The Indian High Commission in Guyana commemorated the 75th anniversary of India becoming a Republic in a simple ceremony at the Pegasus Corporate Suites on Jan 27. Over in India, the festivities were anything but “simple”, as every state pulled out the stops to announce that if India had not arrived, then it was definitely knocking at the doors of superpower status.
As the “Jewel in the Crown” of Britain, even before its Independence in 1947, India held great significance for the colonies of the empire on which “the sun never set”. It is not a coincidence that the Pan-African Conference (1900) changed its name to the “Pan African Congress” in 1919, following the 1912 founding of the South African Native National Congress and even the Peoples National Congress in Guyana in 1958; they were all inspired by the Indian National Congress – which became simply “the Congress”.
Founded in 1885, the Congress was reformist for the first quarter of a century of existence. Some – who explicitly called themselves “Moderates” – took the British at their word: that they simply wanted to tutor the Indians to govern themselves to become full and equal members of the British Empire. Those who felt the struggle for independence had to be fought for “by any means necessary” – including violence – were dubbed “Extremists”, and were exiled and jailed.
But one issue that brought the “Moderates”, “Extremists” and Muslims together was the issue of Indentured Indian labour, Indian labourers having been shipped to several British, Dutch and French colonies. In particular, with reference to their treatment in South Africa, Gandhi, who was there and in touch with the “Moderates”, assisted the British in the Boer War of 1899-1902, when they fought the Afrikaans. They were astounded when the British joined the Afrikaans after the war to enact very draconian laws against the Indians – whether indentured or “free”. The beginnings of the apartheid system were being instituted, and the Whites insisted the Indians must be restricted to certain areas.
The “educated” and “upper crust” Indian nationalists in India and non-indentured Business class in South Africa were more insulted that they were being treated as “coolies” rather than anything else; they had been, they thought, transformed into “gentlemen of the realm”. The unified Congress introduced legislation in the Indian Parliament and organised demonstrations across India to demand that Indian emigration to South Africa (Natal) be stopped. This occurred in 1911, since the SA Whites were prepared to accept a rise in the cost of labour for their plantations and mines, rather than accepting the equality of Indians and Whites.
While some, like Gandhi, who was dubbed a “Mahatma” or “Great Soul”, espoused Satyagraha”, or “non-violent struggle”, for India’s independence, and refused to support violence, other younger leaders of Congress, such as Subash Chandra Bose, opted for the latter route. During WWII, he formed an army that allied itself with the Axis powers and helped precipitate a rebellion of the Indian Navy in Port Bombay in 1946. More than anything else, it brought independence to India the following year.
Unfortunately, that came at the price of partitioning the country into “India and “Pakistan”, in a bloody process in which more than one million persons lost their lives. Less than three years later, India and Pakistan became Republics – the former under a constitution drafted by a local team headed by Dr B.R. Ambedkar, a member of the lowest caste, now dubbed “Dalits”. He was educated at Columbia University, USA and India was defined as a “sovereign, democratic, republic.”
In the years since, the Indian Republic has maintained its democratic credentials, and apart from one aberration in the 1970s, all leaders have observed the protocols of the rule of law, division of power, and Judicial review. Last week, a sensitive issue of rebuilding a Mandir over a Masjid that had been built over a Mandir on the site 400 years ago, was settled amicably by the Supreme Court.
