Indian Nationalism and the'National Question'

The term 'nationalities' is used to refer to culturally distinct parts of the nation which, for a variety of economic, political and historical reasons, either do not or cannot become fully sovereign or autonomous nation-states.

T.V. Sathyamurthy , Nationalism in the Contemporary World: Political and Sociological Perspectives (London: Frances Pinter, 1983), pp. 46-65, and pp. 85-118.

Thus, in a country such as India, where the roots of democratic participation have gained strength over the years at local, State and national levels, the state felt compelled to impose an Emergency (1975-77) over and above a number of draconian public security laws that the government had been able to pass (since 1950) with the help of a comfortable majority which the party in power enjoyed in the Lok Sabha (or Indian parliament). See, for example, D. Hiro , Inside India Today ( London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976), especially pp. 257-271.

See, for example, A.D. Smith , State and Nation in the Third World: The Western State and African Nation (Brighton: Wheatsheaf, 1983), pp. 37-58; and T. Hodgkin , Nationalism in Colonial Africa (London: F. Muller , 1956), pp. 169-186.

T.V. Sathyamurthy , 'Language, Religion and Political Economy: The Case of Bangladesh', in David Taylor and Malcolm Yapp (eds.), Political Identity in South Asia (London: Curzon Press, Collected Papers on South Asia, No. 2, 1979), pp. 214-242.

During the 1950s, the Indian government reluctantly yielded to pressure from different parts of the country for a reorganisation of the States according to the linguistic criterion. See Government of India, Report of the States' Re-Organisation Commission (New Delhi: Government Press, 1955). In more recent years, and especially since 1980, the Indian government has consistently sought to discredit (for example) the Akali Dal (in the Punjab) and the Assam students' movements because they have been able to gather popular support in the two States for greater autonomy and devolution of power.

Throughout this essay the term 'state' is used to refer to the Indian state whose power is controlled by the ruling party or a coalition at the Centre, and the term 'State' is used to refer to a constituent unit of the Indian Union.

The Punjab in the northwest, and the seven States of the northeast (Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh). For an analysis of the tensions currently affecting the Punjab, see T.V. Sathyamurthy , 'Crises within the Crisis', Seminar, Special Issue on The Punjab Tangle (No. 294, February 1984), pp. 29-37.

For contrasting views on this point, see for example, Bipan Chandra , The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India: Economic Policies of the Indian National Leadership 1880-1905 (New Delhi: Peoples Publishing House, 1966); and Anil Seal , The Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in the Later Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), especially pp. 341-354.

See, for example, Ranajit Guha , 'Neel Darpan: The Image of a Peasant Revolt in a Liberal Mirror',Journal of Peasant Studies (Vol. 2, No. 1, 1974), pp. 1-46.

Karan Singh , Prophet of Indian Nationalism: A Study of the Political Thought of Sri Aurbindo Ghosh with a Foreword by Jawaharlal Nehru (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1963), especially pp. 62-78.

The interest of the Gadar party centres around the fact that it was formed by Sikhs residing in California during the years before the First World War. Activists belonging to the party subsequently returned to the Punjab to carry out their revolutionary activities against the colonial power.

See, for example, T.V. Sathyamurthy , 'The Political Economy of Poverty: The Case of lndia', in J.R. Parkinson (ed.), Poverty and Aid (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), pp. 90-113.

See, for example, B. Pattabi Sitaramayya, History of the Indian National Congress, Vols. I and 2 (New Delhi: All India Congress Committee, 1947); and Judith M. Brown , Gandhi's Rise to Power: Indian Politics 1915-1922 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972).

T.V. Sathyamurthy , 'State Power and Class Conflicts in India', Mainstream (Vol. 21, No. 40, June 1983), pp. 11-17 and p. 33.

See, for example, Prakash , Karat Language and Nationality in India (Madras: Orient Longman, 1973), pp. 1-49.

A brilliant analysis of the class character of the leadership of the Indian National Congress is to be found in A.R. Desai , Social Background of Indian Nationalism (Cumberlage: Oxford University Press [Bombay], 1948).

For a discussion of the 'nationality' question with special reference to Yugoslavia, see T.V. Sathyamurthy 'Les Nouveaux Etats: Double Dynamique et Conflits', Cahiers InternatianauxdeSocialogie(Vol.6l, 1976),pp.271-296.

For contrasting views on this point, see the report by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Nationalism (London : Frank Cass, 1963), pp. 57-80; and C.A. Macartney , National States and National Minorities (London: Humphrey Milford, 1934), pp. 450-463.

See, for example, W.R. Batsell , Soviet Rule in Russia ( New York: Macmillan, 1929).

See, for example, M. Fainsod , How Russia is Ruled ( Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1958); E.H. Carr , A History of Soviet Russia, Vol. 1, The Bolshevik Revolution 1917-1923, Part 1 , 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1960), pp. 253-428, especially pp. 364-409; and A History of Soviet Russia, Vol. 6: Socialism in One Country 1924-1926, Part 2 (London: Macmillan, 1959), pp. 231-372, especially pp.259-372.

The Constitutional reforms of 1935 resulted in the formation of elected governments at the provincial level under the executive authority of the Governor. The Congress governments that were thus formed (1937-39) in a number of provinces (e.g. Bombay and Madras Presidencies, United Provinces, Central Provinces and Berarr, Orissa, and Bihar) earned notoriety for their conservative, generally pro-property owner and anti-people legislative measures. They clearly reflected the dominance of factory owners and rural power holders (and especially the latter) in the Congress party. Their resignation in 1939 was precipitated by growing differences between the nationalist movement and the colonial power over the pace and quality of independence. The colonial authorities were not yet ready to accede to the Congress demand of Purna Swarak (or complete independence). It is useful to reflect that had the Congress governments remained in power longer their class character would have been rapidly exposed. As it was, the taste for power grew on the political palates of those who had actually held office during the period of provincial autonomy.

The Hindu Mahasabha which raised the slogan of Akhand Bharat (literally, Unbroken or Undivided India) viewed the entire subcontinent as a Hindu nation with a long history broken only by Muslim rule and British colonialism. The Congress party espoused the view that 'Undivided India' should be secular in character and founded on communal harmony between the Muslims and the Hindus. By the late 1930s, however, when the Muslim League had begun to raise demands for a separate Islamic state, the psychological appeal of the concept of Akhand Bharat among the Hindi population was no longer confined to the Hindu Mahasabha and its supporters but spread to certain sections of the Congress itself. Even after Partition, a number of Indian leaders have promoted the idea that as long as Pakistan was unstable or susceptible to internal divisions the emergence of a single subcontinental Indian nation under a powerful centralised state ought to be viewed as more than a theoretical possibility.

R. Rajagopalan (pseudonymous author), 'Background to India's State of Emergency', The Black Liberator (Vol. 21, No. 4, January 1975 /August 1976), pp. 313-319.

The first Communist Party of India (CPI) - led government in the history of India was returned to power in 1957 in the State of Kerala. For a detailed account of its role in Indian politics, see T.V. Sathyamurthy , India Since Independence: Studies in The Development of the Power of the Indian State: Vol. 1: Centre-State Relations: The Case of Kerala (Delhi : Ajanta Books International, 1985 ).

V.P. Menon , The Story of the Integration of the Indian States (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1955).

For a discussion of the constitutional background to these issues see, for example, T.V. Sathyamurthy , India Since Independence, op. cit., chapter2.

See note 23 above. It is interesting that, for the first time since independence, the slogan of Akhand Bharat (this time with reference, presumably, to the unity of India as it stands today) was raised during the parliamentary election campaign in December 1994. Since the term is associated with a particular historical resonance, some dismay was expressed in quarters where India's secularism was still taken seriously!

This theme has been explored by the author more fully elsewhere. See, for example, T.V. Sathyamurthy , 'The State and the People', The Statesman (Calcutta and Delhi), 12 and 13 March 1985.

That is to say, the relations between the Centre (which views its task as one of integration of the different nationalities into a single nation) and the State governments (where political pressure is exercised either by parties in opposition when the Congress party is in power, or by national and regional parties of the opposition when they themselves win power), which put forward a whole gamut of grievances of the nationalities ranging from demands for a fairer distribution of resources for development and a fairer share of revenue to demands for changes in the personal law of those belonging to distinct minority communities or for the right to exclude 'illegal' immigrants from the electoral rolls.

CPI split into CPI and Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) in 1964.

One such inquiry is under way, the results of which this author hopes to publish in a series of 1 1 volumes, of which the first is just out. See note 25 above.

The rise of provincially based petit bourgeois strands is a relatively new phenomenon. The regional petit bourgeois and bourgeois elements express their demands, characteristically, in the form of aspirations and grievances arising out of belonging to various nationalities rather than to India as a whole.

The precise characterisation of the agricultural economy has been the subject of considerable controversy during the last ten years or so, which has been aired in many an issue of Economic and Political Weekly , Social Scientist and in a few articles in The Journal of Peasant Studies.

As the Green Revolution got under way, the rich peasantry became rapidly conscious of their class interests. But, even though they had become 'a class for itself by the mid-1960s, it was not until 1972 when India achieved self-sufficiency in food production that the rich peasantry began to make demands of a specifically 'class' nature of the Indian state.

In fact, since 1947, the influence of the communist movement has diminished in a number of areas, such as the State of Andhra Pradesh (where CPI was within an inch of forming a government in 1954) and the city of Bombay, even though in some other areas such as the Punjab as well as certain parts of Bihar, it has marginally increased since 1975.

For an elaboration of this argument, see T.V. Sathyamurthy , 'Piloting a Nation into the Twenty-first Century: Emerging Class Contradictions in Contemporary India', Economic and Political Weekly (Vol. 20, No. 25,22 June 1985 ).

R. Rajagopalan , op. cit

An example of this relates to the establishment of the Planning Commission which was deliberately omitted from the Constitution. The political implications are discussed in T.V. Sathyamurthy , India Since Independence, op. cit., chapter 2,

The Planning Commission identified Assam and. Jammu and Kashmir among areas deserving of special consideration and accordingly alloted a far larger amount of resources or development per capita to these States than to the others. In Assam, in particular, where a large Bengali bhadralok minority for decades monopolised government employment (and more recently immigrants from Bangladesh have arrived in large numbers), petit bourgeois elites belonging to the 'Assamese' nationality (here again, the distinction between 'Assamese' and 'tribal' people acquires a vital significance) have become increasingly aware that the jobs in their State should be given to them and not to interlopers from other States or another country.

Potti Sriramulu , a Congress leader belonging to Andhra undertook a fast unto death in 1952 as a consequence of which the Indian government was forced to took into the question of a separate Andhra State as well as the more general policy of reorganisation of States.

Government of India, Report of the States' Re-Organisation Commission (New Delhi: Government Press, 1955).

This demand was raised not by the Congress party but by Akali Dal which, at the time of Partition, decided in favour of casting its lot with India rather than agitate for a separate state outside India or a State within the federation but with special autonomy provisions, written into the Constitution.

Pratap Singh Kairon proved to be an extremely energetic and imaginative though corrupt Congress leader under whom the agricultural development of the Punjab made rapid strides. Punjab, more than any other State in India, achieved striking results from the Green Revolution.

The reorganisation of the Punjab was delayed until 1966 when Haryana was created along with a much smaller Punjab, with Chandigarh as capital. Unfortunately, however, Chandigarh was also made the capital of Haryana at the same time and given the status of Union Territory. The circumstances under which the new State was created left much to be desired as the unhappy history of the Punjab - economically the most prosperous State in India and yet politically more internally divided than perhaps any other State - unfolded itself during the 1970s. In this connection. it is useful to reflect on the consequences of lack of development for political stability. Burma, prior to the introduction of military rule, was in the development game and the AFPFL (Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League) government, pledged to some form of socialist society, found itself beleaguered by a number of different nationalities clamouring for autonomy if not independence (e.g., the Karens, the Chins, the Kachins, the Shans, and the Arakanese), whilst the communist insurrectionaries proved extremely difficult to contain let alone eliminate. Yet, Ne Win's coup which ushered into existence an era of insulation of Burma from the outside world, a virtual cessation of development as it is commonly understood, and a strengthening of the subsistence economy, was followed by a gradual decrease in tension between the Burmese government on the one hand and the different nationalities of Burma on the other. Just as the tensions of economic development and political separatism go hand in hand, so too in the absence of economic tensions the impetus for autonomy diminishes in urgency and eventually disappears.

The Hindi heartland consists of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar.

Gandhi was mainly responsible for promoting Hindi as a unifying force. During the 1930s, for example, Hindi was propagated in South India through the Hindi Pracher Sabha. It was able to attract a whole generation of students from non-Hindi regions before Independence.

A less ambitious policy of introducing Hindi as the official language without an elaborate induction period might have been more successful than the policy of raising Hindi to the status of India's national language. After Independence, non-Hindi areas objected to Hindi becoming either an official or a national language.

See, for example, T.V. Sathyamurthy , 'The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the Politics of Tamil Nadu: 1947-71', in B.N. Pandey (ed.), Leadership in South Asia ( New Delhi: Vikas, 1977),pp.426-460.

In eight states, non-Congress coalitions took power. Two of these were left-led and the remainder right-led.

A concerted policy of destabi lisation of State governments, led by opposition parties, had been followed by Congress (I) and the central government since 1967. During the 1980s, however, this policy has not been successful in States such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Sikkim, West Bengal and Tripura. See, for example, T.V. Sathyamurthy , 'Centre-State Relations: A Pre-Election Reckoning', Economic and Political Weekly (Vol. 19, No. 39, September 1984), pp. 1692-1695.

For a penetrating analysis of the political and cultural susceptibilities of the various nationalities from an administrative viewpoint, see T.C.A. Srinivasavaradan , 'Federal Management', occasional paper (Centre for Policy Research , New Delhi, 1985).

See, for example, T.V. Sathyamurthy , 'India After Indira', The Times Higher Educational Supplement, 23 November 1984.

Operation Bluestar (6 June 1984) represented her most serious act of intervention in which the military was ordered to enter the Golden Temple of Amritsar in order to flush out the extremists led by Sant Bindranwalla from their sanctuary in the Akal Takht. For an analysis of the political situation leading up to the final denouement in the Punjab, see T.V. Sathyamurthy , 'Punjab: The Real Issue', The Illustrated Weekly of India, 4-10 March 1984, pp. 36-44; and 'Centre-State Relations: A Pre-Election Reckoning', op. cit

Now known as Lok Dal, it had previously been known by a number of other appellations such as Datit Mazdoor Kisan Party (DMKP) and the Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD).

For example, Assamese, Sikkimese, Kashmiri and Naga.

In certain States, more than one nationality exists, and this complicates issues relating to autonomy and devolution of financial and political powers.

The main weakness of the communist movement stems from the fact that it is extremely weak in the heartland States except perhaps in certain regions (mainly central and eastern) of Bihar.

This has become a familiar pattern of the electorate's rebuffing the ruling party at the Centre as evidenced, for example, in its widely divergent verdicts in December 1984 parliamentary and March 1985 State Assembly elections.

For example, Selig F. Harrison , India: The Most Dangerous Decades (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press , 1960).

A detailed analysis of the Punjab crisis is contained in T.V. Sathyamurthy , India Since Independence: Studies in the Development of the Power of the State in India: Vol. 2: Centre-State Relations: The Case of the Punjab ( Delhi: Ajanta International Books, forthcoming).

Rapid differentiation took place between different agrarian classes from the onset of the Green Revolution. Sikh poor peasantry (which consisted of both Jats and non-Jats) and agricultural labour (consisting predominantly of Majabi Sikhs of low caste origins) left the countryside in sizeable numbers in search of urban jobs and often ended up being lumpenised in the process. At the same time, the rich and middle peasantry took increasingly to importing agricultural labour on a contractual basis from the much poorer States of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on a seasonal basis. The displaced Sikh poor peasants and agricultural labour were attracted to extremism of one kind or another and joined the ranks of, for example, the Nihangs who became very dangerous anti-social elements during the height of the Punjab crisis.

An example of the Akali Dal government's lack of fibre was provided by the way in which they handled the Nirankari Samajam that took place in Amritsar in April 1978. It was well known that the Nirankari Samajam (consisting of both Sikhs and non-Sikhs, followers of a Nirankari Baba) enjoyed the support and patronage of Congress (I) and was ready to engage in violent confrontation against those who opposed it. The Punjab government was aware that the decision to hold the Samajam in Amritsar where Akali feelings ran high was a deliberate act of provocation against the Sikhs, which was aided and abetted by Congress (1). Predictably, on the day of the Samajam, the orthodox Sikhs of Amritsar (with the blessings of the High Priests of Darbara Sahib) took out a procession to demonstrate against the Samajam. The Punjab government, which had not shown the necessary courage to check the members of the Samajam for firearms, also lacked the nerve to restrain its own supporters from going too near it by interposing detachments of the police force between the demonstrators and the Samajam. In the event, numerous deaths occurred in a head-on collision between the demonstrators and the Samajam members. The Janata government at the Centre and the Prime Minister in particular, dismayed by the lack of grip thus exhibited by the government of the State of the Punjab, was in no position to intervene.

See, for example, T.V. Sathyamurthy , Nationalism in the Contemporary World, op. cit., chapter 8.

This was exactly what happened in the aftermath of the 1962 Assamese language riots which were directed against the Bengali bhadralok.

Almost immediately after the State Assembly election in 1977 the new government was faced with demands for an immediate settlement of all issues relating to the presence of vast numbers of foreigners in Assam who had no legal right to be there.

In recent months a cut-off date of 1971 has in fact been used by the Election Commissioner of India in the preparation of new electoral rolls for Assam; in other words, those who have entered Assam from Bangladesh after January 1971 will not find their names on the new electoral rolls. This is in itself a significant gain for the Assam students' movement even though it falls short of total victory.

This does not include the big bourgeoisie which is Marwari (e.g., the Birlas) or Parsi (e.g., the Tatas), though of late a few Gujarati industrial houses (e.g., the Ambani) have not yet joined its ranks.

Numerous distinctions have now invaded the literature on 'reservation'. Thus, there are now not only 'backward' castes but also 'economically backward' castes (EBCs) and 'other backward' castes (OBCs). It must be noted that 'backward' castes do not include Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). See Marc Galanter , Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes in India ( Delhi: Oxford University Press; Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1984).

This development is analysed in some detail in T.V., Sathyamurthy , 'Piloting A Nation Into The Twenty-first Century', op. cit. See also T.V. Sathyamurthy , 'Maturity at the Polls: 'Contradiction, Dissent and Dissidence', The Stalesman, 16 January 1983.