Midnight's Furies

by Nisid Hajari

  105. Savory Diary, 2 September 1947, Savory Papers, No. 89.

  106. Ismay to Mountbatten, 2 October 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/E6.

  107. Donovan to Marshall, 11 September 1947, US: 845.00/9–1147.

  108. Nehru to Patel, 31 August 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:43.

  109. Sarah Ismay to Hastings Ismay, n.d., Ismay Papers, 3/8/28b.

  110. Statement on Delhi Disturbances Made by a Military Officer on 21 September 1947, Mudie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur F164/47.

  111. Remarks at a Cabinet Meeting, 4 September 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:48.

  112. Contrary to his later claims that both Nehru and Patel were “almost pathetic in their joy at seeing him,” as U.S. ambassador Henry Grady put it, Mountbatten initially described the Sardar as “very gloomy and unforthcoming” when he learned of Mountbatten’s return to Delhi. Governor-General’s Personal Report No. 2, 11 September 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D86.

  7. “STOP THIS MADNESS”

  1. Louis Heren, Growing Up on the Times (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978), 43.

  2. Pandey, Remembering Partition, 128.

  3. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:367–368, 173.

  4. Savory Diary, 7 September 1947, Savory Papers, No. 89.

  5. Minutes of the Fourth Emergency Committee Meeting, Appendix A, 8 September 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D33/5.

  6. Chaudhuri, Thy Hand, Great Anarch!, 840.

  7. “The Disturbances in Delhi,” 3 October 1947, IOR: L/WS/1/748.

  8. Patel to Nehru, 12 October 1947, Sardar Patel’s Correspondence, 4:301.

  9. Patel, Rites of Passage, 84.

  10. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:176, 221.

  11. Hastings Ismay to Laura Ismay, 8 September 1947, Ismay Papers, 3/8/18.

  12. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 181.

  13. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:215.

  14. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 183.

  15. Governor-General’s Personal Report No. 2, 11 September 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D86.

  16. Mountbatten Interview with Auchinleck, 8 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/1.

  17. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:178.

  18. Minutes of the Fourth Emergency Committee Meeting, 8 September 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D33/5.

  19. Chaudhuri, Thy Hand, Great Anarch!, 845.

  20. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India Wins Freedom: An Autobiographical Narrative (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1959), 233, 232.

  21. Ibid., 232.

  22. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, 2:15–16.

  23. Patel, Rites of Passage, 93–94.

  24. Macdonald to Marshall, 11 September 1947, US: 845.00/9–1147.

  25. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 186.

  26. Hastings Lionel Ismay, The Memoirs of General Lord Ismay (London: Viking, 1960), 437.

  27. Interview with Nayantara Sahgal, Oral History Archive, NMML.

  28. Badruddin Tyabji, “Memoirs of an Egoist,” in Hasan, ed., Islam in South Asia, 6:40.

  29. See Tunzelmann’s Indian Summer, 273–292, for a particularly good account of their budding relationship during this period.

  30. Mian Abdul Aziz to Ikramullah, 16 September 1947, QMJP, 5:504–508.

  31. Pandey, Remembering Partition, 140.

  32. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:216.

  33. Ismay to Mountbatten, 23 September 1947, IOR: R/3/1/173.

  34. Grady to Marshall, 14 September 1947, US: 845.00/9–1447.

  35. Pandey, Remembering Partition, 124.

  36. Savory Diary, 12 September 1947, Savory Papers, No. 89.

  37. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:371.

  38. Donovan to Marshall, 18 September 1947, US: 845.00/9–1847.

  39. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:361.

  40. See cables from Zahid Hussain, 2–10 September 1947, QMJP, 5:465, 479, 484 – 488, 492.

  41. Ibid., 5:492, 479.

  42. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:182, 177.

  43. Charles Lewis to Marshall, 8 September 1947, US: 845f.00/9–847.

  44. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:157, 168, 177.

  45. Ibid., 1:156.

  46. Hussain to Ikramullah, 9 September 1947, QMJP, 5:492.

  47. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:169.

  48. Ibid., 1:196–197.

  49. Dennis Kux, Disenchanted Allies: The United States and Pakistan, 1947–2000 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 20.

  50. Jinnah to Shah Nawaz Bhutto, 8 September 1947, QMJP, 5:584.

  51. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 192.

  52. “Passion Royale for Pampering Pets,” The Tribune, 24 May 2003, www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030524/windows/main2.htm.

  53. Narendra Singh Sarila, The Shadow of the Great Game: The Untold Story of India’s Partition (New Delhi: HarperCollins India, 2005), 318–319.

  54. Bhutto to Jinnah, 4 September 1947, QMJP, 5:579.

  55. Nawab of Junagadh to Jinnah, 15 August 1947, ibid., 5:542.

  56. Bhutto to I. H. M. Abrahani, 6 September 1947, ibid., 5:584.

  57. Report of the First Governor-General of India, Part D: Junagadh, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D2.

  58. Hastings Ismay to Laura Ismay, 16 September 1947, Ismay Papers, 3/8/20a.

  59. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:192; Mountbatten to Jinnah, 29 September 1947, QMJP, 5:618.

  60. Note by Hastings Ismay of His Conversations with Jinnah, 12–14 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  61. Ismay, Memoirs, 440.

  62. Note by Ismay of His Conversations with Jinnah, 12–14 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  63. Ibid.

  64. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:360–361.

  65. Bourke-White, Halfway to Freedom, 3–4.

  66. Mudie to Jinnah, 11 September 1947, Mudie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur F164/17.

  67. Mudie to Jinnah, 13 September 1947, Mudie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur F164/17.

  68. Meeting in Delhi, 25 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15562/1.

  69. Minutes of the Eleventh Emergency Committee Meeting, 15 September 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D34/3.

  70. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:498.

  71. Record of Conversation between Ismay and Nehru, 2 October 1947, TNA: PREM 8/588.

  72. Report by E. De V. Moss of Visit to East Punjab, 20 September 1947, Mudie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur F164/17.

  73. Swaran Singh to Trivedi, 17 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15554/8.

  74. Col. Sher Khan’s Report of East Punjab Situation, 24 September 1947, Singh, ed., Select Documents on Partition of the Punjab, 536.

  75. Ismay to Cunningham, 30 September 1947, Ismay Papers, 3/7/67/40.

  76. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:210.

  77. Ibid., 1:196.

  78. Donovan to Marshall, 23 September 1947, US: 845.00/9–2347.

  79. Mudie to Jinnah, 23 September 1947, QMJP, 5:274–279.

  80. Messervy to Cunningham, 18 September 1947, ibid., 5:304.

  81. Das, From Curzon to Nehru, 268.

  82. “Interview with Tara Singh,” The Liberator, 21 September 1947, 2.

  83. Trivedi to Swaran Singh, 26 September 1947, Singh, ed., Select Documents on Partition of the Punjab, 538.

  84. Daily Security Summary, 23 September 1947, TNA: WO 208/3820; Liaquat to Nehru, 21 September 1947, Mudie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur F164/17.

  85. Daily Security Summary, 25 September 1947, TNA: WO 208/3820.

  86. Bourke-White, Halfway to Freedom, 6.

  87. Mudie to Jinnah, 23 September 1947, QMJP, 5:274–279.

  88. Deputy High Commissioner, Lahore, to Foreign, Delhi, 25 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15552.

  89. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:320.

  90. Grady to Marshall, 5 October 1947, US: 845.00/10–547.

  91. Grady to Marshall, 14 September 1947, US: 845.00/9–1447.

  92. Nehru to Naidu, 7 April 1938,
SWJN, 1st ser., 13:698.

  93. Notes on Junagadh Crisis, 29 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  94. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 190.

  95. Note to Cabinet on Refugee Policy, 12 September 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:64.

  96. Nehru to Prasad, 17 September 1947, ibid., 4:83.

  97. Speech in Delhi, 29 September 1947, ibid., 4:105.

  98. Nehru to Patel, 30 September 1947, Sardar Patel’s Correspondence, 4:297.

  99. Mountbatten to Ismay, 4 October 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/E83A.

  100. Grady to Marshall, 5 October 1947, US: 845.00/10–547.

  101. Grady to Marshall, 23 September 1947, US: 845.00/9–2347.

  102. Notes on Junagadh Crisis, 29 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  103. Untitled Note, November 1947, Ismay Papers, 3/7/66/5.

  104. Notes on Junagadh Crisis, 29 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  105. Report of the First Governor-General of India, Part D: Projected Operations in Kathiawar, Appendix 2, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D2.

  106. Governor-General’s Personal Report No. 3, 26 September 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D86.

  107. Das, From Curzon to Nehru, 269.

  108. Grady to Marshall, 15 October 1947, US: 845.00/10–1547.

  109. Thompson to Marshall, 28 November 1947, US: 845.00/11–2847.

  110. Untitled Note, 22 September 1947, Monckton Papers, Dep. Monckton Trustees 39, pp. 181 –183.

  111. Syed Ahmed El-Edroos, Hyderabad of “The Seven Loaves” (Hyderabad: Laser Prints, 1994), 126–128.

  112. Governor-General’s Personal Report No. 1, 2 September 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D86.

  113. Walter Monckton to Mountbatten, 24 September 1947, Monckton Papers, Dep. Monckton Trustees 39, p. 189.

  114. Savory Diary, 18 September 1947, Savory Papers, No. 89.

  115. Report of the First Governor-General of India, Part D: Projected Operations in Kathiawar, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D2.

  116. Ibid.

  117. Notes on Junagadh Crisis, 29 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  118. Report of the First Governor-General of India, Part D: Projected Operations in Kathiawar, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D2.

  119. Messervy to Auchinleck, 1 October 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/E106.

  120. Laurence Grafftey-Smith to Commonwealth Relations Office, 7 October 1947, IOR: L/PS/13/1845(B).

  121. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:290–291.

  122. Ibid., 1:331, 93.

  123. Bourke-White, Halfway to Freedom, 11.

  124. Jinnah to Attlee, 1 October 1947, TNA: PREM 8/568.

  125. Record of Conversation between Ismay and Jinnah at Karachi, 3 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  126. Statement by Ismay on the Situation in India and Pakistan, 8 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15549/2.

  127. Record of Conversation between Ismay and Jinnah at Karachi, 3 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  128. Lieutenant Colonel G. S., MI2, to P. C. Bamford, MI5, 19 September 1947, TNA: WO 208/3820.

  129. Secret Note by Sir Archibald Carter of Conversations in Karachi, 1–3 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15549/2.

  130. Record of Meeting between Ismay and Jinnah, 3 October 1947, TNA: PREM 8/588.

  131. Bristow, Memories of the British Raj, 182.

  132. Shankar, My Reminiscences of Sardar Patel, 112.

  133. “Discussions with Nehru and Liaquat Before and After Lunch,” 1 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561.

  134. Governor-General’s Personal Report No. 4, 10 October 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D86.

  8. AD HOC JIHAD

  1. Khurshid, Memories of Jinnah, 9.

  2. Note by Khurshid, Srinagar, 12 October 1947, QMJP, 9:247.

  3. Victoria Schofield, Kashmir in the Crossfire (London: I. B. Tauris, 1996), 56.

  4. Note by Khurshid, Srinagar, 12 October 1947, QMJP, 9:247.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Gandhi, Patel, 439.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Shuja Nawaz, Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 49.

  9. Nehru to M. C. Mahajan, 21 October 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:273.

  10. Richard Symonds, In the Margins of Independence: A Relief Worker in India and Pakistan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 77.

  11. Record of Conversation with General Scott, Chief of Staff, Kashmir State Forces, 8 October 1947, IOR: L/PS/13/1845(B).

  12. All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference to Jinnah, 13 September 1947, QMJP, 5:594.

  13. Akbar Khan, Raiders in Kashmir (Karachi: Pak, 1970), 16.

  14. Ibid., 20.

  15. Ibid., 17.

  16. Cunningham Diary, 6 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  17. Newspaper Clipping, 5 October 1947, IOR: L/PS/13/1845(B).

  18. Record of Conversation with General Scott, Kashmir State Forces, 8 October 1947, IOR: L/PS/13/1845(B).

  19. Report from M. K. Sinha, 9 October 1947, NAI: F. No. 85(9)–PR/47.

  20. Nehru to Patel, 27 September 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:263.

  21. Nawaz, Crossed Swords, 46–48.

  22. Khan, Raiders in Kashmir, 23.

  23. Cunningham Diary, 25 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  24. Correspondence with the External Affairs Department regarding Propaganda through Mullahs, etc., Cunningham Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D670/19.

  25. Cunningham Diary, 13 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  26. Cunningham Diary, 15 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  27. Khan, The Nation That Lost Its Soul, 214.

  28. Cunningham Diary, 22 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  29. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 2:542.

  30. Cunningham Diary, 15 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  31. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 2:734.

  32. Cunningham Diary, 18 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  33. Messervy to Mountbatten, 6 October 1965, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/K161.

  34. Cunningham Diary, 20 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  35. Cunningham to Mountbatten, 8 May 1948, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/E199.

  36. Schofield, Kashmir in the Crossfire, 138.

  37. Cunningham Diary, 23 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  38. Cunningham Diary, 24 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  39. Wilfrid Russell, Merchant in a Mirror (London: Asia Publishing, 1961), 131.

  40. Andrew Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir (New Delhi: Viking, 2007), 122, 123.

  41. Ibid., 62–63.

  42. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 2:564.

  43. M. C. Mahajan, Looking Back: The Autobiography of Mehr Chand Mahajan (London: Asia Publishing, 1963), 147.

  44. Karan Singh, Heir Apparent: An Autobiography, vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 57

  45. Nicol Smith, “American Traveler’s Observations on Developments in Kashmir and Western Tibet,” enclosure in Donovan to Marshall, 27 October 1947, US: 845.00/11–347.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Minutes of Defence Committee Meeting No. 8, 25 October 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D42/9.

  48. Ibid.

  49. Minutes of Defence Committee Meeting No. 9, 26 October 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D42/10.

  50. Prem Shankar Jha, Kashmir 1947: The Origins of a Dispute (London: Pluto Press, 2003), 187.

  51. French, Liberty or Death, 375.

  52. Mahajan, Looking Back, 151–152.

  53. Ibid., 152.

  54. Minutes of Defence Committee Meeting No. 9, 26 October 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D42/10.

  55. Notes by A. C. B. Symon, 27 October 1947, QMJP, 9:303.

  56. William Cranston to Alexander Symon, 27 October 1947, ibid., 9:292.

  57. Talbot, An American Witness, 352.

  58. Meeting between Mountbatten and Jinnah, 1 November 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561; Untitled Note, Novemb
er 1947, Ismay Papers, 3/7/66/5.

  59. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 2:560.

  60. Ibid., 2:599.

  61. Mohammed Hyder, October Coup: A Memoir of the Struggle for Hyderabad (New Delhi: Roli, 2012; digital edition), 224.

  62. Report of the First Governor-General of India, Part F: Hyderabad, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D2.

  63. Meeting among Mountbatten, Auchinleck, and Ismay, 28 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  64. Cunningham Diary, 28 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  65. Meeting among Mountbatten, Auchinleck, and Ismay, 28 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  66. Cunningham Diary, 28 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  67. Auchinleck to Chiefs of Staff, 28 October 1947, TNA: PREM 8/1455/1.

  68. Cunningham Diary, 28 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  69. Minutes of the Tenth Meeting of the Defence Committee, 28 October 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D43/1.

  70. Meeting among Mountbatten, Auchinleck, and Ismay, 28 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  71. “Parley on Kashmir Called by Jinnah,” New York Times, 29 October 1947, 21.

  72. Cunningham Diary, 28 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  73. Account of Attempt to Get Nehru to Lahore, 28 October–1 November 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  74. Grady to Marshall, 20 October 1947, US: 845.00/10–2047.

  75. Account of Attempt to Get Nehru to Lahore, 28 October–1 November 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  76. Cunningham Diary, 29 October 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  77. Ibid.

  78. Ibid.

  79. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 2:743.

  80. Ibid., 2:804.

  81. Messervy to Mountbatten, 6 October 1965, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/K161.

  82. Nehru to Attlee, 1 November 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:303.

  83. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 227–228.

  84. Governor-General’s Personal Report No. 5, 7 November 1947, Mountbatten Papers, IOR: L/PO/6/123.

  85. Untitled Note, November 1947, Ismay Papers, 3/7/66/5.

  86. Meeting between Mountbatten and Jinnah about Kashmir, 1 November 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  87. Ibid.

  88. Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 83–84. See also Nehru to V. Pandit, 28 October 1947, Nehru Papers, NMML.

  89. Whitehead, A Mission in Kashmir, 144.