Changing Face of Indian Democracy (1977 to 1986) | ISC Class 12 History Notes

This note covers the Janata Government of 1977 to 1979 (its formation, policies and reasons for downfall) and the changing Centre-State relations during 1977 to 1986 in Punjab, Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram, including the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, Operation Blue Star, the Punjab Accord, the Assam Accord, the Shillong Accord and the Mizo Accord.

What was the political and regional context behind the tensions after 1977?

The years between 1977 and 1986 were a period in which the Indian political system had to deal with two linked challenges: a change of government at the Centre after a long period of Congress dominance, and a wave of regional movements that tested how far a democracy could accommodate demands for autonomy or even separation.

The Congress had been returned to power with a huge majority in 1971 and 1972, but the years that followed saw growing public unrest over price rise, unemployment and corruption, which led to the proclamation of a national Emergency in 1975 and the suspension of normal civil liberties for about nineteen months.

When the Emergency was lifted and fresh Lok Sabha elections were called in 1977, the Congress faced the electorate at a moment of widespread resentment, and several opposition parties merged to contest together under the banner of the Janata Party.

At the same time, in the states, older demands for linguistic and regional recognition that had been only partly settled in the 1950s and 1960s, such as the Punjabi-speaking state created in 1966 and the carving of new north-eastern states out of Assam between 1963 and 1972, resurfaced in sharper and sometimes armed forms during the 1980s.

This decade is therefore remembered both for the short-lived Janata experiment at the Centre and for major conflicts and negotiated settlements in Punjab, Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram.

How was the Janata Government formed and what were its policies, 1977 to 1979?

After the Emergency, several opposition parties, including the Bharatiya Lok Dal, the Congress (Organisation), the Jana Sangh and the Socialist Party, came together under the moral leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan to form the Janata Party, which contested and won the 1977 general election decisively, ending the long period of unbroken Congress rule at the Centre.

Morarji Desai became Prime Minister, with Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram as his senior colleagues.

The new government's main policies were aimed at undoing the excesses of the Emergency: political prisoners detained during the Emergency were released, and the 44th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1978 was passed to make it harder for a future government to declare an Emergency without proper safeguards and to remove the Fundamental Right to Property from Part III, among other changes.

The Janata Government also set up the Shah Commission to inquire into the excesses committed during the Emergency, and appointed the Second Backward Classes Commission, popularly called the Mandal Commission, in 1979 to examine reservation for socially and educationally backward classes.

Why did the Janata Government fall?

Despite its electoral success, the Janata Government did not last its full term. The party was really a hurried merger of groups with very different ideologies, and this unity proved difficult to sustain once the common target of opposing the Emergency and the Congress had been achieved.

A major point of friction was the question of dual membership, since some Janata members who had earlier belonged to the Jana Sangh were also members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and this was objected to by socialist members of the party.

Personal rivalry between Morarji Desai and Charan Singh over leadership added to the strain. In July 1979, Charan Singh withdrew his support and, with a section of Janata MPs, brought down the Desai government.

Charan Singh then became Prime Minister for a brief period with outside support from the Congress, but this support was soon withdrawn and his government could not prove a majority in the Lok Sabha.

Fresh elections were held in January 1980, which brought the Congress, led by Indira Gandhi, back to power at the Centre, after only about three years outside office.

Note: a common confusion. Students often mix up the 44th Amendment of 1978, passed by the Janata Government to limit future misuse of Emergency powers, with the 42nd Amendment of 1976, passed by the Indira Gandhi government during the Emergency itself, which had expanded central power.

The two amendments moved in opposite directions and belong to opposite governments.

How did Punjab move from the Anandpur Sahib Resolution to the Punjab Accord?

Demands of the Akali Dal and the Anandpur Sahib Resolution

The Akali Dal, formed in 1920 as the political wing of the Sikhs, had led the movement for a Punjabi-speaking state, which was finally created in 1966 after Punjab was reorganised and Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were carved out.

Even after this, the Akalis found their political position insecure: their coalition government, formed first in 1967 and again in 1977, was dismissed by the Centre before completing its term, they lacked strong support among Hindus, and the Congress drew more support from Dalits, whether Hindu or Sikh, than the Akalis did.

Against this background, a section of the Akalis passed the Anandpur Sahib Resolution at their 1973 conference, which asserted regional autonomy for Punjab, sought to redefine Centre-State relations in India's federal structure, spoke of the aspirations of the Sikh qaum (community), and declared its goal as the bolbala, or dominance, of the Sikhs.

This Resolution had only limited appeal among the Sikh masses at the time.

The 1977 elections, the Akali government and the rise of Bhindranwale

The Akali Dal returned to power in Punjab in the 1977 elections as part of a coalition government, but this government too was dismissed by the Centre in 1980.

After this dismissal, the Akali Dal launched an agitation over the sharing of river waters between Punjab and its neighbouring states, and a section of religious leaders began to raise the demand for a more clearly defined autonomous Sikh identity.

It was during this period that the Sikh preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale rose to prominence, demanding full implementation of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution and greater regional autonomy, and using increasingly militant methods, including the build-up of an armed following inside the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, which was turned into a fortified base.

Operation Blue Star and the Punjab Accord, 1985

As leadership of the movement passed from moderate Akalis to extremist elements, in June 1984 the Government of India carried out Operation Blue Star, the code name for an army action to flush out militants from the Golden Temple.

The operation succeeded in clearing the militants but damaged the historic shrine and deeply hurt Sikh sentiment, strengthening further militancy.

On 31 October 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated outside her residence by her own Sikh bodyguards, in revenge for Operation Blue Star.

This was followed by anti-Sikh violence in Delhi and elsewhere, in which more than two thousand Sikhs were killed in the capital alone, with hundreds more killed in places like Kanpur, Bokaro and Chas.

In 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed regret in Parliament, stating: "I have no hesitation in apologising not only to the Sikh community but the whole Indian nation because what took place in 1984 is the negation of the concept of nationhood and what is enshrined in our Constitution."

After coming to power following the 1984 election, Rajiv Gandhi opened talks with moderate Akali leaders, and in July 1985 signed an agreement with Harchand Singh Longowal, then President of the Akali Dal, known as the Rajiv Gandhi-Longowal Accord or Punjab Accord.

Its main terms were that Chandigarh would be transferred to Punjab, a commission would be set up to resolve the Punjab-Haryana border dispute, a tribunal would decide the sharing of Ravi-Beas waters among Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, compensation would be given to those affected by militancy, and the application of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA, a law giving special powers to the armed forces in disturbed areas) would be withdrawn from Punjab.

Longowal was assassinated by a Sikh youth soon after signing the Accord, and violence continued for nearly a decade, with only 24 per cent of electors turning out to vote when elections were finally held in 1992.

Peace returned to Punjab only by the mid-1990s, and the Akali Dal (Badal) and the BJP won the first normal post-militancy elections in 1997.

What caused discontent in Assam and how did the agitation unfold?

Assam saw two distinct kinds of regional tension. Earlier demands for autonomy by hill communities who felt the Assam government was imposing the Assamese language on them had already led to the creation of Nagaland and Meghalaya out of the original state of Assam, with Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh becoming separate states only in 1987.

The conflict of the 1980s, however, was of a different kind, directed against "outsiders". The Assamese suspected that large numbers of Bengali Muslim settlers had entered illegally from Bangladesh, and feared that unless detected and deported, these foreign nationals would reduce the indigenous Assamese to a minority.

There was also resentment that natural resources such as oil, tea and coal were drained from Assam without benefiting its people, who continued to face poverty and unemployment.

In 1979, the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), a students' body not affiliated to any political party, together with the Asom Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP), launched an anti-foreigner movement demanding that all outsiders who had entered the state after 1951 be identified and sent back, and objecting to a faulty electoral roll that included the names of lakhs of immigrants.

The six-year agitation mobilised Assamese people across the state, included blockades of trains and of oil supply to refineries in Bihar, and involved many violent and tragic incidents.

It ended with the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985, under which foreigners who had migrated into Assam during and after the Bangladesh war were to be identified and deported.

Following the Accord, AASU and the Asom Gana Sangram Parishad formed a regional party, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which came to power in the 1985 state election promising to resolve the foreign national issue and build a "Golden Assam".

The Accord brought a return of normal politics but did not finally resolve the underlying problem of immigration, which has remained a live issue in Assam's politics.

What were the Nagas' separatist demands and how far did the Shillong Accord resolve them?

The Naga problem was among the oldest and most unresolved of the regional conflicts. As early as 1951, a section of the Nagas, led by Angami Zapu Phizo, declared independence from India, and the Naga National Council (NNC) campaigned for Naga sovereignty, turning down repeated offers of negotiated settlement.

The agitation then passed through several phases. The NNC claimed that a 1951 plebiscite showed overwhelming Naga support for independence, and it boycotted the 1952 general elections. From the mid-1950s the movement became an armed insurgency; the Centre sent in the army and passed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958.

Moderate Naga leaders, organised as the Naga People's Convention from 1957, chose to negotiate within the Indian Union, and their talks with the Centre led to the decision to create a separate state. A ceasefire in 1964, overseen by a Peace Mission that included Jayaprakash Narayan, opened talks with the underground leaders, but these failed and the ceasefire ended in 1972.

In response to demands for autonomy within the region, the state of Nagaland was carved out and created in 1963.

After a long period of violent insurgency, a section of the Naga rebels signed what is known as the Shillong Accord of 1975 with the Government of India, but other sections of the movement rejected it. In 1980 those opposed to it, led by Isak Chishi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah and S. S. Khaplang, formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) and continued the armed struggle.

Unlike Mizoram, where a comparable insurgency was eventually resolved through a comprehensive accord, the Naga problem remained only partially addressed, and the demand for a fully sovereign Nagaland was never finally settled during this period.

How did the Mizoram Movement unfold and get resolved, 1959 to 1986?

After Independence, the Mizo Hills were made an autonomous district within Assam. Some Mizos believed they had never been part of British India and therefore did not belong to the Indian union, but it was the government's failure to respond adequately to the great famine of 1959 in the Mizo Hills that turned popular anger into an organised movement, leading to the formation of the Mizo National Front (MNF) under Laldenga.

In 1966, the MNF launched an armed campaign for independence, beginning a two-decade conflict between Mizo insurgents and the Indian army.

The MNF fought a guerrilla war, received support from Pakistan and took shelter in what was then East Pakistan, while Indian security forces used repressive counter-measures, at one point even deploying the Air Force, which caused further anger and alienation among ordinary Mizos.

After two decades in which both sides had lost ground, political maturity on both sides brought about change: Laldenga returned from exile and opened negotiations with the Indian government, and in 1986 Rajiv Gandhi and Laldenga signed a peace agreement, the Mizo Accord, under which Mizoram was granted full statehood with special powers and the MNF agreed to give up its secessionist struggle.

Laldenga became the first Chief Minister of the new state. This accord proved a turning point, and Mizoram went on to become one of the more peaceful states in the region, making notable progress in literacy and development.

How did different groups participate in these regional movements?

Political and religious leadership: the Akali Dal

In Punjab, the movement was led first by the moderate, constitutional leadership of the Akali Dal through resolutions and electoral politics, as with the Anandpur Sahib Resolution of 1973 and participation in coalition governments in 1967 and 1977.

When this leadership was seen to have failed to secure the Akalis' goals, leadership of the movement passed to more extremist religious figures, who turned to armed methods and used a religious shrine as their base, a very different kind of participation from the earlier constitutional agitation over river waters.

Student organisations: AASU in Assam

In Assam, it was a non-party student body, the All Assam Students' Union, working together with the Asom Gana Sangram Parishad, that organised and led the six-year agitation from 1979 to 1985.

Their methods included strikes, blockades of trains and oil supplies, and mass mobilisation across Assamese society, and after the Assam Accord they converted their movement's political capital into a formal party, the Asom Gana Parishad, which then formed the state government.

Armed insurgent organisations: the MNF and the NNC

In Mizoram and Nagaland, regional aspiration took the form of organised armed insurgency rather than mass civil agitation.

The Mizo National Front under Laldenga and the Naga National Council under Phizo both built guerrilla forces, sought external support and fought the Indian army for extended periods, but their paths diverged sharply at the point of resolution, with the MNF eventually negotiating a comprehensive settlement while a section of the NNC refused to accept the Shillong Accord.

How did Punjab, Assam and Mizoram differ in the course and resolution of their movements?

Although all these movements arose from regional aspirations that the Centre had to balance against national unity, their course and outcome differed considerably.

In Mizoram, an armed secessionist insurgency that began in 1966 was fully resolved by the 1986 Accord, which granted full statehood and ended the conflict, after which the region became notably peaceful.

In Assam, the 1979 to 1985 agitation was a mass, student-led civil movement rather than an armed insurgency, though it saw many violent incidents, and while the 1985 Accord restored normal electoral politics and brought the AGP to power, it did not finally solve the underlying problem of illegal immigration, which remained a live issue.

In Punjab, a movement that began with constitutional demands for autonomy turned into a prolonged and violent insurgency centred on a religious shrine, met with a major military operation in 1984, the assassination of the Prime Minister, and large-scale communal violence against Sikhs, so that even after the 1985 Accord, violence continued for almost a decade before peace returned.

In Nagaland, the oldest of these movements, going back to 1951, remained only partially resolved by the 1975 Shillong Accord, since a section of the Naga rebels never accepted it, leaving the problem without a final settlement by the mid-1980s.

What were the consequences and significance of these developments for Indian democracy?

These events of 1977 to 1986 had a lasting significance for how Indian democracy deals with regional and political tension.

The fall of the Janata Government, despite its decisive 1977 mandate, showed that a government built only on opposition to a previous regime, without a shared positive programme, could collapse quickly once that unifying target disappeared, and it also demonstrated that India's democratic machinery could manage a peaceful transfer of power back to the Congress through fresh elections in 1980.

The regional movements showed both the strength and the strain of India's federal democracy: in most cases, as in Assam and Mizoram, patient negotiation between the Centre and regional leaders produced accords that restored normal constitutional politics, and the granting of full statehood to Mizoram in 1986 showed that genuine autonomy could end even a long armed insurgency.

At the same time, Punjab showed how the breakdown of dialogue, the use of military force inside a religious shrine, and the assassination of a Prime Minister could lead to communal violence and years of further instability even after an accord was signed, while Nagaland showed that a partial accord accepted by only one faction cannot by itself end a movement.

Taken together, these cases are instructive for understanding the continuing challenge of balancing democratic rights, regional autonomy and national unity in a large and diverse federal democracy.

Timeline of the Janata Government and the regional accords, 1920 to 1986

Going beyond the syllabus

The problems of Punjab, Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram can be usefully compared with the earlier case of Jammu and Kashmir, where a special constitutional status under Article 370 and recurring disputes over autonomy and plebiscite produced a different and still longer-running pattern of unrest, including an insurgency from the late 1980s that was met with President's Rule and prolonged army deployment.

They can also be compared with the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, led by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which pursued regional pride and opposition to the imposition of Hindi entirely through democratic and electoral means rather than through arms, winning power in the state in 1967 and continuing to dominate Tamil Nadu's politics for decades afterwards.

These two further cases show that regionalism and national unity are not always opposed to each other: where democratic channels like elections, resolutions and negotiated accords remained open, as in Tamil Nadu and eventually in Mizoram, regional aspiration could be accommodated within the Union, whereas where dialogue broke down, as for long periods in Punjab, Nagaland and Jammu and Kashmir, the same aspirations produced prolonged armed conflict instead.

What do sources tell us about the regional movements of 1977 to 1986?

The record of this period comes from several kinds of printed sources: government commission reports, parliamentary statements, newspaper reports and the text of the accords themselves, and each of them reveals a different side of these conflicts.

The Shah Commission, set up by the Janata Government after 1977, examined the excesses of the Emergency and shows how the new government sought official findings against the previous regime rather than relying only on political accusation.

The text of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution of 1973 itself is an important source for Akali demands, since it directly states the Resolution's language of Sikh qaum and bolbala, and shows that its appeal among the wider Sikh masses was limited at the time it was passed.

Parliamentary speech is another kind of source: in 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke in Parliament about the anti-Sikh violence that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984, stating "I have no hesitation in apologising not only to the Sikh community but the whole Indian nation because what took place in 1984 is the negation of the concept of nationhood and what is enshrined in our Constitution."

The signed texts of the Punjab Accord of 1985, the Assam Accord of 1985 and the Mizo Accord of 1986 are themselves primary sources, since their clauses on Chandigarh, river waters, deportation of foreigners and statehood tell us exactly what each side agreed to, in contrast to newspaper or later accounts which may interpret these terms differently.

Taken together, official reports, the accords' own texts, and later parliamentary statements let historians reconstruct both the demands raised and how far each settlement actually addressed them.

Glossary

• Accord — a formal agreement, usually negotiated between the Centre and a regional or political group, intended to end a dispute or conflict.
• Autonomy — the power of a region or group to govern itself in certain matters without outside control.
• Secession — the formal withdrawal of a region from an existing political union to form a separate, independent state.
• Insurgency — an organised armed rebellion against a government, usually fought using guerrilla methods rather than a regular army.
• Akali Dal — a political party formed in 1920 as the political wing of the Sikhs, closely associated with Sikh religious institutions.
• AASU — the All Assam Students' Union, a non-party student organisation that led the 1979 to 1985 Assam movement against illegal immigration.
• NNC — the Naga National Council, the organisation under Angami Zapu Phizo that led the campaign, and from the mid-1950s the armed struggle, for Naga independence.
• MNF — the Mizo National Front, formed under Laldenga, which led the armed campaign for Mizo independence from 1966 to 1986.
• AFSPA — the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, a law giving the armed forces special powers in areas declared disturbed.
• Anandpur Sahib Resolution — a 1973 resolution of the Akali Dal demanding regional autonomy for Punjab and a redefined Centre-State relationship.
• Operation Blue Star — the June 1984 Indian army action to remove militants from the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar.
• President's Rule — direct rule of a state by the Centre, imposed when the state government is suspended, as happened at different times in Punjab.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: the Janata Government fell because of a single, sudden event. Correct: it collapsed due to a build-up of ideological strain over dual membership and personal rivalry between Morarji Desai and Charan Singh, culminating in the withdrawal of support in July 1979.
• Misconception: the Anandpur Sahib Resolution and the demand for Khalistan are the same thing. Correct: the 1973 Resolution asked for greater regional autonomy within the Indian federation, while the demand for a separate Sikh state arose later, pushed by more extremist elements.
• Misconception: the Punjab Accord of 1985 immediately ended militancy in Punjab. Correct: violence continued for nearly a decade after the Accord, and Punjab's turnout in the 1992 election was only 24 per cent.
• Misconception: the Assam movement of 1979 to 1985 was a secessionist movement like those in Nagaland or Mizoram. Correct: it was a movement against illegal immigration and for detection and deportation of outsiders, not a demand to leave the Indian union.
• Misconception: the Shillong Accord of 1975 ended the Naga problem the way the Mizo Accord ended the Mizoram insurgency. Correct: a section of the Naga rebels never accepted the Shillong Accord, so the Naga movement continued.
• Misconception: Mizoram and Nagaland became separate states at the same time. Correct: Nagaland became a state in 1963, while Mizoram became a separate state only in 1987, after the 1986 Accord.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. Name the Prime Minister who signed the Punjab Accord in 1985. [1 mark]

1. Rajiv Gandhi, who signed the Accord with Harchand Singh Longowal, President of the Akali Dal, in July 1985.

Q2. In which year was Nagaland created as a separate state? [1 mark]

1. Nagaland was created as a separate state in 1963, in response to demands for autonomy within the region by hill communities who had earlier been part of Assam; the creation did not, however, end the separatist demand led by the Naga National Council.

Q3. State any four reasons for the fall of the Janata Government by 1979. [4 marks]

1. The Janata Party was a hurried merger of ideologically different groups, lacking true unity.
2. There was a sharp dispute over dual membership of former Jana Sangh members in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
3. Personal rivalry for leadership developed between Morarji Desai and Charan Singh.
4. Charan Singh withdrew his support in July 1979 with a section of MPs, bringing down the Desai government, after which his own government also failed to prove a majority.

Q4. State any four provisions of the Punjab Accord of 1985. [4 marks]

1. Chandigarh was to be transferred to Punjab.
2. A separate commission was to be appointed to resolve the Punjab-Haryana border dispute.
3. A tribunal was to be set up to decide the sharing of Ravi-Beas river waters among Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
4. Compensation was to be given to those affected by militancy, and AFSPA was to be withdrawn from Punjab.

Q5. Explain any four reasons for the Assamese discontent that led to the Assam Movement of 1979. [4 marks]

1. A widespread belief that large numbers of Bengali Muslims had entered Assam illegally from Bangladesh.
2. Fear that unless detected and deported, these immigrants would reduce the indigenous Assamese to a minority.
3. Objection to a faulty electoral roll that included the names of lakhs of immigrants.
4. Economic grievances, since Assam's natural resources such as oil, tea and coal were drained out without commensurate benefit to its people, who faced poverty and unemployment.

Q6. "Everyone was a loser" after two decades of insurgency in Mizoram. Discuss any eight aspects of the course and resolution of the Mizoram Movement between 1959 and 1986. [8 marks]

1. The great famine of 1959 in the Mizo Hills turned popular anger against the Assam government into an organised political movement.
2. This anger led to the formation of the Mizo National Front (MNF) under the leadership of Laldenga.
3. In 1966, the MNF launched an armed campaign demanding full independence from India.
4. A two-decade long guerrilla war followed between Mizo insurgents and the Indian army.
5. The MNF received support from Pakistan and took shelter in the then East Pakistan.
6. Indian security forces responded with repressive counter-insurgency measures, at one point even using the Air Force, which deepened local anger and alienation.
7. Eventually, Laldenga returned from exile in Pakistan and opened negotiations with the Indian government, which Rajiv Gandhi steered to a positive conclusion.
8. In 1986, a peace agreement was signed under which Mizoram was granted full statehood with special powers, the MNF gave up its secessionist struggle, and Laldenga became the first Chief Minister of the new state.

Q7. Discuss any eight developments connected with Centre-State relations in Punjab between 1973 and 1985. [8 marks]

1. In 1973, a section of the Akali Dal passed the Anandpur Sahib Resolution demanding greater regional autonomy for Punjab.
2. The Akali Dal formed coalition governments in 1967 and 1977, but these governments were dismissed by the Centre before completing their terms.
3. After the 1980 dismissal of the Akali government, the party launched an agitation over the sharing of river waters with neighbouring states.
4. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale rose to prominence, demanding full implementation of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution and using increasingly militant methods.
5. Militants built an armed base inside the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar.
6. In June 1984, the Government of India carried out Operation Blue Star, which cleared the militants but damaged the shrine and hurt Sikh sentiment.
7. On 31 October 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own Sikh bodyguards, followed by large-scale anti-Sikh violence in Delhi and elsewhere.
8. In July 1985, Rajiv Gandhi signed the Punjab Accord with Akali leader Harchand Singh Longowal, agreeing to transfer Chandigarh to Punjab, set up a border commission and a water-sharing tribunal, and withdraw AFSPA.

Q8. Compare the resolution of the regional movements in Nagaland and Mizoram, bringing out any four points of difference. [4 marks]

1. The Naga movement began earlier, in 1951, under Phizo and the Naga National Council, while the Mizo movement under the MNF began its armed campaign only in 1966.
2. The 1975 Shillong Accord in Nagaland was accepted only by a section of the rebels, while the 1986 Mizo Accord was accepted by the main insurgent organisation, the MNF.
3. The Naga problem remained unresolved after the Shillong Accord, while the Mizo problem was effectively resolved by the 1986 Accord.
4. Mizoram was granted full statehood as part of its settlement in 1986, becoming a peaceful state, while Nagaland's underlying separatist demand continued without a final resolution in this period.

Key takeaways

• The Janata Government of 1977 to 1979, formed after the Emergency under Morarji Desai, undid several Emergency-era measures but fell due to internal factionalism and Charan Singh's withdrawal of support.
• The Anandpur Sahib Resolution of 1973 demanded regional autonomy for Punjab but had limited mass appeal until the movement later turned militant.
• Operation Blue Star in June 1984 and the assassination of Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984 were followed by large-scale anti-Sikh violence.
• The Punjab Accord of 1985 addressed Chandigarh, the border dispute and river waters, but violence in Punjab continued for almost a decade afterwards.
• The AASU-led Assam Movement of 1979 to 1985 was against illegal immigration and ended with the Assam Accord of 1985 and the formation of the AGP government.
• The Shillong Accord of 1975 was signed with only a section of Naga rebels and did not end the Naga separatist movement.
• The Mizoram Movement, led by the MNF under Laldenga from 1966, was resolved by the 1986 Mizo Accord, which granted Mizoram full statehood.
• Comparing Punjab, Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram shows that negotiated accords could end some movements fully, as in Mizoram, but only partially settle others, as in Nagaland and Punjab.

Test yourself

Who became Prime Minister after the fall of the Morarji Desai government in 1979?

Charan Singh became Prime Minister briefly, with outside support from the Congress, but his government soon lost that support and could not prove a majority.

What was the Mandal Commission set up in 1979 to examine?

It was set up to examine reservation for socially and educationally backward classes in India.

Name the organisation that led the anti-foreigner movement in Assam from 1979.

The All Assam Students' Union (AASU), working with the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad, led the movement.

What happened to the Golden Temple complex during Operation Blue Star in June 1984?

The Indian army cleared militants from the complex, but the operation also damaged the historic shrine and deeply hurt Sikh religious sentiment.

What did the Mizo Accord of 1986 grant to Mizoram?

It granted Mizoram full statehood with special powers, and the Mizo National Front agreed to give up its secessionist struggle.

Why did the Shillong Accord of 1975 fail to end the Naga problem?

It was signed with only a section of the Naga rebels; other rebels rejected it, and in 1980 those opposed formed the NSCN and continued the armed struggle.

What did the Anandpur Sahib Resolution of 1973 demand?

It demanded regional autonomy for Punjab and a redefined Centre-State relationship, speaking of the aspirations of the Sikh community.