Our
Mahan Bharat is a Free Independent Nation. After the recent reorganistaions, we have 29
States and 7 Union territories. Reading
of its past history, the ‘Indian Independence Act 1947’ was as an Act of the Parliament of the United
Kingdom that partitioned British India into the two new independent dominions
of India and Pakistan. The Act received the royal assent on
18 July 1947, and Pakistan came into being on August 14, and India on August
15, as two new countries. The
legislation was formulated by the government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee
and the Governor General of India Lord Mountbatten, after representatives of the
Indian National Congress, the Muslim League, and the Sikh community - came to
an agreement with the Viceroy of India, on what has come to be known as the 3
June Plan or Mountbatten Plan.
Leonard Mosley [1913 – 1922] a British journalist, historian, biographer
and novelist. A chance reading of an article about him makes us wonder how
complex the Independence was ~ not merely passing of power by the erstwhile
rulers to democracy. We have read the Indian freedom
struggle – role of Congress – the other martyrs, the situation that prevailed
after World War, the ever increasing pressures in UK and many other factors
which hastened the freedom. Perhaps one
area that is not much known to us – is that there were too many other players
too who impacted, the transfer of power.
Among them was the no. of Princely States.
In
the 1940s, just prior to India becoming free, 565 princely states existed in
India during the period of British rule. These were not parts of British India
proper, having never become possessions of the British Crown, but were tied to
it in a system of subsidiary alliances. The Government of India Act 1935
introduced the concept of the Instrument of Accession,
wherein a ruler of a princely state could accede his kingdom into the
'Federation of India'. The federation concept was initially opposed by the
Indian princes, but ascension of all the princely states was almost complete
when World War II occurred. In 1947 the British finalized their plans for
quitting India, and the question of the future of the princely states was a
conundrum for them. The Indian Independence Act 1947 provided that the
suzerainty of the British Crown over the princely states would simply be
terminated, effective 15 August 1947. That would leave the princely states
completely independent, even though they were dependent on the Government of
India for defence, finance, and other infrastructure. While much has been talked about the accession
executed by Maharaja Hari Singh, ruler of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, there
were hundreds of others, some of whom fell in line and many others brought
together by Sardar Vallabhai Patel and other tall leaders.
Here
is the reproduction of the article in Daily Mail – titled ‘How the nation of
India was born’ that appeared on 19th Feb 2015. Writing in the Last
days of the British Raj, Leonard Mosley provides a graphic account of the fluid
state of play in the days and months prior to independence in the chapter
Downfall of Princes. Mosley wrote that that just
before assuming his job as the last Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten
was summoned by his cousin King George VI. During
the conversation, King George said that he was particularly worried about the
position of the Indian Princes in the coming negotiations, since they enjoyed
direct treaty relations with Britain and these would inevitably be broken with
the onset of independence. King George said
that the Princes would find themselves in a dangerous vacuum, and urged
Mountbatten to persuade them to accept the inevitability of the transfer of
power and come to some arrangement with the new dispensation beyond their
frontiers.
Mosley
went onto say that Mountbatten did not have much time or admiration for the
Indian princes whom he considered semi-enlightened autocrats at their best and
squalid degenerates at their worst. He called them a bunch of nitwits for not
taking the path of democratisation when they saw the rapid emergence of
Congress-led nationalism. To quote
Mosley: “The bold front which saw some of the princes, particularly the Nawab
of Bhopal, had hoped to present to the politicians in British India was already
in disarray by the time the Congress and Muslim League had agreed to accept the
Indian independence plan. "As
Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes, Bhopal was given a prior look at the general
outline of the Independence Bill (even before the Congress and the Muslim
League saw it), for it was felt his word not to divulge its contents was rather
more likely to be kept than that of politicians. “His immediate reaction was to ask whether it was
the intention of His Majesty’s government to grant Dominion status to
individual princely states in the same way as Pakistan and India. The Viceroy
replied that it was not HMG’s intention.” Bhopal thereafter bitterly complained that the
British were once more letting the princely states down, and that he, as the
Muslim Ruler of a Hindu state would be at the mercy of the Congress. Three days later he resigned his position as
Chancellor and announced that he would consider himself free and independent the
moment the British departed from India to choose the destiny of his State for
himself. The scramble for shelter had begun.
King
George said that the Princes would find themselves in a dangerous vacuum and
urged Lord Mountbatten to persuade them to accept the inevitability of the
transfer of power. The wily princes and
with their Machiavellian thinking wanted to carve out independent niches. In
the hurly burly of independence and each man for himself type of credo, the
Maharaja of Bikaner was instrumental in gathering a considerable number of
princes into a rump which expressed its willingness to join the Indian
federation before independence. The
truth however, was that Indian princes were on the verge of panic and
practically on the run. The political adviser Sir Conrad Cornfield, a convinced royalist
himself, was the centrifuge of the machinations. At the very core of his
strategy was to save at least two to three of the bigger Princely states from
Congress engulfment, in the main Hyderabad and Bhopal.
As
such he was at constant loggerheads with Mountbatten and blindsiding the
Viceroy began back channel dialogue. He opened a direct channel of
communication with Secretary of State for India in London Lord Listowel. Listowel included a clause in the Indian Independence Bill,
which lapsed Paramountcy only on the day India became independent, so that
India – unless it could make arrangements by agreement before hand – would be
confronted on August 15 by nearly 600 princely states containing 100 million
people, each state completely independent. But the best laid plans of mice and men often
go awry. On June 13, a meeting convened by the Viceroy attended by Pandit
Nehru, Mohd Ali Jinnah and Corfield among others saw Nehru boiling with rage
and blasting Corfield for his shenanigans saying: “I charge the Political
Department and Corfield particularly with misfeasance. I consider that a
judicial enquiry at the highest level into their actions is necessary.” But
Corfield’s sweet talk worked. First Travancore announced that he would become
an independent sovereign state after August 15, going according to Corfield’s
interpretation of the Indian Independence Bill.
Travancore
even said that he was appointing a trade agent with Pakistan. The next day, the
Nizam of Hyderabad followed suit. Corfield had not contended with Sardar Patel
and his trusted lieutenant V. P. Menon who were not willing to give an inch. Their formula was simple: Approach each prince
and negotiate by asking them to accede to the Indian Union under three subjects
only – defence, external affairs and communications. Further Sardar and Menon secured Lord
Mountbatten’s assent to negotiate with the Rulers which turned out to be a
masterstroke.
Menon
had devised an Instrument of Accession and on July 25, 1947, the princes were
told that there was a ‘take it or leave it’ political offer from the Congress
which would not be repeated. One by one
the princes queued up to sign. Hyderabad stood aloof, as did Travancore,
Bhopal, Indore and Jodhpur. As the Ministry of States began to break new
ground, Baroda signed, but Hyderabad, Mysore, Bhopal, Jodhpur and the
Nawab of Junagadh held out. Maharaja
Hanwant Singh of Jodhpur was more or less convinced by Corfield not to sign the
Instrument of Accession, and instead choose Pakistan. Menon was on the ball, he
took the young Maharaja to meet Mountbatten where a decisive breakthrough was
achieved.
To
foil the Nawab of Bhopal’s ambition of a combined state of princes on par with
Pakistan and India, Sardar Patel moved with alacrity, parallel to Panditji’s
activities at calling their bluff. Together
they brought the vagrant princes around after they disclosed the role of Nawab
of Bhopal as a saboteur. Congress used the Maharajas of Bikaner, Patiala and Cochin
to frustrate Sir Hameedullah Khan of Bhopal who was using the Chamber of
Princes as a bargaining lever to protect and perpetuate the princely order.
Thus was born a United India.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
23rd Feb
2015.
Article
on Indian freedom reproduced from : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2960648/EDITOR-S-WRAP-nation-India-born.html#ixzz3SIzqFIEI
Photo :
Indian freedom 1947 circulating in e-mail.
Source not known. If subjected to
copyright – will be removed upon information.
No comments:
Post a Comment