Publisher's Synopsis
Govind Ballabh Pant was in the front rank of nationalist leaders who played a key role, first in India's struggle for freedom and subsequently in the politics and administration of independent India. He was a member of the highest policy-making echelons of the Indian National Congress, Deputy Leader of the Congress party in the Central Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister of U.P. and Home Minister in the Union Cabinet headed by Jawaharlal Nehru. The seventeeth volume of the Selected Works of Govind Ballabh Pant covers nearly twenty-nine months of Pandit Pant's term as union Home Minister, from August 1956 to December 1958. During this period the work of reorganisation of States begun in 1955 was completed and the reorganised States and Union Territories were grouped into five zones to facilitate cooperation among them. Certain territories of Bihar were transferred to West Bengal not on linguistic but geographical consideration. A political solution to the Naga problem besetting the country - specially the State of Assam - for the previous two years was found. Legislation was enacted for slum clearance in Delhi and other Union Territories and the publication of books considered harmful to juveniles and adolescents was made a cognizable offence. Pant also took keen interest in the affairs of the Congress party. Presenting the party's statement on its economic programme before the A.I.C.C. in 1956, he laid emphasis on fulfilling the targets of the Second Five Year Plan in order to usher in the socialist pattern of society. While campaigning for the general elections in 1957, Pant emphasized the need for eradicating the evils of casteism and communalism which he said, were weakening not only the Congress but the whole country. The Selected Works of Govind Ballabh Pant is a series that will not only document and illuminate the career and personality of an eminent political leader but provide valuable source material for analysts and scholars of modern Indian politics and history.
