Thread by @singhshivani

The 1947 coup d’état
How the jewel stayed in the crown-
It was a time for celebration in 1947 for the British Raj. Because the transfer of power from the Queen to an oligarchy loyal to the Queen had been smooth. India could now be run on auto-pilot.

The singleminded British ambition to control by any means had borne fruit.
They had finally and successfully managed to annex and conquer the country they called India.
How had they done it?

They had first understood the fatal flaw of the 584 kingdoms that ruled this coveted land of milk and honey.
It was not lack of unity.
It was too much diversity.
If that can be considered a fatal flaw.
Only one cultural connection bound the disparate kingdoms.
Dharma.

It was important to find its fault line. And they found it. Though united, the dharma followed was too diverse, too inclusive, too accepting of the unrefined barbarism of the marauder.
Optimising this should have made the conquest easy.
But strangely it didn’t.

First, the British innocuously united these kingdoms in land revenue and administrative systems. They archived, they chronicled, they made records. Surreptitiously the clerk tried to become the crown, but didn’t really succeed.

They built logistical networks and roads and rail and land record systems and boarding schools. They put kingdoms in a hierarchy, rated them and handed out gun salutes as entitlement.

But even though finally the kingdom with the highest number of gun salutes still remained a chieftain of the Queen, they still didn’t really succeed.
Because subsidiary alliances and chambers and friendship treaties was all they could really achieve.

This meant that they could not go beyond indirect rule. India was still beyond their reach.
And there were still amongst the kings those whose insouciance was invincible.

Proud ancient kingdoms like Chittor that had withstood bloodthirsty marauders for centuries seemed immune to the white man’s cunning.
All that changed in 1947.
1947 was a bloodless coup.
It was a coup because about 584 princely states acceded to the dominion of India.

A dominion, unbeknownst to them, ruled by imperialists on auto-pilot.
This was the real reason for India’s independence. So that British Raj’s indirect rule could become direct rule.
1947 was celebration time.

The next step soon followed the celebration. The democratic abolishment of the privy purse and the Zamindari act. This wiped out all source of income for princely states. Without land they were left without a penny to their name.

Most importantly this was a decapitating blow for Hindu dharma. Because only kings were patrons of Hindu dharma and the temple was the nerve centre of all cultural activities. In one fell swoop Hindu science and scholarship, education, art, craft and literature was wiped out.

But knowing the tenacity of Sanatana dharma to prevail at all costs the oligarchy took 2 more constitutional decisions. Decisions that made Hindu dharma the bloodless corpse it is today.

1. With Article 30 and the RTE act the Christian and the Muslim had the right to religious education but the Hindu did not.

So no Gurukula,no Vaidyashala, no Ayurvedic research, no Hindu art and architecture. With no choice the Hindu opted for Christian colleges and convents over the madrasah. Maybe because in Christian education systems conversion is more covert than the overt madrasah.

Also a Christian education was the only avenue for livelihood.
2. All temple administration came under government supervision.

So all donations from the still resiliently devout Hindu went to the oligarchy that diverted these funds to more madrasahs and more Christian education systems.
That’s why you see pundits and pujaris begging outside temples. Not because they are greedy.

But because a Hindu pujari, unlike a maulvi or a pastor has no means of livelihood.
Death by economic halal.
We are a secular country.
Congratulations!