Happy Republic Day Everyone!
I hardly write anything 'factual' on my blog. So I put it in my New Year's resolutions to write one article every month. Anyway that will wither away soon and my next one will probably be along when I prepare the next year's New Year resolutions.
Ever got that e-mail about the wondrous facts of India? You know.. the one that starts with India never invaded any country in her last 10,000 years of history.. What? Patriotic goosebumps already? If you believe the above statement that means that you have never heard about the conquests of the Chola empire. If you proudly state that we have got over 20 languages in India, you are actually mentioning only a fraction of what we have actually got here. If you think only Gandhiji brought you freedom, you are putting away other equally important people and events.
The stuff I am going to mention here might be already known to you or you might have some vague idea about them. But probably, these are things you might have never heard about, at least some of them. Let me get my chilled monkey brain dessert before we start.
#1 Did India conquer other countries during her long history?
First of all, the Republic of India never existed prior to 1950 and its geographical boundaries have also changed since then. Parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Burma were once under British India. The territory that is today's India has never been entirely under one government. So as there is no fixed definition of India, it is quite difficult to say who invaded who. However its possible to provide a counter argument to the first argument of the email.
The Chozha empire under Rajaraja Chozha I and Rajendra Chozha I
conquered territories in Sri Lanka, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweepa Islands (including Maldives), Coastal Burma, and Sri Vijaya (Sumatra, Java and Malaya - today's Indonesia and Malaysia). The Tamil armies also received tribute from Thailand and the Khmer Kingdom (Cambodia). Read about them here.
The following excerpt is from the Sikh Times: Having first fought and then agreed to a truce with Vengi of the eastern Chalukyas, Rajaraja, according to his own inscription, conquered Lakshadweep and the Maldives. Buddhist literature from Sri Lanka says that the Indian king took advantage of an internal strife in Sri Lanka and invaded the island. The ruthless Chola conquest was apparently no different from the conduct of Mahmud of Ghazni at Somnath. The Kulavamsa says that the capital Anuradhapura, which sported many Buddhist viharas, was 'utterly destroyed in every way by the Chola army.' Not only were the viharas decimated, but the holy stupas in them were torn apart in search of treasure.
The Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh had conquered parts of what is now Tibet and Afghanistan (and of course Pakistan). The Commander-in-chief Hari Singh Nalwa annexed a large portion of the Afghan Kingdom. He was such a dreaded invader that Afghan mothers in Peshawar used to scare their kids into obedience by mentioning 'Haria'. Prior to that, Afghanistan used to be part of the Maurya and Gupta Empires.
The Dogra army of Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu & Kashmir invaded Tibet and advanced till Taklakot near Lake Mansarovar till they were defeated by the extreme cold (the army burned muskets for the heat) and the Tibetan resistance. The fall of Taklakot finds mention in the report of the Chinese Imperial Resident, Meng Pao, at Lhasa: "On my arrival at Taklakot a force of only about 1000 local troops could be mustered, which was divided and stationed as guards at different posts. A guard post was quickly established at a strategic pass near Taklakot to stop the invaders, but these local troops were not brave enough to fight off the Shen-Pa (Dogras) and fled at the approach of the invaders. The distance between Central Tibet and Taklakot is several thousand li…because of the cowardice of the local troops; our forces had to withdraw to the foot of the Tsa Mountain near the Mayum Pass. Reinforcements are essential in order to withstand these violent and unruly invaders." (For the full story please read Airavat Singh's blogs.)
Post-independence, the closest thing we have to an 'invasion' of another country will be probably Sikkim. Sikkim was an independent country till 1975. In 1973 riots against the Chogyal broke out and there was a formal request for Indian protection. In 1975 the elected Prime Minister (Kazi) requested to be merged into the Indian Union. The Indian Army took over Gangtok and disarmed the Palace Guard. So after a referendum (97.5% voted for the merger) it was made the 22nd state of India. Of course it was hardly an invasion. Another was perhaps the police action of 1948 to take over Hyderabad, which was always within the geographical boundaries of India. So that probably won't count.
#2 How many languages do we have in India? Is Hindi the national language?
Most of the people I know will say there are about 20 - 25 languages in India or will check a currency note to count them. Most would agree Hindi is India's national language. The truth is neither the Constitution nor any law has defined any national language. The official language of the Indian Union is Hindi with English as a secondary official language. As for the states, they can chose their own official languages.
When people mention us as having 22 languages, they actually mean the official scheduled languages. These are languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and enjoy special status and is spoken by 96.56% of the population. The real number of languages of India according to the Guinness Book of World Records is 849 languages and 1600 dialects, and India holds the world record for having most number of languages. However this number is also disputed. The 2001 Census mentions about 1635 mother tongues. 122 languages (234 mother tongues) are spoken by groups with 10,000 or more native speakers. The SIL Ethnologue mentions 452 languages with only 438 living ones.
The States can adopt their own official languages, and it is not necessary for them to choose from the scheduled languages. Kokborok in Tripura; Mizo in Mizoram; Khasi, Garo, and Pnar in Meghalaya; and French in Pondicherry do not belong to the scheduled languages. Also due to the huge number of languages, some states just adopt English as their official language. Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland have English as their sole official language.
#3 Not all of India got freedom in August 1947
Yep, we can safely say not all of India got freedom on 1947. In 1947 the Dominion of India was formed from British-ruled India and 562 princely states. The princely states had the option of joining either India or Pakistan or remain independent. Most of the states eventually joined India or Pakistan. But even after India celebrated its independence on 15 August, three states refused to join it: Junagadh, Hyderabad, and Jammu & Kashmir.
Junagadh's Nawab Mohabat Khan was a great dog lover. He had about 2000 pedigree dogs and once declared a public holiday when two of his favorite airedale dogs mated. He spent 300,000 rupees on their wedding (the average annual income of one of his subjects was only Rs. 300). It had an 82% Hindu population and had the Somnath temple and the Gir forest (home of the Asiatic lions) within its boundaries. However his dewan Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto (his son would become the Pakistani Prime minister later) decided to accede to Pakistan. The accession was accepted by Pakistan. However the popular agitation in favour of India forced the dewan to hand over the administration to the Indian government on 9 November 1947. A plebiscite was later held on 20 February 1948 where 91% voted to join India.
The State of Hyderabad was the largest princely state in India with 82,000 square miles of territory, 16 million population, and with three linguistic groups: Telugu, Kannada, and Marathi. Hyderabad State had its own army, as well as its own airline, telecommunication system, railway network, postal system, currency and radio broadcasting service, with a GDP larger than that of Belgium. The Nizam of Hyderabad, Lieut. General His Exalted Highness Sir Mir Osman Ali Khan was the world's richest man. And most likely he was also the most miserly. He used the world's seventh largest diamond as a paperweight (worth Rs. 400 crore now, it was found by him in the toe of his late father's shoe). He always wore faded clothes and drove around in a 1918 model car. His subjects had to pay to see him. To be fair he had also donated generously to various organisations, and contributed to Britain some $100,000,000 cash plus untold supplies and Hyderabad army units during the Second World War.
He declared his independence on 15 August 1947. Due to later nationalistic and communist uprisings against the Nizam, and the Razakars' (a communal organisation) atrocities against the population, India sent its army in September 1948. The Nizam's army was defeated and Hyderabad became part of India on 17 September 1948.
The next case is the famous one of Jammu & Kashmir. Even larger than Hyderabad, with a predominantly Muslim population it was desired by Pakistan. It was ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh who wished to remain independent. Its main political party was the National Conference under the guidance of the secular Sheikh Abdullah. In October 1947, Pathan tribals were encouraged to invade J&K by the Pakistani Army. About 13,000 armed tribals invaded, but were primarily interested in loot and rape. The invasion from the Pakistani side proved too bad for the Maharaja's forces, and he sought military assistance from India, agreeing to accede. When the Indian troops landed in Srinagar, the Maharaja, his administration, and the Police had already escaped. The National Conference volunteers substituted for the Police, and the Army started liberating parts of Kashmir from the invasion. Officially J&K had become part of India on 26 October 1947, but parts of the state is still under Pakistani occupation.
Besides the fuss created by these princely states (Pakistan also had issues like these with Balochistan), there was the French occupation of Pondicherry and the Portuguese occupation of Goa. The French territories like Pondichery, Chandernagore, Karaikal, Mahe, and Yanam were transferred to India in 1954 (officially only by 1962). India had to fight the Portuguese to liberate Goa and Daman & Diu in 1961. The Portuguese occupation of Dadra & Nager Haveli had ended in 1954 when few volunteers of the United Front of Goans (UFG), the National Movement Liberation Organisation (NMLO), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Azad Gomantak Dal began a liberation war. The region became legally an independent country from 1954 till 1961 when it merged with India. Also we have the example of Sikkim from earlier.
(Courtesy: India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha; Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre; TIME articles, Wikipedia etc.)
To be continued
