PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Party System & Electoral Politics
The decade 1989-1999 has created an epochal shift in the Indian party system at the national level. Identify the major national trends in the party system during this era.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
_—-*®!'_—«1989 ends Kothari's “Congress System” → M. P. Singh's federal coalition phase opens R2_ epochal shift = one passage, single-party dominance → coalition order; trends read as its facets
Body flow
end of Congress dominance → fragmented mandate (National Front / V. P. Singh 1989, minority & short-lived govts) → Mandal 1990 → OBC / social- justice base → Babri demolition + Hindutva → BJP as national alternative → regional parties central (United Front / Deve Gowda-Gujral) → 1991 liberalization changes agenda
Counter-view
Coalitions not new + instability till 1999 → “epochal rupture” claim qualified
Conclusion routes
= ®!'_—~ shift epochal as durable arrival of federal coalition politics R2 less a sudden break, more a churn that stabilises at the decade's close (1999 NDA)
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
