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CHALLENGES OF NATION BUILDING

**Three challenges that India faced after independence:

*To build a nation: The biggest challenge before India after independence was
how to accommodate people of different religion, caste, language and culture as
a nation in a country which had continental size and diversity.

*To establish democracy: Another challenge was how to develop and strengthen
democratic practices based on the universal adult franchise as India didn’t have
the tradition of democratic rule, mass illiteracy and poverty. A democratic
constitution was not enough to establish real democracy.

*Development and well being: Perhaps the biggest task before India was to
ensure the development and well being of the entire society as a large majority of
people were poor, illiterate and disadvantaged. The constitution of India laid
down sufficient safeguards in the form of Fundamental Rights and the Directive
Principles of State Policy to protect and enhance the interests of these groups.

*Process of partition: India was partitioned on the basis of the principle of

religious majorities which was the culmination of `two nation theory ‘put forward
by Muslim League. This theory claimed that India consisted of two distinct people
Hindus and Muslims and demanded a separate state Pakistan for the Muslims.

*This idea of partition presented several difficulties:

*First there was no single belt of Muslim majority area in British India.The two
areas of Muslim concentration in west Punjab and East Bengal were separated
from each other by a long expanse of Indian Territory and could not be joined
together.

*Secondly not all Muslim majority areas wanted to join Pakistan. Khan Abdul
Gaffar Khan, the leader of the people of NWFP and also known as the Frontier
Gandhi, was strongly opposed to the two nation theory.

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*Third, the two areas of Muslim concentration also contained a large number of
non Muslims whose fate could not be decided which created the problem of
minorities on both sides.

**Consequences of partition:

*Violence: Partition brought untold miseries for the minorities on both the sides
of the border. In the name of religion, five to ten lakh people belonging to the
minority communities were killed and maimed. Women became the worst victim
of rape, abduction and honour killing.

*Tragic transfer of population: Partition was marked by one of the most

unplanned and tragic transfers of population across the border. About eight
million minorities on both the sides of the border fled their homes and took
shelter in refugee camps. Some of them travelled to another side of the new
border by all sorts of means, even by foot.

*Division of assets and liabilities: Partition was not just the political division of
the country; it also divided the administrative apparatus, police, armed forces,
constituent assembly, financial assets and liabilities and above all it was the
violent separation of communities.

*Deep communal divide: Partition created a deep-rooted communal divide

between the majority and the minority communities in both the countries. It
didn’t solve the problem of communalism, rather aggravated this problem.

**Integration of princely states: One of the biggest challenges before the Indian
nation after independence was the integration of hundreds of princely
states.With the end of British paramountcy or suzerainty over India, about 565
princely states who were not under the direct British rule had the freedom to join
India or Pakistan or remain independent. Some of them decided to remain
independent. This left with the possibilities that India would get further divided
into a number of small countries.

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*Government’s approach: The interim government of India took a firm stand

against any possible division of the country. Sardar Patel, the Deputy Prime
Minister and the Home Minister of India, started negotiation with the rulers of
princely states and persuaded most of them to join India.

*He was of the view that people of most of these states clearly wanted to become
part of India. He didn’t even hesitate in using force against those who refused to
sign over the `Instrument of Accession’

*The government was also ready to be flexible in giving autonomy to some

regions to accommodate diversity and regional aspiration.

*For the government, integration and consolidation of territorial boundaries of

India had assumed supreme importance.

**Integration of Hyderabad: Hyderabad was one of the princely states whose

ruler Nizam wanted independent status for his kingdom.

*He signed the Standstill Agreement with the government of India in November
1947 for a year while negotiation with the government was going on.

*In the meantime a people’s movement gathered momentum against the

oppressive rule of Nizam.

*The Nizam tried to suppress the movement by using its para-military force
`Razakars’ who committed extreme brutalities on the people.

*Ultimately the Indian Government had to order for an army action in September
1948. Within a few days, Nizam surrendered and signed over the Instrument of
Accession.

**Integration of Manipur: The ruler of Manipur Bodhchandra Singh signed the

`Instrument of Accession’ with the condition that the internal autonomy of the
state would be maintained.

*Under the pressure of public opinion, he also held elections based on the
universal adult franchise in 1948 and agreed to remain a constitutional monarchy.
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* In the newly elected assembly of Manipur there were sharp differences among
the political parties over the merger of the state with India.

*In September 1949, the government of India forced the Maharaja to sign the
Merger Agreement without consulting the elected Assembly. This caused a lot of
anger and resentment among the people of Manipur.

**Reorganization of states: Integration of princely states with India was not the
end of nation-building process. There were demands from different parts of the
country to reorganize the state boundaries to reflect the linguistic and cultural
plurality.

*In its Nagpur session in 1920 Congress had recognized the linguistic principle as
the basis of formation of states. But after independence, many of our leaders felt
that linguistic states might lead to the disintegration of the country.

*In the meantime demand for a separate state in the Telugu speaking areas of old
Madras province got momentum and after the death of Potti Sriramulu after 56
days of fast, the government had to announce the formation of Andhra Pradesh in
December 1952.

*Formation of Andhra Pradesh spurred the struggle for making other states on
linguistic lines. The Government of India appointed a State Reorganization
Commission in 1953 which also recommended that the boundaries of the states
should reflect the boundaries of different languages.

*Finally the government passed the State Reorganization Act in 1956. This led to
the creation of 14 states and six union territories.

**Impact of linguistic states on democratic politics in India:* Contrary to the

fears raised against the linguistic states, these states have stood over the test of
the time and have strengthened the national unity and federal system in India.

*These states and such movements have changed the nature of democratic
politics and leadership in India in many ways:

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*The path to politics and power was now open to people other than the small
English speaking elite.

*Linguistic reorganization has also given some uniform basis for drawing of state
boundaries.

*Above all the linguistic states underlined the acceptance of the principle of
diversity and thus are considered more democratic.

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