India (Frommer's, 4th Edition) (14 page)

INDEPENDENT INDIA
For almost 4 decades, independent India was to be governed by the INC, initially under its leader Jawaharlal Nehru, who had led Congress in the negotiations of 1946 and 1947. Gandhi was bitterly disillusioned by Partition, even proposing at one stage that Jinnah be made prime minister of India to restore unity. This was enough to alienate him from some Hindu nationalists, one of whom assassinated Mahatma in 1948. Such rival visions of the Indian nation were to plague the new country.

The most pressing political issues centered around India’s relations with Pakistan. The Indian government was (rightly) accused of fomenting dissent in East Pakistan in the late 1960s, leading to war in 1971. Continued conflict has centered around Kashmir, an independent princely state with a predominantly Muslim population but whose Hindu ruler, under threat from Muslim forces from Pakistan, placed it under Indian rule in 1948. Pakistani and Indian troops have tensely faced each other in the territory ever since. With the development of nuclear weapons by both states, and a militant Kashmiri independence movement, the area is a potential powder keg of international concern.

Under Nehru, internal stability was obtained, remarkable considering the circumstances of India’s independence, and until his death in 1964, he established India as the world’s leading postcolonial democracy, a key player (along with Sukarno’s Indonesia) in the nonalignment movement that avoided Cold War conflicts. Communal rivalries were downplayed by a focus on India’s secular status. Regional separatism continued to threaten unity, especially Tamil opposition to Hindi linguistic domination from Delhi, but this was resolved by a reorganization of local states along linguistic lines.

Nonetheless, Congress never obtained more than 45% of the national vote and only held power because of the division of its political opponents. After Nehru’s death, its attraction weakened. In an attempt to restore its popularity, his daughter, Indira Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma), became prime minister in 1966. From 1969, she implemented a more populist program of social change, including land reform and a planned economy—a program that was to alienate some of the richer landowners and regional party leaders. Economic restructuring led to strikes and civil opposition in the cities, and in 1975, a state of emergency was declared that lasted 2 years. Believing that she had reasserted control, Indira Gandhi held elections in 1977. The result was the first defeat for Congress, although no party was able to form a united government to replace it, and by 1980 Gandhi was back in power.

The INC never regained its previous level of control, however. Resentment by Sikhs at their failure to secure autonomy in the Punjab culminated in 1984 with the Indian army’s siege and capture of the main Sikh temple at Amritsar with thousands of casualties, and Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, succeeded her, and instituted new programs of economic liberalization, but he also embroiled India unsuccessfully in the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka, leading to his assassination in 1991 by a Tamil activist. Although his widow, the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, inherited leadership of Congress, the era of the Nehru family’s domination of Indian politics (which has been compared to the Kennedy family’s political impact in the U.S.) was thought by many to be over.

In 1989, Congress was again defeated at the polls, this time led by the Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Although the BJP initially failed to hold together a coalition government, its strength grew. It accused Congress of allowing India to be dominated by outside interests, including globalized economic forces, but more specifically by Indian Muslims who it considered to be unduly tolerated under Congress’s secular state policies. In 1992, a BJP-led campaign led to the destruction of the mosque at Ayodhya, believed to be the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram.

In the 1996 elections the BJP defeated a Congress government plagued by accusations of corruption and emerged as the leading group in the coalition governments that have ruled India since. Under the BJP Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, tensions with Muslim Pakistan increased, with both sides testing and threatening the use of nuclear weapons, especially in conflicts over Kashmir. Fortunately, 2003 saw a welcome cooling. In 2004 the confident BJP government called for early elections, hoping to cash in on a booming economy and developments in the India-Pakistan peace process. Contrary to all expectations, however, the BJP did not win. Instead the Congress, which had been the opposition party for 8 years, took much of the vote, as did the Left (which unexpectedly won more than 60 seats in the 543-member house). Together with other parties, they formed a ruling coalition, the UPA (United Progressive Alliance). The next surprise came soon after, when the victorious Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress, declined to take on the job of prime minister, appointing instead Manmohan Singh, a former Indian finance minister, to the chair.

By mid-2005, the Congress had been in power for just 1 year; the opposition BJP was in disarray, its political plans to disrupt the functioning of the Congress-led government a mess, and its own dirty linen being washed in public view almost daily. Simultaneously, the normally tenuous relations between India and Pakistan had reached a new high—despite obstacles like unresolved disputes and cross-border terrorism—a strategic factor in the development of the region as a whole. When the next general election rolled around in 2009, voters turned up in larger-than-ever numbers and reaffirmed support for Congress’s secular, reformist policies. With Sonia’s son, Rahul Gandhi (whom many believe is on course to become the next Gandhi to lead India), impressing crowds and analysts, the party trumped its earlier victory and was able to form a government without forming allegiances with parties likely to compromise its position. Ms Gandhi again appointed Manmohan Singh prime minister, and the media celebrated what felt like the start of a new era in the country’s development.

Dateline

■
Circa 3000–1700
B.C.
Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley marks earliest farming communities in the region.

■
1500–600
B.C.
Vedic states in the north establish the basis of Hinduism and the caste system.

■
326
B.C.
Alexander the Great’s army halts at the Indus.

■
322–185
B.C.
Mauryan state in North India; conversions to Buddhism under Asoka (reigned 272–232
B.C.
).

■
A.D.
319–540
Gupta empire reunites northern India.

■
300–900
Pallava empire in Dravidian southern India.

■
900–1300
Chola empire in southern India.

■
1206–1400s
Islamic Delhi sultanates established in north.

■
1510
Portuguese establish first European coastal settlement in India.

■
1526
Mughal conquest of Delhi (returned permanently in 1555).

■
1556–1605
Akbar extends Mughal power.

■
1600
Founding of British East India Company.

■
1658–1707
Aurangzeb conquers south for Mughal empire.

■
1739
Persian sacking of Delhi and removal of the Peacock Throne accelerates Mughal decline.

■
1757
Clive defeats Nawab of Bengal at Battle of Plassey, establishing British rule in Bengal.

■
1790s–1820s
British extend power in southern, western, and central India.

■
1856–57
Indian “Mutiny”: uprising against British. British sacking of Delhi and expulsion of Mughals.

■
1858
Dissolution of East India Company; India to be ruled directly from London.

■
1877
Queen Victoria declared Queen-Empress of India.

■
1885
Foundation of the Indian National Congress.

■
1890s
Bengal famine and plague epidemics.

■
1903
British capital moved from Calcutta to Delhi.

■
1905
Division of Bengal provokes boycott campaigns against British.

■
1906
Muslim League founded.

■
1915
Gandhi returns to India.

■
1919
Amritsar massacre galvanizes Indian nationalist opposition to British.

■
1930
Gandhi leads salt march to protest British taxation policies.

■
1935
Government of India Act gives measure of local self-government to India, but retains British power at the center.

■
1939–45
World War II: India threatened by Japanese advance in Southeast Asia.

■
1942
Gandhi announces “Quit India” campaign and is imprisoned.

■
1946
Labor government in Britain announces future independence for India, with Mountbatten as new viceroy.

■
1947
British leave India. Partitioning into separate states of India and Pakistan. Massacres of refugees across new frontiers. Nehru becomes independent India’s first prime minister.

■
1948
Gandhi assassinated by a Hindu fundamentalist.

■
1964
Death of Nehru.

■
1966
Nehru’s daughter, Indira Gandhi, becomes prime minister.

■
1975
Indira Gandhi declares State of Emergency but is ousted from power in the 1977 elections.

■
1980
Indira Gandhi regains power.

■
1984
Indian army besieges Sikh temple at Amritsar. Indira Gandhi assassinated by Sikh bodyguards in revenge.

■
1984–89
Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv is prime minister.

■
1991
Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by a Tamil separatist. Liberalization of the economy by reducing government controls, privatizing, and drastically reducing import tariffs and taxes.

■
1992
BJP-led attack on mosque at Ayodhya.

■
1996
BJP Hindu fundamentalist party wins electoral majority and forms coalition government.

■
2002
Threat of nuclear war with Pakistan over Kashmir averted by international mediation. Gujarat sees tensions between Hindu and Muslim nationalists inflamed.

■
2004
National elections held; in an unforeseen victory, the Congress-led alliance wins and forms the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government. Manmohan Singh becomes the new prime minister of India.