India’s humane anarchy

A unitary, democratic and progressive Indian state was by no means pre-determined by its colonial legacy. At the time of Independence in August 1947, there had been nearly a year of incessant rioting between groups of Hindus and Muslims. An Islamic state had been carved out from the western and eastern flanks of the Subcontinent, areas that many Indians regarded as an inextricable part of 'their' civilisational heritage. Almost a million people were killed, and many millions more fled to safety among their co-religionists. Many Hindus who fled Pakistan to seek refuge in West Bengal and the Punjab bore intense anti-Muslim feelings, which played to the advantage of radical rightwing Hindu groups that wanted India to be declared a Hindu state.

The territory that remained as part of India was by no means united. Over 500 princely states, some the size of large European countries, remained unintegrated with the nation. These were states that had never come under direct British rule, and now some of their rajas and nawabs wanted complete independence. The Subcontinent was fragmented among hundreds of communities that spoke different languages and dialects. Indian society was extremely hierarchical, with the lower orders living in abject poverty and degradation – ready across the country, some would say, for a Maoist-style revolution. The conditions for the creation of a unitary state of any kind, let alone a secular, democratic and socially progressive one, were highly unpropitious.