The conundrum called India today is a miscegenation of far-flung, diverse lands and people sprinkled across 3.2 million sq. km. of area. A federation of 28 states and 7 Union Territories stand united as a country called ‘Bharat Ganarajya’.
Or do they ?
The state of Jammu & Kashmir in the North, which is the only state to enjoy special autonomy under Article 370, has long been rumbling with secessionist calls of ‘Azadi’ in its picturesque Kashmir Valley. The state of Manipur in the far North-East is nearly forgotten, and in the simmering battle between the Kukis and Nagas, the Government is reduced to a mute spectator. The other North-Eastern states of Assam, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, though not currently raging with trouble, have had violent movements in the past for their own ‘independent lands’. Most of Tripura is infested with Maoist rebels and is ungovernable. By and large, the entire North-East belt is alienated from the mainstream Indian polity and receives only step-motherly treatment from the Central Government.
West Bengal has had a long-lasting agitation for ‘Gorkhaland’ in its northern hill territory. The scourge of militant Naxalites spreads from parts of West Bengal to Chhatisgarh to Jharkhand and then southwards to Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. This insurgency has become progressively more lethal, claiming thousands of innocent lives and destroying hundreds of crores worth of public property. It seems that this country is perpetually at war with itself, and engulfed in internecine battles which show no signs of abating.
The newbie states of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh were formed after peaceful and not-so peaceful mass movements, all in a bid to wrest power for a better represented government. More recently, the movement for a separate state of Telangana, to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh, has reached a feverish pitch. Who knows in the future there could be cries for Harit Pradesh in UP, or Vidarbha in Maharashtra. There is no end to this ‘Balkanization’ of the Republic of India and its constituent states.
This is not a picture of a coherent, integrated and united ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’.
But let’s step back a little in time, to the glorious day, 64 years ago, when India achieved its independence from the British Empire. Just to get a little perspective.
There were as many as 568 princely states in India in 1947, under the suzerainty of the British Imperialists, but ruled by kings with such honorary titles like Raja, Maharaja, Maharana, Nizam and Badshah. Besides these, there were 11 provinces like Bombay, Madras, Bengal and United Provinces, which were directly under the British rule. In addition, there were several colonial conclaves controlled by the French (Pondicherry, Chandernagore) and the Portuguese (Goa, Daman & Diu). So, to begin with, India was never one – on the contrary, it was quite disintegrated, strewn with hundreds of monarchs clinging to their kingdoms, guarding their own vested interests with their parochial mindsets.
The onerous task of stitching and welding together the provinces and princely states fell upon India’s first Dy. Prime Minister and Minister for Home and States, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He couldn’t have found a more able assistant in his mission than V.P. Menon, the astute and adept civil servant of the British Raj, who was an advisor to the last three Viceroys of India, including of course Lord Mountbatten.
Patel and Menon launched a remarkable diplomatic endeavor in negotiating with the princes and convincing them to join the new Dominion of India. They backed up their diplomatic efforts by producing treaties that were designed to be attractive to rulers of princely states. So successful was this seemingly impossible task, that between May 1947 and the transfer of power on 15 August 1947, the vast majority of states signed Instruments of Accession to India. Certainly no mean feat by any standards, given the fact that India was always a fragmented realm ruled by kings living in lavish lifestyles, their dynasties claiming the throne through ‘divine rights’.
Of course not everything went smooth. We all know Maharaja Hari Singh announced that Kashmir would remain independent, the Nawab of Junagadh chose to accede to Pakistan and the Nizam of Hyderabad also declared its independence. But when invaders from Pakistan threatened to overrun his palace in Srinagar, Hari Singh quickly signed the Instrument of Accession. Junagadh and Hyderabad were absorbed after swift police and army actions.
And, for the first time ever in history, India was truly weaved to emerge as one vast nation, shedding its monarchical past and tasting democracy in its new avatar.
The integration of India continued for quite a few years after independence. The French enclaves, including Pondicherry ceded to the Republic of India in 1956, but the Portuguese resisted giving up its fiefdoms. In December 1961, the Indian Army marched into Goa to liberate it from its colonial masters and annexed it as a Union Territory of India. Sikkim became the 22nd state of India as late as in 1975.
Or do they ?
The state of Jammu & Kashmir in the North, which is the only state to enjoy special autonomy under Article 370, has long been rumbling with secessionist calls of ‘Azadi’ in its picturesque Kashmir Valley. The state of Manipur in the far North-East is nearly forgotten, and in the simmering battle between the Kukis and Nagas, the Government is reduced to a mute spectator. The other North-Eastern states of Assam, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, though not currently raging with trouble, have had violent movements in the past for their own ‘independent lands’. Most of Tripura is infested with Maoist rebels and is ungovernable. By and large, the entire North-East belt is alienated from the mainstream Indian polity and receives only step-motherly treatment from the Central Government.
West Bengal has had a long-lasting agitation for ‘Gorkhaland’ in its northern hill territory. The scourge of militant Naxalites spreads from parts of West Bengal to Chhatisgarh to Jharkhand and then southwards to Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. This insurgency has become progressively more lethal, claiming thousands of innocent lives and destroying hundreds of crores worth of public property. It seems that this country is perpetually at war with itself, and engulfed in internecine battles which show no signs of abating.
The newbie states of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh were formed after peaceful and not-so peaceful mass movements, all in a bid to wrest power for a better represented government. More recently, the movement for a separate state of Telangana, to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh, has reached a feverish pitch. Who knows in the future there could be cries for Harit Pradesh in UP, or Vidarbha in Maharashtra. There is no end to this ‘Balkanization’ of the Republic of India and its constituent states.
This is not a picture of a coherent, integrated and united ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’.
But let’s step back a little in time, to the glorious day, 64 years ago, when India achieved its independence from the British Empire. Just to get a little perspective.
There were as many as 568 princely states in India in 1947, under the suzerainty of the British Imperialists, but ruled by kings with such honorary titles like Raja, Maharaja, Maharana, Nizam and Badshah. Besides these, there were 11 provinces like Bombay, Madras, Bengal and United Provinces, which were directly under the British rule. In addition, there were several colonial conclaves controlled by the French (Pondicherry, Chandernagore) and the Portuguese (Goa, Daman & Diu). So, to begin with, India was never one – on the contrary, it was quite disintegrated, strewn with hundreds of monarchs clinging to their kingdoms, guarding their own vested interests with their parochial mindsets.
The onerous task of stitching and welding together the provinces and princely states fell upon India’s first Dy. Prime Minister and Minister for Home and States, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He couldn’t have found a more able assistant in his mission than V.P. Menon, the astute and adept civil servant of the British Raj, who was an advisor to the last three Viceroys of India, including of course Lord Mountbatten.
Patel and Menon launched a remarkable diplomatic endeavor in negotiating with the princes and convincing them to join the new Dominion of India. They backed up their diplomatic efforts by producing treaties that were designed to be attractive to rulers of princely states. So successful was this seemingly impossible task, that between May 1947 and the transfer of power on 15 August 1947, the vast majority of states signed Instruments of Accession to India. Certainly no mean feat by any standards, given the fact that India was always a fragmented realm ruled by kings living in lavish lifestyles, their dynasties claiming the throne through ‘divine rights’.
Of course not everything went smooth. We all know Maharaja Hari Singh announced that Kashmir would remain independent, the Nawab of Junagadh chose to accede to Pakistan and the Nizam of Hyderabad also declared its independence. But when invaders from Pakistan threatened to overrun his palace in Srinagar, Hari Singh quickly signed the Instrument of Accession. Junagadh and Hyderabad were absorbed after swift police and army actions.
And, for the first time ever in history, India was truly weaved to emerge as one vast nation, shedding its monarchical past and tasting democracy in its new avatar.
The integration of India continued for quite a few years after independence. The French enclaves, including Pondicherry ceded to the Republic of India in 1956, but the Portuguese resisted giving up its fiefdoms. In December 1961, the Indian Army marched into Goa to liberate it from its colonial masters and annexed it as a Union Territory of India. Sikkim became the 22nd state of India as late as in 1975.
Back to the present.
Today, this nation, so painstakingly built brick-by-brick to count as a formidable force in the world, is in danger of being mortally weakened by smolders of secessionism. The multi-ethnic fabric of India is being torn apart by insurgents and separatists. Whatever the cause of such rebellions, the regionalism boiling over into acts of extremism and terrorism threaten to break up India once again into pieces. If these fires are allowed to rage on, its black smoke with darken the bright future of a promising nation.
What is to be done to douse these flames and forge together a stronger, fervent and more progressive India ? I will leave that discussion for another time, as this article would otherwise become too stretched.
I am just imagining a day when Kashmir will as peaceful as Punjab is today, when all the North-Eastern states will truly feel that they are a part of India, when the Naxalites will lay down their arms and join the mainstream of politics, when there will be more inclusive development penetrating deep into the rural heartlands, when economic progress will take precedence over petty power-plays and when the heartbeats of 1.2 billion citizens will reverberate as one.
It’s only then that the United States of India will truly realize its full potential and meet its ultimate destiny.
Endpiece : Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. - Adlai E. Stevenson
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