Ilya B. Spektor

The article is devoted to the analysis of the political life in Delhi in the 1940s–1960s with special attention to the development of the Hindu nationalist movement — the emergence and the early phase of BJS (Bharatiya Jana Sangh — Indian Popular Union). The author emphasizes the crucial role of RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — National Volunteer Organisation) in the consolidation of the anti-Congress opposition movement in the early 1950s. The analysis of the changing political situation in the Indian capital is based on the results of the national and regional elections in Delhi. The consequences of the Partition of British India also had a significant impact on the political preferences of the population of Delhi. The study of the political life in Delhi reveals the fact that powerful opposition parties, which could challenge INC at the regional level, were active in India since independence.

The article examines the adaptation of Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan in Delhi after the Partition of India in 1947. It considers housing and rehabilitation, the refugees’ role in the city’s growth, and their political preferences in the late 1940s and 1950s.