Political Development Of India

Arthashastra is ancient statecraft written by Kautilya, also known as Chanakya. It is a treatise on economic and military policy.

In 1947, India had 562 princely states with the union of India.

Rajasthan had nineteen princely states at the time of freedom.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel with the help of V.PMenon integrated India with his diplomatic and pragmatic approach.

Goa was liberated from Portuguese and merged in India in the year 1961.

Manusmriti is an ancient Hindu legal text written by Manu. It served as a foundational work on Hindu law in ancient India.

Maharaja Hari Singh was the last ruling king of Jammu and Kashmir at the time of independence.

Hyderabad was merged in India in 1948 by the operation polo.

State reorganization commission was formed to reorganize the Indian states on the basis of language and it was chaired by Mr. Fazal Ali.

Andhra Pradesh was the 1^st linguistic state by separating Telugu speaking areas from Madras state.

English had left India in 1947 but French possession of Pondicherry was there till 1954.

Junagarh is a state of Southern Gujarat predominantly dominated by Hindus but ruled by a Muslim ruler. Nawab of Junagarh under the influence of Jinnah declared itself acceding to Pakistan. There was a huge protest from the common people to this decision. In the meantime, it was decided by the Indian government to put pressure on Junagarh by stopping supplies of goods. Nawab seeks financial and military help from Pakistan but it was not adequate and hence he fled away. Therefore the Indian government took the administration and did a referendum in 1948, where the majority of people in Junagarh wanted to join India.

India would indebt with gratitude of Sardar Patel‘s vision on the making of New India. His diplomatic approach had integrated 562 princely states with the Union of States and formed an independent India. He adopted different strategies to merge the princely states with India. He introduced the concept of Privy purses i.e. the payment made to the royal family for agreement to merge with India. He even urged the princely states to help them in framing a new constitution. Thus Patel’s tireless efforts make him the architect of modern India.

The names of five integrated states after independence are as follows:

i. Hyderabad was merged with Indian Union in the year 1949

ii. Rajasthan was merged in the year 1956

iii. Goa was annexed in the year 1963

iv. Sikkim was integrated in the year 1975.

v. Jammu & Kashmir was merged through the instrument of accession in the year 1947.

The States Reorganisation Commission was set up to reorganize the Indian states on linguistic basis; headed by Mr. Fazl Ali and its two other members were Pandit Hridayanath Kunzuru and Sardar K.M. Panikkar. Its important recommendations of the Commission are as follows: (i) The Indian Union was to consist of 16 States as against the existing 27 and three centrally and ministered territories. (ii) Special safeguards were recommended for linguistic minorities. (iii) The Commission put emphasis on the need for encouraging the study of Indian languages and continues English to have an important place in the universities and institutions of higher learning.

Rajasthan was Rajputana before independence consisted of twenty-two princely states. At the time of independence 1947, it consisted of nineteen princely states and three thikanas. These princely states were annexed and merged with India in seven different stages. Those are:

1. In the first stage, the Matsya union was formed by four princely states such as Dholpur, Alwar, Bharatpur, and Karauli and integrated with India on 17^th March 1948.

2. In the second stage, Rajasthan Union was formed consisting of Banswara, Bundi, Jahalawar, Durgapur, Kishangarh, Pratapgarh, Tonk, Shahapura and Kota on 25^th March 1948.

3. United States of Rajasthan was the third phrase where Maharana of Udaipur joined the union after three days of unification of the Rajasthan Union.

4. United States of Rajasthan had paved the way of the merger of big states like Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jaipur, and Jodhpur. This formed a Greater Rajasthan.

5. At the 5^th stage, the Matsya union was merged with Greater Rajasthan and formed the United stated of Greater Rajasthan in 1949.

6. United Rajasthan was formed in 1950 by merging Sirohi and 18 states of United Rajasthan.

7. This is the final stage of the formation of Rajasthan was possible because of the State Reorganisation act 1956. The process got completed on 1^st November 1956.

In 1724, Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah established Hyderabad, a state that spread over most of the Deccan plateau. Not only he popular the state but make it prosperous as it had its own army, railway and airline network, postal system and a radio network. Eighty-five percent of the Nizam's subjects were Hindus. In 1798, the Royal state of Hyderabad was the first to agree to British protection under the policy of Subsidiary Alliance. In 1947, when the British left India, they gave the princely states the choice to either join India or Pakistan or remain independent. Being one state not under the British rule, it opposed the idea of a merger with India after Independence. Then Sardar Patel requested Nizam to join India but he refused and declared Hyderabad as an independent state in 1947. So the government of India did a military operation named as operation polo in order to annexed Hyderabad. It was five-day warfare that leads to violence on communal lines and resulted in the signing of the instrument of Accession by Nizam of Hyderabad.

Maharaja Hari Singh was the king of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 and he neither accede with India or Pakistan. But Jinnah argued that J&K should join Pakistan as it a had majority of the Muslim population. Then Maharaja had signed a standstill agreement with Dominion of Pakistan so that it can maintain relationships such as free trade, diplomatic ties, etc but would not join Pakistan. This had provoked them and a number of communal violence had occurred. Even Pakistan had supported tribal fighters and invaded the vale of Kashmir. This resulted in Maharaja Hari Singh to sign the Instrument of Accession in order to receive military help from India.

National conference party was formed by Sheikh Abdulla for the self-rule against Maharaja and wanted democratic government in Kashmir. He supported the accession and in course of time India sends it's military to repel the attack and first India- Pakistan war began. Thus under such circumstances, Jammu & Kashmir merged with India.

After 1947, the Indian government demanded the Portuguese to hand over colonies to the Union but the Portuguese had refused it. In 1950 India asked Portugal for open negotiation about the Portuguese colonies in India. Lisbon said that Goa is not a colony but a part of Portugal and people are its citizens. After many requests and non-violence techniques, the Portuguese were not agreed and ultimately in 1953, India broke all diplomatic ties with Portugal.

The United Front of Goan and Azad Gomantak Dal were the revolutionary groups who demanded freedom from Portuguese and started many protests. In 1955 peaceful satyagrahis were brutally suppressed which compelled the government of India to start economic blockade against Portugal colonies. After all such an attempt when the Portuguese did not agree, the Indian Government operated military action named as Operation Vijay that involved air, sea, and land strikes in 1961. And finally, Goa merged with India as a union territory in 1963.