Interactive schematic maps of India and Indonesia showing regions pulling away from the capital, the five tools states used to hold them (nationalism, propaganda, language policy, education and force), which region each tool held and in what year, and the competing visions for India after independence
The state came first. The nation had to be made
In 1947 and 1949 India and Indonesia had flags, capitals and borders drawn by someone else, and inside those borders regions that had never governed together. Each state reached for the same five tools, and India's leaders fought over what the nation being built should even be. Switch on the tools one at a time and watch which regions stop pulling.
Holding the regions0 OF 5 TOOLS ON
Choose a case, then switch on the tools one at a time. Watch which regions stop pulling and which keep going.
Case
KASHMIR: CONTESTED · HYDERABAD: PULLING · TAMIL SOUTH: PULLING
Tools the state used
Predict first: with every tool on, which of the pulled regions actually left the country? Then switch them on and check.
Regions held
0 of 3
Still pulling
3
Know This
National unity is manufactured, not inherited: states hold regions with nationalism, language and force, and the same tool holds one region and loses another.