A Concise History of Modern India by
Barbara D. Metcalf
My rating:
5 of 5 stars
I found this book totally captivating. I have followed Indian history
through books, and have been witnessed incidents taking shape, like Babri
Masjid Demolition, Killing of Rajiv Gandhi, Curfew, Coalition Government,
Gujarat Violence and burning of the train, the rise of Cyberabad, etc.
The details provided in this book still captured my attention. The
authors do a wonderful job of providing a "concise history of modern
India", and trying to present the facts as they are.
If we come
across any review that either accuses the book of having some prejudice by
labeling it with terms like "British authors", "leftist" or "does not
capture greatness" or "congress" etc, we can safely assume that the
review-writer was standing in front of the mirror rather than in front of
text and words.
Reading history, I often realize that reality
can be stranger than Fiction. This book share ample anecdotes along those
fronts.
The first thing I realized was - British East India
Company had a much difficult time establishing trade relations in the
subcontinent than French or Portuguese who had arrived earlier because
India under Mughal had some resistance going on. They established pure
trade relations, incurring a loss, buying cows from India, and facing
criticism from Britain. The company did not want to give up on the business
opportunity with India and incurred losses for decades.
Then we
notice how Britain captured the whole of India. Robert Clive and Mir Jafir,
a name that has become eponymous with a traitor start the conquer from
South to Nawabs of Bengal. The loot and wealth of India were too tempting
for the British to give up or lose control to locals.
I came to
know through this book that for administering India, British setup "Indian
Civil Services", the highest administrative body in India, which trains
qualified candidates in both Britain and India through rigorous exams. The
motivation was for that administrative body to report directly to the
British state. The "Indian Civil Services" served the system very well,
continued after Independence, and reporting structure replaced to the
democratically elected official instead of the British state.
The book is a whirlwind, each capture captures multiple events in a
century or decades.
I came to know that Mohammed Ali Jinnah, had
requested Pakistan to be consisting of multiple divergent states in India
which had Muslim Majority (like Hyderabad, Kashmir, parts of Punjab,
Bengal, etc). He very well knew that having a separate country with
interspersed states was never going to be practical, he wanted to use that
demand as negotiation tactic. However, Nehru and congress never gave into
it. They receded two states of Pakistan on religious identity. Nehru
declared during Independence that India was not built on religious identity
and is not a religious state, thus keeping the plan for India with all the
states in order.
It seems like India had decided that after
independence they will have some money for nation-building purposes. Since
India got partition, I came to know that, it was Gandhi who, in his just
tendencies, requested for 40 million pounds to be given to Pakistan as it's
share.
I had known about the factors leading to Independence a
little, but I didn't realize that the British were spending roughly 1000
million pounds per year on India after the war (like supporting Indian
soldiers, infrastructure), which had proven economically very costly to
hold on.
The book also deals with more recent events, and
particularly things that struck me was
a. Keezhaldi massacre and
how no one was ever brought to justice.
b. No one was brought to
justice for the Gujarath train massacre. The chief minister, Modi was let
go by the then government in power, BJP under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
It is often that case that being in political majority determined
the outcome of the punishable act, and humanitarian qualities like justice
didn't have a say against power.
As an aside, I could relate to
the above statement even in the 2020 Delhi Riots. BJP government did not
bring anyone to justice. The same argument holds worldwide too wherein, in
the USA, cronyism is so prevalent in republican led administration, and
bringing someone to justice for the wrongdoing seems also non-applicable if
the person has power.
