Scattered Fates - a novel on the second partition of India

PROLOGUE

One fact that has been overlooked in contemporary fiction set in India is that the country came very close to a second partition, the outcome of racial tensions, less than two decades after Independence from Great Britain. It has not been fictionally explored in the domestic English publishing media, perhaps due to fears of stroking tensions, which explains why mainline publishers were wary of bringing this out in the first place. 

This is an alternate history fiction that seeks to bridge the gap, and explore the underlying tensions that continue to exist in present-day India, by borrowing from the historical experience of South Korea, a country that was divided after war. It is therefore important to be aware of the actual history of the anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu to appreciate the ‘what if’ scenarios in this novel. 

The agitations in Tamil Nadu (formerly Madras State, and not Tamil Nad as North Indians call it even today) started a decade before Independence, in opposition to the introduction of compulsory teaching of Hindi in the schools of Madras Presidency by the first Indian National Congress government led by the ‘Mango of Salem’ C. Rajagopalachari. 

This policy decision was immediately opposed and protests raged for three years, which included fasts, conferences, marches and picketing. The local government responded with a brutal crackdown resulting in the death of two protesters and arrest of 1,198 persons including women and children. The British Governor of Madras, Lord Erskine, was forced to withdraw the policy in February 1940 after resignation of the Congress Government. 

During deliberations for framing the Indian Constitution after India's independence, adoption of an official language for the country was hotly debated, and a decision taken to adopt Hindi as the official language of India with English continuing as an associate official language for a period of fifteen years. However, efforts by the Central Government to make Hindi the sole official language after 1965 were not acceptable to many Southern Indian states, who wanted the continued use of English. 

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a minor political formation in Tamil Nadu at that time, led the opposition to Hindi, under the leadership of ‘Arignar’ C. N. Annadurai. To allay their fears, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, enacted the Official Languages Act in 1963 to ensure the continuing use of English beyond 1965. The text of the Act was wishy-washy and did not satisfy the DMK, which argued that Nehru’s assurances might not be honored by future administrations. 

Nehru died in May 1964 and Lal Bahadur Shastri became Prime Minister of India. Shastri and his senior cabinet members Morarji Desai and Gulzari Lal Nanda were strong supporters of Hindi being the sole official language. This increased the apprehension that Nehru's assurances of 1959 and 1963 will not be kept. Concerned over the preference of Hindi in central government jobs, civil service examinations and the fear that English would be replaced with Hindi as a medium of instruction, students joined the anti-Hindi agitations in large numbers. On 7th March 1964, the chief minister of Madras State, M. Bhaktavatsalam at a session of the Madras Legislative Assembly recommended the introduction of Three-language formula (English, Hindi and Tamil) in the state. Apprehension over the Three-language formula increased student support for the anti-Hindi cause. 

The day (26th January 1965) of switching over to Hindi as sole official language approached, and the anti-Hindi movement gained momentum in Madras State with increased support from college students. The Tamil Nadu Students Anti Hindi Agitation Council was formed in January as an umbrella student organization to coordinate the anti-Hindi efforts. The office bearers of the council were student union leaders from all over Madras State. Several student conferences were organized to protest against Hindi imposition. The Madras State Anti-Hindi Conference was convened at Trichy and was attended by 700 delegates from Madras, Maharashtra, Kerala and Mysore. They called for the indefinite suspension of any move to sideline English. The Information & Broadcasting Ministry of the central government (headed by Indira Gandhi) upped the ante and issued circulars for replacing English with Hindi from 26th January.