The Man Who Saved India by Hindol Sengupta

Author:Hindol Sengupta
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9789353052003
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2018-08-06T16:00:00+00:00

Meanwhile, trouble was brewing between the Congress, which was encouraging public committees to work for independence in the princely states of India, and the rulers and administration of those states which naturally saw such activity as a direct threat to their own existence. Surely, if their subjects demanded citizenship rights as the people of independent India, it would mean independence from princely rule too? Democracy could not be half-achieved. But even in December 1937, Patel was writing to Nehru that as far as possible, the Congress had a clear position of not interfering with the affairs of the princely states and letting the subjects of the princely states raise their own revolt.67 Tensions between the Congress and the princely states escalated because the Congress, while promising not to interfere in the affairs of the states ruled by native rulers, was also completely candid in its refusal to accept a future federal structure of India after the British left. India would be one, independent political union under one flag. The Haripura Congress session asked the princely states to become ‘self-dependent’ (suggesting less dependence on the British) and rejected a federal future. ‘India will not accept proposed federal structure. If at any time India accepts federation, that federation will be such that there will not be nominated representatives appointed by the rulers. The representatives of the Congress will not sit with nominated representatives of the rulers,’68 said Patel in August 1938.

In September of the same year, Patel is even more certain and clear.

However good or bad the ruler might be, we are not for dethroning him. We do not even think of depriving him of his kingship. What we want is to limit his powers. If a ruler spends lakhs of rupees in arranging the dance of dancing girls and the vulgarity of prostitutes and the farmers remain hungry, then the kingdom cannot be kept alive. So it is not surprising that the subjects demand responsible government. Heydays of the rulers are over. In all native states there is tremendous awakening [. . .] Some think that the ruler is the incarnation of god.

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