UN.