State legislatures in India : Rajasthan legislative assembly a comparative study

Prior to integration, the erstwhile princely states of Rajas than had been under the rulers who wielded absolute power over their unawakened patient masses. Ignorance, orthodoxy, illiteracy and poverty had been for centuries eating into the vitals of the people and had made them utterly helpless and slavish. The rule-making, the rule-application and the rule interpreting powers were embodied in the princes who and their British overlords wanted change. The Indian no nationalists too were engrossed in their struggle in British India to be able to pay attention to the suffering masses of Indian India. It was only in late thirties that the people grew somewhat conscious of their rights and started sporadic movements through Prajamandals, the press and the platform and some of the rulers in their turn caught air and envisaged the need for liberal reforms. Consequently, Representative Institutions were set up in some of the states; but, in reality, they were nothing but travesties of modern legislature until the formation of the First Rajasthan Legislative Assembly in 1952.

The present study of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly from 1952-66 was necessitated with a view to assessing the growth of the parliamentary system in the State which became an integral part of the Indian Federation under the present Constitution. The formation of a democratically constituted Legislative Assembly was indeed a novel and exciting be ginning but it involved serious difficulties as well. The shift from despotism to democracy was not gradual, as there had been no parliamentary tradition, and the emerging leadership lacked experience to shoulder the highly exacting task. Never theless, the change was peaceful and democratic.