Dethroned #1: Backdrop

John Zubrzycki’s book, Dethroned, is the tale of how the princely states were integrated into India at independence by the combo of Sardar Patel and VP Menon. Patel was a mix of “charm and persuasion with coercion”, complemented well by VP Menon’s “skills as a tactician”.

 

The terms and conditions of accession kept changing during that chaotic period. Mountbatten started off by saying the princely states would have authority on all matters, except defense, foreign affairs and communication. In the same breath, Mountbatten also added that while in theory, the princely states would have a choice, in practice, a majority of the 565 states were geographically and inextricably tied to be part of India. Why no mention of Pakistan here? Because, as this map shows, almost all the princely states lay on the India side. Also, the few princely states on the Pakistan side were Muslim-majority and Muslim-ruled, so Jinnah wasn’t too worried. Contrast that with India, where several princely states were Muslim-ruled and/or Muslim-majority.

 

~~

 

Patel, like many in the Congress, despised monarchies. But he and the party were also pragmatic. It didn’t make sense to fight battles against both local rulers and the British. You get an idea of how good Patel was at putting his personal view aside when it came to the princely states when you see Mountbatten’s memo to London expressing his happiness that Patel would be the man to handle the princely states because he was less “abrasive” than Nehru who would likely have “wrecked everything”! (Nehru sincerely believed in democracy; and couldn’t even pretend to tolerate monarchy).

 

Patel though was a patient man. He was willing to wait for the right moment.

“In every country, when the king becomes worthless, people have a right to dethrone him.”

 

And VP Menon? He held the highest office possible for an Indian under the British bureaucracy. And his attitude towards princes was shaped from his early days as a civil servant. The insane riches of some of the Maharajas and Maharanis annoyed him. With 565 princely states, many barely a few villages large, he found a 50 km drive through Katiawar could involve 15 different customs posts.

“I thought it was time this nonsense was stopped.”

 

If you wondered why there were so many princely states, well, most of them emerged slowly as the Mughal empire faded away gradually. Obviously, these kings were not even remotely equal. Which is why the British developed a hierarchy, a system of gun salutes. The bigger the king, the more the guns, 21 being the maximum. In 1921, many of these lesser kings formed the Chamber of Princes (COP), a group for them to meet, to try and lobby with the British more effectively. The more powerful ones didn’t see the need to join; they were powerful enough and didn’t need to mingle. So the COP was mostly a toothless and, at best, an advisory body.

 

As Independence approached, it was evident to all, the British and the Congress, that most of the princely states couldn’t possibly survive separately. In September, 1946, Menon became Patel’s political aide in the home ministry…

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Killing Gays

Killing in the name of God: it’s been done for centuries and continues to happen today. But killing people because they are gay? That’s a phenomenon unique to the “Abrahamic God of the desert”, writes Richard Rodriguez . The most recent example of that was the massacre in a gay club in Florida, the worst mass murder in the US since 9/11. But what’s the connection of the “desert religions” to homophobia? Is it just coincidence? No, says Rodriguez: “In such a place, the call to belief was tribal, not individualistic. Sexuality was an expression of faith to increase the tribe. Allegiance to God and to one’s ancestors was fulfilled by giving birth.” Rodriguez also raises a very interesting point about context being very important in how we perceive the same (or similar) actions: “(Florida murderer) Mateen might have been offended by the sight of two men kissing in Orlando, but one wonders what he have would made of Arabian and Afghan societies, where men stroll arm in arm and e...
Read more

Brexit

Before the Brexit polls, my dad asked me the reasons for Leave. I googled and didn’t find any reasons which sounded very convincing. And yet Brexit happened. What was I missing? What articles had Google missed?! Today, you’d think that the usual after-the-event geniuses would be able to come up with reasons. So what are we hearing now? Why did they vote to Leave? 1)       There were those who always hated being part of the EU, joined by those who thought immigration was taking away jobs, and the racists who just hated immigrants. (Funnily enough, the immigrant issue wasn’t really that big a deal. At least not for Britain. I wonder if Angela Merkel rolling out the red carpet for Syrians created a perception problem that couldn’t be fought with facts). 2)      Then there were the many who felt that only the city of London benefitted while the rest of Britain got nothing. 3)      For some politicians, this was a...
Read more

Viruses - Bacteriophages

One of the chapters in Pranay Lal’s Invisible Empire starts with these lines: “Say the word ‘virus’ and the first thought that comes to the mind is of the diseases they cause.” But they can also be the cure for some diseases, he writes.   The Britisher, Ernest Hankin, was sent to India. His job was to “protect British troops from infectious diseases”. Like cholera. By 1894, he was curious about the Maagh Mela in Allahabad, on the banks of the Ganga. Over 3 million devotees arrived every day during that festival. He inspected the waters during this period: “There was very little bacterial contamination of their waters despite the multitudes of people and their cattle bathing in them, discarding their waste and burning corpses along their banks.” By 1895, he had written a paper that the Ganga was cleaner than most British or European rivers , “despite the way they were treated”. He wondered why that was the case, how the Ganga managed to avoid the decay seen in European ...
Read more