Vindicating the nation

At the time of Independence, several British observers didn't give India much of a chance. There were simply too many divisions in the country for the experiment to hold for long. So long as there were British masters to rule over them, Indians would be a peaceful lot. Leave them alone and they would be at each other's throat in no time. Moreover, there was only one leader who could hold the people of the sub-continent together: Mahatma Gandhi. But he was old and frail. Where were the other leaders required to build the nation?

Sixty years later, India remains a functional democracy. The divisions of caste, religion and language are still there. But several of these conflicts have been resolved within the democratic framework. Poverty has come down, life expectancy has gone up. India is on the verge of becoming a mid-income country.

Ramachandra Guha's book, based on research of private papers, is about how India was built from scratch. There was no democratic tradition or history of togetherness to fall back on. Yet, the country's leaders, some of them well-known and the others not so well-known, managed to do the impossible.

There were four immediate challenges facing the country at the time of Independence. The first was to give shape to the country by integrating the princely states. It is startling to know that nobody had a clear idea of the magnitude of the problem. Were there 500 states or were there more? Nobody knew the exact number. There were Muslim states with largely Hindu population and one Hindu state with a Muslim majority""the loyalties of the rulers and the ruled were in conflict. Still, all of them were amalgamated into India, most by gentle persuasion and a handful by force and intimidation.

The next challenge was to put together a Constitution for the country. This was done in two years' time. The third was to see if democracy really worked, if the idea of free ballot excited the country's people, most of them illiterate and unaware of political intricacies. The 1952 elections showed that democracy was indeed the right fit for India. The participation of people in the polls was overwhelming.

The fourth, and what Guha calls the single-biggest factor that has saved India from certain Balkanisation, was the re-organisation of states on a linguistic basis. Most Indian leaders and Jawaharlal Nehru in particular found the idea of redrawing the internal map of the country on the basis of language fraught with disastrous consequences. The country had just come out of a bloody Partition and in no way could further dividing forces be encouraged.

But the imposition of Hindustani evoked a strong response from several quarters of the country, especially the South. Nehru did give in to these demands but with great reluctance. With hindsight, it seems, this is what saved the day for India. Pakistan paid the price for imposing Urdu on the Bengali-speaking people of East Pakistan in 1971. Sri Lanka's decision to impose Sinhalese on the Tamil population living in the north of the country has resulted in a bloody civil war.

No story of post-Independence can be complete without stalwarts like Nehru, Sardar Patel and Babasaheb Ambedkar. But there were others also who played a defining role in giving shape to the Indian nation, yet are not so well- known. Guha tells India's history through the lives of these people. Potti Sriramulu, for instance, triggered the states' reorganisation initiative. His death by fasting in 1952 led to the creation of Andhra Pradesh and the subsequent reorganisation of states on a linguistic basis.

Jaipal Singh, the tribal from Chhota Nagpur who captained the Indian hockey team that won the 1928 Olympics gold, played a key role in protecting the interests of the tribal people. And it was the struggle of AZ Phizo, though he fought for the separation of the Naga people from India, which resulted in New Delhi coming alive to the aspirations of the people of the North East. Like in his earlier bestseller, A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport, he tells India's story through the lives of its people.

Therein, it seems, lies the lesson for all democracies. Decisions need to be inclusive. Local aspirations need to be recognised and given the space to grow. Naxal violence, it is worth noting, is taking place in those parts of the country that have somehow not shared in the recent economic success of the country.

Guha is a historian par excellence and a great storyteller. His book is the finest work to have come out ever on contemporary Indian history.

India After Gandhi
The History of the World's Largest Democracy

Ramachandra Guha
Picador
Price: Rs 695; Pages: 900