Guha's 'India after Gandhi' --Apples in the basket.

It is fascinating to see the map in this chapter that shows both British India and the Princely states. We can see that half of India was not under direct British rule. There were 500+ princely states. (It would be interesting to read the names of these independent pieces of territory.) Anyway barring a few most of them were 'generally viewed as feckless and dissolute, over-fond of race horses and other men's wives and holidays in Europe'.


We all know how hard Patel worked towards unifying the country. Interesting to note his Secretary V.P.Menon, smart, alert and ferociously intelligent, was not from ICS but one who rose from the ranks. The role of Mountbatten in persuading 'the princes that the British would no longer protect or patronize them, and that Independence for them was a mirage', is acknowledged 'as the most significant of all his acts in India'.

In a mere two years, over 500 chiefdoms had been dissolved into fourteen administrative units. 'A stupendous achievement' says the author, 'it had been brought about by wisdom, foresight, and hard work and not a little intrigue.' 'As it turned out only three states gave trouble before august, and three more after that date.'

The stories of these six states well illustrates how the game of politics is played and how negotiations go back and forth, and specially how the role of the main players becomes so important. Importantly, how the fundamental logic of division on which the partition was agreed(!) upon is conveniently forgotten.

Of the six he mentions five do get solved, the accession of Hyderabad is achieved by sending a contingent of Indian troops causing some more bloodshed. 'Those killed in the fighting included forty-two Indian soldiers and two thousand-odd Razakars'. It would now be nightmarish to even think of other possibilities predicted, other than one Nation, that is now India.

I remember I used to be a part of the 'Prabhat Pheri' that Rashtriya Seva Dal held early mornings to pressurise the Maharaja of Mysore to accede. The older kids would be stopped by the police and taken away in vans and lorries out of Bangalore limits and left there to fend for themselves. These kids would walk back and be treated as heroes. We, the younger ones, were disappointed, no end, to be denied this ride in the van. The police would just shoo us away telling us to go home.

About the dissolute princes, this story about the Nizam is typical. My mother, a young woman, visiting Hyderabad went shopping in the main bazaar of the city. While there, she heard a commotion and someone warning that the Nizam was on his way. The women who were in the bazaar immediately ran into shops and hid behind doors and curtains, and my mother was luckily dragged into one of the shops just in time. The fear and the tension she felt was palpable even after years when she told us the story.