25 July–14 August 1947: These were the twenty-one days that made India.

While Jawaharlal Nehru, M.A. Jinnah and other prominent leaders sparred and debated in public, and Lord Mountbatten readied himself to become the Governor-General of two nascent democracies, a small group of civil servants quietly anticipated—and sought to prevent—the eventual Balkanisation of India.

The Birth of a Nation follows the work of the newly set-up States Department led by Sardar Patel, and its group of determined officials. They were pitted against a core of ruling families and their wily advisors who had declared their independence. The princely states and small republics were in alliance with orthodox Muslim rulers. These states were building diplomatic relations with foreign nations; trying to Mountbatten, Nehru and Patel; pre-empting the birth of new countries; building relations with Jinnah and the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League.

This is the Indian history citizens need to appreciate just how hard-won the sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic of India is—and how fragile and precious that idea is.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Josy Joseph is a writer-journalist based in New Delhi and founder of Confluence Media, a platform-agnostic investigative journalism outfit.

He is the author of A Feast of Vultures: The Hidden Business of Democracy in India and The Silent Coup: A History of India’s Deep State.

Joseph has won several awards for his journalism, including the Prem Bhatia Trust award for ‘India’s best political reporter’ in 2010 and the Ramnath Goenka award for Journalist of the Year in 2013. He has exposed major stories involving corporate and political systems in India.

He was formerly National Security Editor of The Hindu newspaper, and later started Confluence Media. He lives in New Delhi with his wife Priya Solomon and daughter Supriya.