Affairs of Transition

The minutiae of day-to-day living shares centre stage with history in the making. The antics of Neola, the egg-thieving mongoose, and Pamela8217;s tipsy parrot are as important as her father8217;s deliberations with Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and various Indian rulers, struggling to keep their purses and privileges, if not their kingdoms. Tussles with Hindi lessons and the long-distance excitement of Princess Elizabeth8217;s romance with Prince Philip both Mountbatten8217;s cousins share page-space with Radcliffe8217;s partition of India. Dance parties vie with the raging riots outside Viceregal Lodge. Some maintained that Mountbatten8217;s desire to be lead player at the royal wedding he had plotted the alliance for years contributed to the disastrous fast-forwarding of the Independence process. In hindsight, one does wonder whether the instant bonding between Nehru and the Mountbattens was good or bad for India in the long term. Did it smoothen a potentially bumpy process or blind the protagonists to its numerous flaws and hazards?

The pruriently curious will flip to the bits about Nehru and Lady Mountbatten. There is nothing that has not already emerged in Philip Ziegler and Janet Morgan8217;s excellent biographies of Mountbatten and Edwina. Pamela confirms their mutual love, lasting till Edwina8217;s tragically early death in Borneo when she was 58 she was found with a sheaf of Nehru8217;s letters by her bedside as well as Mountbatten8217;s knowledge of and complicity in the relationship. She states emphatically that although her mother had had many other lovers, her affair with Nehru had no physical dimension. Does this corroborate Padmaja Naidu8217;s confidence to my father much later, that though Nehru greatly loved women, Padmaja herself was enthralled by him all her life, he could no longer consummate a relationship?

Both the Mountbattens had undoubted charisma and courage, but Edwina emerges as the real heroine. Devoid of the racial and social prejudices of her class and period, she threw open the hitherto hallowed portals of the viceroy8217;s residence to Indians of every denomination and kind; enslaving not only Nehru, Gandhi and Rajagopalachari, but also thousands of unknown Indians with her warmth and passionate concern; risking her life and health over and over visiting riot- or plague-ridden areas; setting up camps for their succour. 8220;She saw love, she didn8217;t see danger,8221; as an eyewitness put it. During the dreadful Partition riots, the Viceregal Estate provided refuge to over 5,000 homeless victims. There is a characteristic vignette of her wiping her dog8217;s poo off the floor in evening gown and gloves, rather than make a high-caste servant demean himself doing it.

As often with English authors, Indian names, titles and customs get a mangling. Afridis become Alfridis, while poor Dr Katju, governor of Orissa, not only loses his false teeth in a wonderful anecdote about a state banquet, but has his name misspelt in the process. And my great-grandfather Badruddin Tyabji, third president of the Indian National Congress, will be turning in his grave at the repeated references to the 8220;Hindu Indian Congress Party8221;.

Nevertheless, 60 years on, India Remembered is redolent with nostalgia and affection for India and Indians. It also brings a sense of period and temps perdu 8212; a peep behind hitherto closed doors at ordinary people poised in extraordinary transition; transformed, despite themselves, into iconic heroes, charged with life-altering decisions. The diary format highlights the incredibly pace of transition. It was barely five months between Mountbatten8217;s arrival and the Independence Day ceremonies 8212; shorter than even the most optimistic English politicians, anxious to end a bad job quickly, had thought possible.

8220;When Nehru, the urbane idealist, would go off at a passionate tangent,8221; says Pamela in retrospect, 8220;Patel would say, 8216;Don8217;t go ahead of the people so far; come back, take them with you.8217;8221; Did everyone go ahead too far and too fast, not just of the people, but of India8217;s true interest 8212; and how much did that charmed threesome, Nehru, Edwina and Louis, aid or hinder India8217;s future?