In the early part of the twentieth century, Sri Aurobindo wrote: “For this thing is written in the book of God and nothing can prevent it that the national life of India will meet and possess its divine and mighty destiny” Sri Aurobindo had taken an active part in the Freedom movement and on 15 August 1947, India got its freedom but it was a fissured freedom. On that very same day with regard to the partition, Sri Aurobindo said: “This must not be; the partition must go. Let us hope that this may come about naturally, by an increasing recognition of the necessity not only of peace and concord but of common action, by the practice of common action and the creation of means for that purpose.
This book is an attempt to trace the political history of India from the ancient times to the modern day. It looks at the partial success and failure of unification in the past history of India and tries to analyse the causes of the failure. It is important to note a few points that have been stressed in the book.
Firstly, great importance has been given to the psychological and deeper cultural unity. No sound and lasting political unity can be built without this strong psychological foundation.
Secondly, this psychological oneness has to be manifested in the political system as well as in the religious field. Therefore suggestions have been made to bring about a national government and to move towards spirituality in order to harmonize all the religions in India. The aim of this book is to initiate a dialogue among all those who believe in the higher destiny of India to further the cause of unity and harmony in the subcontinent.

Contents

Foreword vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Section 1
The Problems
Part 1
India before the Partition
Chapter 1 Political Unity in Ancient India 3
Chapter 2 The Advent of the Sultanates and Islamic Thought 25
Chapter 3 The Islamic Invasion of India 41
Chapter 4 India under the British 47
Chapter 5 The British Policy of Divide and Rule 54
Chapter 6 The Advent of Gandhi 72
Chapter 7 The Return of Jinnah to Indian Politics 79
Chapter 8 The Second World War 86
Chapter 9 Summary of Causes of Partition 107
Part 2
Indo-Pakistan Relations After Independence
Chapter 1 The Kashmir Problem 127
Chapter 2 More Problems with Pakistan 151
Chapter 3 The Bangladesh War 162
Chapter 4 Military Rule in Pakistan 170
Chapter 5 Civilian Rule in Pakistan and the Role of the Army 183
Chapter 6 The Intelligence Agencies 193
Chapter 7 The Present Situation of Pakistan 201
Section 2
The Solutions
Chapter 1 Introduction 211
Chapter 2 Pakistan a Political Unit 217
Chapter 3 Brief History of the Unification of Germany 221
Chapter 4 A Brief History of the Unification of Vietnam 233
Chapter 5 Pakistan-An Artificial Unit 241
Chapter 6 The Obstacles to the Unification of India and Pakistan 264
Chapter 7 The Present Situation in the Subcontinent 270
Chapter 8 Factors Leading to Unity in the Subcontinent 277
Chapter 9 The Hindu-Muslim Problem and its Solution 301
Chapter 10 The Political System in India 306
Chapter 11 Hindu-Muslim Unity 312
Chapter 12 The Armed Forces in India 320
Chapter 13 Summary and Conclusion 324
Appendices
Appendix 1 Address by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah at Lahore Session of Muslim League March, 1940 329
Appendix 2 Manekshaw Interview on Kashmir 342
Appendix 3 ICG Asia Report No. 73, 16 January 2004 Unfulfilled Promises: Pakistan’s Failure to Tackle Extremism Executive Summary and Recommendations 346
Appendix 4 India’s Spiritual Heritage 351
Appendix 5 Sri Aurobindo on Parliamentary Democracy: A few quotations and references 355
Index 360