New Delhi, Sept. 14 -- The history of India's independence is often told through a familiar set of stories: the end of the British Raj, the trauma of Partition, Nehru's "Tryst with Destiny" speech, and the birth of two new nations in August 1947. But the India that emerged eight decades ago was far from a finished product. In the final weeks before independence, the subcontinent remained a patchwork of British provinces and more than 500 princely states, many of whose rulers were weighing whether to join India, accede to Pakistan, or remain independent. Behind the public celebrations was a frantic struggle over what India would actually look like-and whether a unified Indian state would come into being at all. A decade ago, journalist Josy Joseph stumbled upon hundreds of thousands of pages of uncatalogued archives gathering dust. They eventually helped inspire his new book, The Birth of a Nation: Twenty-One Days That Changed India, which reconstructs the dramatic three weeks leading up to August 15, 1947. Joseph discussed the book on last week's episode of Grand Tamasha, a weekly podcast on Indian politics and policy coproduced by HT and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Joseph is one of India's best-known journalists and the founder of Confluence Media, an investigative journalism outfit. Joseph told host Milan Vaishnav that his transition from investigative journalist to amateur historian was not as difficult. "In many ways, what I did was apply investigative journalism to a historical context. What academics do is apply their investigative and academic skills to the same context," he said. "We are all similar in what we do, except that investigative journalism usually has immediate repercussions." His book tells the story of the intense, behind-the-scenes negotiations between India's future leaders and a bevy of princely rulers. "For the first time in history, a large nation-state is rising out of a non-violent movement, which forever changes the global history of decolonisation," said Joseph. "[In India], the largest concentration of hereditary power is trying to hold on to it with the blessing of a large part of the British Empire." All of this took place against the backdrop of "the world's largest partition and exodus of millions of people, and the butchering, killing, and rape of thousands of them." No princely state occupied more time and attention than Hyderabad, explained Joseph. "Hyderabad is the heart of India, both physically and culturally in many ways. It's landlocked and its ruler, one of the most powerful, richest rulers in the world, is negotiating to buy Goa for sea access," explained Joseph. "The Nizam of Hyderabad is coordinating with the Nawab of Bhopal, the ruler of Junagadh, the ruler of Indore, and many others. There's no Hindu-Muslim divide here; Hindu and Muslim rulers alike are hoping to retain their power and they all make the same two arguments: that they are secular princely states where Hindus and Muslims live peacefully as brothers, and that the communist menace, possibly influencing Congress, is a big concern." The India that emerged from this period was by no means preordained. "If we were discussing that evening, as a journalist studying geopolitics, we'd be asking: what do you think Jinnah will do now that he has a military of his own? If Jinnah had decided to militarily help the Nizam of Hyderabad, or Junagadh, or push into Kashmir, we'd probably have a very different story to tell."...