Mountbatten suggested taking this issue to the United Nations, but Patel disagreed. Nehru stood by Patel on this.
Unrest started worsening in Junagadh, and over 100,000 Hindus fled the region as refugees. Bhutto tried to get armies from Pakistan, but Jinnah could offer none. The Nawab saw the writing on the wall and fled the state on October 26 (he took all his wives, dogs, and money in the treasury). The Arzi Hukumat, headed by Samaldas Gandhi, was already putting pressure on joining India and quickly took control of many key regions.
On November 9, 1947 India’s troops under Captain Harvey Jones marched into Junagadh and took over the administration. It was then found that Bhutto had already fled from the state the previous day.
On February 20, 1948, India held a plebiscite where the residents of Junagadh were given a choice between India and Pakistan: 1,90,779 voted to join India. A whopping 91 voted to join Pakistan.
Junagadh is now a part of India.
The Curious Case of Kashmir
The ancient story of Kashmir is not much different from the rest of ancient India and followed the same pattern. Until the 14th century, various Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms ruled the region. From about 1350-1580 it came under Islamic rule through Turkic and Afghan rulers. In this period, Islam spread through the region must faster than in the rest of India as the rulers actively promoted it. Then like the rest of India, the whole region came under the Mughal empire.
In the 18th century, as the Mughal empire disintegrated, the Kashmir region came under the Sikhs. The Sikhs were defeated by the British, and not knowing what to do with it, they sold the region of Kashmir for Rs.75 lakhs (1 lakh = 100,000), a sum was equivalent to about 100K pound sterlings at that exchange rate, to Gulab Singh (a Hindu chieftain who was loyal to the British). The chieftain already ruled Jammu and Ladakh, and Kashmir would complete his state. From 1846 until 1947, the Dogra descendents of Gulab Singh ruled the state.
On the 23rd of September 1925, the last of the Maharajas, Hari Singh took the throne. His territory bordered Tibet, Afghanistan, and Russian Turkestan, besides what would become present day India and Pakistan. The state had four parts: the Hindu-majority Jammu region, the Muslim-majority regions of the Kashmir valley and Gilgit, and finally the Buddhist-majority Ladakh region.
The Maharajah had no intention of joining either India or Pakistan and believed that his state’s large size would let him stay independent. Both India and Pakistan gave the Maharajah enough room and didn’t pressure him enough. Mountbatten, however, gave the Maharajah the option to choose either of these countries by allegedly pressuring Sir Cyril Radcliffe to award Gurdaspur district in Punjab (through which the only road from Delhi to the state’s capital Srinagar passed) to India. Without that sliver of land in Punjab, India would not have had a access to Kashmir and it would have become a de facto Pakistani province.
VP Menon, who managed the integration process, mentions that India decided to give enough time to Kashmir as she was already engaged in the messy takeover of Junagadh and faced with the prospect of fighting Hyderabad.
However, Jinnah was not prepared to wait too long. Although Kashmir had entered into a standstill agreement with Pakistan (and not with India) that provided for a temporary truce, Jinnah feared that India had bigger plans. The road connecting Srinagar to Delhi was being developed with a strong sense of urgency. Thus, Jinnah decided to apply pressure by cutting off petrol supplies (the state was more economically connected to Pakistan than India) and promoting border raids.
Jinnah already had to deal with the restive Pathans from his NWFP province who were pouring into his cities. The Pathans populating Western Pakistan and Afghanistan were a feared group, known for their guerilla warfare. All rulers of the region had trouble controlling them [Britain failed, so did Soviet Union in 1980s and the US since 2001]. Jinnah then came up with an intelligent plan to kill two birds with one stone by giving the Pathans a goal - capturing Kashmir.
Thus, began the invasion of Kashmir on October 22, 1947.
The Pathan warriors called the raiders had little problem in invading vast portion of Kashmir. Most of the Muslim troops defected and welcomed the raiders. On the 24th, they took over the Mahura powerhouse, the only power source of the state, to plunge the state into darkness literally and figuratively. It seemed very likely that the takeover of Kashmir would be very swift and finished by the time of the Eid festival (the most important religious holiday for Muslims worldwide) - the 26th of October. However, fortune worked in favor of India.
By the 24th of October, it was clear to India that this was a major invasion. Mountbatten had already received confidential communication from his senior British officers in Pakistan. This was passed across to the Maharajah who was desperate as he knew his time was over. VP Menon flew to Jammu and got the Maharajah to sign the instrument of accession on the 26th of October - the date of Eid. Now, India had the legal authority to send troops into Kashmir.
The invading troops were not quite disciplined and were comprised of rag-tag groups put together in an ad-hoc manner. These raiders were more interested in looting and raping than quickly securing the capital of Srinagar. Given their ease of victories, it seemed they would win and they took it easy. Their looting of the towns on the way gave enough time for India to get its act together.
Finally, it was the work of a brave commander - Brigadier Rajinder Singh - who led the Maharajah’s troops to confront the invaders. With just 150 men, Brigadier Singh was able to arrest the movement of the raiders enough to provide time for India. [For his bravery, he was among the first recipients of the Maha Vir Chakra - the second highest military honor in India.]
When the raiders finally arrived in Srinagar, they found an Indian army unit already flown to the airport. The army units gave the raiders a chase. This eventually precipitated in a major war between India and Pakistan.
The war continued on for a year and there were many stories of bravery on both sides. Major Somnath Sharma, Lance Naik Karam Singh, and many other Jawans performed heroic acts that kept the morale up. However, both nations were quite young and could not afford to keep fighting for too long.
At the insistence of Mountbatten, Nehru took matters to the United Nations Organization. In December 1948 a ceasefire was arranged by the UN and the positions that both sides held that month - now called the Line of Control (LoC) - had since then become the unofficial border in Kashmir. India was able to retain most of the Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh - while Pakistan got almost all of the Gilgit region along with a small part of the valley. China took over a chunk of Ladakh [termed Aksai Chin] in that period and became more formalized after the Sino-Indian war.
India considers Jammu & Kashmir very important, as most of the historic invasions to India have come from the northwest. Since the state’s borders are barely hours away from Delhi by road, it was India's strategic interests at play there. Also, the sizable population of non-Muslims face a major risk if India decides to leave the state.
Operation Polo - War on Nizam
India thinks that if Pakistan attacks her, Hyderabad will stab her in the back. I am not so sure we would not.
-- Laik Ali (Prime Minister of Hyderabad)
While Kashmir and Junagadh presented a headache, they were superseded by a much bigger headache in the form of Hyderabad. Hyderabad was smack in the middle of India and commanded a large area of land - about the size of England and Scotland put together. Eighty-five percent of the population was Hindu, but the Nizam - among the richest persons in the world of his time - wanted to join Pakistan.
Unlike Junagadh, Hyderabad was both big and powerful. Unlike Kashmir, Hyderabad had an unfriendly monarch. The Nizam tried hard to get into the UN and British Commonwealth, but Britain declined. They didn’t want to get into trouble with India by making governance unviable in southern India. The government of Hyderabad was also transferring money to Pakistan that was at that time fighting a war with India over Kashmir.
While Hyderabad’s
populace was predominantly Hindu, the army was predominantly Muslim and aided by irregular mercenaries called the Razakars. Together they started terrorizing the populace, and Patel felt compelled to intervene. Junagadh and later Kashmir had taken out India’s energy and thus the Hyderabad issue was in contention until Mountbatten left.
On June 21 1948, Mountbatten was replaced by an Indian Governor General - C. Rajagopalachari [Rajaji] - who was one of the top four of Congress at the time of independence along with Nehru, Patel, and Gandhi. He was more aggressive than Mountbatten in this regard and had no issues understanding the need for “Police Action” (terming it a military action would get more attention in the UN, and India sought to avoid that).
India entered Hyderabad on September 13 1948, and in just four days, the operation was done. On the 17th of September, Hyderabad’s Prime Minister surrendered after massive casualties on his side. It was among the most one-sided wars world had ever seen. Following the surrender, there was a massive wave of communal violence (as retribution to the acts of the Razakars) and to this day it remains a controversial topic in India.
India was thus able to take over all three troublesome princely states: Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir.
A few other territories was won by mere luck. For instance, the Indian Ocean islands of Lakshadweep was taken over by India by being first to hoist the flag (by the time the Pakistan Navy reached these islands, the Indians already had their flag up and Pakistan didn’t consider it worthy to fight this far from their home base).
In a matter of two years, these new territories were dissolved and merged with other provinces. Patel and India had no intention of letting these monarchs have autonomy over their territory.
Takeover of French Territories
Even after the exit of the British, both French and Portuguese continued to maintain their tiny colonies in India. The French territories were primarily in the south and centered around the key coastal town of Pondicherry. The Indian government allowed the people to decide their future, and in the elections held in 1948, people decided to keep their autonomy.
However, in 1954, a key leader in the pro-French group switched sides and allowed the process of merger to proceed. In May 1956, a treaty of cession was signed by India, and it was ratified by France in 1962. For France, their Indian colonies were neither big nor profitable and more importantly France were involved in a major war in Vietnam/IndoChina. The colonies were adjoining India and they knew India could take over with little force. Thus, they didn’t resist the takeover.
Operation Vijay: The Case of Goa
While the French proved a little easy, the Portuguese proved not as amenable. Portugal was at the time ruled by a dictator - António de Oliveira Salazar - and he didn’t desire giving up his tropical colony of Goa to India. Goa was a key base for Portugal in the Indian Ocean and was key to controlling their colonies in Africa. However, pressure was mounting on Nehru to take over the Portuguese territory. Apart from internal pressures, there was the external pressure from African freedom movements who requested India to take over Goa and cut off Portugal's presence in the Indian ocean.
There were tensions throughout the 1950s as India took over Portuguese enclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 1954 and talks broke down.
On December 18, 1961 the Indian Army entered Goa. The operation was over in less than two days as Governor General Manuel António Vassalo e Silva realized the numerically superior position of India and surrendered.
The issue was taken by Portugal to both UN and NATO. It was fortuitous that both decided not to act on India. In the UN Security Council, the Soviet Union vetoed any action on India. In case the of NATO, the John F. Kennedy administration used a technicality to avoid acting against India.
Here are a few reasons why they didn’t act against India:
Distracted US administration: Nehru timed the aggression within months of JFK taking over. The new administration was still learning the ropes and was too busy focused on the botched "Bay of Pigs" operation in Cuba. When India took the administration by surprise, all the President could say was a dignified "Oops!"
Colony or Province? There was an argument on whether Goa was a province of Portugal or a mere colony. Given that the US and Canada were colonies once, they were somewhat sympathetic to India's cause in fighting a colonial power despite Portugal's argument that Goa was a province. The US didn't want NATO to be seen as siding with imperial powers and lose political capital and credibility at a very critical time in Cuba and Vietnam.
World opinion. Most of the world - from newly liberated colonies in Africa, West Asia, and East Asia to the USSR and Soviet bloc countries to even China - supported India. NATO's targets are usually isolated countries that no longer have friends (such as Milosevic's Serbia or Saddam's Iraq). India had established itself as a leader of the third world, and it was politically very expensive to act against India. This was especially important as IndoChina (Vietnam) was starting to boil and any action against India was bound to escalate tension there. For most countries, Goa was too unimportant compared to the action in other places.
British neutrality. Although Britain was a close friend of Portugal, they also sympathized with the Indian cause and decided to stay neutral. Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth members of NATO were also eager to maintain their relationship with India and were against a NATO action.
JFK bias. Although the Eisenhower administration (that ruled the US until 1960) was more friendly to Portugal, the Kennedy administration took over in 1961 was more liberal and more sympathetic to India. Nehru timed his takeover of Goa well (waiting for Eisenhower to leave office). It is questionable whether India would have taken over Goa in 1961 if Nixon had won against Kennedy.
UN Veto: Portugal and the US tried to use the UN for an action. Thanks to the USSR's veto, the UN Security Council refused to vote against India. This made things even more complicated.
Personality of Salazar. Salazar (dictator of Portugal) was not a likable figure, and as an autocratic dictator he didn't have many friends in the liberal-minded members of NATO.
Weakened administration. Although Adlai Stevenson II (US ambassador to the UN) spoke eloquently against India, he had little credibility even in the US. Even his own government did not debrief him regarding the Bay of Pigs crisis and made him appear stupid when talking about the subject in the General Assembly. In short, India's enemies were quite weak at that time and had no political capital to make a significant impact.
The Case of Sikkim
Sikkim was one of the three Himalayan kingdoms sandwiched between India and China. However, unlike Nepal and Bhutan, Britain considered Sikkim to be within the natural domain of India. In 1947, India tried to take Sikkim through a popular vote. However, Sikkim didn’t accept India’s takeover and thus the Himalayan kingdom became a protectorate of India [where India gets to have a say in her defense, trade, and foreign policy].
In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, India was ruled by Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi, who took a much more aggressive stance on foreign policy. India considered Sikkim too important to fall into China’s sphere of influence and sought ways to get the state into India. It is alleged that people from the Nepali plains immigrated into Sikkim in large numbers and historically these people were more pro-India.
In 1973, massive anti-government riots erupted in Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, and the Indian government sent its forces to help restore order. In 1975, the elected Prime Minister of Sikkim was open to joining India as a full state. A referendum was held on April 4 1975, and people overwhelming decided to join India [although it is alleged that it was not a fair vote given the presence of the Indian army].
On May 16 1975, Sikkim became an official state of India and the last to do so.
Controversy over Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh is a state in the extreme north east of India. Both India and China have claimed this territory for decades.
The ancient history of A
runachal is not clear. It borders Assam (a core part of Indian civilizations) and has a few old temples. However, it is also influenced by Tibetan, Burmese, and Bhutanese cultures.
In the 16th century, the most important heritage of the state - the Tawang Monastery - was built. This is one of the most important sites for the Tibetan Buddhists. The area is assumed to have been populated by the Tibetans at that point.
In ancient times, Indian empires and Tibetan empires were in harmony and the exact border was neither drawn nor enforced. But things would soon change.
Modern History
Until 1912, the border between Tibet and India was not quite delineated. Very few people lived there for it to matter. Neither the Mughals nor the British were controlling the region. Even the Tibetans were not that interested. For instance, here is India's map of 1909. It puts the state in Tibet.
Source: Imperial Gazetteer of India (1909)
However, here is a map of China and Tibet in 1892. That sort of puts the state in India/Burma.
Source: Americanized Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol.1, Chicago 1892.
In short, both India and Tibet were somewhat confused where the borders lay. Britain initially didn't bother as they found nothing of importance there. Eventually, they discovered the Tawang Monastery and it was time to draw the borders. In 1914, the representatives of Tibet, China, and British India sat together to draw the borders. Before going into that, I will give a brief introduction to Tibet.
Tibetan History
For a sizable chunk of history, Tibet was an independent region. However, under the Yuan dynasty (circa 1200 AD) Tibet came under China. Since then China has claimed Tibet under her rule. In the 18th century, the Chinese grip was loosened as the Qing dynasty started decaying. By about the 1860s, Tibet began to be recognized as a separate country.
From Tryst to Tendulkar: The History of Independent India Page 4
