The two chapters, titled ‘Instrument of Execution’ and ‘Endgame’ deal with a critical aspect of the long drawn process that was ‘Indian’ independence (while Nehru’s “stroke of the midnight hour” might have underlined our moment of freedom, independence is always a process, not a point): the accession of the princely states to form the union of India that we have come to know and recognise today. This is one reason why, on the eve of India’s 75th year of independence we have chosen to republish two chapters from the book below. To quote Basu again, “He drafted the Plan that would play midwife to India’s birth as a free nation.” And as Secretary, States Ministry, he was Vallabhbhai Patel’s right hand, “coaxing, cajoling and coercing Princes across India to accede to the Union of India”.
He was also Reforms Commissioner to India’s last three Viceroys. Menon was Basu’s great-grandfather but, as she puts it, “that is not why I wrote the book”. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India : after pinpointing decisive moments in time you look around the pantheon to locate the movers and shakers it overshadows. Another, is what Narayani Basu has done in V. One way to look beyond the pantheons of popular historical discourse (for while they may be illuminating for a while they can also be severely limiting) is to relook at its figures with a fresh, or more probing, lens to develop more nuanced perspectives (this is what Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain have attempted in their book Nehru: The Debates that Defined India you can read our excerpt ). Hence, the pantheon especially in popular historical narratives. While many (especially recent) historiographies strive, pointedly, to shift the focus away from individuals, ‘people’ simply make for more relatable storytelling. The writer of any narrative requires a peg to hang a story on, and history is a narrative.
This is not entirely the historian’s fault. Historiography, or the methods employed by historians to develop history as a discipline, through the ages, has often led to the creation of pantheons. Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.” “Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
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