AHC: Unified India

[Bureaucromancer]

With a POD no earlier than the start of the Second World War (edit: and without dramatically changing the outcome of the war... I wanted to write this as end of the war, but frankly that's too late to change the politics much) get a single, sovereign and democratic Indian state. Bonus points for the closer the date of independence gets to historical, and for reduced violence and increased stability.

Basically how could independence have been better managed (with a definite focus on avoiding partition)?

 

[Jape]

Get the Viceroy to talk with Indian politicians before declaring war on their behalf. After the 1936 India Act, the Congress Party considered the unquestioned support of Britain an insult to their hard won rights and so boycotted all government positions in protest. Desperate for native politicians to give the Raj legitimacy during wartime, the Brits turned to the Muslim League amongst others.

In 1939 the Muslim League was tiny and certainly no threat to Indian unity. However the power vacuum created by the Congress Party meant Jinnah got ridiculously dispraportionate influence during the War, both in getting British diplomats to listen to him and advertising his views to Indian Muslims.

Really if the Viceroy just had the courtesy to meet with Nehru and consult him in the most ceremonial of ways, he would have said yes, possibly asking for more details on Indian dominionship, and the Muslim League would have remained locked out of power.

The wartime party and overseers of independence, Congress would be even more powerful, and among Hindus and Muslims to boot.

 

[azander12]

Get the Viceroy to talk with Indian politicians before declaring war on their behalf. After the 1936 India Act, the Congress Party considered the unquestioned support of Britain an insult to their hard won rights and so boycotted all government positions in protest. Desperate for native politicians to give the Raj legitimacy during wartime, the Brits turned to the Muslim League amongst others.

In 1939 the Muslim League was tiny and certainly no threat to Indian unity. However the power vacuum created by the Congress Party meant Jinnah got ridiculously dispraportionate influence during the War, both in getting British diplomats to listen to him and advertising his views to Indian Muslims.

Really if the Viceroy just had the courtesy to meet with Nehru and consult him in the most ceremonial of ways, he would have said yes, possibly asking for more details on Indian dominionship, and the Muslim League would have remained locked out of power.

The wartime party and overseers of independence, Congress would be even more powerful, and among Hindus and Muslims to boot.

A surprise Japanese bombing kills the leadership of the Muslim league? The Japanese attempt to get the Muslim league to side with them in the war (a la Zimmerman Telegram) and that completely discredits them as a political movement?