' On the last day of March 1959 the Dalai Lama crossed the McMahon Line into India..... Three weeks later he was taken to New Delhi to meet the prime minister himself'
The pressures on the Nehru government continued internally and with the advent of Dalai Lama's asylum in India the deteriorating relationship with China became more complex.
The period was turbulent, there was a conflict between General Thimmayya and his defense minister Krishna Menon, continuing problems in Punjab and Nagaland, the anti-Bengali riots in Assam and Hindu Muslim riots in Jabalpur.
Visitors to India such as Aldous Huxley were concerned with 'the prospect of over-population, unemployment, growing unrest' and found that 'India is almost infinitely depressing'.
The period 1960-61, while a bitter debate raged in India about the dispute with China on the border issues, Nehru's government decided to 'liberate' Goa by force. It was perceived as a ploy to help Krishna Menon in his election campaign in Bombay. Krishna Menon was elected from North Bombay
thanks to Nehru's support and Goa's liberation. In the general election of 62, the Congress comfortably retained its majority.
The debate continued about threats from China. Then China attacked India in September and stopped the border war unilaterally on Nov 22. While it is interesting to speculate on the war, the border war underlined the Chinese superiority in 'arms, communications, strategy, logistics and planning'. The war represented a massive defeat in the Indian imagination. Among the Indian public,the principal sentiment was that of betrayal.
The India-China conflict, then, was a clash of national myths, national egos, national insecurities and - ultimately and inevitably - national armies.
(It was also a vindication of Sardar Patel's practical assessment of China as a threat to India and the failure of Nehru to ignore this threat due to his ideological approach. )
Friday, June 6, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Guha's India after Gandhi...Shaking the centre -The Southern Challenge
(Since November my blog on India is moving like a typical Indian project! The reason is that I have been otherwise preoccupied. As I write this blog, I am reminded of the oft repeated story about us. It is the story of Indian crabs being exported without a lid on the container, only possible as they are Indian and hence are busy all the time in pulling each other down, hence none of them can escape the container. We saw the leadership (Nehru) face issues of religion, politicians with divergent agenda, the tribal Issue and so on and on. Now it is about a challenge from the south.)
He speaks of 1957 as an year of momentous importance in the history of modern India. It was the year the second general election was held thus joining the league of democracies. He says it was in essence a referendum on the prime minister and his ruling party. It is also the time when his daughter emerged as a personality in her own right and started to 'represent the interests of women'.
He speaks of the challenge brewing in the south. DMK, a party which grew out of the Dravidian movement started by E.V.Ramaswami Naicker, stood for creation of a separate nation in south India, to be called Dravida Nadu.
The real challenge for congress however came from Kerala, where a resurgent Communist Party of India had emerged as a strong popular alternative to the ruling party.
Kerala was different in many ways from the other states. The Hindus were around sixty percent as against the national average of eighty. They were more educated at the same time the oppressiveness of its caste system was more severe.
Yet the combined efforts of the missionaries, the princes, the caste societies and the communists had seriously undermined traditional structures of authority. In a mere half-century, between 1900 and 1950, defiance had replaced deference as the idiom of social exchange in the Kerala countryside.
The communists were able to exploit the situation, their manifesto declared, ......Communist Party is capable not only of uniting the people for conducting agitation, but that it can take over and run the administration successfully.
The newly elected cheif minister E.M.S. Nambodiripad, the author says, remains a figure of considerable historical interest, because of both the size of his province and the distinctiveness of his politics.
'The communist ministers made an impression with their effciency, this a stark contrast with the sloth of their Congress counterparts.
While they worked within the framework of the constitution, 'the stated commitment to land reform did not become operative under any Congress regime but was closely approximated by the reforms of the Communist Party of India in Kerala'
Of the many steps taken 'the most controversial were the educational initiatives of the Kerala government. The opposition to the bill was led by the church. ' More opportunistic still was the local Congress Party. Defeated in the election, it saw in the resentment against the Education Bill a chance to regain power...... In its first phase, the Education Bill controversy was, like so much else in modern india, simply a clash between the modern and the traditional idioms of politics.'
Events culminate in the Communist Party government being dismissed by the centre (at the behest of Indira Gandhi) and re-election being held six months later. Congress with its allies wins the re-election. The author quotes Sarvepalli Gopal ...'tarnished Nehru's reputation for ethical behaviour in politics and, from a long-term view, weakened his position'.
Guha touches upon the creation of Swatantra Party, started by C.Rajagopalachari (Rajaji] with the purpose of opposing the 'personality cult, and centralisaion of state power, a curious amalgam of free-market liberals and agrarian leaders seeking an alternative to the congress.
Added to all the challenges to the government was also the self inflicted one called the 'Mundhra Scandal'. Apparently it finds a place in this chapter due to fact that T. T. Krishnamachari who was the finance minister and held responsible for the misdeeds of LIC was from south of India.
He speaks of 1957 as an year of momentous importance in the history of modern India. It was the year the second general election was held thus joining the league of democracies. He says it was in essence a referendum on the prime minister and his ruling party. It is also the time when his daughter emerged as a personality in her own right and started to 'represent the interests of women'.
He speaks of the challenge brewing in the south. DMK, a party which grew out of the Dravidian movement started by E.V.Ramaswami Naicker, stood for creation of a separate nation in south India, to be called Dravida Nadu.
The real challenge for congress however came from Kerala, where a resurgent Communist Party of India had emerged as a strong popular alternative to the ruling party.
Kerala was different in many ways from the other states. The Hindus were around sixty percent as against the national average of eighty. They were more educated at the same time the oppressiveness of its caste system was more severe.
Yet the combined efforts of the missionaries, the princes, the caste societies and the communists had seriously undermined traditional structures of authority. In a mere half-century, between 1900 and 1950, defiance had replaced deference as the idiom of social exchange in the Kerala countryside.
The communists were able to exploit the situation, their manifesto declared, ......Communist Party is capable not only of uniting the people for conducting agitation, but that it can take over and run the administration successfully.
The newly elected cheif minister E.M.S. Nambodiripad, the author says, remains a figure of considerable historical interest, because of both the size of his province and the distinctiveness of his politics.
'The communist ministers made an impression with their effciency, this a stark contrast with the sloth of their Congress counterparts.
While they worked within the framework of the constitution, 'the stated commitment to land reform did not become operative under any Congress regime but was closely approximated by the reforms of the Communist Party of India in Kerala'
Of the many steps taken 'the most controversial were the educational initiatives of the Kerala government. The opposition to the bill was led by the church. ' More opportunistic still was the local Congress Party. Defeated in the election, it saw in the resentment against the Education Bill a chance to regain power...... In its first phase, the Education Bill controversy was, like so much else in modern india, simply a clash between the modern and the traditional idioms of politics.'
Events culminate in the Communist Party government being dismissed by the centre (at the behest of Indira Gandhi) and re-election being held six months later. Congress with its allies wins the re-election. The author quotes Sarvepalli Gopal ...'tarnished Nehru's reputation for ethical behaviour in politics and, from a long-term view, weakened his position'.
Guha touches upon the creation of Swatantra Party, started by C.Rajagopalachari (Rajaji] with the purpose of opposing the 'personality cult, and centralisaion of state power, a curious amalgam of free-market liberals and agrarian leaders seeking an alternative to the congress.
Added to all the challenges to the government was also the self inflicted one called the 'Mundhra Scandal'. Apparently it finds a place in this chapter due to fact that T. T. Krishnamachari who was the finance minister and held responsible for the misdeeds of LIC was from south of India.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Guha's India after Gandhi....Securing Kashmir and Tribal Trouble
Author points out when he speaks about the problems the new nation faced that the world was not aware of what was going on, 'Hidden from the eyes of the world, unknown even to most Indians, the Naga rebellion was withal a serious headache for the government of India.'
In addition, India had problems, which the world knew well, in Kashmir. I would like to repeat the quote from the book, "Fielden summarized the respective points of view: 'In clinging to Kashmir, India wants to weaken partition: in claiming it, Pakistan wants to make partition safe'. On the issue of Kashmir both sides were absolutely rigid."
"Fielden ended his analysis with a warning. In the long run, he pointed out, 'the most important thing' about Kashmir conflict was 'the expense in armaments in which both countries are getting involved. This means that social services in both countries are crippled, and since both countries, apart from their refugees, have millions of the poorest people in the world, it is easy to see how this can lead to disaster'."
It is the same story and an ongoing one with different players. Many errors of judgement, wrong attitudes from key players which, create tough situations and it is the average person like the Naga Doctor who is quoted below, who sees the situation as hopeless and can only express despair at the turn of events.
'As I see it, .5 per cent of the Nagas are with Phizo; 1 per cent are more moderate, and want to break away from Assam and come under Delhi, and 98.5 per cent just want to be left alone.....'
In addition, India had problems, which the world knew well, in Kashmir. I would like to repeat the quote from the book, "Fielden summarized the respective points of view: 'In clinging to Kashmir, India wants to weaken partition: in claiming it, Pakistan wants to make partition safe'. On the issue of Kashmir both sides were absolutely rigid."
"Fielden ended his analysis with a warning. In the long run, he pointed out, 'the most important thing' about Kashmir conflict was 'the expense in armaments in which both countries are getting involved. This means that social services in both countries are crippled, and since both countries, apart from their refugees, have millions of the poorest people in the world, it is easy to see how this can lead to disaster'."
It is the same story and an ongoing one with different players. Many errors of judgement, wrong attitudes from key players which, create tough situations and it is the average person like the Naga Doctor who is quoted below, who sees the situation as hopeless and can only express despair at the turn of events.
'As I see it, .5 per cent of the Nagas are with Phizo; 1 per cent are more moderate, and want to break away from Assam and come under Delhi, and 98.5 per cent just want to be left alone.....'
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