1.1 A Nation Born in Difficult Circumstances

At the hour of midnight on 14–15 August 1947, India became a free country. Jawaharlal Nehru^?, the first Prime Minister of free India, addressed a special session of the Constituent Assembly that night with his famous "Tryst with Destiny" speech. After centuries of foreign rule, this was the moment millions of Indians had waited for. Yet the celebration was inseparable from sorrow: freedom had arrived hand-in-hand with Partition^?, the splitting of British India into two states.

The Indian national movement contained many voices, but two goals were almost universally shared. First, that after Independence, the country would be governed by a democratic system. Second, that government would work for the welfare of all citizens — particularly the poor and the socially disadvantaged. Now that the colonial yoke had been thrown off, the time had come to translate these promises into living realities.

This was never going to be easy. Perhaps no other country in modern history had been born in circumstances quite as difficult as India's in 1947. The year was marked by unprecedented violence and the trauma of mass displacement. It was inside this storm of bloodshed and uprooting that independent India had to begin the work of nation-building. Yet the leadership did not lose sight of the multiple challenges ahead.

1.2 The Three Challenges of Nation-Building

Independent India faced three distinct but interlocked challenges. Together, they defined the agenda of the early years and the chapters that follow in this book.

1.2.1 Unity in a Land of Diversity

India was a country of continental size and continental diversity. Its people spoke dozens of major languages, professed many religions and lived inside countless cultural traditions. In 1947 it was widely believed — by foreign observers and many Indians alike — that a country with such diversity could not stay together for long. The Partition seemed to confirm everyone's worst fears. Serious questions hung over the new republic: Would India survive as a single country? Would survival require crushing regional and sub-national identities? And how, practically, would the territory of India even be put together when more than five hundred princely states had to choose their future?

1.2.2 Establishing Democracy

The second challenge was to plant democracy in soil that had never grown it before. The Constitution granted fundamental rights and extended the right to vote to every adult citizen. India adopted a representative democracy based on the parliamentary form of government. These features ensured that political competition would unfold inside a democratic framework — but a democratic Constitution is necessary, not sufficient. The deeper task was to develop the democratic practices and the political culture that the Constitution presumed.

1.2.3 Development & Well-Being for All

The third challenge was to ensure the development and well-being of the whole society and not merely of some sections. The Constitution explicitly laid down the principle of equality and gave special protection to socially disadvantaged groups and to religious and cultural communities. The Directive Principles of State Policy set out the welfare goals that democratic politics ought to achieve. The challenge before the new state was to evolve effective policies for economic development and the eradication of poverty.

1.3 Partition: The Painful Birth Twin

On 14–15 August 1947, not one but two nation-states came into existence — India and Pakistan. This was the result of Partition, the division of British India along religious lines.

According to the Two-Nation Theory^? advanced by the Muslim League, India was not a single people but two distinct peoples — Hindus and Muslims — and therefore required two separate countries. The Indian National Congress firmly opposed this theory and the demand for Pakistan. But the political contest of the 1940s, the rivalry between the Congress and the Muslim League, and the calculations of the British administration eventually pushed events toward Partition.

1.3.1 The Process: Lines on a Living Map

Partition was decided in principle, but turning it into territory proved enormously difficult. The principle adopted was that areas with Muslim majorities would form Pakistan and the rest would remain in India. Yet four problems made this almost impossible to apply cleanly:

1.3.2 Mass Migration & the Largest Forced Movement in Modern History

The year 1947 saw one of the largest, most abrupt, unplanned and tragic transfers of population in human history. As soon as it became clear that the country would be partitioned, violence erupted at an unprecedented scale against communities that found themselves in a religious minority on their side of the line. Initially, leaders hoped this violence was temporary and would be controlled. It was not. Communities on both sides were often compelled to leave their homes at a few hours' notice.

It is estimated that Partition forced about 80 lakh (8 million) people to migrate across the new border. Between five and ten lakh (500,000–1,000,000) people were killed in Partition-related violence. There were killings, rapes and atrocities on both sides of the border. In the name of religion, people of one community ruthlessly killed and maimed people of the other. Cities like Lahore, Amritsar and Kolkata became divided into "communal zones" — Muslims would avoid Hindu and Sikh streets; Hindus and Sikhs avoided Muslim ones.

1.3.3 Suffering of Women, Refugees & Children

Forced to abandon their homes and flee across borders, people endured immense suffering. Minorities on both sides found temporary shelter in refugee camps. Local administration and police, who had until very recently been their own, were often unhelpful. People travelled on foot, on bullock-carts, on overcrowded trains. Even on the journey they were attacked, killed or raped. Thousands of women were abducted, forced to convert and married against their will. In many cases women were killed by their own family members to "preserve family honour". Many children were separated from their parents. Survivors who managed to cross the border discovered that they had no home; freedom for lakhs of these refugees meant life in camps for months or years.

1.4 Beyond Property: A Division of Hearts

Partition was not merely a division of property, liabilities and assets. It was not merely a political division of the country, of administrative apparatus, of armed forces. What also got divided were the financial assets and even the most ordinary things — tables, chairs, typewriters, paper-clips, books, the musical instruments of the police band. Government and railway employees were "divided". And above all, it was the violent separation of communities that had until then lived together as neighbours.

Beyond the administrative and financial strain, Partition posed a deeper, philosophical question. The leaders of the Indian national struggle did not believe in the Two-Nation Theory. And yet a partition on religious grounds had taken place. Did that automatically make India a Hindu nation? Even after large-scale migration of Muslims to Pakistan, Muslims remained 10–12 per cent of India's total population in 1951, alongside Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Jews. How would the new government treat its religious minorities?

Behind the conflict lay competing political interests. The Muslim League had been formed to protect Muslim interests in colonial India and led the demand for Pakistan. There were also organisations attempting to organise Hindus to turn India into a Hindu nation. But most leaders of the national movement believed that India must treat persons of all religions equally — that India should not be a country granting superior status to one faith and inferior status to another. All citizens would be equal regardless of religion. Being religious would not be a test of citizenship. They cherished the ideal of a secular nation^? — and this ideal was enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

1.5 Mahatma Gandhi's Sacrifice for Communal Harmony

On 15 August 1947, Mahatma Gandhi did not attend any of the Independence Day celebrations. He was in Kolkata, in areas torn by gruesome Hindu–Muslim riots. He was saddened by the communal violence, and disheartened that the principles of ahimsa (non-violence) and satyagraha (active non-violent resistance) for which he had lived and worked appeared, in this hour, to have failed to bind the people.

Gandhi went on to persuade Hindus and Muslims to give up violence. His mere presence in Kolkata greatly improved the situation — Independence was eventually celebrated there in a spirit of communal harmony, with joyous dancing in the streets. But this was short-lived. Riots erupted again, and Gandhi resorted to a fast to bring peace.

The next month he moved to Delhi, where large-scale violence had erupted. He was deeply concerned that Muslims should be allowed to stay in India with dignity, as equal citizens. He was unhappy with what he saw as the Indian government's decision not to honour its financial commitments to Pakistan. With this in mind he undertook what turned out to be his last fast in January 1948. As in Kolkata, his fast had a dramatic effect: communal tension and violence in Delhi reduced; Muslims of Delhi and surrounding areas could safely return to their homes; the Government of India agreed to give Pakistan its dues.

Gandhi's actions were not liked by all. Extremists in both communities blamed him for their conditions. He continued to meet everyone during his evening prayer meetings. Finally, on 30 January 1948, an extremist named Nathuram Vinayak Godse walked up to Gandhi during his evening prayer in Delhi and fired three bullets at him, killing him instantly. Thus ended a lifelong struggle for truth, non-violence, justice and tolerance.

1.6 Why the First Challenge Took Centre-Stage

How did independent India respond to these challenges? To what extent did it succeed? This entire course-book is an attempt to answer those questions. In this chapter — and the next two — we look at how the three challenges were faced in the early years after Independence. In this chapter we focus on the first challenge of nation-building: shaping a single Indian nation that could accommodate diversity and integrate the territory of the country.

The events of Partition explain why national unity and security became the primary challenge in 1947. We have already seen the painful birth of two nation-states. In the next part we shall see how India put together its territory by integrating 565 princely states and how, a few years later, the internal map of the country was redrawn on a linguistic basis.