India historical fact of the day

In a mere two years, 500 autonomous and sometimes ancient chiefdoms had been dissolved into fourteen new administrative units of India.

That is from India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy, a truly excellent book by Ramachandra Guha, well over 800 pages and yes it will be finished.

By the way, if you live in India, come from India, or have strong ties to India, please keep a special watch on MR over the next few days.  I’ll explain more soon.