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POST-INDEPENDENCE INDIA- PRADHANMANTRI TV SERIESEpisode 1: Integration of 565 Princely States with IndiaMountbatten Plan: The idea of dividing India into two halves. This was announced in June 1947 on AIR by Mountbatten, and Nehru had also given his confirmation to this on AIR the same day. As against previous announcements that transfer of power will be done by June 1948, a few days after the announcement, Mountbatten announced that British would instead leave India by 15August 1947. At this time, there was no clarity on how many nations were getting independence- 2, or 565?In British India, including Kingdoms of all sizes, there were 565 entitites over which British had ‘paramountcy’. These Kings used to maintain their own police, administrative laws, and in some cases, even their own currencies! When British were leaving, they initially said that once they leave, paramountcy will lapse, and the Kings would be free to define their relationship with British India. Indian leaders were worried that this would obviously lead to Balkanization. Jinnah further stoked the affair by saying that this Lapse of Paramountcy meant that each Kingdom would have the right to ally with Pakistan, with India, or remain independent, irrespective of geographical contiguity. Thus, he started kingdoms lying within India to rebel, and ask for independence. VP Menon told Mountbatten that the kind of riots that were being witnessed in Punjab and Bengal would also be witnessed in the princely states if the option of independence was left open to them. Mountbatten knew that history would judge him, and he started batting for integration. Patel, Nehru, and Mountbatten charged VP Menon with preparing the Instrument of Accession. Travancore, Hyderabad etc. quickly declared their independence. An independent Hyderabad would’ve meant that the entire Southern Indiawould be segregated from the north. Under these circumstances, even some of the other Kings who’d given their approval for integration before started reneging. Situation was worsening.In view of this, in July 1947, Mountbatten called a meeting of the Chamber of Princes. Here. he announced: let’s face the facts- you cannot run away from the Dominion Government, neither can you run away from your constituents. Most princes agreed after this. But Hyderabad still wanted to be independent; Bhopaland Junagarh, although geographically incontiguous, wanted to be a part of Pakistan, while Jodhpur was also acting up (and was contiguous with Pakistan). Jammu and Kashmir also similar. These states wanted special concession before accession. These were refused by GoI. Jodhpur was convinced that Jaisalmer and Bikaner, being fellow ‘desert kingdoms’ would support Jodhpur, and decide not to accede to India. Leaders of Bhopal, Jaisalmer, and Jodhpur had a series of meetings with Muslim League and Jinnah. Jinnah offered them a hoard of concessions, ‘anything they wanted’, in exchange for joining Pakistan. Jodhpur wanted use of Karachi port, free import of weapons, and a railway line from Sindh to Jodhpur (Pradhanmantri series says Jinnah agreed to all this; no veracity). Had leader of Jodhpur agreed, it is very likely that under their leadership, Jaisalmer and Bikaner might have also revolted. This would’ve been dangerously close to Hyderabad, which was anyway showing strong separatist sentiment (Pakistan army would’ve been very close geographically to Hyderabad, ready for support, and getting Hyderabad integrated would’ve been near impossible). While meetings between Raja of Jodhpur and Jinnah had been held secretively, Patel got wind of this. Patel made it clear that if people of Jodhpur revolted, Indian government would not help in any way. After this, Jodhpur acceded on August 11. Episode 2: Story of Hyderabad and JunagarhOn August 15, Junagarh, Bhopal, and Hyderabad were not a part of India. Junagarh, in southern Gujarat (not contiguous with Pakistan), was a majority Hindu state. But it announced in its local newspapers that it was a part of Pakistan. Thus, as of August 15, Junagarh was technically independent! The leader was Nawab Mohabbat Khan, who was a rangeela aadmi; liked to dance (himself), loved animals (got two of his dogs married and announced a state holiday on the occasion). News spread that Pakistan had promised the building of a port, 8 crores in cash, and 25,000 troops to Junagarh. Patel and Nehru urged Mountbatten to take a strong stand, and take military action against Junagarh. Mountbatten, though, thought that this was exactly the instigation that Jinnah was looking for. In reality, Paksitan’s eyes were on Kashmir- if India made the argument that Junagarh couldn’t accede to Pakistan because it had majority Hindu population, that the same argument would also apply to Pakistan, which would then go to Pakistan (Muslim majority, but Hindu ruler in Kashmir). In September, India decided it would start blockading Junagarh. Junagarh started rallying troops, and also tried to instigate insurrection againt India in neighbouring states. Alongside the blockade, revolts by the local population also started against the Nawab in Junagarh. Scared, the Nawab fled to Karachi. The Diwan, left behind, announced that Junagarh would sign the instrument of accession with India. A plebiscite was conducted, with overwhelming favour for India.Travancore’sleaders (Diwan Ramaswami Aiyar) wanted to keep it independence, not allying with either India of Pakistan. They thought that given that they were a coastal region, they could have global links and a strong economy, and that they didn’t need India. However, local population started revolting, that included an attempt on the Diwan’s life. Following these, Travancore signed the instrument 3 days before independence. Hyderabad wanted either to remain independent, or merge with Pakistan. It was ruled by Nizam Mir Ali Bahadur, and his advisor, Qasim Razvi. Hyderabad was then as big as the UK (and much bigger than it is today). Hyderabad was 75% Hindu population, but the Muslim rulers had ensured that they lived as second class citizens. Most official positions were Muslim occupied. Qasim Rizvi, evenmuch before independence, had been accused of various atrocities against the Hindu community. He had organized an armed force called the Razakars, that openly perpetrated violence, rapes, and arson in Hyderabad, primarily targeted against the Hindu community. It was made clear that if Hyderabad became independent, Hindus would have no political power/ civil rights. Despite all this, given problems all around, India had signed a ‘stand-still agreement’ with Hyderabad; when India became independent, for a year, all of Hyderabad’s and Indian mainland relations (economic, border etc.) would go on per usual for one year. As late as November 1947, Hyderabad had maintained its stand on independence, and had steadfastly refused to sign the instrument.In addition, Hyderabad loaned Pakistan 20 crore rupees, and there were reports of arms infiltration into Hyderabad from Pakistan. Hyderabad also knew that Indian army was busy in Jammu and Kashmir, and would be hard pressed to respond to Hyderabad’s actions. As late as September 1948, there was a stalemate. Hyderabad had the status of an independent kingdom with India. Even at this stage, the Indian government was ready to give unprecedented concessions to Hyderabad, the likes of which had not been given to any other state. Under those terms, Hyderabad would’ve been allowed to make its own laws, and Indian army would be allowed inside Hyderabad only in times of internal disturbance. But the Nizam remaind steadfast that nothing was negotiable, but complete independence of Hyderabad. This left Indian government with absolutely no options- in Septmber 1948, the Indian army launched Operation Caterpillar (aka Operation Polo/ Police Action). Hyderabad’s armies collapsed within 4 days, and Hyderabad was merged with India.Episode 3: Story of KashmirUpon Lapse of Paramountcy, the Hindu ruler of Kashmir (Raja Hari Singh) wanted to remain independent. It was made clear to him by Mountbatten that he would have to accede to either India or Pakistan- independence wasn’t an option. However, the Raja avoided a final decision, in the hope of remaining independent. In this situation, there were rumors of Paksitan’s plans to send in tribal warriors in Kashmir to raise an insurrection, which would look like an organic, domestic revolt in Kashmir. Pakistan hoped that such a perceived revolt would galvanize the international community into helping it acquire Pakistan.October 1947: Pakistani infiltration into Kashmir, moving towards Srinagar. Soon, Muslim soldiers in Kashmir revolted and joined hands with infiltrators. Maharaja now panicked, and asked for military help from India. Mountbatten said that India couldn’t help with the military, because Kashmir’s current status was that of an independent state. Kashmir would need to sign the Instrument of Accession before India helped militarily. Tribal warriors were at the gates of Kashmir- they’d looted and arsoned in Baramullah, about 40-50 kilometres from Srinagar. The Raja finally relented, and signed the Instrument of Accession. With this, the security of Kashmir was now India’s responsibility. Mountbatten agreed to send in forces, on the condition that a plebiscite be conducted once the operation was over. Nehru and Patel agreed to this. In response, Pakistan tried to mobilize forces to attack Srinagar. However, at this time (around independence, and actually till January 26 1948) India and Pakistan were both dominion states. Their armies were controlled by Mountbatten. Jinnah threw tantrums and asked for military mobilization, but British officer (Ockinlake or some such, who was the head of both nations’ armies) refused to do so without Mountbatten’s orders. Pakistan, thus, couldn’t send in armies. Soon after, with Indian army still against invaders, Nehru announced publicly that once peace was established, the Kashmir matter would be taken to the UN, and a plebiscite conducted. In the UNSC, USA and UK started playing geopolitics, and internationalized the issue by denying Pakistan’s involvement in Kashmir attacks. They thus treated India and Pakistan equally, and here began the long drawn mess than Kashmir still remains in. Now, Nehru’s Kashmir policy shifted. He stopped all negotiations, and banked heavily on the secular Kashmiri Muslim leader Sheikh Abdullah. Sheikh Abdullah was a much loved leader in Kashmir, supported by all sides, and he wanted to be a part of India, and not Pakistan. In 1948, Hari Singh made Abdullah his PM. In January 1949, Indian and Pakistani armies announced ceasefire- PoK was, and still remains, with Pakistan. Three major wars have been fought between India and Pakistan since then. No solution is in sight. Episode 4: Story of Madras and BombayBritish rule had left a hotchpotch of states, which were usually multilingual. For example, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala, used to be part of one state (Madras) till 1951. However, Nehru, in 1947, had already said in the Constituent Assembly that the creation of AP out of Madras was a legitimate demand. However, Maharashtra and Karnataka weren’t legitimate demands, according to Nehru. This was, for now, just a statement. Nehru said that the nation had other pressing issues to deal with at the time, such as drafting of the constitution, and this could wait. In 1948, Nehru established a commission under SK Dhar. It recommended that reorganization of states along linguistic lines could be harmful to the unity of India, as it would stoke linguistic nationalism. Due to protests, Nehru established another committee- JVP committee (members were Nehru, Patel, and Sitabhai Pattaramiyya). They placed their report in 1949, recommending that the linguistic reorganization agenda be postponed for atleast ten years. The report also said that demand for a separate AP was legitimate, but that the centre would accede to this only if the Telugu leaders demanding a separate AP would agree to let go of the demand for Madras city (now Chennai) to also be included in AP. This wasn’t acceptable to T. Prakasham, the Telugu Congress leader most prominently leading the AP agitation. He resigned from the Congress, and said that wthout Madras there would be no AP. In 1951, when Nehru reached Andhra for election campaigning, he was greeted with increasingly angry protestors, and wasn’t even allowed to finished his speech on the podium. In the 1952 elections, Congress swept the elections overall, but performed rather badly in the Telugu speaking areas, winning only about a third of the total seats. Still, Nehru refused to give in to the demand of a separate Andhra. So far, so good. Now, Potti Sriramalu, a Telugu leader of the AP agitation, went onto a fast-unto-death, saying that he would continue this until a separate AP, with Madras as its capital, was granted. This led to a cascading effect, leading to protests and hartals all across the Telugu-speaking areas. 57 days later, Sriramalu passes away. Violence broke out across the state. 7 people died in police firing. Nehru had no option but to relent. To avoid a civil war like state, in December 1952, Nehru announced that a separate Andhra would be created. Wherever agitations were on in the country for linguistic states, aag mein ghee dal gaya. Especially, around Bombay, conditions were somewhat similar to AP. Marathis and Gujaratis wanted separate states, but both wanted Bombay city, which was very metropolitan. To divide Bombay was unthinkable. Also, there was another, powerful group called ‘Bombay Citizens Association’, comprised of big industrialists like JRD Tata. They wanted that Bombay city remain independent, a ‘Bombay state’.In 1955, the State Reorganization Commission submitted its report. It said that it was possible to organize states linguistically. But it said that Bombay should remain bilingual (both Marathi and Gujarati). It also said that other factors besides language, such as economic sustainability, geographical contiguity etc. were also hugely important, and couldn’t be ignored. This led to widespread, violent protests in the country, as it was perceived as hand-waiving the demand for linguistic reorganization. The protests were especially strong in Bombay, and there were riots that led to 40 deaths. Neither the Marathis nor the Gujaratis were ready to let their demand for Bombay go. After all this, in 1956, the State Reorganization Bill was passed in the central assembly, creating 14 states and 6 UTs. Maharashtra and Gujarat were created in 1960. Episode 5: Hindu Code BillIn traditional Hindu customs, widows are not allowed to remarry, and there in no provision of divorces. Men, however, could marry as many times as possible. Also, daughters had no rights of inheriting property. The issue of the ‘Hindu Code Bill’, that would deal with affair such as divorce, property rights, succession, legality of marriages etc. was discussed fervidly during the Counstituent Assembly debates. However, this was seen by funadamentalists as an attack on Hindu religion. An additional challenge at that stage was the representativeness of the Constituent Assembly- allegations were made that the CA was not elected by universal adult franchise, and hence such a drastic bill should not be passed by people who weren’t the ‘true’ representatives of the population. Also, questions were raised about why only a ‘Hindu’ Code Bill? Why not a Uniform Civil Code? Over this question, Shyama Prasad Mukherji resigned from the Congress, and founded the Jan Sangh. Proponents claimed that given that Hindus were the majority, they needed to pave the way. Once they agreed to adopt a Hindu Code, then it would in the future be easier to convince the minorities to adopt a UCC. There was also debate on who exactly a ‘Hindu’ was- the bill said that aside from Muslim, Parsi, Christians, and Jews, everyone else was to be included in Hindus- Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists etc. Sikhs especially thought that this was an underhanded attempt to homogenize their religion and make it a part of Hinduism. RSS started a large scale mobilization across the country in opposition to the Hindu Code Bill. Even within the Congress, there was intense opposition, even from the President Rajendra Prasad. He pointed out that a majority of the population was against the bill, and if such a bill was passed, he might have to use his powers as the President to do something about this. Still, Nehru was adamant on the bill. In this atmosphere, the first general elections were looming large. Despite fears of electoral losses, Nehru was steadfast on getting the Hindu Code Bill through the Constituent Assembly. Again, demands were raised in the assembly that if such a bill were to be brought, it must be brought in for the entire country, including Muslims, and not solely for Hindus. Given the general opposition from within and outside the Congress, and primarily because of the looming elections, Nehru said that for the time being, the bill was being withdrawn. Official reason cited was lack of time remaining in the session. In protest, Dr. Ambedkar resigned. In the elections, Congress won an absolute majority in the elections. Ambedkar, fighting as an independent, lost his seat. In the newly elected Lok Sabha, there were 23 female MPs. Nehru appealed to them for support. Also, to blunt the opposition, he broke the bill into many parts, and introduced them as separate bills- main among which were Hindu Marriage Act (gave rights to people from different castes to marry each other, polygamy was declared illegal); Hindu Succession Act, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, and Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act. Females got property rights for the first time, and focus was put on adoption of female children. Despite losing his seat in the election and hence not being a part of the legislative process for these bills, there is no denying the huge role of Dr. Ambedkar in ensuring equal rights for Indian women. Episode 6: India-China WarOnly 15 years after independence, in 1962, China launched a war on India. Indian forces were hugely underprepared. Within a few days of the beginning of the war, it was clear that there was no way that India could counter Chinese forces. China quickly occupied parts of Ladakh (Rezang La, Bomdila), Tawang etc. Having demonstrated their might, China unilaterally declared ceasefire. India had lost its pride, and a lot of soldiers and resources- 42,000 square kilomtres were occupied by China (equal to 30 Delhis). The modern-day history of both India and China starts around the same time- India won its independence in 1947, and China had its revolution in 1949 and became the communist PRC. India was one of the first countries to recognize the government of China, and fought diligently in international for a such as UN for it to be recognized globally. As early as 1950, China started showing its expansionist tendancies, and occupied Tibet. Till this time, there had always been a geographical barrier between India and China. This was removed by occupation of Tibet. This created new challenges for India’s defence forces. However, Nehru didn’t want to take the lead in talking about the boundary issues with China till China brought up the issue first. Nehru made a statement in the Parliament that the boundary between Arunachal Pradesh and China had been decised in the 1914 Shimla Convention, and thus, MacMahon Line was the official border between the two nations. The communist government in China had previously claimed that Macmahen line had been forced upon China under duress. India then sent its officials to Tawang in Sikkim. China gave no official reaction to either of these two actions by India. China was completely quiet, and wasn’t belying its intentions. In this atmosphere, India signed the Panchsheel agreement in 1954 (‘five principles of peaceful coexistence’). The slogans of ‘Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai’ became commonplace. However, nowhere in the agreement had China agreed to India’s claims on MacMahen line. India, however, had recognized Tibet as a part of China and had surrendered its rights in China. In 1959, there was a revolution in Tibet, and the Dalai Lama seeked refuge in India. This was granted. China ofcourse didn’t like this. In view of increasing hostilities, India started preparing for impending war. The border areas with China were then guarded by CRPF; now, proposals were made to mobilize the armed forces on that border (‘Forward Policy’). China claims that this was a big cause of the war. In this tense atmosphere, China gave India a way out- the said that if India were willing to retreat its forces 20km behind Line of Actual Control in Aksai Chin (which was under China’s control anyway), then Chinese forces would retreat 20km behind Macmahen line- effectively, this meant that Aksai Chin would remain under China, and Arunachal under India. Nehru knew that if he agreed to this, his head would roll, and he couldn’t possibly continue being the PM. He decided against acceding to this demand. Zhou En Lai came to Delhi in 1960. This gave the perfect opportunity for political opposition parties to sternly demand from Nehru that India not give up even a square inch of Indian territory. Again, during the talks, Zhou proposed that ‘status quo’ be maintained. This wasn’t granted. War was imminent. In 1962, China attacked NEFA and Tawang. Although India had started the ‘Forward Policy’, it was far from over. Indian army was badly supplied, and quickly suffered massive losses all the way till Ladakh. India accepted defeat in a month. Episode 7: Lal Bahadur ShastriIn the yearly years of Shastri’s premiership, he was still being seen as a weak PM. Amidst high inflation, he suggested ‘one day of fasting a week’ and that everyone should have a kitchen garden. It had only been three years since the war with China; in 1965, now Pakistan attacked Gujarat’s Katchh area. Under extreme international pressure, India had to surrender 75 square kilometer to Pakistan. For this Shastri faced a lot of flack. Paksitan’s President Ayub Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto were under the impression that the war with China had left Indian forces limp, and that this was the best time to strike and capture Kashmir. Operation Grand Slam was launched, with heavy bombarding on Jammu Kashmir’s supply routes. India launched air strikes. This helped the ground forces, but Pakistan had supplied all its strength to fight in Kashmir, and it seemed as if even air strikes won’t be enough. India then opened another front in Punjab. ................
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