Since the numinous hour of independence, many of the revolution’s earnest ideals had fallen by the wayside. Nehru had inaugurated the new nation in an ecstasy of sanctimony, but the backdrop of Partition and the riots that had left a million dead was proving a poor platform from which to set out a mantra of unity and universal brotherhood. Corruption, sectarian violence, and the tumult of a thousand factions pulling in a thousand different directions had put the lie to Gandhi’s vision of a post-colonial utopia.
