Maharashtra's Sugar Lobby - The entrenched Jaagirdari system

s
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Here are few links which form the background of the story elucidated in this essay.

1. Evolution of Raj and Bal Thackeray's ideology
2. Historical Analysis of Maharashtra politics
3. Critique on some events in life of Veer Savarkar

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The story of Maharashtrian Jaagirdari is a fascinating story (and a murky one). Murky because although it has been antithetical towards nationalistic forces, it was not exactly anti-Indic forces as well. It conveniently occupies the shades of grey in ongoing battle of AIF Vs Nationalists. 

NCP and INC were as Hindutva-vadis as SS or BJP or RSS walas. Even today, the ground cadre is practically indistinguishable. INC (and NCP which is its offshoot only) in MH is an elaborate system of Jaagirdari designed by Yashwantrao Chavan to please and and yet maintain a separate existence from Nehru. 

This began after death of Lokmanya Tilak. Large number of brahmin, marathas and OBC youth who were inclined towards Tilak and violent means were systematically liquidated by British post MKG suddenly calling off Non-cooperation movement after Chauri-Chaura incident.

The culling of 1920s ensured that from MH (as was with Punjab and Bengal) only pygmies will remain in the national discourse of Indian freedom movement. Only Dr. B R Ambedkar was the leader worth a salt who managed to emerge and escape from this pogrom of 1920s, that too because of his Dalit cause. Even he was sidelined by JLN for his pragmatic stances. He and to certain extent Savarkar (with his wings severely clipped). Similarly, only Subhash babu managed to emerge from Bengal post 1920s pogrom. And after Lalaji and hanging of Bhagat Singh, not a single national leader has emerged from Punjab. The fate of Punjab has always brought tears to my eyes. Muslims were overcome by Sikhs and just as they were rising British took over. Lalaji, Arya samajis etc were again making Punjab rise but Lalaji was eliminated and brilliant young men like Bhagat Singh were sacrificed. 

Same thing happened in MH. RSS, Hindu Mahasabha shielded a large bulk of youth from Mh and central India and western UP (basically all those territories which were once under stable Maratha occupation prior to 1818) suffering that fate from 1925-45. This gave rise to many stalwarts which later went on to shine in non-INC platforms like jansangh, BJP and various subsidiaries of RSS. 

But the die was already cast in 1940s. HMS and RSS (which in turn meant nationalistic youth from erstwhile maratha territories)were beginning to be vocal and active with partition related violence increasing in tenor. Role of cadres from these organizations in saving Bengal and Punjab and even Kashmir (as far as I know, the runway of Srinagar airport was prepared by RSS guys in 1948 so that IA planes could land). 

With JLN has head of GOI, nathuram godse's action gave the establishment a chance to cull this budding nationalist forces. The Brahmin-Maratha dispute has been going on in MH since 1741 (began with Peshwa-Bhonsale feud over chauth of Bengal which resulted in infamous Maratha raids on Bengal). This was systematically used to drive out MH-brahmins from villages where they had mass-base. This was done by INC under premiership of Yashwantrao Chavan and S K Patil. After exodus of brahmins from villages, the Marathas got to place their fingers right on the pulse of power. This is where we see the rise of 96-clan lobby in MH (more precisely western MH).

It is not sufficient that person should belong to 96-clan Maratha community to rule over MH. Heck, MH-brahmins have been severely deracinated since their eviction from politics (post 1920s). It is OBCs and the 96-clan Marathas who are more Hindutvavadis than many of the MH-brahmins and form bulk of cadre of BJP-RSS-SS in Maharashtra. It is not only about caste. One should belong to right family. 

This is the reason why BJP cannot win (so far) in western MH. BJP and RSS have stalwart Maratha and OBC leaders. Shelar, Tavde, Fundkar are dedicated BJP leaders belonging to 96-clan Maratha community who have strong following in Mumbai and urban MH. But they are outsiders to the lobby of Maratha jaagirdars.

In 1955, when the demand for Telugu language based AP was beginning to take root, similar demand started in MH - this is called Sanyukta Maharashtra samiti. All the non-INC parties, the communists the Hinduvadi people (who were flying low due to MKG assassination) joined in. The convener of this movement was father of Balasaheb Thakre - Keshav Thakre, aka "Prabodhankaar". It became obvious that unless something was done INC would be eradicated from MH. In 1957 state assembly polls, SMS won large number of seats and INC could barely win a majority. If left unchecked, by 1962 INC would have been finished from MH for ever. 

This is when Yashwantrao Chavan started Cooperative sugar factory movement in MH. This movement, although yielded rich economic dividends to MH, propelling MH to the position of wealthiest state in India (I think despite of last 15 years of misgovernance, MH still holds that position due to this movement by YC). Fantastic movement and full credit to Yashwantrao. However, closer scrutiny of what this movement really was, shows an interesting story. Like Raja Todarmal introduced Mansabdari system for Akbar in north India, thereby stabilizing Mughal rule in Ganga valley for three centuries, Yashwantrao introduced Mansabdari system for his Nehru. Each district of western MH (and fertile parts of marathwada, Khandesh and Vidarbha) is given to family of 96-clanner Maratha to look after. That district was the Jaagir of that family. 

Now, who is in this lobby - The requirements are that one has to be a 96-clanner person who owed allegiance to Yashwantrao (later usurped by Sharad Pawar) and who is NOT from Konkan. 96-clanner Konkani Marathas (like Narayan Rane, for example) can never be part of this Sugar-lobby. It has to be Deshastha Marathas only. But not all 96-clanner Marathas from the Ghat. Those who owe their allegiance to yashwantrao and who will go after him either with OR against Nehru and who were big farmers with great political clout and following AFTER having displaced brahmin leadership (and farmers) from those particular district. Quite a tall order. Like the Delhi's dilli-billi circuit, this Maratha jaagirdar lobby has been calling shots in MH and rest of KG basin since fall of yadava empire in general. 

The opponents of this Sugar-lobby were the usual suspects - RSS, HMS, communists, Dalits and farmer-worker party (Shetkari Kaamgaar Paksha). This Shekaapa was a formidable non-INC, non-RSS force (kind of like Janta Dal of Lohia). Mr. Govindrao Pawar (father of Sharad Pawar) was promising leader of this party. Many say, he was an idealist. He was murdered, (some sources say at the behest of certain prominent Sugar-lobby members). After the murder of Govindrao, the Shekaapa lingered but toothlessly. Sharad Pawar, however, received great care and affection from Yashwantrao. SP was his protege. 

In this jaagirdari model of Chavan, Nanded was given to Chavan (another), Satara to Chavan (yashwantarao), Sangli to Patil (the current RR patil comes from same Patil clan of Sangli), latur to Chakurkar and Deshmukh (Shivraj Patil-Chakurkar and Vilasrao Deshmukh), Kolhapur to Desai, Pune-Baramati to Pawars, so on and so forth. These families formed the first iteration of 96-clan Sugar-lobby of western MH which held tight to each other. Like Pre-Shivaji Maratha feudal lords, they may change parties, they may even fight one-other occasionally but they never eliminate each other. When the appear fighting, it is more often than not, Maya only.. Most importantly, in all this fighting and rabble-rousing, the territory and its resources remains with this lobby, no matter which master they serve.

The raison d'etre of Sanyukta Maharashtra Samiti vanished when state of Maharashtra came into existence. The power of this new state went squarely to this lobby headed by Yashwantrao Chavan. The remaining social groupings (dalits, Brahmins, OBCs and the rejected 96-clanner Marathas) were leaderless and started meandering towards Communism. This is where rise of Shivsena happened. SS and communists were eyeing these exact social groups and in the process (at times with active support of Sugar-lobby), Sena defeated and threw out communists from MH. This included a series of political murders which will be digression here. 

With Communists weakened, the natural gravitas of MH society started manifesting again by slowly moving towards anti-Delhi bias with strong hindutva undercurrent. This is late 1970s I am talking about. The emergency and crackdown of RSS was visible to everyone. After 1920s, the emergency era saw deaths of so many RSS volunteers who were promising. Thankfully Sena did not allow the youth of MH to go anti-national as it happened in Bengal and Punjab (Naxalism and Khalistani movement respectively). The public sentiment remained anti-delhi, but staunchly nationalistic (at times hindu-nationalistic). This undercurrent began to grow vocal as the great strikes of early 80s brought Mumbai to standstill. Sena (helped by businessmen and Sugar lobby) was overpowering communists. But fueling Shivsena also meant fueling and funding Hindutva ethos. 

Meanwhile Pawar had split from INC for the first time to form Progressive democratic party (Purogaami Lokshahi dal) in alliance with Morarji's Janta Party against Indira in 1978. Riding the JP wave, he became MH CM in 1978. But when Indira came back to power, first thing she did was dismissing this non-INC government from MH. Antulay sahab being a man from "peaceful community" has his own links and baggages. But he was first person from outside Sugar lobby (He was a konkani muslim) to become MH-CM. Hence he was in touch with various Bhais (Haji mastan, Karim lala ityadi). He was convicted in extortion case and was forced to resign in 1982 after two years. He, being loyal to IG, was then shipped to Delhi to become minorities affairs minister. He was never heard from again, until 26/11 when he crapped out some Zaid-Hamid like stuff. 

Babasaheb Bhonsale became MH-CM thereafter and seeing the power safely in hands of Sugar-lobby, our Pawar Saheb returned to INC in 1987 as if nothing happened and within matter of few months packed off Shankarrao Chavan to dilli and became CM of MH and president of MH-INC. Beautiful politics. He ensured power of MH remains in hand of Sugar lobby and not anybody else (including Nehrus and Gandhis). But in the process he cultivated his personal image of unreliable politician in minds of Dilli-billi. Meanwhile SS had allied with BJP (in 1985), Shahbano incident had happened and RJB was beginning to gear up.

All this politicking requires loads of money. Kind of money which stable jaagir cannot churn up, hence requires dirty money. It is not easy challenging Delhi (and Indira) and survive. This is where Pawar's alleged connections arise with Haji Mastan and later Dawood. The transfer of money started from 1978 (when he first broke off from INC). Various names like Choksi (the famous Hawala trader) along with owner of a well known Gutkha company were part of all this. All this information is available in public domain. Plus lot has been said about Dawood, Pawar and 1993 blasts and Vohra report, so no point in repeating it. It is slightly tangential to our story.

After death of Rajiv, Pawar was closest to the top-job since Bajirao-1 conquered delhi in 1737. He was undone by his past, machinations of Dynasty-sympathizing lobby who wanted to prop up Sonia, ND Tiwari and Arjun Singh - who like Pawar were also vying for top job. The unlikely winner of this quadrangular match who screwed (although temporarily, but resoundingly) to all four contestants was PVNR who packed off Tiwari, Arjunsingh, Pawar and Sonia-backers. He used all his luck in this (and bomb and liberalization). 

His mishandling of name-change of Aurangabad's Marathwada University, series of protests by Anna Hazare, series of demolitions of illegal constructions in Mumbai (mostly funded by builder lobby backed by the "bhai") by G R Khairnar, BMC's deputy commissioner, coupled with Mumbai Bomb-blasts and RJB wave prevalent throughout the country, had severely eroded the INC. 

All these factors and this history, combined caused the aberration of SS-BJP coming to power in 1995. They did fantastic job when in power, just like CBN in AP. Yet in 1999, INC (which means Western MH based Sugar lobby) was back to power. How?

This too is fascinating story. The anti-delhi sentiment has always been popular in MH-public imagination. This is connected to Maratha-Mughal antagonism. Delhi, subconsciously, symbolizes enemy seat which rightfully belongs to Marathas. The terms like "Dillishwara" or "Dilli-pati" means Sultanate and to be precise Aurangzeb. The "rebellion" of Pawar against Sonia prior to 1999 assembly and general elections diverted public attention. 1999 elections are really fascinating. The state and general polls happened simultaneously in MH. Public chose SS-BJP in Loksabha and INC-NCP in state - within matter of 5 minutes, public chose two different poles of political spectrum. 

I could not understand how INC-NCP (later UPA) could come to power in MH after people witnessed whirlwind progress under SS-BJP. The reason that I now understand is, SS-BJP were not meant to be in power. They did not "win". Sugar-lobby let them win while they set their houses in order meanwhile and reorient themselves in accordance to changing polity and realities of India. SS-BJP did progress, but they did not (could not have) destroy the mass-base and dense network of industrialists, farmers, traders, politicians, police and bankers which form the back-bone of Sugar-lobby. The large network of cooperative banks, societies, factories, farms spread across villages of MH are the real strength of Sugar-lobby. 

Last of the banks which were holding out against this lobby were sacrificed at the alter of INC (the new Sonia-MMS-Chidambaram's INC). The stories of United Western bank and Ganesh Bank of Kurundwad and their mergers by Chiddu in IDBI and Federal Bank (originally an Evangelical-funded bank from Kerala) respectively was the last nail in the coffin. SP again hoped to be PM in 2004 when he allied yet opposed Sonia to be PM. Sonia, via Chiddu, screwed him by forcing Ganesh Bank to merge in Federal Bank. United Western Bank was a very strong and robust bank since 1907 (they funded, covertly of course) to many of the Tilak's proteges. With Tilak's demise, the bank although dominated by brahmins, stayed on very good terms with Sugar Lobby. Almost entire Sugar-belt was dominated by this bank. Chiddu decided to screw this bank up to teach Pawar a lesson. I do not know what Pawar did, but he saved UWB from merging into Federal bank. People say the relations between Chiddu and Pawar soured greatly after Pawar played some game and did not allow Federal bank to make inroads in MH. 

An interesting trivia here, but the hindi word for Insurance is WIMA (Not Vima). It is an acronym for Western India Mutual Assurance which is the parent company established by Anna Chirmule (The founder of United Western bank) in 1907. This just shows how popular and deep-rooted this institution was. There was a director of United western Bank who refused to give shady loan to Sugar-lobby. Furthermore, he had the audacity to claim the pending loans too. He actually made Pawar pay up. This caused much furor in MH. It is here that the fate of UWB was sealed. The bogey of Brahmin-Maratha dispute was brought up and UWB suddenly became "Brahminical Bank". Its comical, really. 

This was a lengthy essay. I have been wanting to write this for long time. This is the source of Sugar Lobby's power. In all my previous articles I have praised Sharad Pawar for keeping the nose of "Delhi" (which meant Nehru/Indira/Sonia) out of MH. He went to great lengths (unethical lengths) to do so. But he has so far ensured that power of Deccan stays in Deccan and Delhi only gets a nominal Chauth in exchange of staying away. He is one of the reasons. why there was hardly any Evangelical conversion activity in 1980s and early 90s in MH. Of course the chief being the natural tendency of Maharashtrians which periodically gravitates towards Hindutva.

Critique on Savarkar's ideas - Hindutva in proper perspective

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Regarding Savarkar's definition of "Who is Hindu".

The original definition from his famous "Hindutva", for the consideration of reader, goes like this - 

आसिन्धु सिन्धु पर्यन्ता यस्य भारत भूमिकाः

पितृभूः पुण्यभुः च एव, स वै हिन्दुरीति स्मृतः 

One who considers this land from Indus to southern ocean (poetic way of saying entire Indian subcontinent, no need to take it literally) as "India" and regards this country as  his "pitRu bhumi" (land of forefathers) and Punya-bhumi (difficult to translate this one), he is "Hindu"

About Fatherland - It is translation of original sanskrit word - Pitrubhumi (Land of Pitaras - forefathers). India is land of my forefathers. Ever since human being entered Indian subcontinent from Africa 1 lakh years ago, all my ancestors were from this subcontinent. So India is my pitrubhumi (Purkhon ki zameen in common hindi). All the places, rivers, mountains which I consider valuable and am ideologically and emotionally attached to, are in Indian subcontinent. Hence, India is my Punyabhumi as well. All those who share opinion with me are Hindus. 

Julia Roberts may be a Vaishnavaite, but her pitrubhumi is somewhere else. She is dharmik, but not Hindu. Tarek Fatah and some Muslims like him (many are my friends) openly and proudly say that India is their Pitrubhumi and Punyabhumi, are Hindus. In their opinion, Mecca is just a place and over reverence to a place is non-islamic. On the other hand, culturally they  are of this land and identify with Ayodhya, Kurukshetra, Ramsetu etc. They do not worship those places, but then nor do many Nirishwarvadi (non-theistic) Hindus. Whatever Subramanian Swamy said in his DNA article, is what Savarkar said in 1920s. Hindutva is Dharmarthik (socio-politico-economic) concept. It should not be made OR treated as an Adhyatmik (vaguely "spiritual") concept. 

Hindu and Hindutva ARE geographical confined terms. Hindu comes from Sindhu and means Indian. With Muslim rule, it came to be associated with Indian faiths and with British rule, it was confined to Indian aastika faiths (segregating Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and tribals). GOI continued this. But people did not. Please do not think of Hindu and Hindutva as Adhyatmik terms. They are purely geographical and hence ethnocentric terms meant for describing Hindus of India. Those who have accepted some other land as their Punyabhumi and are interested only in adhyatmik traditions of Dharma, need not pay attention to what Savarkar says. It is not applicable. 

These terms "Hindu" and "Hindutva" are for denoting dharmarthik aspirations of native brown Indic people from Indian subcontinent who consider Indian subcontinent as their native land and revered land. Hindutva is a subset of Dharma. Dharma is for entire humanity. Hindus (or the ethnic group which today is known as Hindus) are the last custodians and as well as originators of meme-complex of Dharma. 

Remembered following quote from the film Good Shepherd (a fantastic film to watch, BTW)

Joseph Palmi: Let me ask you something... we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish, they have the homeland, Jews their tradition; even the blacks, they got their music. What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you (WASPs) have?  

Edward Wilson: We have United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.

Here "we" are "hindus". And "we" have and ought to have "India". Rest are welcome, but are just visitors. In future when this Nation-state based polity will crumble and the very concept of "Nation-state" will fade, "Hindu" tag will fade along with it and so will "Hindutva". So, in another words, Hindutva is also one of the few Indic responses to "nation-state" concept imposed upon India by Brits after 1857. 

Until nation-state exists, Hindus (brown indic people of Indian origin living in India and considering India as their native land and revered land) will have to ensure that their traditions and models (dharmik, aarthik, Kaamik and mokshik) are protected and implemented and their population well-versed with these traditions and models in geographical confines of "nation-state", that is today's "Republic of India".

I hate to speak in terms of skin color (too simplistic for my mind), but this will be the last time I will use this just to make myself and my understanding of Savarkar clear. 

Native Indic Indian people believing in integral India as their native land and revered land, are Hindus and the nation-state of India (with her establishments, institutions, constitution and outlook) should be built as per the traditions, values, customs and four-fold Purushartha models of Indic origin. This is "Swa-Tantra" (self system). And this is what Savarkar's Hindutva (or anybody else's Hindutva including RSS) demands.

Critique on some events in life of Veer Savarkar

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Following is an essay which formed a part of exchange with a dear friend in response to my previous "Narendra Modi is Savarkar Redux" post. Various issues which are typically raised while extending a critique on Savarkar are addressed in this post, as per my capability and knowledge. 

1. Regarding Savarkar's role in increasingly communal politics of 1937-1947 era.

India has faced two fold threats since her fall to central asian Muslims. One is against an open foreigner. And second against natives following foreign ideology OR carrying forward foreign interests. Turks and Pathans, Mughals and Pathans, British and Muslim League were the three iterations of these two antagonists of Dharma.

Partition of India - Part 2

INC was focusing only on British. Muslim league which represented the antagonistic aspirations of political Islam (evident from all actions of Pathan lobby since 1500s), was the elephant in the room which everyone chose to ignore (many still do). And this elephant "Islam", was singularly focused on Hindus. Savarkar and Mahasabha was the only Indic voice which spoke in favor of Hindus. 

I do not know how to remain secular when Moplah riots are happening (similar to recent Assam riots) and 100,000 Hindus were killed. We can of course disagree but, wait until you see the buildup of 1947 like conditions in India. I assume you do not live here (I am sorry for this assumption, but it is important one since we are talking on purely aarthik issues, not dharmik or adhyatmik issues). If you visit many parts of country, you will witness a buildup. On ground, you will be surprised to see Hindus support the thoughts of Savarkar, even if they do not know his name. A very harsh Greeshma Ritu is coming. 1947 like scenario is slowly building up in India. You will hear similar voice from other regions of India (or may be same region), as years progress. 

Regarding Savarkar's role in elimination of caste-discrimination

Regarding Savarkar's efforts on eliminating Jaati discrimination and jaati pyramid, you need to read a lot. Savarkar consistently worked on it on grassroot level for more than 4 decades. Entire Ratnagiri district and parts of Konkan were completely free of untouchability (noted by Ambedkar himself) before Ambedkar burnt manusmriti. And all this when he was under arrest in Ratnagiri. This work continued until his death. He performed Upanayana on thousands of ex-untouchable children, organized sahabhojans, opened temples with dalit priests (properly trained), organized gatherings for women, gave scholarships to dalit students. It is not a red herring, but one of the essential aspects of Savarkar's life. 

Regarding Mahatma Gandhi Assassination

Regarding MKG, what killed MKG were his own Karma helped by nelson's eye of Brit-INC establishment towards his security. Savarkar was staunch critic of Gandhi since India House days (MKG was much senior to Savarkar then). Savarkar's Hindutva criticizes MKG's inaction garbed under dharmik terms of Satya and Ahimsa. And it does so in harsh manner. This is not the proof to attribute the guilt of MKG's murder (and planning) to Savarkar. MKG's murder was an operation of and by Godse et al. Godse was also RSS swayamsevak at a time. Apte was a recruiter for RAF. Savarkar had supported Hindu recruitment in army (and was derided by INC as recruit-veer). An ideology does not kill a person.  It is men who kill men. Ideology kills Ideology. So it is unfair to blame Hindutva for murder of Gandhi. 

Regarding Savarkar being "reactionary" and not "original" in his ideas, approach and actions


Finally, about Savarkar (and Hindutva) being reactionary, lacking in original ideas - Just because a voice is reactionary, does not belittle its importance.  One may shy away from his name because it has been made a hot potato, but that makes one a hypocrite. But fact of the matter is that Hindu Mahasabha  (or something similar) will rise again, if state of affairs continue. You are right that HMS like organizations are reactionary. Because dharma, in its nature, is accommodating. But there are levels of accommodation, we are prepared to accept. And when accommodation transforms into bootlicking or compromise, there will rise a reactionary voice (followed by a fist) which will at least try and bring senses to society.

Reactions are as strong and important as actions. Entire movement of Marathas and later Sikhs was reactionary throughout. "Eminent historians" have thrashed them for being "merely reactionary" and hence "lacking original ideas of governance", but that does not change the fact that India is still a Hindu majority because of that "reaction". Original ideas was not their job. Their job was to free India using whatever means available and dilapidated society ready to crumble. Same is the case with Vijaynagar (better manifestation, but equally reactionary). For implementing original idea, the previous damaging idea has to be undone. Until ground is leveled, every force (however well meaning and rich in original ideas) has to focus its energies on leveling. Savarkar's case (along with that of HMS) is similar. He had to attempt mobilizing a society which was being nicely and sequentially sedated, at short notice against a superior and well-entrenched enemy.

Famine of 1802 - Loss of India to British

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Following is the description of great Famine of 1802 in India by one of the earlier Marathi poets of modern era, Anant Fandi (1744-1817). This is his description of the second great famine in India in late Maratha era (first was 1790-92 - Doji Bara famine) of 1802. Anant Fandi  composed this poem in 1802 and named it Dushkaal (Famine).

This poem gives several pointers at the extent of deaths, poverty and inflation which was caused due to the consecutive famines in India. This famine coincides with downfall of Maratha Empire. Prior to this event, Maratha Empire was in its full zenith, with Mughal emperor living as their pensioner. They practically controlled the Judicial-political-economic policies of most of India (except Bengal, Deep south and Punjab). They had decisively defeated Nizam of Hyderabad and Tipu Sultan and were poised to reclaim Bengal from British East India Company, when this famine struck.

The map below shows the extent of Maratha empire from 1760 onwards until 1805. Third battle of Panipat lead to temporary loss of India over Haryana and Delhi, which Marathas reclaimed in 1772 until 1805.

Similar famine had sapped their strength in 1790s. It is indeed almost miraculous how a pan Indian empire commanding 4-5 armies all over India almost quarter-million strong, finest artillery in India and revenue of 25-30 Crore rupees (these are revenue figures from Maratha sources, inflation not adjusted). Economy of India further faltered and stumbled after exploits of Aurangzeb century ago. After Maratha-Mughal wars ended with Maratha victory, stability slowly started returning to war-ravaged Deccan, Central and North India. It was indeed stupendous bad-luck of India that this famine broke the back of Marathas. With defeat of Marathas in Battle of Delhi and Assaye in 1802-03, practically entire India was won over by EIC. Until 1802, EIC was limited to Bengal and some parts around Chennai, rest of India was controlled by Marathas and Sikhs (Ranjit Singh of Punjab).

वृक्षास न राहे एक पर्ण। मग अपक्व राहतील कोठून ।
सोतरोठे बरबडे भक्षून । तरी वांचले नाहींत ।। 1

वृषभ धेनु सूकर श्वाने । मज्र मंडूक गणपतीवाहने ।
सर्वही भक्षिले भिकार्याने । शेवटी प्राण गेले हो ।। 2

असे जे भक्षू नये ते भक्षिले । शेवटी ईश्वरी उपेक्षिले ।
त्यातून चवथाई रक्षिले ! तीन हिस्से गतप्राण ।। 3

हाताने तोलावे सुवर्ण । धान्य मोजावे ताजव्याने ।
अच्छेर दीडपाव दाणे । रुपयाचे ते ही न मिळे ।। 4

कोण प्रेताला ओढितो । येथे अवघ्यांचा प्राण जातो।
कोण कोणाचा समाचार घेतो । यात वांचतो कोणता ।। 5

सरी सर्वत्रलागी जाणा । एकसारख्याची वेदना।। 
धनाढ्यासी न मिळे दाणा। मग निर्धन कैसा वाचतो ।। 6

Crude Translation:

1. All trees are leaf-less, from where shall fruit remain?
People have consumed leafless branches, roots, seeds, everything...

2. Oxen, pigs, dogs, cats, frogs, rats
People ate everything that lived, and in the end they perished as well

3. What one should not consume, was consumed (referring to cows), yet Gods forsake us,
Only one-fourth of us live, three-fourths have perished

4. A gram of cereals became as expensive as handful of gold coins,
Grains which were available for one and half paisas, now even a Rupee cannot fetch

5. Who will burn whom? Everyone is going to perish here
Who cares for whom? Who is going to survive this anyways?

6. Everywhere, the pain is similar,
Even the rich have nothing to eat, what will happen to poor?

 

One of the finest and thoroughly researched articles on this topic can be read here on Jambudvipa's blog. Jambudvipa focuses on famine deaths happened in India during the time British East India Company started occupying India and messing up with the internal trade-dynamics of India.

Internal trade of India has always been crucial. Deccan is comparatively less fertile than Gangetic valley region and Indo-Gangetic plain has been grain basket of India (it still is). Punjab was slowly recovering from 700 years of Islamic occupation when Sikhs were consolidating.

I recommend everyone to go through this blog cited above. And Jambudvipa, this is one the internal references (although not quantitative one) from an Indian eye-witness of that era.

From point of view of history lover, the Maratha debacle of 1802 was unexpected and all to sudden. Arthur Wellesley, the British general who defeated Marathas in 1802, went on to be known as Archduke of Wellington and defeated Napoleon in 1815 on Waterloo. He, in own admission, considered this war toughest of his career which he least expected to win and survive. We now refer to this war which lasted for 3 years (1802-05) as Second Anglo-Maratha War.

Historical Analysis of Maharashtra politics

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Things have been in flux in Maharashtra and western India off-late. I will not speak much about this region, things are happening on ground which I won't like to be spilled on english domain. Instead, I will talk of history. 

Uddhav Thakré is much more than what people give him credit. Yes, he totally lacks the charisma of his father and his cousin, but the word is, he is very good at armchair politics and also considered a good "organizer" (of same "jaati" as Ahmad Patel). The rebuilding of Amar Jawan jyoti was one small gesture by Shivsena the day after, which won accolades throughout Maharashtra and beyond. Raj Thakré spoke in his rally what BJP spoke in a recent press conference - That, all rioters in the 11th August Azad maidan riots were Bangladeshis and Pakistanis living in Mumbai. Now this is a dual edged sword. This is where I will remain silent for next few years.

RT is compelled to look "secular" because Hindutva is taken. Hence he rants about "maharashtra-dharma". Ironically this term "Maharashtra-Dharma" is coined by Ramdas Swami lauding work of Shivaji Maharaj of establishing a Hindavi Swarajya (Indian/Hindu self rule). Ramdas Swami askes Shivaji Maharaj to establish "maharashtra-dharma" all over the nation. It is also a word-play of Maha-raashtra (greater nation = Indian dharma). All the previous interpretations of this term by all the scholars from any perspective (there have been commie attempts to analyze this term and give it a parochial context) leads to one and only conclusion - that it is synonymous to modern term - hindutva.

As the readers of this blog might have noticed, I like to view India in terms of river-basins. The difference in upper Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin and lower KG basin, since demise of Vijaynagar, is that upper KG basin (modern MH) is essentially much less parochial and casteist than lower KG (modern Andhra Pradesh and to some extent northern Karnataka). The ancestral clans which made up "reddy" is same as those who make up "Maratha". Both these names originate from Rathod rajput clan. But this clan-identity and caste-identity has been very loose in upper KG (in comparison to Rajputana and lower KG). Hence a brahmin could become a peshwa (there was resistance, but not that big). That brahmin peshwa in turn created alternate power centers from lower nomadic and agrarian castes (Holkars and Shindes). This Manthana although caused resentment in 96-clan Maratha power-centers, the model remained and even today remains "workable" to an extent. It is this loose caste identity, which helped them pour out of their native land and spread all over subcontinent. 

The reason I am telling this is to explain the raison d'être of NCP. The loss of power to brahmin Peshwa was not accepted graciously by a section of 96-clan Maratha. However, there was and is another equally vocal and perhaps larger 96-clan Maratha section which does not care about "brahmin" background of Peshwa and cared/s only for MH-dharma of Shivaji and Ramdas. The more recent product of this ongoing manthana is emergence of neo-buddhist lobby. The idea of Shivaji links them all, but due to Phule's work they detest brahmins. The feet of Mahatma Phule are muddied about financial benefits he received from Brits. Perhaps even he figured that out and after a while, he simply stopped talking out this anger. His earlier works have been selectively used (akin to something that happened in Tamil Nadu as described by Rajiv Malhotra in his book, Breaking India) to bash brahmins and hence Hinduism. 

Same goes for Babasaheb Ambedkar. Babasaheb's most vitriolic book "Riddles in hinduism" was mischievously published after his death. Perhaps it was something he did not want. I do not know whether becoming Buddhist was a good choice for MH based dalits, it would certainly have been a great move if dalits in AP and TN followed. Instead, they fell to Christian Missionaries. This convoluted logic of bashing an imaginary enemy (brahmin) began to take root in "96-clan" Maratha lobby backed by Pawar since mid 90s (when INC lost power in MH). The reason to bash brahmins is that, once one bashes Brahmin, one automatically becomes backward caste. "96-clan lobby" within NCP has been asking for reservations for 96-clan caste, because after 1992 this section of society, like 300 years ago started becoming militantly anti-muslim and hence anti-congress. One should talk to grass-root cadre of NCP, INC, RSS, Shivsena, MNS. Unless told which party they belong to, you won't know the difference. 

However, the characters used for flogging are and were peshwas and other ministers of Shivaji and his successors. Add to that all the freedom fighters who happened to be brahmin. Then of course RSS. This resulted in formation of few NCP backed organizations - Maratha Seva Sangh (MSS), Sambhaji Brigade (SB) and Moolnivasi Sanghatana (MS). All their antics of desecrating and removing statues of brahmin ministers from museum in Pune, vandalizing BORI library and bashing brahmin professors who helped an Englishman James Laine to write a book on Shivaji and filty propaganda against brahmins in public forums). Overall, these guys haven't received public support on ground.

Although given birth by NCP, these orgs started becoming increasingly vocal and independent as they attracted numerous "Kancha Ilaiha" types. One thing led to another and suddenly we found these same orgs, supporting Mushrif's theory that IB-brahmins killed Karkare in 26/11, that Brahmin IB+CIA+Mossad doing all sorts of nasty things. Basically our home grown Paki conspiracy theorist - Zaid Hamid. We also find head of MSS, Lakshman Maané attending World council of Churches (WCC) conference and letting out his angst against brahminical hindus.

All the hatred towards Brahmins (either genuine arguments and pure motives like that of Phule and Ambedkar OR Paki logic like Sambhaji Brigade et al) eventually in fullness of time and inevitably results in them dancing on the tunes of Missionary or Mullah. The genuine non-brahminization of religion has been happening in upper KG and rest of Maratha controlled India for atleast past 1000 years. Curious readers may search for Varkari movement and Bhakti movement. This is a dharmik mobilization which brahmins too are integral part of. And I have never heard anything bad about any caste from people like these. It is only deracinated commies, who wish to have all changes in one-life (because rebirth is brahminical hoax), who support this blind hatred. 

Shiv Sena symbolized that section of INC which was nationalist in 1960s and which could see through soviet infiltration happening in western coast.  Here the word "Nationalist" needs to be read with caution. I basically mean centrist INC section which wishes to preserve the rule of Delhi based dynasty's version of Republic of India. The first thing which Shivsena did was eradication of communism which was taking root in Bengal, MH (two of the three armed revolutionary epicenters of freedom struggle, Punjab was already truncated after 47. In case of akhand bharat, HSRA et al would have sowed third seed in PN). Similar attempts were done by nationalist sections of INC in WB but in vain. In MH, however they were successful. Now, while commies maintain presence in mumbai in form of some trade unions, electorally they have been extinct for past 30 years. Once this achieved, Shivsena slowly jumped the bandwagon of Hindutva. The shift started in mid 80s after Shahbano incident and diplomacy of Pramod Mahajan. Bal Thakre is a Kaayasth by caste. His father was a staunch reformer and anti-brahminist, but from ideological school of Savarkar, not in lines of missionary influenced bashers. He played important role in creation of MH-state (and Gujarat) from Bombay presidency. 

Shivsena, like earlier Marathas, is one of the few parties in India where caste is irrelevant. Promotion is given solely on clout and merit. At times here merit is determined by degree of nuisance value, but that is again regardless of caste. Hence it predominantly remained urban party. Dawood Ibrahim's one wrong move (of supporting ISI and Tiger Meman in 1993 bomb-blast) pushed him permanently in hands of ISI and associated higher forces which ensure Paki-existence. Things were relatively nice and dandy until then. There was slow rise of Hindu criminal networks which began competing with Islamic gangs (amar naik, pujari, gavli, manchekar, chhota rajan, bada rajan and many others). 

Something forced the incumbent GoMH post 1993 to selectively eliminate non-Islamic criminal gangs. Many tips were openly given by Dawood to police and police obliged. What that thing was, cannot be pinpointed, only speculated - which I will desist doing. Now, Dawood is important part of legitimate businesses in city of dreams. Much like Michael Corleone slowly managed to enter and establish himself in legitimate business in Godfather trilogy. Yes, he maintains his clout in traditional businesses of smuggling, he is big player now in Bollywood, Shares, real estate, media and politics. Many accusations against Chiddu and his wife about participatory notes and BSE plunges need to be looked from this perspective as well. In short, it has now truly become multinational. This is what is really meant by the oft-repeated phrase "India is now much more integrated with global economic system, than China". 

Meanwhile lets return to Indic forces in lower ranks of society and polity. They are scattered. Even NCP has now begun to abandon the monsters they created (MSS et al). The prominent dalit thinkers have started criticizing these orgs which has snatched the ideological backbone of these orgs. When dalits say, "the problem they have with brahmins is mostly ideological and not politico-socio-economical", the very basis of brahmin bashing falls apart. This happened after Shivsena pulled RPI (republican party of India) into alliance with BJP. Uddhav Thakré played a central role in this. While RPI does not win that many seats and is fragmented (like janta dal), many rural ambedkaraite dalits have become relatively more sympathetic towards RSS. Urban dalits, like others, have been in Shivsena camp for decades. In Maharashtrian urban scenario, caste does not matter at all. 

With help (?) of Shivsena-BJP, Pawar has eliminated the preeminence of Delhi Sultan in MH politics. I do not know whether to thank him for this one thing OR curse him for many other things, because he did this at great cost. But he did not take MH on YSR path and kept the ties with mullah and missionary as "strictly business". So I decided to call him Nizamshah of Ahmednagar OR Adilshah of Bijapur who helped resist the Mughal juggernaut with help of Pre-Shivaji and post Shivaji Maratha chieftains respectively. Ultimately, both Nizamshah and Adilshah were enemies of Vijaynagar (the ideal Hindu promised land), but also were enemies of Mughals of Delhi. What were Maratha power centers doing then? constantly changing sides and ensuring that Nizamshah of Ahmednagar, Adilshah of Bijapur, Qutubshah of Hyderabad (Golkonda), Mughal of Delhi keep fighting and none of them get to establish stable base in upper KG.

As I said, I will be silent about things happening in present and trends ahead. In hurry of being "ahead of curve" we at times forget to study the curve itself. 

Instead, I will write about single greatest achievement of Shivaji as an administrator. Shivaji successfully eliminated the "mansabdari" system created by Akbar to divide Indic power. Nobody else showed this courage. It crept back largely due to pressures from Aurangzeb's Deccan invasion. But in his lifetime, he successfully implemented the model wherein officers and administrators were given salary and pension, did land reforms, eliminated feudalism. The fighting warlords which ensured the attrition of foreign ROP states, preserve the dharma in adversarial conditions, serve their purpose when "dharma" is established. 

Indraaya Svaaha, Takshakaaya Svaaha....

Evolution of Guerrilla Warfare in India since medieval times

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Around great men, legends are inevitably woven. These legends, which may or may not be factually correct, speak a lot about the character of the persona involved. One such legend woven around the life of King Shivaji. He was not a coronated Chhatrapati, when this incident allegedly happened. In fact, he was a fledgling king in his early 20s, struggling to carve a niche for himself. The analysis of Shivaji can be found on this blog here and here.

When the province of Kalyan near Mumbai was captured by Marathas, the Persian daughter-in-law of the the provincial Subhedar was captured along with other "war-spoils". She was trying to escape and was captured in the process. As was the tradition in Mughal and other Islamic armies of the time, this captured woman was "offered" to Shivaji. Shivaji's aunt Godavaribai was similarly abducted by Mahabhat Khan, an incident which had a marked impact on the psyche of child Shivaji. 

This captured lady, the legend says, was extremely beautiful and young Shivaji could have kept her in his custody, building harem. He, however, let her go saying that she reminded him of his mother. To be exact, Shivaji allegedly said,"You are indeed beautiful, lady. I wish I had a mother as beautiful as you, I would have been much more good-looking too".

No one knows, whether this incident is historically correct or not. But it is so popular in the folklore of Maharashtra and Marathas that it does not matter now. And this tendency of letting the enemy women "go" attracted a controversial ire by Veer Savarkar. Savarkar who idolized him (well, almost all nationalists all over India, have been idolizing Shivaji for past 300 years), criticized Shivaji for letting this woman go. Of course, Savarkar was writing in context 1920s and 1940s, at the backdrop of Moplah riots in Malabar and Partition riots in Punjab and Bengal. But this analysis of Savarkar that Hindus required a strategy to wage all-out unethical war against invaders demands a scrutiny. 

Pardoning of captured woman is metaphor. The issue is how to integrate Indic values of accommodation and Dharma with unscrupulous hawkish mindset required for a successful guerrilla campaign.

Ghanim-i-Qavvait (गनिम इ क़वैत)

This term for Guerilla warfare technique, which was used and perfected by Marathas, was introduced in Deccan by a person named "Malik Ambar". While the technique itself is very old (Krishna himself was a master of Guerilla warfare, his war against Kaal-Yavana is an excellent example of his genius), it started becoming a common practice in  Krishna-Godavari Antarvedi (present day MH, AP, KN) region after Malik Ambar's time. Until advent of Malik Ambar, this technique was more of an exception than rule. Marathas from Seuna Yadava empire were waging traditional styled wars with their neighbors after disintegration of Rashtrakoota and Chalukya Empire.

The Arabic term गनिम-इ-क़वैत (Maneuver of the successful) implied that those who fought by "Koota-Neeti" were always successful. The Arabic word Ganim (successful) is absorbed in Marathi but with the meaning "Enemy". What prompted the Mughals and Adilshahs to brag themselves as "Ganim" so much so that the word became synonymous to word enemy?

The answer is "Total war" which was waged upon India. 

Guerrilla warfare and India's Dharmik Scaffold

Total war is not a recurring phenomenon in Indian narrative. Except for war of Kalinga waged by Emperor Ashoka, the instances of an Indian state or a kingdom waging a war on entire country of enemy and not just on enemy's military, are rare. By and large in pre-Islamic India, it was the professional and enlisted soldiers who fought in a battle, the local population remained unscathed. And history tells how Emperor Ashoka repented having waged a devastating total war against the population of Kalinga. Even the Dik-vijaya of Samudragupta and Chandragupta Vikramaditya do not describe them having waged a similar war against barbaric foreign tribes of Scythians and Huns. 

Barring invasion of Arabs on Sindh, India was relatively at peace after defeat of Hunnic King Mihiragula by Yashodharma and Baladitya Gupta. Hence Indians did not feel necessary to wage a total war on their internal rivals and competitors. India faced her first massive onslaught of an all-out total war when Mehmood Gaznavi invaded India and crossed Hindu-kush to leave a trail of massacre and loot until Somnath. While this was new to India, India responded in the only language known to barbarians on the battle field of Bahraich. It was this response which kept  India immune of any invasions for next 170 years. However after 1192, India's depression started. India forgot that total war has to be responded by total war. Dharma-Yuddha (Ethical war) cannot be the right response to a sustained total war spanning generations. When total war is responded by Dharmik war for generations, the dharmik side inevitably emerges as eventual losers.

The accounts of Khafi khan, Ibn Batuta and others are full of references which describe how Sultanate armies tricked and massacred Hindu armies time and again. It is not that Hindu armies never emerged victorious, they did on many occasions. But as stated above, they eventually emerged as losers. The famous saying निर्लज म्लेंच्छ लजै नहीं, हम हिंदू लजवान (Shameless Mlechhas have no scruples, We Hindus have honor), describes the overall psyche of the Indics. While there were innumerable instances of Rajputs and other parts of India waging guerrilla warfare to sustain an defeat Sultanates and Mughals, somehow this "dishonorable" way of fighting, it seems, had not percolated in the Indic psyche completely.

It was Shahaji and his son Shivaji who reinvented this guerrilla techniques, now called Ganim-i-Qavvait (Ganimi Kaavaa in Marathi) OR the maneuver of the successful and institutionalized it as an honorable way of fighting. The necessity to abandon the mode of fighting which the scriptures preach about, and take up warfare based on "Koota-Neeti" as almost exclusive means of offense was a slow transition and a bloody one. All the forces all over the world fighting against a dictatorial omnipotent centralized power with all the machinery of state available at its disposal to act against dissenters, have resorted to Ganimi Kaavaa. 

Shivaji's Ganimi Kaavaa

In Shivaji's ganimi Kaava, the honor of victory is immaterial. What counts is attrition of enemy with respect to self-attrition. As long as enemy's attrition is order of magnitude more, the method legitimises the "running away" from the field. Typical of Rann-Chhod Daas strategy of employed by Shri Krishna described in one of the links provided above. It involves giving promises, breaking them first, back-stabbing, pillaging villages, burning crops avoiding direct confrontation; basically making the territory inhospitable for enemy, even if it hinders one's own productivity and development. 

It is also a tactic when the onus of struggle falls on the shoulders of those people who are do not have any experience or tradition of military career. This method was (and is) more efficiently employed by unorthodox fighting clans (in Indian terms Non-Kshatriya Jaatis) when the traditional kshatriya force has either fled the country OR killed OR compromised with enemy. The non-specialist fighters have no option but to resort to Ganimi Kaavaa, in order to survive. And in a way, it is they who can internalize this method of fighting most successfully. A Kshatriya with inflated ego, would find it difficult to run away when being challenged OR when soft points (family, for eg.) are being targeted by enemy to draw you out in open. The emphasis here is on survival and out-lasting the enemy, not out-fighting him.

Throughout the life of Shivaji, we see this focus on "outlasting the enemy". The gruesome Mughal-Maratha war of 27 years was essentially about outlasting the Mughals. 

Post Maratha attempts to revive Ganimi kaavaa.

After decline of Maratha empire in 1818, there were many instances where Ganimi Kava was used to varied degrees of success against the British. The famous Anglo-Indian war of 1857 was epitome of Ganimi Kaava waged by Pro-Independence forces. They were outmatched because they did not have answer to systematic cold-blooded violence unleashed by EIC on the country side which supplied to the logistical column of Indian forces. Other attempts like Sanyasi rebellion, war against British by Santhal tribe (Birsa Munda), Vasudev Phadke's Ramoshi rebellion of 1875-1882, all attempted to recreate Shivaji's model but against an enemy who was on much higher technological plain as compared to contemporary adversaries of Shivaji.

Naxalism and Maoism

As happened with factions of Vijaynagar kingdom which kept on fighting Deccan sultanates for long time, the folks and streams of resistance against the centralized Indian power based in Delhi (both before and after transfer of power in 1947) continued in various pockets of India. The infamous dacoits of Chambal valley and other regions are continued streams of earlier guerrilla resistance groups. As the uneven development began happening in India, people in certain remote pockets took up arms and started fighting against the Indian establishment. This marks the beginning of Naxalite movement in India. Where other Indic guerrilla movements against centralized and oppressive Indian power were not much successful in "lasting long enough", the Naxalite movement transformed slowly to a Marxist and then Maoist movement. This transformation was essentially a game changer. The example of Paritala Ravindra discussed on this blog earlier, also casts light on the changing scenario in India.

Marxism removed the "inhibitions" on Indic mind to be "more violent and unscrupulous" than the power ruling from Delhi (which they perceive as Asurik). Maoism refined these methods and further removed the inhibitions on Indian/Hindu mind and emerged as a "menace". Here Hindu mind refers to those Indians OR Hindus who choose to enter this Chakra-vyuha of Maoism to commit suicide against fellow Indians. This engineering of mind which Marxism and Maoism has done, has been a great evolutionary step in history of Guerrilla warfare in India since the days of Shahaji and Shivaji Maharaj. The irony of India is, while Guerrilla movements have become more unscrupulous and violent, central Indian government, after 1947's transfer of power to Indics, has become less aasurik and violent in comparison to their British predecessors. Given these scenarios, it is more than likely that Maoists just might "outlast" Government of India in her current form, especially in their stronghold pockets. Maoists may succeed in long run where naxalites like Paritala Ravindra failed.

Upasanhaar

Ganim-i-Qavvait is without any doubts an Asurik and Adharmik way of resisting. However when left with no chance, Indic mind took it up and institutionalized it. At times, it worked for benefit of India (Shivaji and Marathas, 1857, Sanyasi, Santhal, Phadke et al) whereas as after 1947's transfer of power, it has been working against republic of India's interests. The fault lies with Government of India machinery as well which has modeled itself along the lines of Mughal and British Predecessors forcing many groups to do what Shivaji did. Since Indic ideological pool could not provide any alternatives which could motivate and justify the Indic resistors to overcome the scruple-barrier required to outlast the British Empire, the resenting population sought elsewhere and found the answers in Marxism and Maoism. So far, it does not look like GOI has found an anti-dote to this "astra".

There are two ways ahead. Either one has to present an alternative to Maoism which is more effective. We have traditions and legends of "Parshurama" which can be the ideological source of the subsequent iteration of future Indian Guerrilla fighters from Indian narrative. 

OR

GOI takes sincere measures and drastically reduces corruption and delegates more power to people, bringing in a genuine decentralized democracy in the country, taking it nearer to the golden times of Sri Raama and Vikramaditya.

In both cases, India will preserve her "Swa-tantra" (Self-system). Else, bondage under foreign system is assured.

Modern Sapta-Sindhu: Restructuring the Indian civilizational state - Part 2

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

We need to look at the classical concept of Sapta-Sindhu. Although the concept of Sapta-Sindhu has been changing with time, in all the given times, India's civilization along with her production centres, centres of learning, centres for military and political power and economic growth have been along the Sapta-Sindhus of contemporary time. Being from Krishna-Godavari basin, I have read about the models which were implemented by our forefathers. It is vaguely like this. Please go through the Part One of this article to understand the Purva-Paksha. The model of governance and society designed by our forefathers is our "Swa-Tantra". Please also go through this excellent speech from TV-Series "Chanakya" to understand the term "Swa-Tantra" (Self-System).

The system which is now in place in partitioned India is the one implemented by the Britishers. While it is working (I would not say its working fine), one needs to revisit what models of governance and social-contract did our Indian forefathers designed. A system which is a natural evolutionary product of the earlier system which was was designed by Indians for Indians from scratch should be the template for Indian Socio-politico-Economic system. This is true "Swatantra". 

Following is an attempt to design such a template which is based on whatever  understanding of Indic history that I possess so far. It is open for criticism and addition by respected readers.

Bowing to MahaKaala, I start my exposition.

A. Villages are grouped in groups of 5 to 7 (termed as "Pancha-Kroshi").

B. This is the structural and functional unit of "Rashtra".

C. For every Pancha Kroshi, there is a administrative office with an executive head (Pande OR Mukhiya). He is flanked by a financial officer (Kulkarni) and judicial officer (Shaastri) and a auditor's office (Shrikaranadhip or Fadnavis). All these are independent offices. In older times, the mukhiya or pande also had powers to raise a militia of certain number. this power need not be relegated in modern times. This was structure in older times (from chalukya till yadavas and then during shivaji and sambhaji. later marathas abandoned this in favour of mughal mansabdari system). 

D. Each of the 5 offices (militia included) sat together and formed a "Panchaayat" with either shastri or pande on the chair and resolved most of the disputes. 

E. For every such 10 "panchakroshi", there was an office of "Deshmukh" or "Deshpande". 

F. For every such 10 offices of Deshmukhs, there used to be an office of "Sardeshmukh" or "Sardeshpande". Thus, one office of sardeshmukh controlled 500 villages.

G. Sardeshmukh reported directly to "Subhedar" (Provincial head) office. 

H. How to organize the Subah or states or Desha in modern lingo? My personal preference would be to river basin based primary division. 

I. These river basins have been civilizationally self-sufficient entities who have relations with others. I would consider following self-ruling "Desha" in India. Here Desha has powers and autonomy equal to European nation-states minus defence, foreign affairs etc. 

Note: One really has to part with the westphalian idea of nation-state. Rashtra is not equal to nation. Dharma is not equal to religion. Idol is not equal to Murti. Aatmaa is not equal to soul. India is NOT one nation. India is ONE RASHTRA. India is one "Saanskritik Raashtra". 

J. The self-ruling autonomous Deshas (Nation-states) of Indic Rashtra are as follows. The description of the 7 river basins (Sapta-Sindhu) can be found in this earlier article.

The "Mahajanapadas" located in the modern Sapta-Sindhu region which constitute the Sanskritik Raashtra OR the civilizational state of India.

1. Upper Ganga basin (Up to Prayaag to be referred to as "Paanchala")

2. Central Ganga basin (Magadha)

3. Bengal (Vanga desha)

4. Punjab -jammu included (Pancha-nada)

5. Northern Himalayan federation (Kashmir, Himachal)

6. Tibet 

7. Western Himalayan condeferacy -Gandhar (NWFP and southern AFG) - basically kabul river basin along with basins of Rigvedic "western rivers". 

8. Sindh (Sindhu-Sauvira desha)

9. Aravali and Chambal valley (matsya desha)

10. Gurjara confederacy (Saurashtra, Kutch, parts of sindh and lower Rajputana)

11. Malwa confederacy (Malwa, Bundelkhand)

12. Upper Narmada basin (Vidarbha, parts of MP and Chhattisgarh) - Includes the vainganga basin as well.

13. Lower narmada basin (Khandesh, southern gujarat, Nimad)

14. Konkana

15. Upper Krishna-Godavari basin (Maharashtra, Northern Karnataka and Marathwada)

16. Lower Krishna-Godavari basin (Telangana, Northern Rayalseema)

17. Neelgiri Region and upper Kaveri basin (the common parts between Kerala, TN, AP and KN)

18. Lower Kaveri basin (Remaining TN)

19. Malabar (continuation of Konkana up to tiruanantapuram)

20. Mahanadi basin (upto river suvarnarekha - Odisha)

21. Forests and plateau of Chhota nagpur

22. Brahmaputra basin - Assam and bangal till the sangama. Basically everything on plains.

23. Eastern Himalayan federation - All the hill states on north-east.

24. Upper Iravati basin

25. Lower Iravati basin

K. These 25 deshas (or Mahajanapadas, if one feels historically inclined) constitute the Raashtra of India since ancient times. the cultures have evolved along the ecologies found in these "deshas". Nationalism is directly connected to ecology. Raashtriyatva supercedes these ecological nationalisms. Furthermore, in different "deshas" different "Jaatis" dominate numerically. The customs of these dominant "jaatis" and other minority "Jaatis" with respect to the numerically superior "Jaati" is the key factor which drives the formation of these Ecological and geographical nations. This will be elaborated later.

L. All these autonomous Deshas are of federal structure linked to the structural and functional unit of administration - A Panchakroshi. The details can be worked out later. But the execution of administrative duties happen at panchakroshi level. All the higher levels simply supervise and compile the data to be sent up. One important difference here is that the panchakroshi has significantly more power than today's gram-panchayat. How a panchakroshi resolve their internal matters, should be left unto them as long as the means of they are depositing their 16%-17% of income to upper office. They can rest to themselves. In wartime, this can be increased to 25% (A chauthai). 

M. An office of Deshmukh keeps 20% (one sixth) of the revenue with it to carry out networking of the pancha-kroshis under its purview. An office of sardeshmukh keeps 25% of the total collection with it to carry out the networking of Deshmukhs under its purview. A head of state or Desha keeps 40% of total revenue generated to network the sardeshmukhs under is purview.

N. A Rashtriya government gets 50% to 60% of total revenue from all desha and it utilizes it to run following ministries

1. Defence

2. Foreign affairs

3. Commerce

4. Railways

5. Highways

6. Aviation

7. Shipping

8. Telecom

9. Administrative affairs (to monitor and guide the structural and functional units)

10. Human resource (with cells to monitor and ensure dhaarmik treatment for women, children, men in different jaatis) 

O. Rest all rashtriya ministries need not exist. It is duty of every desha, every sardeshmukh, every deshmukh and every pancha-kroshi to utilize carefully the resources it has and generate profit while being just and dhaarmik. The constitution functions as vague dharma-shaastra to be followed when in doubt. Of course, the current constitution is an excellent document but requires certain amendments in order to make it view India as a sanskritik rashtra. A dharmashaastra is to be influencing only the dharma and artha aspects of a "Sajjana". Who is "Sajjana", refer to this article. India is rashtra of sajjana. Everyone who is willing to agree with a dharmik definition of term sajjana is made to sign a document making him legally, socially, morally binding to this criteria. Only those who follow dharma and agree with being and behaving like a Sajjana are citizens of this Rashtra. Others are visitors until they agree with the definition.

Instead of taking away power from local government of a Panchakroshi and putting it into central or state government, we can genuinely give back power to the people. This is done by creating little voting districts of two hundred households (a city village) that elect their own Council. The Chairman of this Council is their representative in the borough. The five hundred city village representatives in each borough elect a Deshmukh. This way, the people personally know their city village Deshmukh and have a direct influence on the policies of the panchakroshi. 

An office of sardeshmukh releases a "pre-set failure standard" list on HDI parameters coupled with economic ones where the panchakroshi has to utilize its resource to meet. failure to meet the criteria comes with some punishment and compliance comes with some reward. IMHO, smaller groups tend to perform better and large monoliths. Deshmukhs have only to monitor which panchakroshi has met the pre-set standards and which haven't, compile the data and send it to sardeshmukh. 

This will give way to Westminster system of parliamentary democracy and lead to presidential system. One can also look into Iranian model where ayatollah holds power. While there is nothing which is analogous to an ayatollah in dharmik system, we can surely create an office (similar to Jedi council in star-war universe) to advise the executive. This is what I have in mind when I suggested high offices of brahmins and vaishyas located on every tier of the pyramid.

Drawing of the cadre to fulfill the task of Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishyas

It is essential to have an institution which will churn out individuals which are Dharmik but who do not owe allegiance to any one particular "Jaati" or "Mahajanapada" or "Sindhu (river-basin)" and who can look at India as one sanskritik unit. One may call it something similar to the "Jedi-Council" described in Star-Wars. However, making the council as powerful will not be Dharmik. 

Kindly read these three articles to understand my position on the delicate topic of Varna-System before reading subsequent points. Else the point which I am trying to make may not come through fine.

1. The Triad of Quartets - A Indian perspective of Varna-Ashrama-Purushartha system.

2. Few Thoughts on Varnashrama system.

3. Parshuram - A metaphor bridging caste-system and Varna-System.

P. Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas form an important "trivarga" of the society. independent High councils of Brahmins formed to advice the ministry of human resources. independent high council of Vaishyas formed to advice ministry of commerce. Standing army maintained for protection of Rashtra under Ministry of defence. Bureaucrats trained function at level of sardeshmukh and above. Lower offices can be staffed by non varga people who are appropriately educated. The important question is , what is brahmana?

Q. Brahmana is an intellectual capable of teaching, learning and making policies without his intellect being clouded by his familial and jaati-vishayak affiliations. A person is drawn from any random jaati and trained in such away that all his affiliations for his jaati, family, language, desh, drop off. Basically we thoroughly deracinate an individual of his local affiliations and force him to think on rashtriya level. Thus - 

1. A person thoroughly deracinated from his family and jati based identity to think on rashtriya level for affairs regarding education, human resource management and dharma (justice) is brahmin.

2. A person thoroughly deracinated from his family and jati based identity to think on rashtriya level on the affairs of defence of rashtra and its execution using dharmik means, is Kshatriya. This is armed forces, paramilitary forces and Police force.

3. A person thoroughly deracinated from his family and jati based identity to think on rashtriya level on the affairs of internal and external commerce and its handling using dharmik means, is vaishya.

R. Offices of brahmana and vaishya high councils to be operating in every village to monitor and advice the executors.

S. Those candidates with appropriate guna (qualities) and desire are tutored from young age in various ashramas, irrespective of their Jaatis to be groomed as brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya respectively. To ensure healthy mix of all jaatis, 

T. Given the fact that these names have gained negative connotations in recent history, largely owing to their own karma in past, one may find a newer names for them.