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Government of India Act 1919
One of the first changes came at the end of the First World War, when the Government of India Act 1919 provided a more direct role for Indians to participate in the government. Although the legislative councils created before that provided some role for India, the 1919 act truly expanded that.
It created a bicameral legislature - with a Central Assembly directly elected by the people and a Council of State elected by members of provincial assemblies and also nominated by the Governor General. This is a precursor to the present Indian parliament consisting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
The Central Assembly would legislate laws that would then be approved by the Council of State and eventually get the approval of the Governor General, appointed by the British Parliament.
At the provincial level, there was a system of dyarchy - where the provinces got the power to legislate items like agriculture, health, education, etc., while the Viceroy/Governor General still had all powers over Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Communications.
A lot of control was still with the Governor General, who was a non-Indian. Indians got some representation and some powers to legislate. The voting rights were not universal, but restricted to those with property or educational qualifications. Only 2% of India could vote. The first elections were to be held in the winter of 1920.
Non-Cooperation Movement
However, Indians were promised much more autonomy and could not digest an overbearing Governor General at the top. This disappointment led Congress to intensify its struggle. Mahatma Gandhi started the non-cooperation movement in 1920 and boycotted the elections.
The non-cooperation movement brought mixed successes as it ended in violence. Mahatma Gandhi and others were sent to jail for sedition. After his release, Gandhi spent most of the 1920s building the base of the Indian freedom movement in the society by emphasizing on boycotting British textiles, fighting the menace of alcoholism in rural India, and getting temple entry rights for India's lowest castes - Dalits.
Civil Disobedience Movement
As India's social base got strengthened, Mahatma Gandhi pushed for the second major political movement. On December 31, 1929, on the banks of River Ravi in northwest India, Jawaharlal Nehru unfurled the tricolor Indian flag. On January 26, 1930, he declared Purna Swaraj or complete independence.
To achieve this goal, Gandhi primarily looked to cut the British tax base in India. Mahatma knew well that power needs money. By cutting the money source, it was easy to cut the power. For years, he worked to cut the British imports of textiles into India - a major source of government’s income. But, he wanted to take it further.
On March 12, 1930 Mahatma started the salt satyagraha - openly flouting rules to make salt on the beaches of Dandi in western India. Salt is essential to human existence and the exorbitant tax proved to be a good folly for Mahatma to show how the British taxation was evil. A full-fledged civil disobedience movement continued the process of cutting off taxes to the British government.
Already reeling from the effects of the Great Depression, the British government was practically bankrupt in the early 1930s and forced to concede more autonomy to the Indians.
Government of India Act 1935
This is one of the longest bills ever to pass the British Parliament with 321 sections and 10 schedules. In some ways, it was a step ahead of the 1919 Act and in some ways it was a step backward. In any case, it had a huge impact on the Indian Constitution. Among many things, it created a Federal Court at the top that eventually became the Supreme Court of India. The Act also sought to build a federation among 11 provinces of British India and six big princely states. A national level railway authority was created. It also significantly changed the map of India - by separating Burma from India and also created new provinces: Sindh and Orissa.
Most importantly, the act provided for an expanded role for the provincial legislature. This time, the voting rights were extended to a significant portion of the population (about 14%) and millions of Indians excitedly voted. It was the first big election in modern India.
Elections were held in 1937 and Congress won all the provinces. However, the Muslim League had already showed that it was capable of winning 10% of the total seats and became the second biggest political force in India.
This act formed the reference when India wrote its constitution. However, the act still didn't please Congress enough. The freedom struggle continued.
Cripps Mission, 1942
In 1939, Britain declared India as a belligerent in the Second World War. India was once again forcibly drawn to a war that it had nothing to do with. All the Congress ministers resigned.
The resignation of Congress leaders in 1939 created the political space for the Muslim League that was completely routed in the 1937 elections. Britain sought for native support in India now that Congress was opposed to a war. Jinnah saw a great opportunity in this and in March 1940, at the Lahore resolution, he declared that the Muslim League would push for a separate nation of Pakistan, torn from the western and eastern sides of India.
Congress was baffled by this move, but didn't take this too seriously as they believed they had control over all provinces of India.
In March 1942, Britain sent Sir Stafford Cripps to negotiate a deal with the Indian leaders. Although privately he was prepared to accept a dominion status for India with autonomy, publicly he didn't offer any such solution. Instead, he offered a solution that promised autonomy after the end of the war.
Quit India Movement
Mahatma Gandhi balked at this, calling it a "post-dated cheque" (remembering what happened at the end of the previous war). In August announced the next major freedom movement - Quit India. This move sent the Congressional leaders to jail. The British government also replaced its longest ruling Viceroy - Lord Linlithgow with Lord Wavell, who was the Chief of the Indian Army. This was to send a strong message to the Indians and bring India back under control.
Wavell Plan
As the Second World War was drawing to an end in the summer of 1945, the Viceroy Lord Wavell, decided to keep some of the promises made by the Cripps Mission. His plan included having all Indians in the Viceroy's Executive Council and an autonomy for India over all subjects other than Defense and Foreign Affairs.
The Wavell Plan also provided both religions key powers in the provinces they had a majority in and sought after a loose federation of India. Congress, however, balked at the idea and the last opportunity to avoid the partition was forgone.
As a part of the Wavell Plan, India's elections were held in December 1945 and January 1946. The results showed a huge division in India. Unlike the 1937 elections, the Muslim League swept the separate seats reserved for Muslims at the center and won two of the major provinces - Bengal and Sindh. In Punjab, Congress escaped with a coalition arrangement.
Cabinet Mission
In 1946, Britain started its negotiations with the Indian leaders. The 1945 elections were key as it was with these elected representatives that Britain finally negotiated to keep India within her control. The representatives didn't agree and India was to become free.
Now the question of how India should function. The cabinet mission suggested grouping the Muslim majority provinces of Punjab, Sindh, North-west Frontier Province (NWFP), and Bengal on one side and the Hindu majority provinces of Madras, Bombay, Central Provinces, Orissa, and United Provinces on the other side in a complex balancing act. These provinces would control everything other than Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Currency. The latter three would be left with a weak Central body with equal representation of the Muslims and the Hindus.
Congress didn't agree to this as a grouping of provinces merely by religion was the recipe to a civil war. Also, providing the Muslim League control over half of India, while the Muslim population was less than a fourth and even less supporting the League, was considered preposterous by Congress. Britain then suggested a partition of Indi
a that was rejected by Congress.
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The Massacre in Rawalpindi
Jinnah was aghast that Congress didn’t agree to either of the plans. He held a nationwide strike termed the Direct Action Day to force the Congress to accept the partition of India. On the 16th of August 1946, the Direct Action Day commenced, and thousands of people were killed in religious violence. It was especially severe in Bengal, where many Hindus died in the carnage at Noakhali. Many Muslims died in various revenge riots in the Central Provinces and Bihar.
Britain was completely unprepared to handle this carnage and sent Lord Mountbatten in February 1947 as the last Viceroy of India with an order to transfer power no later than 1948. The growing violence had taken a big toll on Congress and its leaders. Immediately following the Rawalpindi massacre (a major town in Punjab) that resulted in a huge death toll of Hindus, Congress Working Committee agreed to a partition on March 8. However, instead of providing the whole of Punjab and Bengal as demanded by the Muslim League, it asked for a partition of these two major provinces by religion.
On June 3, Mountbatten announced the plan at a crowded Press meeting. It set the date of independence as August 15. The assemblies of Punjab and Bengal were empowered to vote for a partition. The partition of these provinces became the responsibility of cartographer Sir Cyril Radcliffe who was given one month to decide which lands of Punjab and Bengal would go to India and which to Pakistan. The fate of Sindh would be decided by its assembly and NWFP would have a referendum. The rest of the provinces would remain with India, as also British India's UN seat.
Although NWFP had a Congress majority government, the referendum choose to join it to Pakistan, amidst a cry of fraud that only 16% of the people got voting rights. Sindh had expectedly voted to join Pakistan.
Three key factors that contributed to the Pakistan movement
On April 1, 1936 Sindh became an independent province separated out of Bombay. Until then, the Muslim League under M.A. Jinnah didn’t have a sufficient room to maneuver. He was not able to gain majority in any of the provinces. The Muslim majority Sindh province created among the first Muslim League governments and commenced the process of formation of the separate state of Pakistan.
After the failure of the Cripps Mission in 1942, Congress started the final push for Independence - Quit India Movement. This led to the arrest of the entire Congress leadership, while Muslim League was spared as they didn’t protest the British rule. Using their freedom, they were able to significantly influence people’s opinion.
In the provincial elections of 1946, Muslim League had a surprisingly strong position in Punjab and emerged as the largest party. It promised land reforms to poor farmers and cut through the votes of the Unionist party. Although, Congress eventually pulled together an alliance with other parties and took over the government, the victory provided the much needed boost for the Muslim League.
The Partition
On August 15, 1947 India became free. It was also mired by huge tensions that were caused by the partition of Punjab and Bengal. These provinces were never designed to be separated and thus it was really messy. Indian Bengal (West Bengal) lost all the fertile jute lands to Pakistan's Bengal (present day Bangladesh) while retaining all the mills to process the jute. Mughal jewel of Lahore was given to Pakistan despite it being surrounded by Hindus. Sikh Mecca of Amritsar was given to India despite it being surrounded by Muslims.
The weak monsoons of 1947 had already inflated pain among the farming community of Punjab and in the autumn of 1947, they decided to take all this anger out on the other community. Many Hindus and Muslims were caught on the wrong side and over 15 million were forced to move. As many as a million might have perished in the migration - among the largest in human history.
Mahatma fixes Bengal
Unlike the other leaders, the Mahatma didn't attend the independence celebrations in Delhi. He spent most of the time leading up to the partition in Bengal, where he feared the worst of the riots would happen. The region was densely populated and saw the worst of the Jinnah's Direct Action day.
However, in an extraordinary work, Gandhi was able to avoid a big chunk of the violence in Bengal, while its counterpart, Punjab, burned.
Assassination of the Mahatma
After Gandhi put down part of the fire in the east, he turned his attention to the center. In a bid to cool the prevailing bad blood and build a better relationship with Pakistan, Gandhi sought various actions that were thought to be minority appeasing by some Hindus. One of them was the release of Pakistan's share of India's cash balance.
As all assets were divided between India and Pakistan, the cash balance of British India was to be divided too. Pakistan's share of the cash was determined at Rs. 75 crores (1 crore = 10 million) by an Arbitration Tribunal. India released the first share of Rs. 20 crores, but held back the remaining 55 crores due to Pakistan's invasion of Kashmir. Gandhi held a fast to make Indian government pay its balance so that the tension between the nations would go down, forcing Sardar Patel to offer a resignation from his post as the Home Minister. However, Mahatma's point was that he was fasting for the community bonding than the mere cash balance and thus continued even after Nehru's decision.
Various extremists also blamed Gandhi for both the partition and the violence emanating from the partition. It is sadly ironic given that the partition was forced on Congress and it was Gandhi who helped reduce the violence.
On the 30th of January 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by an extremist, Nathuram Godse while the former was proceeding to a prayer meeting at the Birla house in Delhi. Although Gandhi survived many earlier assassination attempts, this time the bullet was shot at point blank range and he didn't survive the bullet wounds.
On that day in 1948, India had sunk to its lowest. Mired by the troubles of partition and the first war with Pakistan over Kashmir, things looked completely bleak. Some even predicted that India would break up, as the key gel that was holding it together had snapped.
However, India would defy their predictions. The darkness of 1948 would give way to light.
* * *
Chapter 1: Welding India
India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the equator.
-- Winston Churchill (1931)
I can inform the Security Council that on 15 August 1947 the suzerainty of the Crown in the United Kingdom over Hyderabad, and all other Indian States, came to an end. None of the powers previously exercised by the Crown was transferred to the Government of the two new Dominions, that is, India and Pakistan.
--- Sir Alexander Cadogan
The Permanent Representative of United Kingdom to the United Nations told the UN that India’s various monarchs were free to choose their destiny and could join India or Pakistan or declare independence of their states.
Will India end up as one unit?
13th November 1947
Somnath Temple Sardar Vallabhai Patel could not contain his tears. He was the iron man, but even he was moved by the occasion. He was in front of the legendary Somnath temple in Junagadh, now reduced to ruins. The temple that had stood glorious for centuries was in shambles. In a sense, Patel saw that the temple perfectly mirrored India’s condition.
Just four days ago, his military had entered the princely state of Junagadh that housed Somnath and the famous Gir forest. The Nawab of the state had already signed the instrument of accession to join Pakistan, and it took a lot of boldness to capture the state back. It took a lot of persuasion and a lot of military force, but it was worth it.
The Nawab, known for organizing elaborate weddings for his pet dogs, had already fled three weeks ago. It was time for peace for the state’s residents.
Patel asked the audience swarming around, whether they wanted to join India. A thundering 'Yes' was showered. One job done, two more to go!
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On August 15, 1947 India was a free nation. However, it didn't end up as a single unit. Muslims got a separa
te nation of their own. A number of Indian monarchs (numbering more than a 500), who surrendered the autonomy to the British crown centuries ago were looking to create independent nations as the British suzerainty over the Indian subcontinent didn’t apply any more. Their regions comprised of nearly a two-fifths of India and over 100 million people. They ruled their nominally sovereign entities called the princely state and they had various degrees of autonomy over their own kingdom. The treaties they signed with the British would expire when Britain left India. Thus technically these monarchs were all now free.
Just before the independence, on June 11, 1947, the princely state of Travancore announced its intention to create a sovereign state, independent of India. On June 12, the state of Hyderabad followed suit and was setting up foreign missions in Europe and elsewhere. It was going to be a big mess.
While most of the other princely states were quite small - barely more than a few square kilometers - and locked deep inside India, some were quite big. For instance, the Himalayan kingdom of Kashmir was bigger than Austria, Switzerland and Hungary combined. The region of Hyderabad was comparable to the size of whole of UK. The western kingdom of Junagadh was about the size of Jamaica and the southern kingdom of Travancore was about the size of Israel. All of these regions had sizable populations, giving their monarchs a hope that they can stake it alone.
Then there was the question of other colonial powers such as France and Portugal, who still held a few colonies in the subcontinent and planned to hold them. Portugal held the beach-studded province of Goa & couple of small enclaves on the Western coast, while France held a couple of coastal towns, mostly on the Eastern coast.
From Tryst to Tendulkar: The History of Independent India Page 2
