Thread by @muralipiyer

Happy #EktaDiwas to all.
Tributes to #SardarVallabhbhaiPatel.

He will always be remembered as the man who united the nation.

A brief thread with a contrarian view follows:

1. There has been a consensus so far that making all princely states join the union of India was a wonderful thing.
And then, there was these massive state reorganisations starting from 1956.

2. First point to accept: the “provinces” under British were already large.

But, are we supposed to believe that none of the “founding fathers” who fought for independence were unaware of the local history? I don’t buy such a claim.

3. Second point to accept: Yes, some of those princely states were terribly mismanaged. It won’t make a difference if they were part of one bigger province.

But, what about the well run kingdoms like kochi, Mysore, etc.

4. The crux of the problem is in the thought process of people at that time.
They were just too anxious to lose territory. They were not focusing on organising the territory.

5. And, they fell for the biggest trap: Indian bureaucracy which was under British Raj is somehow inevitable.

6. Then there was this obsession about copying from other western countries. The French and American influence.
But, where was indian influence?
This land had seen republics much much earlier than the Europeans.

7. We had entire books written on how to do good administration.
Now, people talk about arthasastra and Chanakya.
Why were the erudite people from Tamil Nadu not pointing out the methods of ancient Tamil land.

8. National integration was a huge mission then.
Just like filling stomach is a huge mission for a child returning from school.
Somehow filling the stomach seemed to be sufficient goal.
No one had a clear and pragmatic idea of what the integrated unit should look like.

9. Why should we really have governors appointed by president?
Why can’t we let kings become governors. The power of governors were already curtailed. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to have a quasi British model of democracy in the states?

10. Let’s not forget that we pride ourselves as Union of India.
But, where is diversity being maintained in this union?

11. How deep were the debates on the form of government most suited for the growth of india.
What really happened was that socialists took over nation building.
They didn’t care about diversity because they were all trying to convert India into a USSR.
Socialism was woke then.

12. Too much water has flowed now, and we obviously can’t go back in time to fix a few blunders.

13. It’s still not too late to have a full revisit of our constitution and the definition of states.

The articles 370-371s are the proof that our earlier ideas of state reorganisation and forcing a unified view on all(along with embedded discrimination) was wrong.

14.
In this #EktaDiwas, let’s resolve to unify India again while maintaining its diversity.
Let’s sit together and rewrite a more pragmatic constitution.
Let’s have a much wider constituent assembly with representation from all regions.
Let’s unite the true India, again.