From Tryst to Tendulkar: The History of Independent India

by Balaji Viswanathan

  Together, this arrangement would have made India quite ungovernable geographic mess without a defendable border. India’s new leaders had a really big mess at their hands as Britain was handing over the keys to India. If the demands of the different monarchs were met, the subcontinent would end up as 500 nations. If the situation was mismanaged, there was a potential for a brutal chaos and civil war - one that was unequalled in the history of humanity.

  Can the Indian leaders prevent the breakup of India?

  * * *

  The State of India just before independence

  British India was comprised of 17 provinces directly ruled by the British crown and 565 princely states ruled by Indian monarchs who agreed to the paramountcy of the British crown. The princely states had varying degrees of autonomy over their internal affairs, but had surrendered sovereignty on defense and external affair.

  Major provinces of India in 1947

  Assam - Originally a part of Burma until 1826 and then became a part of British territory of Bengal. This extreme northeast territory forms the present Indian states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.

  Bengal - Among the oldest and largest provinces in India whose conquest helped East India Company win over India. This province was partitioned with the western half forming the state of West Bengal in India and the eastern half forming the present nation of Bangladesh (until 1971 it was a part of Pakistan).

  Bihar - This province in central India was originally a part of Bengal and now forms the Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand.

  Orissa - This province was a part of the province of Bihar and Orissa until 1946. It forms the present day Indian east coast state of Odisha.

  Bombay - This western province was among the richest in India and major center of commerce. This currently forms the present Indian states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

  Central Provinces and Berar - This came primarily out of the territories of Marathas in central India. It presently forms the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and parts of western Maharashtra.

  Madras - The oldest British province in India that was established as a Presidency in 1640. This southern province forms the present Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Karnataka and Kerala.

  North-west Frontier Province - This province bordering Afghanistan was originally a part of Punjab and was separated in 1901. It forms the present Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

  Punjab - This is one of the important provinces in northern India. It was among the two provinces that were partitioned [the other was Bengal]. The western half forms core of present day Pakistan and the eastern half forms the present Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.

  Sind - This province was a part of Bombay and in 1936, it was given a separate state. The separation of Sind from Bombay was significant in Indian history as it paved the way for Pakistan. The Pakistan movement first gained momentum in this province and forms the eponymous province in the southern part of Pakistan.

  United Provinces - This was among the most populous provinces of India and its present day incarnation of Uttar Pradesh is the biggest state/province in the world by population.

  These 11 provinces had their elections in 1946 and the representatives from these provincial elections decided the fate of partition of India and later formed the Constituent Assembly that wrote India’s constitution. 7 of the 11 major provinces became entirely a part of India, while 2 became entirely a part of Pakistan. The other two were partitioned in almost equal halves.

  Minor provinces of India in 1947

  Ajmer-Merwara - Originally part of Gwalior and Udaipur until the mid 19th century. Currently forms the state of Rajasthan in India.

  Baluchistan - Forms the extreme western province of Baluchistan in Pakistan now. It was ruled by the Khans of Kalat until 1876. Although it forms close to 40% of Pakistan’s present area, it has only a little more than 4% of its population.

  Coorg - This was a small hilly province in southern India. It is part of the present Indian state of Karnataka.

  Delhi - This was originally a part of the Punjab province, but was given a special status with the creation of the national capital in 1911. Currently forms the National Capital Region (NCR) of India.

  Panth Piploda - This was the smallest province in British India that had about 5000 people and 65 square kilometers of land. Forms the present Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

  Other than Baluchistan all the others are a part of India now.

  Major Princely states of India

  There were 562 princely states. Here were the major ones:

  Hyderabad - The largest and the most powerful of Indian states. Forms a sizable part of south central India now. Ruled by a Muslim ruler, who was among the richest in the world of that time.

  Jammu and Kashmir - The large Himalayan valley of Kashmir were once ruled by the Punjabi Sikhs before the British bought and sold to local Dogra rulers who ruled the neighboring territories of Jammu and Ladakh. The Kashmir valley is predominantly Muslim, although the territories of Jammu and Ladakh along with the monarch were Hindu/Buddhist.

  Mysore - One of the most progressive princely states of India. The state had been a leader in technology and education. Ruled by a Hindu monarch.

  Smaller, but important ones were:

  Junagadh

  Jaisalmer

  Jodhpur

  Manipur

  Sikkim

  Travancore

  Creation of Pakistan

  As the freedom of India started appearing quite likely, a section of Muslims started getting worried that they would end up as a minority in a Hindu-majority nation. Nearly three-fourths of India was non-Muslim, and most of the Congressional leadership was Hindu. Thus, the Muslim League feared that the Hindus would take over most of the power in a democratic setup.

  Due to the activism of MA Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, in the mid 1940s it was agreed that the Muslim-majority regions would be split to form a separate state of Pakistan.

  Jinnah’s initial demand was to merge all the provinces with a slight Muslim majority - Bengal, Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, and Balochistan along with the key princely states of Jammu & Kashmir and Hyderabad - to form the new nation of Pakistan.

  Much to his chagrin, Congress agreed only to the separation of the Muslim-dominated parts of Bengal and Punjab to form Pakistan, instead of the whole province. Thereby, it was agreed to partition the two crucial provinces of Punjab in western India and Bengal in eastern India into two halves - a Hindu one and a Muslim one. The Muslim halves in these two provinces joined with NWFP (the Pashtun province adjoining Pakistan) and Sindh to form the new nation of Pakistan.

  India tried a bit to keep the NWFP (now called the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) region out of Pakistan as the Congress party had won the elections there in 1946. However, in a referendum held in 1947, the province decided to join Pakistan. This cut India's access to its historic neighbor, Afghanistan.

  Now that the partition of the major provinces was settled, the question shifted to the independence of the princely states. Some of these were quite powerful and their monarchs were very ambitious.

  The ones who proved to be the most troublesome were the monarchs of Hyderabad, Jammu & Kashmir, Tripura, Manipur, Sikkim and Junagadh. The monarchs of Travancore, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bhopal were not as vociferous but had bigger ambitions. These princely states initially ganged up under the leadership of the Nawab of Bhopal, Hamidullah Khan. The Nawab opened up dialogue with Pakistan on the possibilities of joining his nation with Pakistan.

  India needed a strong leadership to manage this confusion.

  The Iron Man of India

  Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was one of the four famous London-educated lawyers of India who changed the future of the subcontinent - the others being Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He was born in a poor farming family in Gujarat and was instrumental in helping the freedom movement reach all parts of India.

&nbs
p; In 1946, when Congress was busy choosing the President (who would subsequently become the first Prime Minister of independent India), Patel was the overwhelming favorite among the ranks. However, in April 1946, Mahatma Gandhi put his weight behind Nehru due to a number of reasons:

  Nehru was a more charming and a less polarizing figure than Patel. Gandhi thought that Nehru would be able to handle a diverse democracy, especially if Patel was able to have his say behind the scenes.

  Nehru was 14 years younger than Patel and in much better shape when it came to health. It was crucial to choose a new leader who had the energy to rule India for a long time.

  Nehru was a dreamer and Patel was a doer. Gandhi wanted Indian government to have a dreamer’s face and a doer’s body.

  24 years after independence, one of the major leaders of Indian freedom movement, C. Rajagopalachari, would rue this decision:

  When the independence of India was coming close upon us and Gandhiji was the silent master of our affairs, he had come to the decision that Jawaharlal, who among the Congress leaders was the most familiar with foreign affairs, should be the Prime Minister of India, although he knew Vallabhbhai would be the best administrator among them all…

  Undoubtedly it would have been better if Nehru had been asked to be the Foreign Minister and Patel made the Prime Minister. I too fell into the error of believing that Jawaharlal was the more enlightened person of the two… A myth had grown about Patel that he would be harsh towards Muslims. This was a wrong notion but it was the prevailing prejudice.

  -- C. Rajagopalachari (1971)

  Thus, Nehru was made the Prime Minister and Patel took the second most powerful post - the Home Minister - in charge of welding India.

  The Art of Persuasion

  For the most part, Patel was able to get the individual states signed up through the power of persuasion. He was helped in large part by the prevailing pro-Congress, pro-freedom sentiment that was sweeping much of the nation. Nehru and Gandhi were very popular in every part of India and thus many small rulers, especially the Hindu rulers, had no hesitation in joining India.

  Besides his persuasive powers, Patel was supported by two people:

  Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, was sympathetic to India’s desire of integrating the princely states. He took interest in keeping India as a viable nation, and for his actions he was retained as the Governor General of India even after the British left. Mountbatten was the cousin of the English King and had a lot of influence over the various Nawabs and Maharajas.

  Mountbatten had a very smart political advisor in VP Menon. Menon had worked as a civil servant for over 30 years and had a very good understanding of India and the various bureaucratic processes that made it. Menon initially wanted to quietly retire in 1947. However, Patel retained him to help the process of the takeover.

  The trio drafted two documents:

  Standstill document - this allowed all administrative relationships that the state held with the British crown to be transferred to India.

  Instrument of accession - this turned the suzerainty of the state to India. The monarchs of the states still had autonomy over the internal affairs and were immune to prosecution from the courts in India.

  With Mountbatten’s influence, Patel’s power and Menon’s knowledge of the legality, the task of getting the states signed into India became somewhat manageable.

  Between June and August 1947, they got all but three of the Princely states to sign the Instrument of Accession. Ultimately, India was able to retain more than 550 of the 565 princely states, leaving only a dozen odd princely states to join Pakistan.

  However, the path to get to that point was quite rocky. How did they manage?

  Trouble at Travancore

  The Maharajah of Travancore was not enthused by the secular outlook of Congress. He was convinced by his Diwan (Prime Minister), Sir CP Ramaswamy Aiyar, that a secular India was not a good place for a Hindu Maharajah. On June 12, 1947, the Prime Minister announced that Travancore would become an independent sovereign state. He even had a plan to set up a trade agent in Pakistan.

  Meanwhile, strong Communist currents started brewing in Travancore, and Patel also planned a strong political action within the state to force the hand of the Maharajah. The monarch had already been warned that there would be a strong disturbance when the British exited India. It was conveyed to him that without India’s support, Travancore would not be able to withstand the social disturbance.

  As though to make a point, an assassination attempt was made on Sir CP on July 25 in Trivandrum. This disturbed the Maharajah a lot and he didn’t want to lose his control over his state. On July 27, the Maharajah telegraphed the acceptance to Mountbatten. It was a significant thing as Travancore had clout and its submission got other smaller rulers to resign themselves to fate. Travancore forms a big part of the present state of Kerala.

  The Dance of Jodhpur and Jaisalmer

  Jodhpur and Jaisalmer were two Hindu princely states that form present-day Rajasthan. Along with Bikaner, they were among the handful of princely states that stood on the borders of India and Pakistan. The monarchs there historically had a very comfortable life with the best of the world’s palaces, trains, and forts. They were not going to be too comfortable in the ascetic land of Gandhi. Pakistan promised them wine and women, while India admonished them to take up social development.

  Thus, Maharaja Hanwant Singh of Jodhpur took Maharajkumar of Jaisalmer to meet Jinnah and explore joining Pakistan, despite their states being almost completely Hindu. Jinnah was amused at this offer and gave them a blank check - to write whatever terms they wanted. Jinnah had nothing to lose and everything to gain in such an arrangement. Just before the Maharajah of Jodhpur could sign the paper in front of him, his Jaisalmer friend warned that the Maharajah would not be able to side with Muslims if riots erupted in Pakistan. This perturbed the Jodhpur Maharaja and he decided to postpone signing the document.

  The Jodhpur Maharaja faced strong resistance from the Hindu nobles and commoners back home. Later, VP Menon took him to meet with Mountbatten; the duo helped the Maharajah understand the reality and also conveyed that they would not concede to any of his outlandish demands. The Maharajah was so irritated that he came quite close to taking the life of VP Menon.

  After a few minutes, Lord Mountbatten went out of the room and the Maharajah whipped out a revolver, levelled it at me and said: 'I refuse to accept your dictation.' I told him that he was making a very serious mistake if he thought that by killing me, or threatening to kill me, he would get the accession abrogated.

  -- VP Menon

  Eventually, both the Maharajas decided to sign the accession to India, and their territories eventually formed present-day Rajasthan.

  Warring over Junagadh

  When India got independence on August 15, 1947 only three princely states - Junagadh, Hyderabad, and Kashmir - were still undecided on signing the instrument of accession. It was time for more serious action.

  Junagadh’s Nawab was a man who spent heavily on weddings for his dogs. He lived off his poor peasants. Junagadh, presently forming southern Gujarat, was completely surrounded by Indian territories, although unlike Hyderabad it had access to the sea. The distance between its key town of Port Veraval and the then capital of Pakistan, Karachi was under 300 miles. Thus, the Nawab tried to push his luck for joining Pakistan, despite 80% of his population being Hindu.

  The Nawab, Muhammad Mahabat Khan Rasul Khanji, invited the Karachi politician Shah Nawaz Bhutto (the father of Pakistan’s first elected Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and grandfather of another Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto) to be a temporary Diwan of his state.

  Bhutto was a master in the art of deception and kept the Indians thinking that Junagadh would join India, while making all arrangements for joining the state of Pakistan. On the 15th of August, his government suddenly announced that the state would be joining Pakistan:

  After anxious consideration an
d the careful balancing of all factors the government of the State has decided to accede to Pakistan and hereby announces its decision to that effect. The State is confident that its decision will be welcomed by all loyal subjects of the State who have its real welfare and prosperity at heart.

  This came as a shock to India. Patel was now prepared to use force. Nehru, however, didn’t want a war and wanted to give peace a chance. The Indian government thus sent communication to Pakistan to decline the accession stating that the province was not contiguous to Pakistan and that it had primarily Hindu subjects. Pakistan, of course, didn’t reply. Why would they give up such an important territory?

  India tried to convince Pakistan that the people of Junagadh should be allowed to decide, but that was met with silence.

  While all this was happening, two tiny states adjoining Junagadh, hardly more than a few villages each, Marol and Babariawad, decided to join India. The Khan of Marol tried to retract his accession (after much pressure by Junagadh), but Mountbatten refused to take it back. There was a massive legal confusion on who had the authority over these territories and whether these accessions were legal. Junagadh thus invaded these two provinces as the Nawab claimed these two territories as his.

  A big mistake!

  This worked perfectly for Patel as Junagadh had now invaded two territories that belonged to India, providing ample reason for India to start a war. Nehru was still not ready. However, he agreed to send a brigade of the Indian army to the region on September 24. He also decided to start embargoes on the region by cutting food and other essential supplies.