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Late in the afternoon of 10 May 1857, the sepoys in the cantonment of Meerut broke out in mutiny. It began in the lines of the native infantry, spread very swiftly to the cavalry and then to the city. The ordinary people of the town and surrounding villages joined the sepoys. The sepoys captured the bell of arms where the arms and ammunition were kept and proceeded to attack white people, and to ransack and burn their bungalows and property.

In the history of nationalism a single individual is often identified with the making of a nation. Thus, for example, we associate Garibaldi with the making of Italy, George Washington with the American War of Independence, and Ho Chi Minh with the struggle to free Vietnam from colonial rule. In the same manner, Mahatma Gandhi has been regarded as the ‘Father’ of the Indian nation.

The Indian Constitution, which came into effect on 26 January 1950, has the dubious distinction of being the longest in the world. But its length and complexity are perhaps understandable when one considers the country’s size and diversity. At Independence, India was not merely large and diverse, but also deeply divided.

The Harappan seal is possibly the most distinctive artefact of the Harappan or Indus valley civilisation. Made of a stone called steatite, seals like this one often contain animal motifs and signs from a script that remains undeciphered.

There were several developments in different parts of the subcontinent during the long span of 1,500 years following the end of the Harappan civilisation. This was also the period during which the Rigveda was composed by people living along the Indus and its tributaries.

In the previous chapter we saw that there were several changes in economic and political life between c. 600 BCE and 600 CE. Some of these changes influenced societies as well. For instance, the extension of agriculture into forested areas transformed the lives of forest dwellers; craft specialists often emerged as distinct social groups; the unequal distribution of wealth sharpened social differences.

Legislature, executive and judiciary are the three organs of government. Together, they perform the functions of the government, maintain law and order and look after the welfare of the people.

You have already studied the importance of elections and the method of election adopted in India. Legislatures are elected by the people and work on behalf of the people.

Many times, courts are seen only as arbitrators in disputes between individuals or private parties. But judiciary performs some political functions also. Judiciary is an important organ of the government.

Political maps of India have changed dramatically over the years. Boundaries of States have changed, names of States have changed, and the number of States has changed. When India became independent, we had a number of provinces that the British government had organised only for administrative convenience.

In a democracy, it is not sufficient to have an elected government at the centre and at the State level. It is also necessary that even at the local level, there should be an elected government to look after local affairs.

Just as we intuitively understand what love means even if we cannot explain all its different shades of meaning, we also have an intuitive understanding of justice even though we may not be able to define it precisely. In that sense justice is a lot like love.

A right is essentially an entitlement or a justified claim. It denotes what we are entitled to as citizens, as individuals and as human beings. It is something that we consider to be due to us; something that the rest of society must recognise as being a legitimate claim that must be upheld.

Citizenship has been defined as full and equal membership of a political community. In the contemporary world, states provide a collective political identity to their members as well as certain rights.

If we were to take a quick poll of what people commonly understand by the term nationalism we are likely to get responses which talk about patriotism, national flags, sacrificing for the country, and the like.

Though Jews faced discrimination for centuries throughout Europe, in the present state of Israel, Arab minorities, both Christian and Muslims, are excluded from social, political and economic benefits available to Jewish citizens. Subtle forms of discrimination also continue to persist against non-Christians in several parts of Europe.

What is a constitution? What are its functions? What role does it perform for a society? How does a constitution relate to our daily existence?

Have you ever played chess? What would happen if the black knight suddenly started moving straight rather than two and a half squares? Or, what would happen if in a game of cricket, there were no umpires? In any sport, we need to follow certain rules.

India was born in a very trying and challenging international context. The world had witnessed a devastating war and was grappling with issues of reconstruction; yet another attempt to establish an international body was underway; many new countries were emerging as a result of the collapse of colonialism; and most new nations were trying to come to terms with the twin challenges of welfare and democracy. Free India’s foreign policy reflected all these concerns in the period immediately after Independence.

Three decades after Independence, the people were beginning to get impatient. Their unease expressed itself in various forms. In the previous chapter, we have already gone through the story of electoral upheavals and political crisis. Yet that was not the only form in which popular discontent expressed itself. In the 1970s, diverse social groups like women, students, Dalits and farmers felt that democratic politics did not address their needs and demands.

1980s may be seen as a period of rising regional aspirations for autonomy, often outside the framework of the Indian Union. These movements frequently involved armed assertions by the people, their repression by the government, and a collapse of the political and electoral processes.

First the most crucial development of this period was the defeat of the Congress party in the elections held in 1989. The party that had won as many as 415 seats in the Lok Sabha in 1984 was reduced to only 197 in this election. The Congress improved its performance and came back to power soon after the mid-term elections held in 1991.

At the hour of midnight on 14-15 August 1947, India attained independence. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of free India, addressed a special session of the Constituent Assembly that night.

As the global demand for steel increases, Orissa, which has one of the largest reserves of untapped iron ore in the country, is being seen as an important investment destination.

In this final chapter of the book we look at globalisation, something that has been referred to in many chapters of this book and textbooks of many other subjects. We begin by analysing the concept of globalisation and then examine its causes.

The Constitution of India has made alternate provision for the structure and functioning of all the three branches of the government i.e. executive, legislature and judiciary.

A political party is an organised group of citizens who have similar political views and who by acting as a unit try to control the government to translate their policies into practice.

In a Democracy, people's participation is very important. People, participate to elect their representatives by voting in elections. Discussing the working of the government, public debates, newspaper’s editorials, protest demonstrations, public meetings working for a political party and standing as a candidate are all examples of people's participation.

India is called the largest democracy in the world. It is democratic because elections take place at regular intervals at different levels.

The diversity of plants and animal provide us food, fuel, medicine, shelter and other essentials without which we cannot live. These species have evolved over thousands of years. This rich diversity is being lost at an alarming rate due to human activities.

India is said to be the land of farmers and these farmers are mostly living in the rural India. They are practising farming and are helping the country. Hence, the agriculture in the country is very important.

Transport and Communication is the life line of the country. The major role of transport is to facilitate trade and commerce by carrying goods, movement of people from one place to another. The communication keeps on updating information about the world's events. It helps in establishing the social, cultural and economic relationships.

The total number of human heads is considered to be the population of a country. It is counted every ten years in India. Qualified, well developed, productive and healthy human head is the asset for the country.

Mineral and power resources play an important role in the industrial development of a nation. They provide the industrial raw materials and fuel.

Soil is defined as upper layer of the earth composed of loose surface material. The soils of India are broadly divided into six groups. They are alluvial, regur or black, red, laterite, desert and mountain soils.

Numbers are classified as natural numbers, whole numbers, integers, rational numbers and irrational numbers. Rational and Irrational numbers together constitute the system of real numbers.

If a is a rational number, multiplied by itself m times, it is written as a^m. Here, a is called the base and m is called the exponent.

Expressions, involving arithmetical numbers, variables and symbols of operations are called algebraic expressions. An algebraic expression is a combination of numbers, variables and arithmetical operations.

The value of an algebraic expression depends on the values of the variables involved it. A polynomial in one variable whose degree is one is called a linear polynomial in one variable. When two expressions are separated by an equality sign, it is called an equation.

A polynomial of degree two is called a quadratic polynomial. When a quadratic polynomial is equated to zero, it is called a quadratic equation.

A pattern in which each term except the first is obtained by adding a fixed number (positive or negative) to the previous term is called an Arithmetic Progression (A.P.).

A fraction whose denominator is 100 is read as percent, for example $ \frac{23}{100} $ is read as twenty three percent or 23%. The symbol % is used for the term percent.

Constitution is a legal document which determines the structure of the government and direction to which society is to move on. A democratic constitution represents consensus among the people on certain rules, principles, procedures and ideals and guides the social and political institutions.

In a Democratic Country like India certain basic and fundamental rights have been granted to every citizen, but in many parts of the world people are still struggling for these rights. This lesson aims at studying Fundamental Rights and Duties enshrined in the Constitution of India.

India is described as a Welfare State. It is a concept of government in which the State plays a key role in the protection and promotion of economic and social well-being of its citizens. A Welfare State is based on the principles of equality of opportunity and equitable distribution of wealth.

Local Government is a government of the local people. Being located nearest to the local people, local government institutions are under constant observation of the society. It is said that Local Government provides services to the individual from "cradle to the grave."

India is a Federation having governments at two levels i.e. State level and Union or Central level. The three branches of government - executive, legislature and judiciary exist and function at both the levels.

Geometry is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space.

Triangle is the simplest polygon of all the closed figures formed in a plane by three line segments. It is a closed figure formed by three line segments having six elements - three angles (i) ∠ABC or ∠B (ii) ∠ACB or ∠C (iii) ∠CAB or ∠A and three sides - (iv) AB (v) BC (vi) CA.

Two lines in a plane can either be parallel or intersecting. Three lines in a plane may (i) be parallel to each other (ii) intersect each other in exactly one point (iii) intersect each other in two points (iv) intersect each other at most in three points.