Declaration of Independence on 15 August, 1947

The protracted mass struggle of Indians successfully ended the two centuries of foreign yoke and resulted in the declaration of independence on 15 August, 1947.

The first day of freedom was celebrated with mixed feelings of exuberance and elation on the one hand and by despair and agony on the other hand as the tasks ahead were of gigantic nature.

But the first Prime Minister of India, Nehru in his memorable address ‘Tryst with Destiny’ to the Constituent Assembly declared his governments’ commitment and dedication as follows;

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity we end today a period of ill future and India discovers herself again”.

He further appro­priately reminded, “The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater type and achievements. That future is not one of ease and resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfill the pledges we have so often taken”. The incipient Indian nation state had to tackle not one but multiple arduous tasks of immediate urgency like the territorial and administrative integration of princely states, the communal riots that followed the partition of India, the rehabilitation of nearly six million refugees who had migrated from Pakistan, the protection of Muslims threatened by communalists, the need to forestall war with Pakistan and the communist insurgency.

Undaunted by these stupendous tasks ahead of the Indian government, Nehru rightly declared, “First things must come first and the first thing is the security and stability of India”. W.H. Morris Jones observed that the task of the newly born state should be “to hold things together, to ensure survival, to get accustomed to the feel of being on the water, to see to it that the vessels kept afloat”.

The most immediate problem that required the serious attention of the political set-up in the post-partition India was the urgency of unifying less than one administration, the princely states. In pre-independent colonial India nearly 40 per cent of the territory was occupied by 56 small and large states by princes who experienced different degrees of autonomy under the system of British paramount which protected them from external aggression and internal insur­gency.

In the backdrop of the partition of India and Pakistan, the matter of princely states assumed significance as a matter of serious concern. It is so because larger princely native states toyed with the idea of becoming free and began to scheme and plan and they began that the paramount is non-transferable either to India or to Pakistan.

The princely states developed such an ambition as Atlee, the Prime Minister of England announced on 20 February, 1947. “His Majesty’s government does not intend to hand over their powers and obligations under paramountcy to any Government of British India”.

Banking on this pronouncement, many princely states felt that they could become independent principalities from August 15, 1947 joining neither India nor Pakistan. This idea was further strengthened by Jinnah’s announcement of 18 June, 1947 that “the states would be independent sovereign states on the termination of paramountcy and “were free to remain independent if they so desired”. Atlee changed his stand in his speech of the Independence of India Bill as follows: “It is the hope of His Majesty’s government that all the states will in due course find their appropriate place with one or the other Dominion within the British Commonwealth”.

In the circumstances narrated above, the Government of India created States Department with V.P. Menon as its Secretary under the control of the Independent Home Minister of India, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, and the Iron Man of India who also assumed the charge of the newly created states department. Patel was fully aware of the impending danger to the unit of India due to the possible intransigencies of the milers of the states. Patel took V.P. Menon into confidence and informed, “The simation held dangerous possibilities and that if we did not handle it promptly and effectively, our hard earned freedom might disappear through the states door”.

The words ‘promptly and effectively’ used by Patel reveal his iron will to deal with the recalcitrant states expeditiously. Primarily, Patel implemented the carrot and stick policy by appealing to their good sense and see reason in joining India and also made it implicitly clear that they may have to face the wrath of the people of the native states for not joining India and he will not be in a position to stop or control the mounting anger of the multitude against them.

Except the native states of Junagadh, Jammu & Kashmir and Hyderabad, the rest understood the message of Patel and coolly responded positively for Patel’s implied threat and message. All the native states except those mentioned above acceded to India by 15 August, 1947.