Challenges of Nation Building

INTRODUCTION
At the hour of midnight on 14 15 August 1947, India attained independence. Jawahar
Lal Nehruthe first Prime Minister of free India addressed a special session of the
Constituent Assembly that night. This was the famous ‘Tryst with destiny’ speech. Our
leaders on attaining independence agreed upon two goals to be achieved:
1) We shall run our country through democratic government.
2) The government will be run for the good of all, particularly the poor and the socially
disadvantaged groups. No other country by then was born in a situation more difficult
than that of India in 1947. Freedom came with the partition of the country. The year
1947 was a year of unprecedented violence and displacement. It was in this situation
that independent India started on its journey to achieve several objectives.
THE THREE CHALLENGES
1) To shape a nation The first and immediate challenge was to shape a nation that was
united in spite of the diversity in our society. In India people spoke different languages
and followed different cultures and religions. It was widely believed that a country full of
such kinds of diversity could not remain together for long.
2) To establish Democracy The second challenge was to establish democracy. India
adopted representative democracy based on parliamentary form of government. A
democratic constitution is necessary but not sufficient for establishing a democracy so
the challenge was to develop democratic practices in accordance with the constitution.
3)To ensure the development and well being of society The third challenge was to
ensure the development and well being of entire society and not only of some sections.
The constitution clearly laid down the principle of equality and special protection to
socially disadvantaged groups and religious and cultural communities.
PARTITION: DISPLACEMENT AND REHABILITATION
On 14 15th August 1947, not one but two nation states came into existence India and
Pakistan. This was the result of partition the division of British India into India and
Pakistan. Such a division was not only very painful but also very difficult to decide and
to implement. It was decided to follow the principle of religious majorities which means
that areas where the Muslims were in majority would make up the territory of Pakistan
and rest was to stay India.But the division of the country had lot of difficulties:
1. There was no single belt of Muslim majority areas in British India. There were two
areas of concentration one in the west and one in the east and in no way these two
areas could be joined so it was decided that new country Pakistan will comprise of two
territories west and east Pakistan separated by a long expanse of Indian territory.
2. Secondly, not all Muslim majority areas wanted to be in Pakistan. Khan Abdul
Gaffar Khan the leader of North Western Frontier province and also known as Frontier
Gandhi was opposed to the Two Nation theory.
3. The third problem was that two of the Muslim majority provinces of British India,
Punjab and Bengal had very large areas where the non muslims were in majority.
So it was decided that these two provinces would be bifurcated according to the
religious majority at the district and even lower level.
4. The fourth problem was of the minorities on both sides of border. Lakhs of
Hindus and Sikhs in the areas that were now in Pakistan and an equally large number
of Muslims on the Indian side of Punjab and Bengal found themselves trapped. They
were aliens in their own land and became easy targets.
CONSEQUENCES OF PARTITION
1. There were killings and atrocities on both sides of the border. In the name of
religion people of one community ruthlessly killed and maimed people of the other
community. Cities like Lahore, Amritsar and Kolkata became communal zones.
2. Problem of Minorities on both sides of the border fled their home and often
secured temporary shelter in refugee camps.
3. Women suffered a lot They travelled to the other side of the new border by all sorts
of means often by foot and were often attacked,killed or raped.In many cases women
were killed by their own family members to preserve the family honour. Many children
were separated from their parents
4. Life in refugee camps were horrible For lakhs of these refugees the country's
freedom meant life in refugee camps for months and sometimes for years.
5. Division of liabilities and hearts The partition was not merely a division of
properties, liabilities and assets or political division of the country and administrative
apparatus but also financial assets and things like tables, chairs typewriters, paperclips,
books and also musical instruments of the police band.
6. It is estimated that about 80 lakh people were forced to migrate across new border
and about 5 to 10 lakh people were killed.
INTEGRATION OF PRINCELY STATES
•British India was divided into what were called the British Indian provinces and the
Princely states. The British Indian provinces were directly under the control of the British
government and several large and small states ruled by princes were called the princely
states.
•Princely states enjoyed some form of control over the internal affairs as long as they
accepted British Supremacy. Just before independence British announced that with the
end of their rule over India the supremacy of the British over the Princely states will
come to an end.
•It was left to the state whether to join India or Pakistan or remain independent. This
was a very serious problem and could threaten the very existence of united India. The
ruler of Travancore announced that the state had decided on independence.
•The ruler of Hyderabad made similar announcement the next day. The ruler of Bhopal
was also averse in joining the Constituent Assembly. So all this showed a strange
situation since Indian independence aimed at unity and self determination as well as
democracy approach.
GOVERNMENT’S APPROACH TOWARDS PRINCELY STATES
•The government took firm stance against possible division of India. The Muslim League
opposed the INC and took the view that states should be free to adopt any course they
liked. Sardar Patel played a historic role in negotiating with the rulers of princely states
firmly but diplomatically and bringing most of them enter into the Indian Union.
•The government’s approach was guided by three considerations:
•1. The people of most of the princely states really wanted to become part of the Indian
Union.
•2. The government was prepared to be flexible in giving autonomy to some regions and
the idea was to accommodate plurality and adopt flexible approach in dealing with the
regions.
•3. In the backdrop of partition which brought into focus the contest over demarcation of
territory the integration of the territorial boundaries of the nation had assume supreme
importance.

INSTRUMENT OF ACCESSION
The rulers of most of the states signed a document called the ‘Instrument of Accession’
which meant that their state agreed to become a part of the Union of India. The princely
states of Junagadh, Hyderabad, Kashmir and Manipur proved more difficult than the
rest. Issue of Junagadh was resolved after a plebiscite confirmed people’s desire to join
India.
HYDERABAD
•Hyderabad the largest of the princely states was surrounded entirely by Indian territory
and some parts of Hyderabad state today are parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh.
•Its ruler carried the title of Nizam. He entered into what was called the standstill
agreement with India in November 1947 for a year while negotiations with the Indian
government were going on. The people of Hyderabad started a movement against the
Nizam’s rule.
•The peasantry in the Telangana region in particular was victim of Nizams oppressive
rule and rose against him. Women too joined the movement.
•The Communists and Hyderabad Congress were in the forefront of the movement.
•The Nizam responded by unleashing a paramilitary force known as Razakarson the
people who committed lot of atrocities and the communal nature of the Razakarsknew
no bounds.
•They murdered, maimed, raped and looted targeting particularly the non-muslims.
•In September 1948 Indian Army moved into control the Nizam’s forces and finally after
few days Nizam surrendered and this lead to accession of Hyderabad to India.
MANIPUR
•A few days before independence the Maharaja of Manipur Bodhachandra Singh signed
Instrument of Accession with the Indian government on the assurance that internal
autonomy of Manipur would be maintained.
•Under the pressure of public opinion the Maharaja held elections in June 1948 and the
state became a constitutional monarchy and became the first Indian state to hold
elections based on Universal adult franchise.
•Manipur was the first part of India to hold election based on Universal Adult Franchise.
•There were lots of differences in the Legislative Assembly of Manipur over the merger
of Manipur with India.
•The Government of India succeeded in pressurizing the Maharaja into finding a merger
agreement in September 1949 without consulting the elected Legislative Assembly of
Manipur. This caused a lot of anger and resentment in Manipur, the repercussions of
which are still being felt.
REORGANISATION OF STATES
•The first important challenge India encountered after independence was the integration
of princely and other native states. The challenge was to draw the internal boundaries of
the Indian states. The boundaries of the states had to be drawn in a way so that the
linguistic and cultural plurality of the country could be reflected without affecting the
unity of the nation. Our leaders promised the linguistic principles as the basis of
formation of states.
•After the Nagpur session of Congress in 1920 the principle was recognized as the
basis of the reorganization of the INC party itself.
•After independence and partition, things changed and our leaders felt that this division
on the basis of language would lead to disruption and disintegration.
•This decision of the national leadership was challenge by the local leaders and people.
•Protest began in the Telugu speaking areas of the old Madras province which included
present date Tamil Nadu, parts of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka.
.•The Vishalandhra movement demanded that the Telugu speaking areas be separated
from the Madras province and separate Andhra province be made.
•The movement gathered momentum as a result of the central government’s vacillation.
•PottiSriramulu, a Congress leader went on indefinite fast that lead to his death because
great unrest and resulted in violent outburst in Andhra region.
•Finally the PM announced the formation of a separate Andhra state in December 1952.
•The formation of Andhra Pradesh spurred the struggle for making of other states on
linguistic lines in other parts of the country.
•The struggles forced the central government in appointing States Reorganisation
Commission in 1953 to look into the question of redrawing of the boundaries of the
states.
•The States Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956 which led to the creation of 14
states and six union territories.
•Thus we can conclude that creation of linguistic States which created fear of
separatism and division of the country has rather changed the nature of democratic
politics and leadership and has strengthened national unity.
•Democracy in other words was associated with plurality of ideas and ways of life.
PATEL AND INTEGRATION
•Sardar VallabhaiPatel was the first deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India
and he had emerged as a popular leader after the Kheda Satyagraha (1918) and the
BardoliSatyagraha (1928).
•He was known as the Iron Man of India.One of the biggest challenges India was facing
post independence was that of unity.
•He undertook the daunting tasks of uniting all 565 princely states of India.He was not in
favourof any compromise to India’s territorial integrityAnd due to his political experience,
diplomatic prowess and foresightedness, many princely states gave their consent to
merge.He faced key challenges when it came to the states of -
a)Hyderabadb)Junagarhc)Kashmir
•Under his leadership, Indian forces were able to convince the Princely States of
Hyderabad and Junagarh to merge with India.
•He was aware of Jinnah’s divisive “Two Nation Theory” and so his opinion on how to
get Kashmir to merge with India was different from other leaders.
•Like they had done in Hyderabad, he wanted to use the military to integrate Kashmir
with India however he was unable to fully integrate Kashmir.
•However, he remains as an astounding leader and will always be characterized as the
NCR of Indian Politics as he combined, in himself, the features of a true ‘Nationalist’,
‘Catalyst’ and ‘Realist’.