Certain terms and expressions that often become the subject of discussion, be it in academia, media, society, etc., lose their significance if they are not presented and understood with their proper background. Therefore, an appropriate perspective is necessary in any academic writing or historical account. One such recent instance is the debate about the term Bharat and its significance.
Article 1 of the constitution of Bharat uses the term “India, that is Bharat” while defining the nature of the union of Bharat. The importance and significance of this term can only be understood if they are read and seen in the light of Constituent Assembly debates pertaining to article 1, wherein it was elaborately narrated as to why the nomenclature of Bharat will remain incomplete unless the term ‘Bharat’ is used along with ‘India’. Scholars in the Constituent Assembly demonstrated with their vast knowledge that the term Bharat not only stands for a nomenclature but also signifies the perennial journey of our great nation that has been continuing for the past thousands of years.
The story of ‘Integration of Bharat: Political and Constitutional Perspective’ is one such literary work authored by ‘Yashraj Singh Bundela’ who happens to be a constitutional lawyer and a devout history lover and has connected a vast arena of Bharat’s journey of thousands of years from a cultural national entity to a present constitutional republic. To understand any legal or constitutional issue, it is very important to know its historical background. Therefore, history and law always go hand in hand.
One who knows the value of history and culture can never become detached from it. Yashraj Singh Bundela, an Advocate on Record at the Hon’ble Supreme Court, is one such prominent person. In this artwork, the author clearly pictured in one of the very first chapters how the term Bharat emerged from the slokas of Vishnu Purana.
As a practising advocate, I always believe that the law as a subject is vast, and it is undoubtedly a fact that history and political science are identical twins of every law that our law-making bodies frame following a constitutional procedure. The book beautifully narrates as to how the various aspects of the state and the institutions governing it evolved over the years as demonstrated by Atharva Veda, Kautilya’s Arthashastra, etc.
This book deserves appreciation for explaining all the cultural, political and constitutional history behind the formation of states and provinces in Bharat and their gradual integration within the framework of the Constitution of India. The author has also made a valiant effort by not only narrating the story and journey of integration with the help of historical facts, political narratives and legal provisions but also using various case laws and judgements of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in very elucidating and precise manner.
This book has emphasised on several other cases where the Supreme Court had narrated the vast journey of our constitutional integration, for instance in cases like H. Maharajadhiraja Madhav Rao Jivaji Rao Scindia and others v Union of India where it was held that the presidential orders, taking away the recognition of the rulers of the erstwhile princely states as unconstitutional, Raghunathrao Ganapath Rao v Union of India, where the Hon’ble Supreme court upheld the 26th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1971 denying the contentions of the petitioner that the said amendment is changing personality, identity, character or basic structure etc.
This part of the book where the author has cited and explained several cases in explaining the functioning and inter-relationship between various law-making bodies and other necessary political institutions that played a significant role in the emergence and working of robust constitutional structure for the administration of vast area of territories including, States, Union Territories etc., deserves special attention from the legal and the political science scholars.
Generally, in the history that is taught in primary educational institutes, the glorious chapters that encompasses the significant roles played by the Bharatiya rulers in protecting the frontiers, territories and culture of Bharat for the past thousands of years against the foreign invaders have been eclipsed. Interestingly the author in the book has eminently demonstrated the significant roles played by various rulers from every possible region of Bharat raging from the north to south and east to west.
For example, the contributions made by Bharatiya rulers like Malvas, Marathas, Bundelas, Dashamgurus, Mewars, Vijayanagaras, Chozhas (aka cholas), Pandiyas, Pallavas, Chalukyas, Ahoms, Shahis, Kharvelas, Rashtrakootas, Gurjar-Pratiharas, Palas, Nagas, etc have hardly come into light. One such assurance that every citizen who aspires to be a scholar or a public servant gets from pursuing this book is that he gets to cover the history of all the unsung warriors in one go.
This book also narrates that after suffering all the wraths in resisting foreign invasions of Greek, Sakhas, Kushans, Huns, Turks, Mughals, Europeans including French Portuguese, Dutch, English, etc. this nation emerged as an independent, sovereign and constitutionally governed country. The book also narrates the integration of territories such as Goa, Pondicherry and Sikkim including reorganisation of the States.
In this history of integration of Bharat, the author has elaborately dealt with the integration of Jammu and Kashmir in vast detail covering its history, subjugation suffering from human right violations at the hands of separatists and the foreign power who were actively involved in separation and political destabilisation in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The author makes a strong case that the history of accession and constitutional integration of Jammu and Kashmir cannot be understood in isolation as it is understood with that of other princely states.
The entire process of integration demonstrates that unlike Egypt, Persia, Rome, Greece, Bharat and its cultural roots remained the same no matter how hard the invaders tried to destroy it. It clearly teaches that the culture is the identity of every nation and once that identity is lost it is nothing but a direct collapse of an edifice on which a nation stands.
The book is a tribute to the great work of revered Ironman of Bharat, Shri Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who served his best to shape the territorial structure of Bharat. The book in detail narrates the story of accessions of States like Travancore, Kochi, Mysore, Hyderabad, Junagarh, Bhopal, Jodhpur, Manipur, Tripura, etc. The author has taken up a very good initiative to narrate the unsung constitutional history of Bharat. It is submitted that this book is a crucial source to understand the present constitutional framework of Bharatiya politics in its appropriate historical context.
–Mandeep Pamaar
Mandeep Pamaar is a practicing advocate at the High Court for the state of Telangana. He obtained his BALLB from Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad, in 2023. He is a devout constitutional lover.
