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Soon after, with Indian army still against invaders, Nehru announced
publicly that once peace was established, the Kashmir matter
would be taken to the UN, and a plebiscite conducted. In the UNSC,
USA and UK started playing geopolitics, and internationalized the
issue by denying Pakistans involvement in Kashmir attacks. They
thus treated India and Pakistan equally, and here began the long
drawn mess than Kashmir still remains in.
Now, Nehrus Kashmir policy shifted. He stopped all negotiations,
and banked heavily on the secular Kashmiri Muslim leader Sheikh
Abdullah. Sheikh Abdullah was a much loved leader in Kashmir,
supported by all sides, and he wanted to be a part of India, and not
Pakistan. In 1948, Hari Singh made Abdullah his PM. In January
1949, Indian and Pakistani armies announced ceasefire- PoK was,
and still remains, with Pakistan.
Three major wars have been fought between India and Pakistan
since then. No solution is in sight.
Episode 4: Story of Madras and Bombay
British rule had left a hotchpotch of states, which were usually
multilingual. For example, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
and Kerala, used to be part of one state (Madras) till 1951.
However, Nehru, in 1947, had already said in the Constituent
Assembly that the creation of AP out of Madras was a legitimate
demand. However, Maharashtra and Karnataka werent legitimate
demands, according to Nehru. This was, for now, just a statement.
Nehru said that the nation had other pressing issues to deal with at
the time, such as drafting of the constitution, and this could wait.
In 1948, Nehru established a commission under SK Dhar. It
recommended that reorganization of states along linguistic lines
could be harmful to the unity of India, as it would stoke linguistic
nationalism. Due to protests, Nehru established another committeeJVP committee (members were Nehru, Patel, and Sitabhai
Pattaramiyya). They placed their report in 1949, recommending that
the linguistic reorganization agenda be postponed for atleast ten
years. The report also said that demand for a separate AP was
legitimate, but that the centre would accede to this only if the
Telugu leaders demanding a separate AP would agree to let go of
the demand for Madras city (now Chennai) to also be included in AP.
This wasnt acceptable to T. Prakasham, the Telugu Congress
leader most prominently leading the AP agitation. He resigned from
the Congress, and said that wthout Madras there would be no AP.
The issue of the Hindu Code Bill, that would deal with affair such
as divorce, property rights, succession, legality of marriages etc.
was discussed fervidly during the Counstituent Assembly debates.
However, this was seen by funadamentalists as an attack on Hindu
religion. An additional challenge at that stage was the
representativeness of the Constituent Assembly- allegations were
made that the CA was not elected by universal adult franchise, and
hence such a drastic bill should not be passed by people who
werent the true representatives of the population.
Also, questions were raised about why only a Hindu Code Bill? Why
not a Uniform Civil Code? Over this question, Shyama Prasad
Mukherji resigned from the Congress, and founded the Jan
Sangh. Proponents claimed that given that Hindus were the
majority, they needed to pave the way. Once they agreed to adopt a
Hindu Code, then it would in the future be easier to convince the
minorities to adopt a UCC.
There was also debate on who exactly a Hindu was- the bill said
that aside from Muslim, Parsi, Christians, and Jews, everyone else
was to be included in Hindus- Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists etc. Sikhs
especially thought that this was an underhanded attempt to
homogenize their religion and make it a part of Hinduism. RSS
started a large scale mobilization across the country in opposition to
the Hindu Code Bill. Even within the Congress, there was intense
opposition, even from the President Rajendra Prasad. He pointed out
that a majority of the population was against the bill, and if such a
bill was passed, he might have to use his powers as the President to
do something about this. Still, Nehru was adamant on the bill.
In this atmosphere, the first general elections were looming large.
Despite fears of electoral losses, Nehru was steadfast on getting the
Hindu Code Bill through the Constituent Assembly. Again, demands
were raised in the assembly that if such a bill were to be brought, it
must be brought in for the entire country, including Muslims, and
not solely for Hindus. Given the general opposition from within and
outside the Congress, and primarily because of the looming
elections, Nehru said that for the time being, the bill was being
withdrawn. Official reason cited was lack of time remaining in the
session. In protest, Dr. Ambedkar resigned.
In the elections, Congress won an absolute majority in the elections.
Ambedkar, fighting as an independent, lost his seat. In the newly
elected Lok Sabha, there were 23 female MPs. Nehru appealed to
them for support. Also, to blunt the opposition, he broke the bill into
many parts, and introduced them as separate bills- main among
which were Hindu Marriage Act (gave rights to people from
different castes to marry each other, polygamy was declared
illegal); Hindu Succession Act, Hindu Adoption and
In 1959, there was a revolution in Tibet, and the Dalai Lama seeked
refuge in India. This was granted. China ofcourse didnt like this.
In view of increasing hostilities, India started preparing for
impending war. The border areas with China were then guarded by
CRPF; now, proposals were made to mobilize the armed forces on
that border (Forward Policy). China claims that this was a big
cause of the war.
In this tense atmosphere, China gave India a way out- the said that
if India were willing to retreat its forces 20km behind Line of Actual
Control in Aksai Chin (which was under Chinas control anyway),
then Chinese forces would retreat 20km behind Macmahen lineeffectively, this meant that Aksai Chin would remain under China,
and Arunachal under India. Nehru knew that if he agreed to this, his
head would roll, and he couldnt possibly continue being the PM. He
decided against acceding to this demand.
Zhou En Lai came to Delhi in 1960. This gave the perfect
opportunity for political opposition parties to sternly demand from
Nehru that India not give up even a square inch of Indian territory.
Again, during the talks, Zhou proposed that status quo be
maintained. This wasnt granted. War was imminent. In 1962, China
attacked NEFA and Tawang. Although India had started the Forward
Policy, it was far from over. Indian army was badly supplied, and
quickly suffered massive losses all the way till Ladakh. India
accepted defeat in a month.
Episode 7: Lal Bahadur Shastri
In the yearly years of Shastris premiership, he was still being seen
as a weak PM. Amidst high inflation, he suggested one day of
fasting a week and that everyone should have a kitchen garden. It
had only been three years since the war with China; in 1965, now
Pakistan attacked Gujarats Katchh area. Under extreme
international pressure, India had to surrender 75 square kilometer to
Pakistan. For this Shastri faced a lot of flack.
Paksitans President Ayub Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto were under
the impression that the war with China had left Indian forces limp,
and that this was the best time to strike and capture Kashmir.
Operation Grand Slam was launched, with heavy bombarding on
Jammu Kashmirs supply routes. India launched air strikes. This
helped the ground forces, but Pakistan had supplied all its strength
to fight in Kashmir, and it seemed as if even air strikes wont be
enough.
India then opened another front in Punjab.