"Indian Summer" by Alex von Tunzelmann

Above: "Indian Summer - The Secret History of the end of an Empire" Alex Von Tunzelmann. 370 pages.

Behind the scenes was developing a long and passionate love affair between Jawaharlal Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten.

I completed reading this book today, 06 February 2017.

My bubble burst. Quoted from Von Tunzelmann's bibliography:

"The most popular work on the transfer of power has been "Freedom at Midnight" by Larry Collins and Dominque Lapierre. That book, largely and unquestionably based on the rose-tinted reminiscences of Lord Mountbatten in the 1970's, is highly entertaining, but so imaginative that its is best read as a novelization of events."

Sacre bleu! I just read "Freedom at Midnight," for the second time, six months ago. I thought I had the inside scoop on the story about India's independence from the British Empire, and the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Not so.

At the stroke of midnight on 15 August 1947, 400 million people were "liberated" from the British Empire. With the loss of India, its greatest colony, Britain ceased to be a superpower, and its king ceased to sign himself Rex Imperator.

This major event in world history was brought about by a handful of people. Von Tunzelmann, drawing from the extensive correspondence of the key players - Gandhi, 'Dickie' Montbatten, Edwina Montbatten, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and Jawaharlal Nehru - digs far deeper to describe the events surrounding "partition" than did Collins and Lapierre.

All of the principal players had dreams of democracy and freedom for the new sub-continent countries, India and Pakistan. But, within hours of midnight, dawning on 15 August 1947, any dreams of democracy and freedom would turn to chaos, bloodshed and war.

Behind the scenes was developing a long and passionate love affair between Jawaharlal Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten.

Mountbatten was the last Viceroy in India to represent the British king. He had been charged by UK Prime Minister Clement Atlee, leader of a Liberal post war government, to effect the disengagement of India from the British Empire. Mountbatten was a "minor" royal, but ,through his best friendship with future King Edward VII, he established himself as a major influence with the royal family and the UK government.

Mountbatten engineered the meeting of future Queen Elizabeth to his nephew, a minor Greek prince of German heritage, Prince Philip. We learn a lot, in the book, about Dickie's attempt, via Philip's fatherhood of Queen Elizabeth's babies, Charles, Anne, and Edward, to attach the name of Mountbatten to the royal lineage. Nice try, but to no avail, as Queen Mother Elizabeth and Queen Mary nixed the deal. The Queen duo was successful in attaching the name, Windsor, to the royal lineage. Queen Mary, caustically noted that Philip's only usefulness to the royal line was as a sperm donor. All this background is in the book and is just one example of the much broader perspective Von Tunzelmann brings to the partition narrative than did Collins and LaPierre.

I highlight Montbatten's attempted coup to instate his family name as the royal linage as I have recently watched an account of the same in Netflix' "The Queen."

But, I digress.

Edwina, about whom we hear little in "Feedom at Midnight," turns out to be, via Von Tunzelmann's account, a major player in the denouement of Indian/Pakistani independence. She, also, was a minor royal. But, she had money where her husband had little. She, therefore was an independent spirit. While married to Montbatten, she had many affairs, the most important of which was in her steamy relationship with Nehru.

Von Tunzelmann describes a "menage a trois" with Dickie, Edwina and "Jawahar." Dickie enjoyed Edwina's wealth, Edwina had status as a Viceroy's wife, and Nehru took counsel and assistance from both Viceroy and Vicereinne who were intimately connected to the royal family and the British government. Extensive correspondence between all these players enlightens in a way which "Feedom at Midnight" was unable to do. Edwina was no shrinking violet in her role as Vicereinne. She involved herself deeply in charities and Red Cross relief efforts. She became an influential confidant of Nehru as he plotted his strategy opposite Jinnah.

Not to leave out Jinnah, president of Muslim League and Gandhi, Indian freedom fighter and spiritual head of India's independence movement.

Jinnah, intransigent, sharp, smart, secular and resolute insisted on a separate Muslim state. Digging in his heals, he got it.

Gandhi, on the other hand, deeply opposed partition, and fought valiantly, and often successfully, to tone down sectarian violence arising from partition, mainly by engaging in important fasts in Calcutta and New Delhi. The book has a decent account of Gandhi's assassination by a Hindu nationalist who did not appreciate Gandhi's attempts to avoid partition. Hindu nationalism is a rising force in India today, as nationalist movements around the world also gain strength.

TIMDT and Mwah (sic), earlier this month, spent three nights in New Delhi's Imperial Hotel. I was reading Von Tunzelmann's book during the stay when I came upon a fascinating account of Jinnah's meeting with the Muslim League on 9 June 1947 held on the first floor of the Imperial Hotel. Fifty Muslim militants, to the right of Jinnah's already seeming intransigent push for a Muslim state, stormed the hotel in an attempt to assassinate Jinnah. They were unsuccessful and Jinnah carried on his meeting with seeming aplomb. I was sobered being present in the Imperial where major world events transpired 70 years previously. There is also a marble table preserved in the hotel's "1911 Restaurant," where Gandhi dined with Dickie and Edwina. The Imperial Hotel has many more ghosts than cited here. It is a must stay place for anyone interested in India's transition from the Raj to independence.

The interplay between these five individuals links the events of the book together.

Churchill is also there. He's out of power when Britain decides to cut loose India. But, the head butting between him, when he was in power, and Gandhi, was described in the book in a fair amount of detail.

For the first time in history, an empire voluntarily gave up its most important possession, its jewel in the crown. How this came about, as viewed through the lens of the important player's correspondence, makes for a wonderful and exciting read.