Peerless Pioneers: Unsung makers of modern India

In a poignant footnote to last year’s General Election in India, one of the titans of modern Indian politics, George Fernandes, saw his long electoral career end in ignominy in his pocket borough of Muzaffarpur. Denied a ticket by the party he had founded, Janata Dal-United (JD-U), on grounds of ill-health (he had suffered a stroke, and was still in hospital weeks before the election), the 79-year-old Fernandes finished fifth in Muzaffarpur and lost his deposit – despite garnering the support of former Congress chief minister, Jagannath Mishra, in his last quixotic battle. Thirty-two years earlier, he had fought a Lok Sabha election from the same constituency while still imprisoned in the “Baroda conspiracy case” (by Indira Gandhi during her phase of authoritarian “Emergency” rule) – and won a resounding victory. Three years later, he defied the “Indira wave” of 1980 to retain the seat with another thumping majority. George’s popularity was built on the solid foundations of a maverick ...

By Prasenjit K. Basu On August 17th 1945, two days after the Japanese announced they would be surrendering to the US-led allies, Indonesia declared its independence – with Soekarno as president, and Mohammed Hatta as vice president. They were sworn in by senior officers of the Japanese army, then still in control of Indonesia (and indeed much of the rest of East Asia) despite the formal offer of surrender. Both Soekarno and Hatta had collaborated with the Japanese, who had helped them to respectively consolidate the nationalist and Muslim organizations of the former Dutch East Indies under their leadership. Sutan Sjahrir (a socialist who had refused to collaborate with the Japanese) subsequently (November) became Prime Minister in Soekarna and Hatta’s government. After the formal surrender ceremonies in September 1945, British-Indian troops of the South-east Asia Command (SEAC) under Lord Louis Mountbatten began to re-establish order – with some sporadic cooperation from the Japanese. ...