Class 12 Political Science Book: Politics in India Since Independence

The Class 12 Political Science book Politics in India Since Independence has 7 chapters, and the official chapter PDFs are all on this page.

It is the NCERT textbook for the India half of Class 12 Political Science, covering the country’s domestic politics from Independence through partition, the first elections, planned development, external relations, the Congress era, regional movements and the coalition politics of the 1990s.

What this page adds to the PDF is a map of the book. For each chapter you get the printed page span, the chapter’s own topics, and the number of exercise questions that close it — every count taken from the book itself and checkable against the PDFs below.

Open the download table to get a chapter file, or use the chapter directory to find where a topic sits.

Download the official Class 12 Political Science book PDF, chapter by chapter

These links are NCERT’s own files, hosted on ncert.nic.in — open the Chapter 1 PDF straight from NCERT’s site to confirm the official file format, and every other row in the table below works the same way.

Class 12 Polity NCERT PDF: the book at a glance

The Class 12 Polity NCERT PDF links in the table above are the official files NCERT publishes, and the book itself is compact — 139 pages across 7 chapters.

• 7 chapters, numbered 1 to 5 and then 7 and 8, printed across pages 2-160.
• 7 verified chapter PDFs, each with its own official ncert.nic.in link in the download table.
• 139 printed pages in the whole book.
• Chapter lengths differ sharply: Chapter 8 is the longest at 25 pages, Chapter 3 the shortest at 10, and the rest run between 18 and 24 pages.
• All seven chapters are listed with their contents in the chapter directory below.

The directory below is the fastest way to see which chapter answers the topic you were asked about.

Chapters in the Class 12 Political Science Book (Politics in India)

The chapter directory below gives each chapter its page span and its measured contents.

In the directory, a section counts one of the book’s printed headings and a question counts an end-of-chapter exercise. The book prints its diagrams without captions, so there is no figure column to describe.

Every count is taken from the book itself and can be checked against the chapter PDFs above; the one exception is Chapter 7, whose question total is still being verified against the official PDF, so treat its exercise column as provisional.

Chapter 1: Challenges of Nation Building (pp. 2-25)

Independent India began with two events at once: British rule ended and two dominions came into existence.

The chapter opens on that moment with the book reproducing the front pages of The Hindustan Times — “End Of 200-Year-Old British Rule In India”, “Two Dominions Created” — and then moves to what it calls the Challenges for the new nation-state and the Three Challenges.

This is the chapter to read for the making of independent India: partition, the princely states and the challenges of nation building.

1. Challenges for the new nation-state
2. End Of 200-Year-Old British Rule In India
3. Two Dominions Created
4. Free India Flag
5. Three Challenges

The chapter runs 24 pages and ends with 10 exercise questions, one of the longer spans in this book.

Chapter 2: Era of One-Party Dominance (pp. 26-43)

Congress won the first three general elections, yet the chapter’s point is that India was never a one-party state. One-party dominance is not one-party rule: elections stayed genuine contests, opposition parties remained active, and the chapter records the Communist victory in Kerala and the President’s Rule that followed it.

This is the chapter for why Congress dominated the early elections and what that dominance did — and did not — mean for Indian democracy.

1. Challenge of building democracy
2. Changing methods of voting
3. Congress dominance in the first three general elections
4. Communist victory in Kerala
5. President’s Rule in Kerala

The chapter runs 18 pages and closes with 5 exercise questions.

Chapter 3: Politics of Planned Development (pp. 44-53)

Development, the chapter shows, was a contested political question, not a technical one. It opens with Orissa villagers protesting against a POSCO plant to make that point, then follows the choice India actually made: the Planning Commission, the First Five Year Plan, and rapid industrialisation, with a note that carries the story forward to the NITI Aayog.

It is the chapter for the politics of India’s planned development.

1. Political contestation
2. Orissa villagers protest against POSCO plant
3. Ideas of development
4. Planning Commission
5. NITI Aayog
6. The Early Initiatives
7. The First Five Year Plan
8. Rapid Industrialisation

At 10 pages and 7 exercise questions, it is the shortest chapter in the book.

Chapter 4: India’s External Relations (pp. 54-71)

This chapter maps India’s foreign policy from Independence onwards: the international context of the Cold War, the constitutional principles India committed itself to, and the policy of non-alignment by which India kept its distance from the two camps.

It gives Nehru’s role in that policy its due, follows India’s initiative for Afro-Asian unity, and ends with the shift from peace to conflict with China, including a reproduced front page on Indian troops falling back in NEFA and Ladakh. If your question starts with “non-alignment”, this is the chapter.

1. International context
2. The Constitutional principles
3. The Policy of non-alignment
4. Nehru’s role
5. Distance from two camps
6. Afro-Asian unity
7. Peace and conflict with China
8. Indian troops fall back in NEFA and Ladakh

It runs 18 pages and closes with 10 exercise questions.

Chapter 5: Challenges to and Restoration of the Congress System (pp. 72-91)

After Nehru, the immediate problem was succession, and this chapter tracks it from Nehru to Shastri and then from Shastri to Indira Gandhi.

Its centrepiece is the Fourth General Elections of 1967: the context, the electoral verdict and the assembly election results together showed that Congress dominance could no longer be taken for granted, and an election scene in a Rajasthan village gives the local texture of that moment. This is the chapter for political succession after Nehru and the 1967 challenge to Congress dominance.

1. Challenge of Political Succession
2. Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904-1966)
3. From Nehru to Shastri
4. From Shastri to Indira Gandhi
5. Fourth General Elections, 1967
6. Context of the elections
7. Election in a Rajasthan Village
8. Electoral verdict
9. Assembly Election Results

The chapter runs 20 pages and ends with 10 exercise questions.

Chapter 7: Regional Aspirations (pp. 112-135)

The chapter treats regional identity as a political force to be handled through what it calls the Indian approach.

It sets out the areas of tension, then develops two long cases: Jammu and Kashmir and the roots of the problem (with a boxed note on the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh), and the Dravidian movement led by E.V. Ramasami Naicker, alongside a reproduced headline on the language-policy conflict.

This is the chapter for regional aspirations, Jammu and Kashmir or Dravidian politics.

1. Region and the Nation
2. Indian approach
3. Areas of tension
4. Jammu and Kashmir
5. Roots of the Problem
6. Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh
7. E.V. Ramasami Naicker (1879-1973)
8. Dravidian movement
9. Hindi Protagonists Allege Bid To Reverse Policy

The chapter runs 24 pages, one of the longer spans in the book.

Chapter 8: Recent Developments in Indian Politics (pp. 136-160)

The final chapter brings the story to the 1990s: the context of that decade, the era of coalitions, the decline of Congress, alliance politics, and the rapid turnover of central governments from 1989. Into that setting it places the political rise of Other Backward Classes and the Mandal Commission — the chapter follows Mandal from implementation to its political fallouts.

This is the chapter for coalition politics, OBC politics and the Mandal years.

1. Context of the 1990s
2. Era of Coalitions
3. Decline of Congress
4. Alliance politics
5. Central Governments Since 1989
6. Political Rise of Other Backward Classes
7. ‘Mandal’ implemented
8. The Mandal Commission
9. Political fallouts

It is the longest chapter in the book — 25 pages — and closes with 8 exercise questions.

Chapter pages for this Class 12 Political Science book

Chapters of this book that already have a dedicated study page on this site are listed below — the list shows which are live, which are in drafting and which are not yet built.

How to use the Pol Science Class 12 NCERT book for revision

The book is arranged as one chronology, so the fastest revision order follows the book’s own arc.

1. Chapters 1-3 form the founding phase. Challenges of Nation Building, Era of One-Party Dominance and Politics of Planned Development together cover how India was built as a nation, a democracy and a planned economy.
2. Chapter 4 works as a standalone. India’s External Relations is the chapter for non-alignment, Nehru’s role and the conflict with China.
3. Chapter 5 closes the Nehru-Congress era. It covers succession from Nehru to Shastri to Indira Gandhi and the 1967 elections.
4. Chapters 7 and 8 bring the story to the 1990s. Regional Aspirations carries Jammu and Kashmir and the Dravidian movement; Recent Developments carries coalitions, the Mandal Commission and the decline of Congress.

One practical habit: open the chapter PDF from the download table above and read its opening “In this chapter” section before the exercises — every chapter in this book begins with one, and it states what the chapter sets out to establish.

For a quick revision pass, Chapters 1-3 and 5 carry the founding decades, while Chapters 7 and 8 carry the later period, so the two halves can be revised separately.

Which Class 12 Political Science NCERT book do you need?

Class 12 Political Science has two NCERT books. If you landed here while searching for world politics, check the scope before you download.

So if you came looking for world politics, this is not the book: from partition-era nation building to the coalition era of the 1990s, its seven chapters stay with India’s domestic politics.

Related NCERT book pages

Continue browsing on this site:

• All NCERT books by class — browse every subject in one place.
• Class 12 NCERT books — the full Class 12 shelf.
• Class 12 Political Science NCERT books — both Class 12 Political Science textbooks.

Sources and data verification

This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.

This page is built from the textbook itself, and the limits are stated plainly.

• The chapter list and page spans describe the NCERT textbook Politics in India Since Independence, official edition on ncert.nic.in, maintained for the current session using NCERT’s published PDFs.
• This page covers that one textbook, not the full CBSE Class 12 scheme; the companion contemporary-world-politics textbook is covered on its own page.
• Textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official syllabus for what is examinable.
• NCERT settles textbook editions, chapter titles and PDFs; CBSE settles the syllabus and examinations.
• The counts on this page were read from the printed book and can be checked against the PDFs linked above; no subject-matter review is claimed for them.

Reference: NCERT Class 12 Political Science textbook, official edition on ncert.nic.in. Figure captions and section titles quoted from the textbook; page references are to the official PDF.

Frequently asked questions about the Class 12 Political Science book

How many chapters are in the Class 12 Political Science book Politics in India Since Independence?

Seven. This Class 12th Political Science book runs 139 printed pages, from Challenges of Nation Building (Chapter 1) to Recent Developments in Indian Politics (Chapter 8). The numbering runs 1 to 5 and then 7 to 8, and every chapter is listed with its page span in the directory above.

Is the Class 12 Political Science book PDF on this page official and free?

Yes. Every download link points to a PDF hosted on ncert.nic.in, NCERT’s own website, and the files are free to open and save. You do not need registration or a third-party app to read them.

Which chapter covers India’s policy of non-alignment?

Chapter 4, India’s External Relations (pp. 54-71). Its sections cover the policy of non-alignment, Nehru’s role, India’s distance from the two Cold War camps, Afro-Asian unity, and peace and conflict with China.

Where do coalition politics and the Mandal Commission appear in this book?

Both sit in Chapter 8, Recent Developments in Indian Politics (pp. 136-160). That chapter covers the era of coalitions, the decline of Congress, alliance politics, the Mandal Commission and its political fallouts.

Which chapter should I read for Jammu and Kashmir and the Dravidian movement?

Chapter 7, Regional Aspirations (pp. 112-135). It covers Jammu and Kashmir and the roots of the problem, and the Dravidian movement associated with E.V. Ramasami Naicker, among the chapter’s areas of tension.