We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2024
TO ‘BREAK THROUGH THE BOTTLENECKS …’
Despite its lack of electoral imprimatur, there were no troubles for the Nehru government after it decided to remain in the remodelled British commonwealth in April 1949. On the day that the constituent assembly ratified this decision, the only dissenting voices were those of the Khilafatist Hasrat Mohani, the UP socialist Shibbanlal Saxena and the Bombay liberal K. T. Shah. Chapter 2 chronicles the threefold challenges of 1949, refugees–food–economy and the bottlenecks therein, and then interrogates the attempted breakthroughs by a still-contingent state, whose presentation of the new constitution ushered another age of establishment. It demonstrates the tumult before any transformation within the administrative apparatus of a neither too strong nor yet fully centralised state. With the communists ‘isolated’, some peasant proprietorship could be attempted, along with control of key industries before the election, but it was the food situation that proved the biggest headache, and the provinces needed to initiate on the troika of intensive cultivation– procurement–rapid yields.
On the other hand, some initiatives were unwelcome. When Indian army's chief General K. M. Cariappa made a press statement congratulating the prime minister for the Commonwealth conference and the country's ‘all-round progress’, he was told to not get ‘mixed up … with politics.…’ Inside a week, Lt General Nathu Singh made comments on law and order in Lucknow, as well as on ‘step-motherly army pay scales.…’ In this context, it was not surprising that in Hyderabad, where communism, food production and land reform came together, the Ministry of States outlined a fantastic proposal of the abolition of jagirdari over 60 years. Going this slow might lead to a ‘rapid shift-over to Communism’.
Across the southern peninsula, there was also a linguistic tussle simmering, and educationist Ali Yavar Jung suggested that like Banaras and Aligarh, central centres like Andhra university (Telugu), Madras (Tamil), Mysore (Kannada) and Osmania (Urdu) could be created to spread the ‘national language’. Another academic, John Boyd Orr, the Scottish polymath who would win the Nobel Peace Prize later in the year, came visiting in April 1949 and left India having grasped the prime difficulty of decision-making in New Delhi and actioning them across the country.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
