******************************* A special news feature ————————————————
India is many but one great nation
since Independence the country is marching on for prosperity and world peace in this modern new Age
By Vallabh Kaviraj in London
*India, the glorious ancient land with full of resources, manpower, rich culture and a considerable wealth of all kinds, is now seen globally as the land of opportunities for prosperity and world peace in this New Age. *India is many-but it is a great one nation with over one billion people who have different languages, different religions, traditions and customs though culturally they are one people who have lived together culturally for centuries, that was the beauty of the great country India. But it is unfortunate that the Indian society is broken into pieces with castes and subcastes and communal divisions with narrowmindedness. Also the political structure seems to be disturbing in India. Political gurus seem to be following narrowmindedness and are emerging as they prefer caste system to be encouraged. The question remains-is it not time for modern India to do more as it is one great country ? Also – is it not time to create oneness and removing poverty nationwide? Also it needs to moderate nation’s constitution which can encourage Indianness among Indian people worldwide, which can bring strong progressive unity to make the country stronger and prosperous in this modern world. *Looking to its ancient concept, the existing archeological evidence indicates that the Vedic literatures, inscriptions, coins as well as the great traditional stories in Puranas, which had been memorised for centuries and collected many centuries later, kept the rich Indian culture alive and flourishing always. *However, India suffered enough for several centuries because of the various foreign invasions which had broken up the paramount country into different regions and divided the great one Indian society into many groups and castes, subcastes system, which had been imposed by foreign invaders in 1500 BC. *Also, later India’s wealth had been robed often in 8th century by foreign rulers from Middle East and central Asia, who had created political instability in India then. But they could not stop country’s economic prospect until some of them had made their political bases to rule and to meet their religious, socio-economic and political ends. Those who had made their power basis to rule they had also played divisive and cunning power games, and the consequence of that, Indian people at large had suffered a lot economically, politically and socially. *Later the communal element with narrowmindedness had been created in the entire Indian society which had ended up with communalism and that had caused grave social unrest often. *Moreover, the dynasty oriented Indian kingdoms within the country, created a jealousy among themselves, that had caused disunity and eventually wars, which had invited foreign rulers to take an advantage of the political situation. Consequently, India as a whole had been seen politically weakened then. *Lastly Europeans had discovered India and had come by sea route to the country as traders and it had become the world trade centre. The European trading companies then had created a problematic battlefield using power muscles and India had been later ruled by British for over 150 years. *As the wind of political change had started to blow during the British Raj in India, an Indian National Congress had been founded at last by a retired Englishman, in end of December 1885, at Bombay in India to campaign for a self rule. * Also, a committee of the Indian National Congress had been established in London, together with Indian residents including Dadabhai Navrodji who had been later elected as an Member of Parliament (MP) from the Liberal Party to British Parliament in 1892. He had then raised a voice in British Parliament in London, concerning a self rule in India. *During the lengthy foreign rule, India had suffered a lot. The structure of the Indian society had been broken completely and the country had been seen in complete mess economically. *It was the Freedom Movement which had been led by Mahatma Gandhiji had awaken the grassroot level people of India. Gandhiji had devoted his whole life and marched on to achieve India’s Independence. After a long political struggle he had at last succeeded in achieving Independence without bloodshed. *But Mohammed Ali Jinha’s political self ambition to become a prime minister had provoked communal riots in the country. *The Labour Attlee Government of Great Britain, sent Lord Mountbatten to India and he had become the first Viceroy of the Independent India. He saw that Mr. Jinha’s demand for partition of India, was a dangerous political game. He had seen that the plan which had been discussed needed to be put into action immediately rather than to wait for the arranged transfer in June 1948. He had reluctantly agreed to Jinha’s demand. At last, the plan had been agreed to be accepted to create a partition of the country. *Independence had been granted to India on 15th of August 1947. It was a jubilant Day for people of India, but on the other hand, sad Day for mother India which was partitioned for no good reason but had to do it simply on communal ground. *Lord Mountbatten had left India in June 1948. Mahatma Gandhiji then saw that India needed a prime minister who had the links with all Indian people rather than the leader with simply community oriented ideology. He chose Jawaharlal Nehru as the first Prime Minister of India and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as the Deputy Prime Minister in the Nehru Government. Both were educated in England but with different backgrounds. *The veteran politicians of India had learnt a lot of the past political lessons of the country. They wanted to see the country more unionly unified as one nation. But the partition provoked unexpected riots. Mahatma Gandhiji had tried his best to resolve it with peaceful means, but that did not help the situation, and Gandhiji was assassinated on 30th January 1948 by a fanatic in India. *Many critics said then that the partition of India was a big mistake and would cause a permanent damage to the Indian subcontinent. *Alongside the communal troubles and the vast refugee problem created by the partition, the Nehru Government wanted to integrate more than 500 independent princely states into the Indian Union. It was very complex situation because of the Hindu Maharaja in Kashmir and Muslim Nizam in Hydrabad. *Eventually Hydrabad issue had been resolved with some difficulties. But the Kashmir crisis provoked a war with Pakistan in October 1947. The Kashmir issue had provoked other two wars too between two countries, and yet the issue remained unresolved. It is a big headache for India today. *India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru had a big task to implement his new policies to build the new India’s economy. His first priority was to create a policy which would keep India in peace. It was his non-alliance policy which had led him to march for a peace worldwide and his hard work for the world peace made him a world’s great peace maker statesman. * Under the Nehru Government, India had been through a number of changes. After remaining in the Commonwealth in 1949 as Republic, Indo-British connection had started to build up better relations. *Since the Nehru Government, India had made a considerable progress, and the Congress ruled the country with great value of democracy, but Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi’s emergency rule damaged her popularity. She was defeated and Janata Party formed a government under the leadership of Mr. Morarji Desai who brought India into limelight again with the vision to develop villages and the cottage industry in the country. But Janata government lasted two years only because the coalition failed, and Mrs Indira Gandhi came to power again with the vision to remove poverty in the country. Since then India’s domestic political game had been played with rivary among politicians. *The strange political culture then began to emerge and voters confused themselves, and eventually coalition governments had been produced often. *However, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee completed five year term, showing country’s considerable strength in the world, but failed to win general election again because of domestic political rivary. * Now, the Congress coalition government under the premiership of Dr.Manmohan Singh, seems to be making a considerable economic progress in this globalised world. *India had been through ups and down since its Inependence but survived with great strength and political wisdom, and it is well recognised as the largest democracy on earth. *The world is coming closer than ever before and fast changes are occuring. The wind of economic changes began for the global prosperity, and the global economies seem to be linked greatly to make the world better place in this New Age. *Now the economic strength of India is emerging, the country is marching on with knowledgeable manpower as well as a considrable support from Indians settled worldwide, and the world is believing, India will be the great economic power in 2010. *India today seems to be a promising land for prosperity and world peace, and the country is marching on to achieve its glorious past in this New Age. *Now, there are debates going on concerning the partition, and many moderate critics in India, Pakistan and overseas believe that the partition would be unnecessary as the global economies would flourish because future global citizens would be more matured economically, politically and socially, seeing the world is one family of nations in this advanced modern New Age. ************************ (*The author of this article, Mr.Vallabh Kaviraj is a longstanding Indian journalist, a poet, writer and newspaper editor. He founded the pioneering independent Indian Asian English newspaper The AEN-The Asian Express Newspaper in London 1973, to promote better understanding and harmony among peoples globally. *And also he founded GBF-Global Business Focus and The AEN News Diary publications in London. He has written a number of articles on global economy, global environment issues, current affairs and Asia affairs in general. He has worked hard to build up his newspaper which is being published on Internet. *He is the man of all peoples. He has composed his own poems in two languages: in English and in Gujarati and published those poems in a book form called ‘Inspiration’ the first of its kind in London 1973 and added a novelty in the field of literature in Britain. *He served as a parent governor in a secondary school in London for six years, contributing considerably to the field of education in London. *His parents had a family business in Gujarat though he prefered teaching there. He was formerly a teacher in Gujarat, India, before he came to Britain in mid 1950’s. *He studied Business courses, law and journalism in London. *He is now known as one of the pillars of the Asian society in Britain.) *******************************
