Birth of a Nation: The Twenty-One Days That Made India

WHILE JAWAHARLAL NEHRU, M.A. JINNAH AND OTHER PROMINENT LEADERS SPARRED AND DEBATED IN PUBLIC, AND LORD MOUNTBATTEN READIED HIMSELF TO BECOME THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF TWO NASCENT DEMOCRACIES, A SMALL GROUP OF CIVIL SERVANTS QUIETLY ANTICIPATED-AND SOUGHT TO PREVENT- THE EVENTUAL BALKANISATION OF INDIA. 25 July-14 August 1947: These were the twenty-one days that made India. When Josy Joseph stumbles across dusty, neglected archival files in the course of his research, he is astounded by the material it holds. Bringing his investigative nous to historical research, Joseph stitches together a richly detailed account of how India came to be-and how very close it came to being splintered into several independent princely states and a small republic. The Birth of a Nation follows the work of the newly set-up States Department led by Sardar Patel, and its group of determined officials. They were pitted against a coterie of ruling families and their wily advisors who had declared their independence. The fiercest Hindu kingdom was in alliance with orthodox Muslim rulers. These states were building diplomatic relations with foreign nations; lying to Mountbatten, Nehru and Patel; preparing to print their own currencies; building relations with Jinnah and making strategic moves to defend themselves against military action by the Nehru government. They had significant support from a section of the British, Jinnah, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League. This is the Indian history citizens need, to appreciate just how hard-won the sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic of India is-and how fragile and precious that idea is.…