[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":945},["ShallowReactive",2],{"layer:government-india:discover":3},{"layer":4,"contentHash":924,"dependencyHashes":925,"approval":938,"releaseId":944},{"schemaVersion":5,"conceptId":6,"locale":7,"depth":8,"revision":5,"title":9,"subtitle":10,"summary":11,"objectives":12,"estimatedMinutes":18,"plate":19,"blocks":40,"sourceIds":918,"reviewStatus":920,"authoring":921},1,"government-india","en","discover","Who decides the rules?","From an hour in the school hall to a republic of a hundred and forty crore people","Start with thirty children, one football and no rules, and discover the three jobs every group has to invent: making rules, carrying them out and settling disputes. Then meet India's version — the Constitution, three organs, three levels, and the vote.",[13,14,15,16,17],"Name the three jobs every government has to do, and explain why a group keeps them in different hands.","Match India's legislature, executive and judiciary to those three jobs.","Say what democracy and republic mean, and why 26 January 1950 is Republic Day.","Decide whether an everyday problem belongs to local, State or Union government.","List several ways a citizen can take part between elections, including some open to you now.",30,{"title":20,"rows":21},"Lesson plate",[22,25,28,31,34,37],{"label":23,"value":24},"Depth","Discover",{"label":26,"value":27},"Reading time","≈ 30 minutes",{"label":29,"value":30},"Prior knowledge","None — start here",{"label":32,"value":33},"Chapters","10",{"label":35,"value":36},"Labs","Branches, levels, organ sort, word match",{"label":38,"value":39},"Big dates","26 Nov 1949 · 26 Jan 1950",[41,45,51,57,60,65,70,73,78,92,97,100,125,130,135,144,149,152,156,170,174,220,238,243,246,250,279,282,311,316,321,384,389,392,408,412,483,505,510,513,555,559,591,596,599,627,631,644,649,652,684,688,691,695,700,703,733,737,742,747,750,881,887,891,907],{"id":42,"type":43,"markdown":44},"intro-corridor","prose","Picture the last day before the holidays. Your class gets the hall to itself for one hour. No\ntimetable, no teacher, just thirty-odd children and a football.\n\nFor about four minutes it is wonderful. Then three things happen at once. Someone wants to play\ncarrom and someone else wants to play football in the same corner. The football team cannot agree\nwhether that last goal counted. And nobody has decided who carries the carrom board back.\n\nNothing terrible has happened. But the hour is already going wrong, and it is going wrong in a very\nparticular way — a way that repeats in a housing society, in a village, in a city of two crore\npeople, and in a country of about 140 crore.\n\nThis lesson is about the thing groups invent to stop that happening. We call it **government**.",{"id":46,"type":47,"variant":48,"title":49,"markdown":50},"q-open","callout","question","The question behind this whole topic","Every group larger than a few friends ends up inventing three jobs. What are they, and\nwho should be allowed to do them?\n\nHold that question. By the end of this lesson you will be able to name all three jobs, point to who\ndoes each one in India, and say where you fit in.",{"id":52,"type":53,"title":54,"eyebrow":55,"navLabel":56},"ch01","chapter","An hour in the hall: why a group needs rules","Chapter 01","1 Why rules",{"id":58,"type":43,"markdown":59},"rules-need","Go back to the hall. What actually went wrong?\n\n- **Two people wanted the same corner.** Not because either was bad, but because there was one\n  corner and two good ideas for it.\n- **Nobody could settle the goal argument.** Both sides were sure. Sureness is not a referee.\n- **A job that helped everybody — carrying the board back — belonged to nobody.**\n\nThese three troubles are not about children, and they are not about football. They turn up whenever\npeople share anything: a road, a river, a railway line, a playground, a hospital queue.\n\nA **rule** is a promise the group makes in advance, so that it does not have to argue about the same\nthing every single time.",{"id":61,"type":47,"variant":62,"title":63,"markdown":64},"def-rule","definition","Rule, law, government","A **rule** is an agreement about what people in a group may and may not do.\n\nA **law** is a rule that a whole country has agreed on, written down, and will actually enforce.\n\nA **government** is the set of people and offices a group sets up to *make* its rules, *carry them\nout*, and *settle arguments* about them.",{"id":66,"type":47,"variant":67,"title":68,"markdown":69},"tryit-hall","try_it","The five-rule hall","Get four or five friends together and give yourselves the imaginary hall for one hour.\n\n1. On your own, each write down the **three** rules you think the hour needs. Do not talk yet.\n2. Now read them out. Count how many of you wrote roughly the same rule. Usually two or three match\n   almost exactly. That is interesting on its own: people who never discussed it still agree about a\n   lot.\n3. Argue your way down to **five** rules everyone can live with.\n4. Last and hardest: decide **who decides** if someone breaks one, and **what happens next**.\n\nStep 4 always takes longer than steps 1 to 3 together. That is the real discovery.",{"id":71,"type":43,"markdown":72},"rules-not-enough","Here is the thing most people miss. Writing the five rules is the *easy* part.\n\nSuppose your rules are perfect. Somebody still has to:\n\n- **decide** what the rules are in the first place, and change them when they stop working;\n- **do** the things the rules promise — actually fetch the carrom board, actually mark the pitch;\n- **judge** what happened when two people tell the story differently.\n\nThree different jobs. Three different skills. And — this is the big idea of the whole topic — three\njobs that a sensible group does **not** hand to the same person.",{"id":74,"type":47,"variant":75,"title":76,"markdown":77},"aha-three-jobs","aha","The three jobs, once and for all","**Make the rules. Carry out the rules. Settle disputes about the rules.**\n\nEvery government on Earth, from a residents' association to the Republic of India, is built around\nthose three jobs. Everything else — Parliament, ministers, courts, panchayats, police, clerks — is\ndetail about *who* does *which*.",{"id":79,"type":80,"component":81,"componentVersion":5,"config":82,"objective":86,"textAlternative":87,"help":88},"lab-branches-intro","interactive","gov-structure",{"modes":83,"quizRounds":85},[84],"branches",6,"Meet the three jobs of government and sort real decisions into the organ that does each one.","This lab shows three large panels side by side, labelled **Legislature**, **Executive** and\n**Judiciary**, each with a plain-language subtitle: *makes the rules*, *carries them out*, *settles\ndisputes*.\n\nTapping a panel opens it. The legislature panel shows Parliament, with two chambers drawn as two\nrows of seats. The executive panel shows the Council of Ministers above a much larger block of\noffices labelled *civil service* — ministries, collectors, clerks, engineers, teachers. The\njudiciary panel shows a pyramid: the Supreme Court at the top, High Courts below it, district courts\nat the base.\n\nA quiz then deals out six cards, one at a time, and asks which panel each belongs to. Sample cards\nand their answers: *\"Passes a new road safety law\"* goes to the legislature; *\"Sends road engineers\nto repair a bridge\"* goes to the executive; *\"Decides whether that law breaks the Constitution\"*\ngoes to the judiciary.\n\nThe lab keeps score and, whenever a card is placed wrongly, explains the difference between deciding\na rule and deciding a case.",{"simplerExplanation":89,"hints":90},"Three boxes: one writes rules, one does things, one settles fights.",[91],"Ask yourself: is this card about writing a rule, doing a job, or judging an argument?",{"id":93,"type":53,"title":94,"eyebrow":95,"navLabel":96},"ch02","From a stairwell to a state: the same three jobs, bigger","Chapter 02","2 Scaling up",{"id":98,"type":43,"markdown":99},"society-scale","Leave the hall and walk into an ordinary apartment building or a village lane. The same three jobs\nare already there, and nobody called them government.\n\nIn a **residents' association**, the people who live in the building meet and agree rules: no loud\nmusic after ten, ₹500 a month from every flat for the lift. That is the *rule-making* job. A\nsecretary and a treasurer then collect the money, call the lift mechanic and pay the electricity\nbill. That is the *carrying-out* job. And when two neighbours quarrel about a parking slot, the\ncommittee hears both and decides. That is the *settling* job.\n\nNow make the group bigger. A village. A district. A state with more people than most countries in\nthe world. The three jobs do not change. Only two things change:\n\n1. **You cannot all fit in one room any more.** So the group *chooses* some people to speak for it.\n2. **The jobs get too big for volunteers.** So they become full-time offices with rules of their own.",{"id":101,"type":102,"title":103,"items":104},"steps-scale","steps","The same three jobs at five sizes",[105,109,113,117,121],{"title":106,"tag":107,"text":108},"Your class","about 40 people","Class rules on the board; the monitor carries them out; the teacher settles arguments. Everyone knows everyone.",{"title":110,"tag":111,"text":112},"A housing society","about 200 people","A general body meets and agrees rules; a managing committee runs the building; the committee hears complaints.",{"title":114,"tag":115,"text":116},"A village","about 2,500 people","The gram sabha — every adult voter in the village — meets; an elected gram panchayat spends the money; disputes go to officials and courts. A panchayat fund of ₹40 lakh is about ₹1,600 per person.",{"title":118,"tag":119,"text":120},"A state","crores of people","An elected Vidhan Sabha makes state laws; a Chief Minister and ministers run departments; High Courts and district courts decide cases.",{"title":122,"tag":123,"text":124},"India","about 140 crore","Parliament makes Union laws; the President, Prime Minister, Council of Ministers and the civil service carry them out; the Supreme Court sits at the top of the courts.",{"id":126,"type":47,"variant":127,"title":128,"markdown":129},"obs-nobody-in-charge","observation","Nobody is in charge of everything","Look down that table again. At no size does one person do all three jobs.\n\nEven in your class, the monitor does not get to invent the rules *and* judge whether you broke them.\nIt would feel unfair — and you would be right. That feeling is the seed of one of the most important\nideas in government, which has a grand name: the **separation of powers**.",{"id":131,"type":47,"variant":132,"title":133,"markdown":134},"misc-one-person","misconception","“The government” is one person","People say *the government decided* the way they say *the shop closed*, as though it\nwere one thing with one mind.\n\nIt is not. In India, \"the government\" at any moment includes hundreds of elected members arguing in\nParliament, a Council of Ministers, several lakh civil servants, twenty-eight state governments,\nhundreds of district administrations, thousands of municipalities and panchayats, and a judiciary\nthat answers to none of them.\n\nMany of those parts regularly disagree with each other **on purpose**. That is not the system\nbreaking down. That is the system working.",{"id":136,"type":80,"component":81,"componentVersion":5,"config":137,"objective":140,"textAlternative":141,"help":142},"lab-levels-intro",{"modes":138,"quizRounds":85},[139],"levels","See the three levels of government in India and find out which one handles each everyday thing.","This lab draws three rings, one inside the next, like a target seen from above.\n\nThe **outer ring** is the Union (central) government in New Delhi: Parliament, the President and the\nPrime Minister. It looks after things that belong to the whole country — defence, railways, the\nrupee, passports, posts.\n\nThe **middle ring** is your State government: a Vidhan Sabha, a Governor and a Chief Minister. It\nlooks after police, agriculture, public health and hospitals, and most schools.\n\nThe **inner ring** is local government, the ring you actually live in: a gram panchayat in a village\nor a municipal corporation in a town. It looks after street lights, drinking water taps, local\nroads, drains, rubbish collection and the weekly market.\n\nTapping any ring zooms into it and lists the offices inside. A quiz then names an everyday problem —\n*\"the street light outside your gate has been dead for a week\"*, *\"a new railway line to your town\"*,\n*\"a new police station for your area\"* — and asks which ring should be tapped. The street light is\nlocal; the railway is Union; the police station is State.",{"anotherExample":143},"A broken hand-pump is the inner ring. A new national highway is the outer ring.",{"id":145,"type":53,"title":146,"eyebrow":147,"navLabel":148},"ch03","Chosen by the people: what democracy means","Chapter 03","3 Democracy",{"id":150,"type":43,"markdown":151},"democracy-intro","So a country needs people to do the three jobs. The next question is the one that has caused more\narguments, and more courage, than almost any other in history: **who gets to choose them?**\n\nFor most of human history the answer was: nobody chose. You were ruled by whoever was born into the\nright family, or whoever had the largest army.\n\nIndia's answer, written into its Constitution, is different. The people choose. Every citizen aged\n18 or older gets one vote, and every vote counts exactly the same — the richest person in\nthe state and the poorest person in the village cancel each other out precisely.\n\nThat idea has a name: **democracy**, from two old Greek words meaning *people* and *power*.",{"id":153,"type":47,"variant":62,"title":154,"markdown":155},"def-democracy","Democracy, in one line","**Democracy** is a system in which the government is chosen by the people it governs,\nand can be replaced by them.\n\nIn a country the size of India, everybody cannot decide everything directly, so we use\n**representative democracy**: the people elect representatives, and those representatives make the\nlaws. You elect one member for your area; about 543 such members together make up the Lok\nSabha.",{"id":157,"type":158,"title":159,"problem":160,"steps":161,"help":168},"we-class-vote","worked_example","A class election, and the surprise inside it","Your class of 40 children elects a monitor. Three candidates stand.\n\n- Meera gets 17 votes\n- Arjun gets 14 votes\n- Fatima gets 9 votes\n\nWho wins? And what share of the class actually voted for the winner?",[162,163,164,165,166,167],"Check the counting first. 17 + 14 + 9 = 40. Everyone voted, and nobody voted twice. ✓","The winner is whoever has the **most** votes. 17 is more than 14 and more than 9, so **Meera wins**.","Now the share. 17 out of 40 is 17 ÷ 40 = 0.425, which is **42.5%**.","So 40 − 17 = **23 children, more than half the class, voted for somebody else** — and Meera is still the monitor.","For more than half the class you would need at least 21 votes, because 21 is the smallest whole number bigger than 40 ÷ 2 = 20.","That gap between *most votes* and *more than half the votes* is not a mistake in the counting. It is built into this way of voting, and India's elections work the same way. You will meet it again, with real numbers, in Investigate.",{"simplerExplanation":169},"Meera had the biggest pile of votes, but her pile was still smaller than the other two piles put together.",{"id":171,"type":47,"variant":62,"title":172,"markdown":173},"def-republic","Republic: why India has a President and not a king","A **republic** is a country whose head of state is chosen, not born.\n\nIndia's head of state is the **President**, who holds office for 5 years and is\nelected. A monarchy's head of state is a king or queen who inherits the job and keeps it for life.\n\nThat single word is why 26 January 1950 is called **Republic Day** and\nnot Independence Day. India became independent in 1947; it became a *republic* — a country that\nchooses its own head of state under its own constitution — on that day in 1950.",{"id":175,"type":176,"title":177,"prompt":178,"options":179},"explore-who-decides","explorer","Four ways a country can be run","Pick a system to see who decides, and how a person at the bottom can change it.",[180,191,200,211],{"id":181,"label":182,"chain":183,"badge":187,"note":190},"monarchy","Monarchy",[184,185,186],"Born into the family","Rules for life","Passes it to a child",{"text":188,"tone":189},"People do not choose","no","A king or queen inherits power. Some modern monarchies, such as the United Kingdom's, keep the crown only as a ceremony while elected politicians actually govern; these are called constitutional monarchies. In an absolute monarchy the monarch really decides. The ordinary person's route to change is to petition, persuade — or rebel.",{"id":192,"label":193,"chain":194,"badge":198,"note":199},"dictatorship","Dictatorship",[195,196,197],"Takes power","Silences rivals","Keeps power",{"text":188,"tone":189},"One person or one small group holds power without a real election, usually by controlling the army, the police and what people are allowed to say. Elections may still be held, but with no genuine choice and no free counting. An ordinary person has no lawful way to remove the ruler, which is exactly the point of the design.",{"id":201,"label":202,"chain":203,"badge":207,"note":210},"democracy","Democracy",[204,205,206],"People vote","Representatives make laws","People can vote them out",{"text":208,"tone":209},"People choose, and can change their minds","yes","Adults vote in regular elections for representatives, who make the laws. The crucial part is not the voting; it is that the *next* election is guaranteed. A government that loses has to leave. India has held a general election roughly every five years since 1951-52.",{"id":212,"label":213,"chain":214,"badge":218,"note":219},"republic","Republic",[215,216,217],"No inherited ruler","Head of state is chosen","Constitution above everyone",{"text":216,"tone":209},"In a republic nobody inherits the top job, and a written constitution stands above every office in the land, including the President's. India is both a democracy and a republic. A country can be one without the other: a constitutional monarchy is a democracy that is not a republic, and some republics are not democracies at all.",{"id":221,"type":222,"prompt":223,"options":224,"explanation":237},"predict-no-election","prediction","A country holds one election, and the winners then decide never to\nhold another. Is that country still a democracy?",[225,228,231,234],{"id":226,"label":227},"a","Yes — the people chose them once, and that is enough",{"id":229,"label":230},"b","No — democracy needs the people to be able to change their minds later",{"id":232,"label":233},"c","Yes, as long as the government does a good job",{"id":235,"label":236},"d","It depends on how many people voted the first time","**b.** This is the heart of it, and it catches almost everyone out the first time.\n\nDemocracy is not really about the one day you vote. It is about the *guarantee of the next day you\nvote*. A government that cannot be removed does not have to listen, however well it started.\n\nThat is why India's Constitution fixes the Lok Sabha's life at **five years and no longer**, why the\nElection Commission — and not the government of the day — runs elections, and why the courts can be\nasked to act if any of that is broken. The design assumes that power, left alone, would rather stay.",{"id":239,"type":53,"title":240,"eyebrow":241,"navLabel":242},"ch04","India's rule book: the Constitution","Chapter 04","4 Constitution",{"id":244,"type":43,"markdown":245},"constitution-intro","When India became independent in 1947, it faced the biggest version of the hall problem ever\nattempted. Hundreds of millions of people, dozens of languages, princely states, and a country that\nhad just been governed by somebody else for a very long time.\n\nSo a large group of people — the **Constituent Assembly** — sat down to write the rule book. They\nfirst met on 9 December 1946. They argued, drafted, re-drafted and\nargued again for 1,083 days, a little under three years, and adopted the finished\nConstitution on **26 November 1949**.\n\nThey did not switch it on straight away. They waited 61 days and brought it into force on\n**26 January 1950** — a date chosen deliberately, because it was already\nbeing remembered by people who had demanded complete independence twenty years earlier.",{"id":247,"type":47,"variant":62,"title":248,"markdown":249},"def-constitution","Constitution","A **constitution** is a country's highest rule book. It sets out how the government is\nbuilt, what each part may and may not do, and what rights every person has that the government\ncannot take away.\n\nOrdinary laws must obey it. If Parliament passes a law that clashes with the Constitution, the courts\ncan strike that law down. There is no office in India — not the Prime Minister's, not the\nPresident's, not the Supreme Court's — that stands above it.",{"id":251,"type":252,"tone":253,"items":254},"spec-constitution","spec","blue",[255,259,263,267,271,275],{"label":256,"big":257,"value":258},"Adopted","26 Nov 1949","By the Constituent Assembly, in its own words: *we, the people of India, do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution*.",{"label":260,"big":261,"value":262},"In force","26 Jan 1950","Republic Day. India became a sovereign democratic republic under its own rule book.",{"label":264,"big":265,"value":266},"Drafting Committee","Ambedkar","Dr B. R. Ambedkar chaired the committee that turned years of debate into a single draft.",{"label":268,"big":269,"value":270},"Time taken","1,083 days","Just under three years of debate in the Constituent Assembly, from December 1946 to November 1949.",{"label":272,"big":273,"value":274},"Size","395 articles","Originally 395 articles, 22 parts and 8 schedules — the longest written constitution of any country.",{"label":276,"big":277,"value":278},"Can it change?","Yes","It has been amended more than 100 times. Changing it is deliberately much harder than changing an ordinary law.",{"id":280,"type":43,"markdown":281},"preamble-intro","The Constitution opens with a single sentence called the **Preamble**. It is the only part most\nIndians can half-remember, and it is worth slowing down for, because it is the promise the rest of\nthe book tries to keep.\n\nIt begins **\"WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA\"** — not *we, the rulers*, not *we, the assembly*. Four words\nthat decide where power comes from.\n\nIt then describes the country the people are making: a **sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic\nrepublic**. Five heavy words. Here is what each one means, in ordinary language.",{"id":283,"type":284,"caption":285,"columns":286,"rows":290},"table-preamble","table","The five words in the Preamble, in ordinary language",[287,288,289],"Word","What it means","What it rules out",[291,295,299,303,307],[292,293,294],"**Sovereign**","India decides its own affairs. No outside country or ruler gives it orders.","Being a colony, a dominion, or taking instructions from anyone else.",[296,297,298],"**Socialist**","The state should work to reduce the huge gaps between rich and poor, and care about everyone's basic needs.","A country that shrugs at poverty because it is somebody else's problem.",[300,301,302],"**Secular**","The state has no religion of its own and treats people of every faith, and of none, equally.","An official state religion, or laws that favour one faith over another.",[304,305,306],"**Democratic**","The government is chosen by the people, in regular elections, one adult one vote.","Rulers who are never chosen and never removed.",[308,309,310],"**Republic**","The head of state is elected, not born into the job.","A king or queen at the top.",{"id":312,"type":47,"variant":313,"title":314,"markdown":315},"nuance-preamble-words","nuance","Two of those words were added later","The Preamble originally read *sovereign democratic republic*. The words **socialist** and\n**secular** were inserted by an amendment in 1976, along with the phrase *unity and integrity of the\nNation*.\n\nThat is a useful thing to know for two reasons. It shows that even the Preamble can be amended — and\nit shows that the ideas behind those two words were already running through the rest of the\nConstitution long before they were added to its opening sentence.",{"id":317,"type":47,"variant":318,"title":319,"markdown":320},"ex-ambedkar","example","The chair of the Drafting Committee","**Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar** chaired the Drafting Committee: the small group that took\nthe Constituent Assembly's decisions and turned them into precise legal sentences, clause by clause,\nthen defended every one of them in debate.\n\nBorn into a community treated as \"untouchable\", he had been refused water at school and made to sit\napart from other children. He went on to study in Mumbai, New York and London, and became one of the\nbest-trained lawyers of his generation.\n\nThe document he shepherded abolished untouchability outright and guaranteed equality before the law\nto every person in India. It is hard to think of a better answer to a schoolroom that made a child\nsit on the floor.",{"id":322,"type":323,"title":324,"terms":325},"glossary-discover","glossary","Words you have just met",[326,330,334,338,341,344,348,352,356,360,364,368,372,376,380],{"term":327,"meaning":328,"example":329},"government","The set of people and offices a group uses to make its rules, carry them out and settle disputes about them.","India's government has three organs and three levels.",{"term":331,"meaning":332,"example":333},"law","A rule made by a legislature that a whole country or state must follow, and that will be enforced.","A road safety law applies to everyone driving on that road.",{"term":335,"meaning":336,"example":337},"constitution","A country's highest rule book, which all other laws and all offices must obey.","India's Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950.",{"term":201,"meaning":339,"example":340},"A system in which the people choose their government and can replace it at the next election.","India holds a Lok Sabha election about every five years.",{"term":212,"meaning":342,"example":343},"A country whose head of state is elected rather than born into the job.","India's head of state is the President.",{"term":345,"meaning":346,"example":347},"Preamble","The opening sentence of the Constitution, which states who the power belongs to and what kind of country it is building.","It begins 'WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA'.",{"term":349,"meaning":350,"example":351},"citizen","A full member of a country, with rights the state must protect and duties the country expects.","Indian citizens aged 18 or more may vote.",{"term":353,"meaning":354,"example":355},"legislature","The organ of government that makes laws.","Parliament is India's Union legislature.",{"term":357,"meaning":358,"example":359},"executive","The organ that carries out the laws and runs the country day to day.","Ministers and the civil service.",{"term":361,"meaning":362,"example":363},"judiciary","The organ of independent courts that settles disputes and decides what the law means.","The Supreme Court is at the top of it.",{"term":365,"meaning":366,"example":367},"Parliament","India's Union legislature: the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and the President together.","A bill must pass both Houses.",{"term":369,"meaning":370,"example":371},"panchayat","An elected council that governs a village or a group of villages.","A gram panchayat decides local repairs and water supply.",{"term":373,"meaning":374,"example":375},"municipality","An elected body that governs a town or city.","A municipal corporation runs a large city's water and rubbish collection.",{"term":377,"meaning":378,"example":379},"vote","The choice one person makes in an election; each adult citizen gets exactly one.","Your vote counts the same as everybody else's.",{"term":381,"meaning":382,"example":383},"election","The process by which people choose their representatives.","The Election Commission runs India's elections.",{"id":385,"type":53,"title":386,"eyebrow":387,"navLabel":388},"ch05","Three organs: who makes, who does, who judges","Chapter 05","5 Three organs",{"id":390,"type":43,"markdown":391},"organs-intro","Now we can put real Indian names on the three jobs. The Constitution calls them the three **organs**\nof government, which is a nicely chosen word: not three separate machines, but three organs of one\nbody, each doing something the others cannot.",{"id":393,"type":102,"title":394,"items":395},"steps-organs","The three organs, with real names",[396,400,404],{"title":397,"tag":398,"text":399},"Legislature","makes the laws","**Parliament** for the whole country: the Lok Sabha (543 elected members) and the Rajya Sabha (up to 245). Each state also has its own legislature for state laws.",{"title":401,"tag":402,"text":403},"Executive","carries them out","The **President** as head of state, the **Prime Minister** as head of government, the Council of Ministers — and, behind them, the enormous permanent civil service that actually runs schools, hospitals, offices and trains.",{"title":405,"tag":406,"text":407},"Judiciary","settles disputes","The **Supreme Court** in New Delhi, a **High Court** for each state or group of states, and **district courts** everywhere else. Independent of the other two, on purpose.",{"id":409,"type":47,"variant":75,"title":410,"markdown":411},"aha-not-the-same-people","Why they must be different people","Imagine one office that could write a rule, decide you had broken it, and punish you —\nwith nobody to appeal to.\n\nYou would have no defence at all, because the same person would be prosecutor, rule-maker and judge.\nSplitting the three jobs is not bureaucracy for its own sake. It is the single most effective\nprotection an ordinary person has against being crushed by their own government.",{"id":413,"type":80,"component":414,"componentVersion":5,"config":415,"objective":477,"textAlternative":478,"help":479},"lab-sort-organ","sort-game",{"prompt":416,"bins":417,"items":427,"seconds":476},"Which organ of government does each of these?",[418,421,424],{"id":419,"label":420},"legis","Legislature — makes laws",{"id":422,"label":423},"exec","Executive — carries out",{"id":425,"label":426},"jud","Judiciary — judges",[428,432,436,440,444,448,452,456,460,464,468,472],{"id":429,"label":430,"bin":419,"why":431},"s1","Debating and voting on a new bill about school meals","Making a rule is the legislature's job. Parliament debates the bill and votes on it.",{"id":433,"label":434,"bin":422,"why":435},"s2","Running the school meal scheme in every district","Once a law exists, the executive — ministers and the civil service — actually delivers it.",{"id":437,"label":438,"bin":425,"why":439},"s3","Deciding whether the scheme unfairly leaves some children out","A dispute about what the law means, or whether it is fair under the Constitution, goes to a court.",{"id":441,"label":442,"bin":422,"why":443},"s4","Collecting taxes from shops and salaries","Parliament decides the tax rates; the tax department collects the money. Collecting is executive work.",{"id":445,"label":446,"bin":419,"why":447},"s5","Deciding the rate of a new tax","Only the legislature can create or change a tax. No tax may be levied except by authority of law.",{"id":449,"label":450,"bin":425,"why":451},"s6","Sentencing someone convicted of theft","Only a court may decide guilt and punishment after hearing both sides.",{"id":453,"label":454,"bin":422,"why":455},"s7","Sending relief supplies after a flood","Emergency response is carried out by the executive: the district administration, the disaster response force, state departments.",{"id":457,"label":458,"bin":419,"why":459},"s8","Asking a minister a question in Question Hour","Questioning ministers is one of Parliament's main ways of holding the executive to account.",{"id":461,"label":462,"bin":425,"why":463},"s9","Striking down a law that clashes with the Constitution","This is called judicial review. Only the courts can do it.",{"id":465,"label":466,"bin":422,"why":467},"s10","Appointing an engineer to a state road department","Staffing and running departments is executive work, done under service rules.",{"id":469,"label":470,"bin":419,"why":471},"s11","Passing the annual Budget","The government proposes the Budget, but only Parliament can approve the spending and the taxes.",{"id":473,"label":474,"bin":425,"why":475},"s12","Hearing an appeal from a High Court","Appeals travel upwards through the courts, ending at the Supreme Court.",0,"Sort twelve everyday government actions into the organ that does them.","This is a sorting game with three bins: **Legislature — makes laws**, **Executive — carries\nout** and **Judiciary — judges**.\n\nTwelve cards are dealt one at a time and you drop each into a bin. Correct placements: debating a\nbill, deciding a tax rate, asking a minister a question in Question Hour and passing the Budget all\ngo to the **legislature**. Running a school meal scheme, collecting taxes, sending flood relief and\nappointing a road engineer go to the **executive**. Deciding whether a scheme leaves children out\nunfairly, sentencing a convicted thief, striking down an unconstitutional law and hearing an appeal\nfrom a High Court go to the **judiciary**.\n\nEach card, once placed, shows a one-line reason. The game keeps a score and a streak. The pattern\nworth noticing: *deciding the rule* is legislature, *doing the work* is executive, *judging a\nparticular case* is judiciary.",{"hints":480},[481,482],"Cards with the words 'decide the rate' or 'pass' are usually legislature.","Cards about a particular person's case are judiciary.",{"id":484,"type":485,"itemId":486,"prompt":487,"check":488,"hints":500,"feedback":502},"prac-organ","practice","government-india.discover-organ","A state government builds a new bus stand. Two shopkeepers say it was built on their\nland and go to court. Which organ of government hears them?",{"kind":489,"options":490,"correct":499},"choice",[491,493,495,497],{"id":226,"label":492},"The legislature",{"id":229,"label":494},"The executive",{"id":232,"label":496},"The judiciary",{"id":235,"label":498},"The Election Commission",[232],[501],"Somebody has to decide between two competing stories. Which organ is built for that?",{"correct":503,"incorrect":504},"Right. Building the bus stand was executive work; deciding the *dispute* about it is judicial work, and it goes to a court.","The executive built it, so the executive cannot fairly judge the complaint against itself. Disputes go to the **judiciary**.",{"id":506,"type":53,"title":507,"eyebrow":508,"navLabel":509},"ch06","Near, middle and far: the three levels","Chapter 06","6 Three levels",{"id":511,"type":43,"markdown":512},"levels-intro","India is far too big for one office in New Delhi to fix your street light. So the three jobs are\nalso split a second way — not by *kind of job* this time, but by *how close the job is to you*.\n\n- **Local government** — your gram panchayat, or your town's municipality. Closest to you, smallest\n  budget, and the one you are most likely to meet in person.\n- **State government** — one for each of India's states, and its own arrangements for the Union\n  Territories. Police, most schools, hospitals, agriculture, roads within the state.\n- **Union government** — the whole country. Defence, foreign affairs, railways, the rupee,\n  passports, posts.\n\nSplitting a country's power between a central government and state governments like this has a name:\na **federal** structure. India's version is unusual, because the Constitution writes down exactly\nwhich subjects belong to whom, in three lists. You will meet those lists properly in Investigate.",{"id":514,"type":284,"caption":515,"columns":516,"rows":520},"table-who-runs-what","Who runs what: a quick tour of an ordinary day",[517,518,519],"Thing","Level","Why",[521,525,529,533,537,540,543,546,549,552],[522,523,524],"The train you took to your cousin's town","Union","Railways is a Union subject: one network, one gauge, one timetable across state borders.",[526,527,528],"The police station near the market","State","Police is a State subject. Each state runs and pays for its own police force.",[530,531,532],"Your school","Mostly State","Education is shared between the Union and the States, but most schools are run under state rules.",[534,535,536],"The street light outside your gate","Local","Street lighting belongs to the gram panchayat or the municipality.",[538,535,539],"The drinking water tap in your lane","Water supply within a village or ward is local government work.",[541,523,542],"Your passport","Passports and anything to do with other countries are Union subjects.",[544,535,545],"The rubbish truck","Sanitation and rubbish collection belong to the municipality or panchayat.",[547,527,548],"The hospital in the district town","Public health and hospitals are State subjects.",[550,523,551],"The rupee note in your pocket","Currency and coinage are Union subjects. Only the Union can issue money.",[553,523,554],"The national highway out of town","Highways declared national highways are Union; other roads in the state are not.",{"id":556,"type":47,"variant":67,"title":557,"markdown":558},"tryit-walk","The ten-minute government walk","Walk ten minutes from your front door with a notebook. Write down every single thing you\npass that somebody had to decide about, build or maintain.\n\nA typical list: the road surface, the drain beside it, the street light, the water pipe, the\nelectricity pole, the bus stop, the school gate, the ration shop, the post box, the park, the traffic\nsign.\n\nNow put a **L**, **S** or **U** beside each one for Local, State or Union. You will be unsure about\nseveral — good, so is nearly everybody, and Investigate sorts them out. But notice the count. Most\nof the things you touch every day are **local**, and local government is the level most people know\nleast about and vote in least.",{"id":560,"type":80,"component":561,"componentVersion":5,"config":562,"objective":589,"textAlternative":590},"lab-match-words","match-pairs",{"prompt":563,"mode":564,"pairs":565},"Match each word about government to what it actually means.","connect",[566,568,570,572,574,576,578,581,584,587],{"a":248,"b":567},"The country's highest rule book",{"a":397,"b":569},"Makes the laws",{"a":401,"b":571},"Carries out the laws",{"a":405,"b":573},"Settles disputes about the laws",{"a":202,"b":575},"The people choose the government",{"a":213,"b":577},"The head of state is elected, not born",{"a":579,"b":580},"Gram panchayat","Elected council that runs a village",{"a":582,"b":583},"Municipality","Elected body that runs a town or city",{"a":585,"b":586},"Citizen","A full member of the country, with rights and duties",{"a":345,"b":588},"The Constitution's opening promise","Fix the ten core words of this topic by matching each to its plain meaning.","A matching game with ten cards on the left and ten meanings on the right; you draw a line\nbetween each pair.\n\nThe correct pairs are: Constitution — the country's highest rule book; Legislature — makes the laws;\nExecutive — carries out the laws; Judiciary — settles disputes about the laws; Democracy — the people\nchoose the government; Republic — the head of state is elected, not born; Gram panchayat — elected\ncouncil that runs a village; Municipality — elected body that runs a town or city; Citizen — a full\nmember of the country, with rights and duties; Preamble — the Constitution's opening promise.\n\nThe game counts your moves and your time, so a second attempt usually feels much faster. If you are\nstuck, remember that the three organs go in the order *make, do, judge*.",{"id":592,"type":53,"title":593,"eyebrow":594,"navLabel":595},"ch07","The day the whole country chooses","Chapter 07","7 Voting",{"id":597,"type":43,"markdown":598},"voting-intro","Every five years or so, India does something no other country on Earth does at this size. Roughly\n**97.8 crore** people are on the voters' list. Polling stations are set up in\ndeserts, on islands, in forests and high in the mountains — including some that exist for a tiny\nhandful of voters, because the rule is that no voter should have to travel too far.\n\nOn the day itself, a voter walks in, gives their name, has a finger marked with indelible ink so\nthey cannot vote twice, steps behind a screen and presses one button on an **electronic voting\nmachine (EVM)**. A small window lights up and shows a printed slip with the chosen symbol for about\nseven seconds — that is the **VVPAT**, the paper trail that lets the machine be checked. Then the\nslip drops into a sealed box.\n\nNobody watches you press the button. That is not politeness; it is the law. A **secret ballot** means\nnobody — not your employer, not a candidate, not your neighbour — can find out how you voted, so\nnobody can usefully threaten you about it.",{"id":600,"type":252,"tone":601,"items":602},"spec-election-numbers","amber",[603,607,611,615,619,623],{"label":604,"big":605,"value":606},"Voting age","18 years","Every citizen who has turned 18 and is on the roll may vote, whoever they are. This is called universal adult franchise.",{"label":608,"big":609,"value":610},"Lok Sabha seats","543","Each is filled by direct election from one constituency — one area, one member.",{"label":612,"big":613,"value":614},"Electors, 2024","97.8 crore","The largest electorate ever assembled anywhere. About 97,79,65,560 names on the rolls.",{"label":616,"big":617,"value":618},"Turnout, 2024","66.33%","Roughly 64.9 crore people voted, and about 32.9 crore did not.",{"label":620,"big":621,"value":622},"Who runs it","The ECI","The Election Commission of India, deliberately independent of the government of the day.",{"label":624,"big":625,"value":626},"Term","5 years","The Lok Sabha's maximum life. It may be dissolved earlier, but never extended in normal times.",{"id":628,"type":47,"variant":132,"title":629,"markdown":630},"misc-vote-doesnt-matter","“One vote makes no difference”","It is the commonest thing people say, and it hides a counting mistake.\n\nIf one vote truly made no difference, then no vote would, and the total would be zero. The total is\nnot zero; it is about 64.9 crore. Every one of those is somebody who could have said\nthe same thing and stayed home.\n\nAnd elections really are won by tiny margins. Imagine a seat where one candidate gets\n50,001 votes and the other 50,000. The margin is **1 vote**. Seats have been\ndecided by margins of a few dozen in real Indian elections. Turnout matters for a second reason too:\na representative elected by a small, unrepresentative slice of the area has much less reason to\nlisten to the rest of it.",{"id":632,"type":222,"prompt":633,"options":634,"explanation":643},"predict-turnout","In India's very first general election of 1951-52, about\n45.67% of registered voters actually voted. In 2024 the figure was about\n66.33%. What do you think happened in between?",[635,637,639,641],{"id":226,"label":636},"It rose smoothly and steadily, year after year",{"id":229,"label":638},"It rose overall, but went up and down a lot on the way",{"id":232,"label":640},"It fell for fifty years and then jumped",{"id":235,"label":642},"It stayed almost exactly the same until 2014","**b.** Turnout rose from about 45.67% to a high of 67.4% in\n2019, but the path was bumpy: it dipped below 56% several times along the way, and the\nlowest figure of all, 45.44%, came in 1957, the *second* election rather than\nthe first.\n\nAcross all 18 general elections so far, the average turnout is about\n58.8% and the gap between the highest and the lowest is 21.96 percentage points.\n\nWhy bumpy? Because turnout depends on how close the contest feels, on the weather, on the harvest, on\nhow easy it is to reach a polling station, and on whether people believe the result will change\nanything. You will plot the whole series yourself in Investigate.",{"id":645,"type":53,"title":646,"eyebrow":647,"navLabel":648},"ch08","Your side of the bargain: rights and duties","Chapter 08","8 Rights",{"id":650,"type":43,"markdown":651},"rights-intro","A constitution is a two-way promise. It tells the government what it may do — and it also tells the\ngovernment what it may **never** do to you.\n\nThe Constitution lists a set of **Fundamental Rights** in 6 groups. They are\nnot favours handed out by whoever is in charge. They belong to you, and if a government or an\nofficial breaks one, you can go straight to a court about it.",{"id":653,"type":284,"caption":654,"columns":655,"rows":659},"table-rights-child","Fundamental Rights, at the size of an ordinary life",[656,657,658],"Right","What it means for you","An everyday example",[660,664,668,672,676,680],[661,662,663],"Equality","The state must treat everyone equally, and cannot discriminate against you for your religion, caste, sex, or where you were born. Untouchability is abolished outright.","A public tap, a public school and a public bus are open to every child equally.",[665,666,667],"Freedom","You may say what you think, meet peacefully with others, move anywhere in India, live anywhere and take up any lawful work.","You can move to another state for work without anyone's permission.",[669,670,671],"Against exploitation","Nobody may be forced to work without pay, bought or sold, and children under 14 may not be employed in factories or hazardous work.","A child cannot lawfully be made to work in a factory instead of going to school.",[673,674,675],"Freedom of religion","You may follow, practise and spread any faith, or none. The state has no religion of its own.","Children of different faiths sit in the same classroom on the same terms.",[677,678,679],"Cultural and educational","Groups with their own language, script or culture may keep them, and may run their own schools.","A school may teach in a regional language and keep its own traditions.",[681,682,683],"Constitutional remedies","If any of the rights above is broken, you can go directly to the Supreme Court or a High Court and ask for it to be enforced.","Dr Ambedkar called this one the heart and soul of the Constitution — a right whose whole job is to protect the others.",{"id":685,"type":47,"variant":318,"title":686,"markdown":687},"ex-right-to-education","The right that is about you right now","The Constitution says the State shall provide **free and compulsory education to all\nchildren from 6 to 14 years** — that is 8 years of schooling that\nnobody may charge you for and nobody may keep you out of.\n\nIt was added by an amendment in 2002 and given detail by a law in 2009. Before that, education was a\ngoal the state was told to aim at. Afterwards it became a right a court can enforce.\n\nThat change of one word — from *should try* to *must* — is what an amendment can do.",{"id":689,"type":43,"markdown":690},"duties-intro","The Constitution also lists 11 **Fundamental Duties**: things every citizen is\nexpected to do. They work differently from rights. A court will not usually punish you for failing\none; they are there as a description of what being a citizen asks of you.\n\nSeveral of them are surprisingly doable at your age:\n\n- respect the Constitution, the National Flag and the National Anthem;\n- **protect and improve the natural environment** — forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife — and have\n  compassion for living creatures;\n- **develop the scientific temper**: the habit of asking for evidence instead of accepting a claim\n  because somebody loud said it;\n- **safeguard public property**, which includes not scratching the bus seat and not breaking the\n  park bench;\n- promote harmony between people of every religion, language and region.\n\nRead that list again and notice something. Almost none of it needs a vote, an office or an adult's\npermission.",{"id":692,"type":693,"prompt":694},"reflect-duty","reflection","Pick the one Fundamental Duty from the list above that you think is\nhardest to keep — not for the country, for *you*, this month.\n\nWrite two sentences on why it is hard, and one small thing you could actually do about it this week.\nBe honest rather than impressive; a real small answer is worth more than a grand one.",{"id":696,"type":53,"title":697,"eyebrow":698,"navLabel":699},"ch09","More than voting: what a citizen can actually do","Chapter 09","9 Taking part",{"id":701,"type":43,"markdown":702},"participate-intro","Voting is the loudest thing a citizen does, but it happens once in five years and takes two minutes.\nThe rest of the time, the ways in are quieter and far more available — including to people too young\nto vote.",{"id":704,"type":102,"title":705,"items":706},"steps-participate","Seven ways in, smallest first",[707,711,714,718,722,725,729],{"title":708,"tag":709,"text":710},"Notice","free","Find out who your ward councillor or sarpanch is, and who your MLA and MP are. Most people cannot name any of them, which is exactly why the questions below work.",{"title":712,"tag":709,"text":713},"Go to the gram sabha","In a village, every adult voter is a member of the gram sabha and may attend and speak when the panchayat's plans and accounts are presented.",{"title":715,"tag":716,"text":717},"Write to a representative","a stamp","A polite, specific letter about one thing — a broken hand-pump, an unlit crossing — is far more effective than a long complaint about everything.",{"title":719,"tag":720,"text":721},"Ask under RTI","₹10","The Right to Information Act, 2005 lets any citizen ask a public office for information, usually with a reply due within 30 days.",{"title":723,"tag":709,"text":724},"Join a consultation","Draft laws and city plans are often published for public comments before they are finalised. Anyone may send comments.",{"title":726,"tag":727,"text":728},"Volunteer","time","Clean-ups, tree planting, helping at a library or a school: work that does not wait for anyone's permission.",{"title":730,"tag":731,"text":732},"Vote","at 18","Register as soon as you turn 18. Then use it, in the local elections as well as the big ones.",{"id":734,"type":47,"variant":313,"title":735,"markdown":736},"nuance-rti","The law that lets you ask","The **Right to Information Act, 2005** is one of the quietest and strongest tools an\nIndian citizen has. Any citizen may write to a public authority and ask for information it holds —\nhow much was spent on a road, how many teachers a school has, why a scheme has not reached a village.\n\nThe fee is small — usually about ₹10 — and the office normally has **30 days** to\nreply. Where a person's life or liberty is at stake, the period is just\n**48 hours**.\n\nYou do not have to explain *why* you want to know. That detail matters more than it looks: it means\nan official cannot refuse you because they dislike your reason.",{"id":738,"type":47,"variant":739,"title":740,"markdown":741},"careful-respect","careful","Argue about ideas, not about people","This topic gets heated fast, and it is worth agreeing on a rule before it does.\n\nIn this whole lesson you will not find the name of a single political party or living politician.\nThat is deliberate. The institutions — Parliament, the courts, the Election Commission, your\npanchayat — belong equally to people who disagree with each other completely, and understanding how\nthey work is not the same as deciding who should win.\n\nWhen you discuss this at home or in class: say *\"I think this rule is unfair because…\"*, not *\"people\nwho think that are stupid\"*. The first can change somebody's mind. The second never has.",{"id":743,"type":53,"title":744,"eyebrow":745,"navLabel":746},"ch10","Putting it together","Chapter 10","10 Wrap-up",{"id":748,"type":43,"markdown":749},"wrap","Start in a hall with thirty children, one football and no rules. End in a republic of about a hundred\nand forty crore people. The same three jobs the whole way up: **make the rules, carry them out,\nsettle disputes about them** — kept in different hands on purpose, at three different distances from\nyour front door, under one rule book that the people gave themselves.\n\nThat is the shape of it. The next layer, Understand, fills in how each part actually works: what\nhappens inside the two Houses of Parliament, how a bill becomes an Act, what the President does that\nthe Prime Minister does not, and how a court can tell Parliament that it has gone too far.",{"id":751,"type":752,"title":753,"questions":754},"quiz-discover","quiz","Check what stuck",[755,768,781,794,804,817,830,843,856,868],{"itemId":756,"prompt":757,"options":758,"correct":229,"why":767},"government-india.discover-q-three-jobs","Which three jobs does every government, at every size, have to get done?",[759,761,763,765],{"id":226,"label":760},"Collect taxes, build roads, run schools",{"id":229,"label":762},"Make the rules, carry out the rules, settle disputes about the rules",{"id":232,"label":764},"Elect leaders, write speeches, hold meetings",{"id":235,"label":766},"Defend the border, print money, run the railways","Everything else is detail about who does which. Taxes and roads are examples of the second job; defence and money are examples of it too.",{"itemId":769,"prompt":770,"options":771,"correct":232,"why":780},"government-india.discover-q-adopted","On what date did the Constitution of India come into force?",[772,774,776,778],{"id":226,"label":773},"15 August 1947",{"id":229,"label":775},"26 November 1949",{"id":232,"label":777},"26 January 1950",{"id":235,"label":779},"9 December 1946","It was **adopted** on 26 November 1949 and came **into force** 61 days later, on 26 January 1950 — Republic Day. 15 August 1947 is Independence Day; 9 December 1946 is when the Constituent Assembly first met.",{"itemId":782,"prompt":783,"options":784,"correct":229,"why":793},"government-india.discover-q-republic","What does it mean to say India is a republic?",[785,787,789,791],{"id":226,"label":786},"It has a written constitution",{"id":229,"label":788},"Its head of state is elected, not born into the job",{"id":232,"label":790},"It holds elections every five years",{"id":235,"label":792},"It has states as well as a central government","A republic has no inherited ruler. India's head of state is the President, who is elected. The other three statements are also true of India, but none of them is what the word *republic* means.",{"itemId":795,"prompt":796,"options":797,"correct":232,"why":803},"government-india.discover-q-streetlight","The street light outside your gate has been dead for a week. Which level of government is this?",[798,799,800,801],{"id":226,"label":523},{"id":229,"label":527},{"id":232,"label":535},{"id":235,"label":802},"The Supreme Court","Street lighting is local government: your gram panchayat or your municipality. It is also the level where one letter from one resident is most likely to actually work.",{"itemId":805,"prompt":806,"options":807,"correct":226,"why":816},"government-india.discover-q-secular","In the Preamble, what does the word **secular** mean?",[808,810,812,814],{"id":226,"label":809},"India has no religion of its own and treats every faith equally",{"id":229,"label":811},"Indians are not allowed to follow a religion",{"id":232,"label":813},"Religious festivals cannot be public holidays",{"id":235,"label":815},"Only one religion is official","Secular describes the *state*, not the people. The state has no religion, favours none, and protects everyone's freedom to follow any faith or none at all.",{"itemId":818,"prompt":819,"options":820,"correct":229,"why":829},"government-india.discover-q-judiciary","Why is it important that judges are not the same people as the ministers?",[821,823,825,827],{"id":226,"label":822},"Because judges know more law",{"id":229,"label":824},"So that the people who run the country cannot also judge complaints against themselves",{"id":232,"label":826},"Because the Constitution says so, with no reason given",{"id":235,"label":828},"So that courts can make new laws","Nobody should be judge in their own case. Keeping the judiciary independent is the ordinary person's protection when the government itself is the other side of the argument. Courts do not make policy — that is the legislature's job.",{"itemId":831,"prompt":832,"options":833,"correct":229,"why":842},"government-india.discover-q-votingage","At what age does an Indian citizen become entitled to vote?",[834,836,838,840],{"id":226,"label":835},"16",{"id":229,"label":837},"18",{"id":232,"label":839},"21",{"id":235,"label":841},"25","Every citizen aged 18 or more who is on the electoral roll may vote. It was 21 until an amendment lowered it to 18 in 1988.",{"itemId":844,"prompt":845,"options":846,"correct":232,"why":855},"government-india.discover-q-rti","Under the Right to Information Act, what does a citizen have to explain when asking a public office for information?",[847,849,851,853],{"id":226,"label":848},"Why they want it",{"id":229,"label":850},"Which political party they support",{"id":232,"label":852},"Nothing — they simply have to ask",{"id":235,"label":854},"That they live in that district","You do not have to give a reason. The office normally has 30 days to reply. Not having to justify the question is what stops officials refusing the ones they would rather not answer.",{"itemId":857,"prompt":858,"options":859,"correct":232,"why":867},"government-india.discover-q-lok-sabha","How many members of the Lok Sabha are chosen by direct election today?",[860,862,864,865],{"id":226,"label":861},"245",{"id":229,"label":863},"272",{"id":232,"label":609},{"id":235,"label":866},"550","543 members, one from each constituency. 245 is the Rajya Sabha's strength, 272 is the number needed for a majority in the Lok Sabha, and 550 is the maximum the Constitution allows.",{"itemId":869,"prompt":870,"options":871,"correct":229,"why":880},"government-india.discover-q-duties","Which of these is one of the Fundamental Duties listed in the Constitution?",[872,874,876,878],{"id":226,"label":873},"To vote in every election",{"id":229,"label":875},"To protect and improve the natural environment",{"id":232,"label":877},"To join a political party",{"id":235,"label":879},"To pass an examination in civics","Protecting the environment and having compassion for living creatures is one of the 11 Fundamental Duties. Voting is a right, not a listed duty — though plenty of people would argue it should feel like one.",{"id":882,"type":883,"conceptId":884,"relation":885,"explanation":886},"conn-data","connection","data-handling","applied_in","Turnout, seat counts and budgets are all data: collected, summarised with averages, and argued about.",{"id":888,"type":883,"conceptId":889,"relation":885,"explanation":890},"conn-numbers","number-system","Government numbers arrive in lakhs and crores, so place value is what makes a budget readable.",{"id":892,"type":893,"title":894,"points":895},"cheat-discover","summary","Cheat sheet",[896,897,898,899,900,901,902,903,904,905,906],"**Three jobs.** Every group needs someone to *make* rules, *carry them out* and *settle disputes* about them — and a wise group keeps those in different hands.","**Three organs.** In India: the **legislature** (Parliament, state legislatures) makes law; the **executive** (President, Prime Minister, ministers, civil service) carries it out; the **judiciary** (Supreme Court, High Courts, district courts) judges.","**Three levels.** **Union** for the whole country, **State** for each state, **local** for your village or town. Most of what you touch daily is local.","**Democracy** means the people choose the government and can replace it. **Republic** means the head of state is elected, not born.","**The Constitution** was adopted on **26 November 1949** and came into force on **26 January 1950**, 61 days later. Dr B. R. Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee. It is the longest written constitution of any country, and it can be amended.","**The Preamble** opens with *WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA* and calls the country a **sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic**.","**Rights and duties.** 6 groups of Fundamental Rights, including free and compulsory education for children aged 6 to 14; and 11 Fundamental Duties.","**Voting.** Every citizen aged 18+ gets exactly one vote, by secret ballot, on an EVM with a VVPAT slip. The Election Commission runs elections, not the government of the day.","**543** members are directly elected to the Lok Sabha, for a maximum term of 5 years.","**Beyond voting:** attend a gram sabha, write to a representative, file an RTI, join a public consultation, volunteer.","**Watch out for:** the idea that 'the government' is one person; the idea that one vote cannot matter; and the idea that a court decides policy.",{"id":908,"type":909,"sourceIds":910},"sources-discover","sources",[911,912,913,914,915,916,917],"government-india-constitution-official","government-india-ncert-class6-governance","government-india-ncert-class6-rural","government-india-ncert-class7-government-types","government-india-eci","government-india-rti-portal","government-india-wikipedia-constitution",[911,919,912,913,914,915,916,917],"government-india-constitution-portal","needs_review",{"generatedBy":922,"notes":923},"claude-code","Draft generated locally; every number computed and asserted in Python. Strictly non-partisan: no party names, no living politicians, no current controversies. Owner to check figures that change over time (Lok Sabha strength, electorate size, latest turnout). Pending owner review.","a1d56d9a9b8b9f7daaf2efc3b8b083edb5fa99bca6d21cbadca88f8b713b9a0a",{"component:gov-structure@1":926,"component:sort-game@1":927,"logic:practice":928,"component:match-pairs@1":929,"source:government-india-constitution-official":930,"source:government-india-constitution-portal":931,"source:government-india-eci":932,"source:government-india-ncert-class6-governance":933,"source:government-india-ncert-class6-rural":934,"source:government-india-ncert-class7-government-types":935,"source:government-india-rti-portal":936,"source:government-india-wikipedia-constitution":937},"bad08645b2bec93e5bad5c51d85f0b191277232f5cec2d054251061e9c53b1ca","b164f45a2c8ca08f26c450768ff0231e113e9fe45381eddb34dc6d0548596c38","3d6b0fe1b15255975a32b0fcd94e8019bc959ad45cbf12e136e86149549c6878","2a8ee4ac87460b4e1175a4bb13c96b03d577db06dde95670eb7fcfe4ad787899","7e2c0fcdf97c3edf7d486040d6005bc0e7a01f25d42137ef86af4bb08902a143","f6d973298195c69b724ba60d18eab0488a77e65064298bfba7311209f7b2e8ab","dfe57aaaf51a72c65f7840dabcedbab5ea9c8cba06942b273505e3079e67d62c","9d684dd1e3cd019658b394ede71549fbfdc128d9c4dd02cd408a79aa0488bec6","eca801d284b32ecd320efdd6e38bb29bf9411dc4119e58e5daba2041189342bd","66d9ddc789ecfa418de624a252aa01516bb4327a47de6d31aa12d2503531d634","c7c166dbc0c8babc077759a553c1203f31647c3bb08f217fe84cee0d8aa8109f","4234913eaff90c716d1ecb93b276144023c32e402aa66e9d1bfe9a402ab9c15f",{"state":939,"reviewer":940,"selfReview":941,"reviewedAt":942,"method":943},"approved","The library owner",true,"2026-09-20T10:18:37.581Z","owner_bulk","preview-7e1cbbcc4f",1789899598492]