08-22-2007, 09:23 PM
Posting in full for archival purposes, since DailyPioneer link recycles.
Horror of '47 revisited
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><i>Nobody has been spared in this book, whether it is the British royalty or Indian leaders. The author tells the story as it is, making the characters look all too human, writes MV Kamath </i>
<b>Indian Summer, Alex Von Tunzelmann, Simon & Schuster, £20</b>
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->One can say with utter confidence that there has never been a history of India from the time the British left the country to Jawaharlal Nehru's death, written with such openness, insight and daring as Alex Von Tunzelmann's Indian Summer. The sub-heading, 'The Secret History of the End of an Empire', tells it all. So many secrets come tumbling down in the depiction of the epic sweep of events that one wonders how come they were kept away from the public eye for six-long decades.
Illuminating each page are anecdotes about celebrities that include Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Vallabhbhai Patel among Indians and Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee and, of course, Lord Mountbatten and his wife Edwina.
Tunzelmann is relentlessly honest whether writing about Britain of the 17th century ("begging was common and the nation's 10,000 vagabonds the terror of the land") or of Queen Elizabeth I ("next to Akbar, Elizabeth was indeed as weak and feeble woman with her dubious breeding... and her grubby, unsophisticated, cold, dismal little kingdom") or of the British in India as the empire moved on: "<b>Indians were commonly referred to as 'natives' in the 18th century, 'coolies' by the end of the 19th and 'niggers' by the beginning of the 20th</b>."
Nobody has been spared, whether it is the British royalty ("<b>Prince Albert had been placed 68th out of 68 in his final examination of Trinity College, Cambridge</b>"), British nobility (reference to the low economic status of Lord Mountbatten and Prince Philip; the latter, who was to marry Elizabeth II, has to be read to be believed), or to <b>Winston Churchill, a sick character who regarded Indians as "a beastly people with a beastly religion" and wanted Gandhi to be trampled down by an elephant at India Gate in New Delhi, with the Viceroy seated aloft the animal/b].
[b]There are references to Lord Mountbatten's love affairs, as indeed of his wife Edwina's liaison with Nehru, described with considerable detail to everyone's shame. Mountbatten and his wife were often not even on speaking terms and there was a time when Edwina even thought of seeking divorce. Mountbatten's relationship with Nehru, Gandhi, Jinnah and several others are freely discussed, as also the rapport between Indian leaders themselves, none flattering</b>.
There are references even to the Poona Pact, with <b>BR Ambedkar, the co-signatory with Gandhi, saying: "There was nothing noble in the (Mahatma's) fast, it was a foul and filthy act." </b>
We learn that Mountbatten was disinclined to accept the viceroyalty; that Nehru originally was suspicious about his appointment and mistrustful of the man himself; that Mountbatten was scared to come to India and is quoted as saying as he left England: "I don't want to go (to India). They don't want me there. We'll probably come home with bullets in our back."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> At one point, Mountbatten felt that Gandhi was proposing to take advantage of Jinnah's good intentions to crush Muslim dissent and is quoted as saying: "I find it hard to believe that I correctly understood Mr Gandhi." The most ironic quote is of Jinnah telling Liaquat Ali Khan that Pakistan was "the biggest blunder" of his life. He is supposed to have said: "If now I get an opportunity, I will go to Delhi and tell Jawaharlal to forget about the follies of the past and become friends against."
Incidentally, the author notes that because "Nehru failed to inform Jinnah that the (Kashmir) Maharaja had asked for help and that he was sending troops, Jinnah became convinced that Nehru had all along meant for Kashmir to be dragged into India by force". What gives special relevance to this absorbing study of one of the defining moments of world history is the recalling of small but human anecdotes that make the characters look all too human.
Tunzelmann tells the story as it is. This is narrative history-writing at its best.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Horror of '47 revisited
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><i>Nobody has been spared in this book, whether it is the British royalty or Indian leaders. The author tells the story as it is, making the characters look all too human, writes MV Kamath </i>
<b>Indian Summer, Alex Von Tunzelmann, Simon & Schuster, £20</b>
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->One can say with utter confidence that there has never been a history of India from the time the British left the country to Jawaharlal Nehru's death, written with such openness, insight and daring as Alex Von Tunzelmann's Indian Summer. The sub-heading, 'The Secret History of the End of an Empire', tells it all. So many secrets come tumbling down in the depiction of the epic sweep of events that one wonders how come they were kept away from the public eye for six-long decades.
Illuminating each page are anecdotes about celebrities that include Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Vallabhbhai Patel among Indians and Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee and, of course, Lord Mountbatten and his wife Edwina.
Tunzelmann is relentlessly honest whether writing about Britain of the 17th century ("begging was common and the nation's 10,000 vagabonds the terror of the land") or of Queen Elizabeth I ("next to Akbar, Elizabeth was indeed as weak and feeble woman with her dubious breeding... and her grubby, unsophisticated, cold, dismal little kingdom") or of the British in India as the empire moved on: "<b>Indians were commonly referred to as 'natives' in the 18th century, 'coolies' by the end of the 19th and 'niggers' by the beginning of the 20th</b>."
Nobody has been spared, whether it is the British royalty ("<b>Prince Albert had been placed 68th out of 68 in his final examination of Trinity College, Cambridge</b>"), British nobility (reference to the low economic status of Lord Mountbatten and Prince Philip; the latter, who was to marry Elizabeth II, has to be read to be believed), or to <b>Winston Churchill, a sick character who regarded Indians as "a beastly people with a beastly religion" and wanted Gandhi to be trampled down by an elephant at India Gate in New Delhi, with the Viceroy seated aloft the animal/b].
[b]There are references to Lord Mountbatten's love affairs, as indeed of his wife Edwina's liaison with Nehru, described with considerable detail to everyone's shame. Mountbatten and his wife were often not even on speaking terms and there was a time when Edwina even thought of seeking divorce. Mountbatten's relationship with Nehru, Gandhi, Jinnah and several others are freely discussed, as also the rapport between Indian leaders themselves, none flattering</b>.
There are references even to the Poona Pact, with <b>BR Ambedkar, the co-signatory with Gandhi, saying: "There was nothing noble in the (Mahatma's) fast, it was a foul and filthy act." </b>
We learn that Mountbatten was disinclined to accept the viceroyalty; that Nehru originally was suspicious about his appointment and mistrustful of the man himself; that Mountbatten was scared to come to India and is quoted as saying as he left England: "I don't want to go (to India). They don't want me there. We'll probably come home with bullets in our back."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> At one point, Mountbatten felt that Gandhi was proposing to take advantage of Jinnah's good intentions to crush Muslim dissent and is quoted as saying: "I find it hard to believe that I correctly understood Mr Gandhi." The most ironic quote is of Jinnah telling Liaquat Ali Khan that Pakistan was "the biggest blunder" of his life. He is supposed to have said: "If now I get an opportunity, I will go to Delhi and tell Jawaharlal to forget about the follies of the past and become friends against."
Incidentally, the author notes that because "Nehru failed to inform Jinnah that the (Kashmir) Maharaja had asked for help and that he was sending troops, Jinnah became convinced that Nehru had all along meant for Kashmir to be dragged into India by force". What gives special relevance to this absorbing study of one of the defining moments of world history is the recalling of small but human anecdotes that make the characters look all too human.
Tunzelmann tells the story as it is. This is narrative history-writing at its best.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->