Book summary - India after Gandhi
After many months, I've finally completed reading India after Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha. It is an expansive tome that covers the history of India from independence till 2019 (second edition). I definitely recommend the book for anyone interested in following Indian history and politics. This book helped me with the missing historical context across many governments. In this blog I'll capture some highlights that stood out. As a Kashmiri Hindu Pandit, it is the stories of Kashmir that are of particular interest to me.
The book includes many citations and feels fairly objective, especially since most politicians at the national level across political parties are called out for major misdeeds. I needed a dictionary more often than I would like to admit which was frustrating at times but the content was fast paced from a chronological perspective.
A recurring theme is how India does not meet the norms for other nations - we are simply too diverse across multiple dimensions and were predicted to have disintegrated as a nation many times. However the country has survived from its challenging birth, rediscovery over the years to its current state where we are growing with immense potential. We neither have a common language, religion, food, geography, no glue to bind us. Major conflicts exist across multiple sub groups but somehow the balance still remains.
The first chapters call out how India was fairly representative right from the first cabinet - including stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabbhai Patel, Maulana Abdul Kalam, Br Ambedkar (untouchable by caste), a woman Amrit Kaur, and some atheists as well. Bitterness after partition, riots and tensions finally led to Gandhi's death. Patel and Menon took up the task to integrate the princely states into the Indian nation. They used threats and offered annual allowances and convinced Mountbatten to influence the autocratic rulers of their future after the British. In total 554 states were integrated into the country, but some, like Kashmir, were problematic.
Kashmir was ruled by Hari Singh, a Hindu king, but where the majority population was Muslim. The king thought he could set up an independent neutral Switzerland like state between rivals India and Pakistan. However Pakistan based pathans decided to capture the state by force and Hari Singh acceded to India. Thankfully Sheikh Abdullah who was a populist leader of Kashmir had secular leanings like Gandhi, Nehru and he was able to get local citizens to ally with the Indian troops who pushed back the raiders from Pakistan.
Ascertaining the veracity of a claim and trusting sources in today's age of misinformation is hard. However my family has heard similar stories of how all of Kashmir stood steadfast against the invaders. The genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in the 90s could have probably happened earlier. The Kashmir issue was brought to the UN where a British bias muddled the resolution and it is a price that we are still paying for. Nehru was actually a Kashmiri Pandit by origin and Kashmir exemplified the idea of a secular India.
After the split of Punjab with Pakistan the mass migration of people across borders began. Refugees needed to be accommodated and rehabilitated. We see one example of major reforms - redistribution of land across the districts of East Punjab. Land was allocated in a progressive scheme with high taxes for high land owners. As a poor country, we had food shortages and slowly India was rebuilding.
The constitution of India was drafted under the leadership of B. R. Ambedkar. Rather than choosing a village panchayat; the individual was given more importance taking inspiration from European and American models. The book gets into various examples of how many citizens including minorities actively participated in shaping the constitution. The Constitution of India was effective 26th Jan 1950. The citizens were able to debate and negotiate complex topics. The official language of the country was a contentious decision. South Indians were opposed to Hindi and hence English was also continued to be used for all official communication. This decision has meant that we've been able to rapidly be a part of the current knowledge economy. Pakistan by contrast got their constitution effective in 1973. They also pushed for Urdu as the national language, arguably leading to the isolation and creation of Bangladesh. Patel passed away by the end of 1950 giving Nehru outsized influence in the party.
Elections started in 1952 with our own innovations like using pictorial symbols in addition to text, indelible ink and a massive bureaucracy to make it happen. Continuity of the Indian leadership meant that we had a third-front not aligned to either the US or Russian superpowers. Capitalism and socialism were both unknown and the nation created a planning commission to make 5 year plans. Various infrastructure projects like dams, mines were set up along with institutions like IITs. New states were formed based on linguistic boundaries. Social reforms like laws related to religions took time. Many were deferred. Discontent in the north east, and other tribal areas against the excesses of the state continued for a while. India has paid dearly over many decades while slowly integrating different opinions.
From 1959 onwards the relationship with China started to sour. Since Nehru considered China to be a friend the military was not prepared for an attack. In the 1962 war, India lost to China and lost ground. These hostilities are now back to the forefront again. In 1964 Nehru passed away. Many years of rule by the congress had already fermented corruption in the ranks. The next generation of leadership was going to take over. And that is a good segue to continue this summary in another post.