What if Sardar Patel or Netaji Bose would be India's first prime minister?

History can be intellectually very stimulating if alternative scenarios are visualised. Even the recent trends in some major exam's questioning pattern seem to suggest that students must develop this thought process, as it needs real depth to be able to write rationally on alternative possibilities. In fact, the UPSC 2015 Mains papers clearly indicated it!

So, a good question - Let us suppose that Pandit Nehru did not become the first PM of India. What would have happened?

This answer is based on pure speculation. Kindly bear.

India if Sardar Patel were to become the first PM, and continued for some years -

Pakistan to the UN? Never!

1. Having integrated India, he would have gone real heavy on the Kings and Princes that played the fool during the process of integration. Their falling-in-line would have been ensured very fast.
2. He would have made them pay the price pretty quickly - the Privy Purses would have been abolished perhaps by 1955 itself (rather than in 1971 as done by Indira Gandhi) [ Privy Purse in India ]
3. The private banking industry in India would have collapsed due to this pretty fast, and nationalisation would've happened by 1960 itself. 
4. The Congress may have seen a vertical split right after the First General Elections. The faction led by Pandit Nehru would have posed a huge challenge to Patel's leadership.
5. The Kashmir issue would have taken a different shape altogether - it would never have been internationalised, and no appeal to the UN would ever be made. Bilateral would have meant completely Unilateral!
6. Pakistan would have thought once more before pushing the tribal forces into Kashmir in 1948.
7. Bye bye NAM.
8. Bye bye Personal Law System. Welcome Uniform Civil Code.
9. Perhaps India would have discovered Netaji Bose's real whereabouts in the 1950s.(Warning - pure, heavily loaded speculation)
10. Goa would have been in India by 1952 at the most :)
11. Perhaps no IITs and IIMs but more of regionally empowered institutions

India if Netaji Bose were to become the first PM, and continued for some years -   (assuming he came back victorious after the armed conflicts)

Bose believed in strong central rule

1. Netaji was pretty clear in his head - a free India needed 10 to 20 years of an strong centrally authoritarian rule to develop fast.
2. We would not have had the Constitution in its present form at all. The Constituent Assembly would have worked very differently, producing a remarkably State-power-laden document.
3. The Congress would have revolted against this move, and an internal chaos would have caused either heavy-handed suppression, or Netaji would have simply outlawed Congress.
4. Family planning and population control measures would have been instituted strongly.
5. Women empowerment would be ages ahead of what it's even now - he had made a whole Rani Jhansi regiment, remember?  [ Rani of Jhansi Regiment ]
6. He would not have thought much about aligning with the Socialist-Communist world, while retaining Indian identity.
7. Bye bye NAM.
8. Bye bye Personal Law System. Welcome Uniform Civil Code.
9. The national anthem / song would've been different [ Subh Sukh Chain ]
10. Goa would have voluntarily appealed for joining the Indian Union :) :)
11. As for Pakistan, there would be perhaps none.
12. A huge speculation - If Japan were not to be defeated AND Netaji became the PM then - Japan's influence on India's polity would have been not insignificant.

Some things that would've remained same irrespective of who became the first PM

1. Our need for capital for investment and growth would be huge.
2. Our agriculture would keep struggling till Dr M S Swaminathan would've come along, [ M. S. Swaminathan ] of course, after Dr Norman Borlaugh's pioneering work  [ Norman Borlaug ]
3. The Indian Military would've taken more or less the same shape.
4. Social and cultural practices of most of India would be the same.

All these are, as stated, pure speculative mind-games. Sorry if someone was offended. All the best!

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