Who Won?

Years back, I wrote a blog titled “United States of India” about how, despite the creation of new states and even the odd demand for outright secession, we should be proud in the single entity called India:
“Each state in India is comparable to a country in Europe! Not just in size. Each state has a different language, culture, and cuisine! And yet we are one nation...however much some states may dislike others. America is an entity of fairly homogenous states. Yeah, yeah, the Yankees will say that the Bible belt states differ from New York and California. But c’mon, they still eat the same food, talk the same language, and celebrate the same festivals. India's states are hugely heterogeneous. No other country in the world is a unity of such heterogeneous entities. We should take pride in what we've achieved in terms of unity.”

And as the just concluded Scotland referendum showed, the demands for secession are there even in the West. Quebec, the French speaking part, tried to break away from Canada in 1995. The Catalonia region of Spain wants a referendum, but Madrid won’t hold one.

The United Kingdom might have managed to remain united, but at what cost? As Catherine Mayer pointed out:
“In return for Scotland’s fealty to the union, (the three main parties in Westminster promised that) there would be a fast-tracked process to ensure a further devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament on tax, spending and welfare.”
As expected, the other parts of UK are not exactly thrilled with these concessions. No wonder that PM Cameron is already backtracking:
“(Cameron) issued a fresh pledge, of “a balanced settlement — fair to people in Scotland and importantly to everyone in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well.”
And if they do give the concessions, Andrew Sullivan wonders if UK won’t just collapse under the weight of its contradictions:
“If Scotland gets to determine its own policies in Holyrood, then why should it also get full representation in Westminster with respect to English laws and English policy? The constitutional complexities are enormous.”

I loved this tweet by a guy with the awesome handle, @TheTweetOfGod:
“Congratulations to Scotland on its Declaration of Dependence.”
As opposed to the Declaration of Independence that the Americans so love to talk about! Then again, Scotland would have risked far more than the US in actually becoming independent: would they be allowed to join the EU? What would their currency be? Wouldn’t their geopolitical relevance have diminished severely (as part of the UK, Scotland got to punch way above their belt, as Cameron never tired of reminding them in the final days before the referendum)?

But now by getting the (promise of) concessions and still being a part of the UK, did Scotland really win? Was it all just brinkmanship? Was it the UK that blinked first? Did the UK just win a Pyrrhic victory?

Comments

  1. KumarSeptember 20, 2014 at 1:59 PM

    True, every issue is terribly complicated. Certainly it is so, compared earlier times, when there was more blacks and whites and less of gray shades!

    While some comparison with USA's declaration of independence may be insightful, it is certainly too far to compare American becoming independent as against Scotland possibly becoming independent. Not only the times were/are different but also the backgrounds have more or less nothing to offer for comparison.

    With all the pros and cons, I am happy that Scotland did vote for remaining integral with UK. Earlier, the coming together of East and West Germanies brought happiness to me, because I knew only too well what kind of sacrifice was called for to do such a thing. Hailing from India, where division-ism is more or less the norm, I was overwhelmed by the European ability at least today, to want to stay together even at a good sacrifice.

    We in India need to learn from those (principally I mean the Europe, later a few other nations too) who gave to the world the modern democracy and its detailed provisions and legalities. We cannot be lost in the rhetoric of politicians, willfully whipped up emotions, sectarian outlook whichever direction we look, low bonding ability, not much respect for law etc. The summing up like that sounds terribly negative, but the projection is not without some basis of truth.

    I fear that any referendum in any part of India by any group of people, for any cause worthy or unworthy, would only lead to one result - secession. Sadly, we still remain a loosely packed country and not a nation; it is likely to take a few centuries to shake off our inability for social and administrative togetherness.

    The Scots did exercise their choice in a commendable way, as far as I could judge. But I am no politician nor am I a social scientist. I could be wrong of course.

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