India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, once said, "When the British go, there will be no more communal trouble in India." Unfortunately, he was wrong, as events in the weeks and months following independence proved.
The princely states had been warned that they would have to choose between India and Pakistan. While most had done so before independence itself, the Hindu ruler of Kashmir demurred. Then Pakistan invaded the Himalayan kingdom, prompting the king to belatedly choose India. Delhi sent its troops, and the first Indo-Pakistan war ensued. The conflict led to the division of Kashmir, a wound that bleeds to this very day.
Nor was communal hatred confined to Punjab, Bengal or Kashmir. The streets of Delhi were awash once again in the blood of Hindus and Muslims. Mahatma Gandhi, who had watched the partition of the subcontinent with a heavy heart, went on a hunger strike, to force the leaders of both sides to work together for peace. It was the Mahatma's last act in the service of his nation. In January 1948, a Hindu extremist, enraged by Gandhi's efforts to defend Delhi's Muslim minority, shot and killed the frail old man.
Thus was born a nation, with blood, death and tears — and, despite everything, the flame of hope.
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