Resolving the Theseus Paradox at the Cusp of Independence: The Battle to Become the Legal Successor of British India

Abstract

This paper attempts to answer important questions about the extents to which newly decolonised nations wish to maintain colonial legacies – or jettison them. More viscerally, how are post-colonial identities defined? These questions are particularly intricate in the context of British India’s partition. Before independence, stakeholders debated whether India and Pakistan should be regarded as two new states, or was India a continuation of British India, with Pakistan seceding from it? In the former scenario, the earlier ‘India’ would have ceased to exist. These points are brought out through extensive archival research into the negotiations governing the transfer of power, and furnish a crucial jigsaw piece in the state formation puzzle. The paper focuses on two clear lines of inquiry. Firstly, and perhaps counterintuitively, India’s keenness to become the legal successor to British India and accept the consequent treaty obligations. Archival research shows that Indian National Congress, especially Nehru, fought uncompromisingly for this legal status. It was a matter of ‘prestige’ that the India they had fought hard to free legally continue to exist; that its enduring identity and essence align with its new legal personality. Secondly, the relatively unexplored story of how London sought to saddle the new states with its own commitments in South Asia, and the complicated legal jugglery that ensued. The aforementioned treaty obligations became an important aspect of Independent India’s foreign policy, especially on the eastern border, with ramifications for Tibet and Sino-Indian relations, underlining the continuity of British Indian foreign policy post-independence.

Résoudre le paradoxe de Thésée à l’aube de l’indépendance : la lutte pour la succession légale de l’Inde britannique