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India After
Independence 11
q Partition and influx of refugees q Integration of the princely states
q Formation of the Indian Constitution q Formation of states
q Centre-state relations q Planning for development
q India’s foreign policy q India’s relation with her neighbours
q Relation with other countries q India today
Introduction Soon there followed a reign of fear, fire, slaughter
and murder on both sides. There were utter chaos
India became independent at the stroke of the
midnight hour on 14 August 1947. On 15 August and anarchy communal frenzy was at its highest
pitch. Within a short period about 5,00,000
1947, India celebrated with joy its day of freedom.
people, both Hindus and Muslims were killed and
But freedom and independence came to India with millions were rendered homeless. As a result of
a heavy price. The journey after independence was
these riots an unending flow of refugees began to
not a smooth one either. The young nation had
pour into India from Pakistan. The violence was
suffered the throes of partition at its very birth. stopped eventually by the cooperative efforts of
Many challenges were laying ahead—both within
both Indian and Pakistani leaders, and especially
the country and outside. The celebration of due to the efforts of Mahatma Gandhi who
independence had faded when on 30 January 1948,
undertook a fast-unto-death in Calcutta and later
Gandhiji, the Father of Nation, was shot dead.
in Delhi to calm people and spell out the message
India still had to face many problems—national as of peace and harmony between people of
well as regional. With great patience and different communities, despite of the threat to his
perseverance, India was able to solve most of them. life. Both government set-up large relief camps for
Today, India is emerging as the world’s largest refugees who were coming up in and going out.
democracy and one of the fastest growing major The Indian Army swung into action to provide
economics of the world. humanitarian assistance at a massive scale. The
Indian government soon came out with a plan to
PARTITION AND INFLUX OF REFUGEES rehabilitate the refugees and took prompt action to
fulfil their basic needs.
After partition, a massive exchange of population
took place between the two countries. So, F ind Outind Out
millions of Hindus and Sikhs living in different Find out about the miseries of partition and how
states and regions of Pakistan like West Punjab, people’s lives were affected by this.
North-West Frontier Province, Baluchistan, East
Bengal (now Bangladesh) and Sind migrated to
India. Simultaneously, millions of Muslims INTEGRATION OF THE PRINCELY STATES
migrated from India to Pakistan. As a result, there Till independence, a large part of India was under
was an influx of a large number of refugees from the British government and was referred to as
the western and eastern sides of the border. British India. There were many states called
princely states that were ruled by maharajas or
India After Independence
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