Srinagar, Aug. 16 -- When India gained independence on August 15, 1947, it entered a world being reshaped by the aftermath of the Second World War, the beginning of the Cold War, the rise of the United Nations, the atomic age and the rapid collapse of European colonialism. Britain and France were weakened, the United States and Soviet Union were emerging as rival superpowers, and new nations across Asia and Africa were searching for their own paths.

India's challenge was particularly difficult. Independence came with Partition, communal violence, mass migration and enormous poverty. The new nation was divided by language, religion, caste, region and culture. Its leaders therefore faced a fundamental question: What kind of country should ...