5

CONSOLIDATING THE STATE,

c. 1947–55

On August 15, 1947, Nehru, referring to himself as the ‘First Servant
of the Indian People’ (invoking in his rhetoric the Soviet People’s
Commissars of the early days of the Russian Revolution), outlined the
many problems that faced the new state. The predominant problems,
he reiterated, were economic: the country was faced with inflation, the
people with lack of food and clothing and adequate shelter. ‘Production
today is the first priority,’ he explained; but on its own it would not be
enough – the key social question would be one of distribution.^1 But these
priorities would have to be deferred. For Nehru, the early years after
independence, from 1947 to 1950, were ones of struggle, as he sought to
maintain his political authority within his own party, and his government
tried to maintain the stability and effective independence of the new state.

STABILISATION: ‘COMMUNAL HARMONY’

The problem of stabilisation was in the first instance one of ending
the disorder and violence associated with partition. Vallabhbhai Patel,
the central negotiator with the Indian States, and deputy prime minister
and Home minister in Nehru’s first government, formed with Nehru the
second part of what came to be called the ‘duumvirate’. As Home minister,
Patel was in charge of suppression of rioting and revenge killings, and
dealing with problems of the influx of refugees from West and East
Pakistan.