India, Feb. 5 -- From the epics and shastras we revere to the ruins and symbols that surround us, we are daily reminded that India was, for millennia, the land of rajas. So, why, then, did our forefathers decide to break so dramatically with our past and form a republic? A central reason was exasperation with the great vice that afflicted these monarchies, namely, dynasticism.

Dynasticism had two terrible consequences. One was narrow-mindedness. Since every royal family wanted to bequeath its privileges to its successors, it shied away from making common cause with neighbouring kingdoms, lest it have to concede pre-eminence to them. The result was subjugation. The presiding fact of the 19th century was that the British had been able to t...