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.....'