37 EA cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 399.
38 Kitchener made himself even less popular in India than he was in Britain. On the road between Simla and Mashobra, there is a long tunnel at the village of Sanjauli. Locals still tell the story about how one day Kitchener fell off his horse when riding through the tunnel, and was dragged by his stirrup. The villagers came out of their houses to watch this spectacle, but not one among them was moved to help the commander-in-chief.
39 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 88.
40 Lady Pamela Hicks, recorded by Mr B.R. Nanda, 14 October 1971, pp. 20–1.
41 DM to Sir Frederick Burrows, 9 May 1947. AAS: IOR Neg 15539, file 17; Illustrated Weekly of India, 11 May 1947, Late News Supplement, p. 8.
42 V.P. Menon, 8 May 1947. SWJN (2), vol 2, p. 116.
43 Illustrated Weekly of India, 11 May 1947, Late News Supplement, p. 1.
44 JN to DM, 11 May 1947. SWJN (2), vol 2, pp. 130–1; ToP, vol X, pp. 756–7. See also Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, p. 349.
45 DM referred to it as such from 12 April. See ToP, vol X, p. 207.
46 ‘A Note on the Draft Proposals’, SWJN (2), vol 2, p. 134.
47 Ibid, p. 133.
48 DM cited in Collins & Lapierre, Mountbatten and the Partition of India, p. 57.
49 DM cited in Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 89.
50 Minutes of the 13th miscellaneous meeting of the Viceroy, Simla, 11 May 1947. SWJN (2), vol 2, p. 140.
51 Close, Attlee, Wavell, Mountbatten, pp. 21–2; French, Liberty or Death, p. 301.
52 Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 394.
53 Viceroy’s Personal Report No, 7, 15 May 1947, ToP, vol X, p. 836.
54 Draft telegram from CRA to DM, 13 May 1947, in ibid, p. 806.
55 Leslie Rowan to CRA, 14 May 1947, in ibid, p. 818. See also Roberts, Eminent Churchillians, p. 129.
56 Ziegler, Mountbatten, pp. 383–4.
57 Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 400.
58 Azad, India Wins Freedom, pp. 183–4. In this extract Azad is referring to how JN was persuaded to accept partition, which he did, effectively, during the preparation of the plan in Simla.
59 Announcement cited in The Times, 16 May 1947, p. 6.
60 News bulletin, 22 May 1947. British Pathé News Archive, film 1185.11.
61 ‘… the Viceroy when in London reported that already at that date certain prominent Congress leaders, speaking as individuals and not on behalf of their party, had indicated in private conversation their belief that India would accept Dominion status within the Commonwealth as an ad interim measure if there could be a very early transfer of power; and that if this were effected at an early date there was good prospect that the portion of British India under Congress control would ultimately abstain from secession from the Commonwealth.’ CRA to Sir Michael Adeane, 12 June 1947. RA: PS/GVI/C 280/272.
62 WSC to CRA, 21 May 1947. CP: CHUR 2/43A, f 121.
63 CRA to DM, March 1947 [no day dated]. MP: MB1/D254.
64 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 31.
65 Leo Amery to WSC, 4 June 1947. LAP: AMEL 2/2/4, file 2/4.
66 Montague Browne, Long Sunset, p. 114; Harold Evans, Downing Street Diary: The Macmillan Years 1957–1963 (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1981), pp. 24–5.
67 DM cited in Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 384 and Collins & Lapierre, Mountbatten and the Partition of India, p. 61; WSC to CRA, 22 May 1947, CP: CHUR 2/43A, ff 116–7. DM contradicted his version of events himself in conversation with Narendra Singh Sarila. Singh Sarila, The Shadow of the Great Game, p. 295.
68 Leo Amery, Diaries, 27 May 1947. LAP: AMEL 7/41.
69 Wolpert, Jinnah, p. 326; Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 97.
70 JN, interview to the United Press of America, Mussoorie, 24 May 1947. SWJN (2), vol 2, p. 171. See also Sir Claude Auchinleck, ‘The military implication of Pakistan’, 24 April 1947, cited in Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p. 334.
71 Comments by MAJ, 21 May 1947. QP: IOR Pos 10762.
72 Times of India, 1 July 1947, p. 7.
73 EA sent her ‘a little old box’ of mother of pearl from London. EA to Fatima Jinnah, 31 May 1947. QP: IOR Pos 10762, reel 3. She sent similar boxes to Amrit Kaur and Sarojini Naidu. Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 403; MP: MB1/Q40.
12. LIGHTNING SPEED IS MUCH TOO SLOW
1 EA to Dorothy, Lady Bird, 2 June 1947. MP: MB1/Q8.
2 MKG, 1 June 1947, cited in Nanda, In Search of Gandhi, p. 154.
3 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 102 and plate opposite p. 97; Wolpert, Jinnah, p. 327.
4 Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 8, 5 June 1947. ToP, vol X, p. 160.
5 Collins & Lapierre, Mountbatten and the Partition of India, pp. 45–6; ToP, vol XI, p. 161.
6 ToP, vol XI, p. 53.
7 Brown, Nehru, pp. 172–3.
8 French, Liberty or Death, p. 304. JN and MAJ cited in The Times, 4 June 1947, p. 3.
9 Mountbatten, Time Only to Look Forward, p. 11.
10 Leo Amery, Diaries, 3 June 1947. LAP: AMEL 7/41. WSC replied to the announcement in support of dominion status and paid tribute to CRA and DM.
11 Harold Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, ed. Nigel Nicolson (Collins, London, 1966–68) 3 June 1947, vol 3, p. 100.
12 DM cited in Collins & Lapierre, Mountbatten and the Partition of India, p. 49.
13 EA cited in Hough, Edwina, p. 186.
14 DM to the East India Association, 29 June 1948. Asiatic Review, vol xliv, no 160 (October 1948), p. 348.
15 Even after the announcement of 15 August, JN believed for some time that dominion status would be an interim stage, and did not grasp that the British were actually intending to leave. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, vol 1, p. 356.
16 Govind Ballabh Pant, ToP, vol X, p. 590. Abul Kalam Azad agreed: see Azad, India Wins Freedom, p. 199.
17 ToP, vol X p. 357.
18 See Sir Eric Miéville, 29 March 1947. ToP, vol X, p. 47; Ismay, Viceroy’s staff meeting, 11 April 1947. ToP, vol X, p. 192; Auchinleck in Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p. 182.
19 Top-secret minute, n.d. (late April 1947). ToP, vol X, p. 440.
20 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 69.
21 Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 409.
22 If this was among DM’s intentions, it worked. In her official report on the viceroyalty, EA noted that the transfer of power had happened ten and a half months ahead of schedule, and wrote: ‘I feel I shall be forgiven if I place on record my wifely pride at the developments of the past few months.’ EA, report on present position in India, 24 August 1947. TNA: DO 121/69. In the words of DM’s official biographer, Philip Ziegler: ‘I think it was one of the main motive forces that drove him on his career, was feeling that even though he was not able to satisfy his wife, by God he could impose himself on the rest of the world, but he did have a feeling of inadequacy as far as she was concerned.’ ‘Mountbatten’, Secret History, Channel 4 Television.
23 See Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 109; Lord Ismay cited in ibid, p. 81.
24 Listowel to DM (draft, approved), n.d. (27 June 1947). TNA: PREM 8/550.
25 MAJ cited in Ahmed, Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity, p. 87; the implication that MAJ was considering resigning is intriguing, but would soon be rescinded.
26 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, pp. 115–6; Wolpert, Jinnah, pp. 329–30; Andreas Augustin, The Imperial New Delhi (The Most Famous Hotels in the World, 2005), pp. 83–5; Ahmed, Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity, p. 10; The Times, 10 June 1947, p. 4.
27 Dennis Holman, ‘Lady Mountbatten’s Story’, part 4. Woman, 13 October 1951.
28 Singh, Heir Apparent, p. 47; Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 414.
29 DM to the East India Association, 29 June 1948. Asiatic Review, vol xliv, no 160 (October 1948), p. 353.
30 JN, ‘A Note on Kashmir’, ToP, vol XI, p. 448; SWJN (2), vol 3, p. 229. See also Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, pp.
187–8, 191; Corfield, The Princely India I Knew, p. 172; Commonwealth Relations Office memorandum on developments in Kashmir up to 31 October 1947. TNA: DO 133/68.
31 Krishna Menon to DM, 14 June 1947. MP: MB1/E104. See also Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p. 274; SWJN (2), vol 3, pp. 273–93.
32 Anonymous letter to Anand Bhavan, received 27 June 1947. NML: AICC papers, file G-11/1946, ff 81–93.
33 Viceroy’s Personal Report No 14, 25 July 1947. ToP, vol XII, p. 334.
34 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 124; Heward, The Great and the Good, p. 38.
35 Times of India, 3 July 1947, p. 1; Manchester Guardian, 5 July 1947, p. 6.
36 ‘I want the Muslims of the Frontier to understand that they are Muslims first and Pathans afterwards and that the province will meet a disastrous fate if it does not join the Pakistan Constituent Assembly,’ MAJ said on 28 June at Delhi. He described the NWFP as economically ‘deficient’ and geographically a ‘nonentity’. MAJ cited in Illustrated Weekly of India, 29 June 1947 (Late News Supplement), p. 1.
37 Times of India, 4 July 1947, p. 3.
38 Ibid, 22 July 1947, p. 1.
39 Liberator, 27 July 1947, Delhi; and Giani Kartar Singh, both cited in Pandey, Remembering Partition, pp. 33–4.
40 JN to DM, 22 June 1947. SWJN (2), vol 3, p. 179.
41 MAJ cited in Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 10, 27 June 1947. ToP, vol XI, p. 680.
42 WSC to CRA, 1 July 1947. CP: CHUR 2/43B, f 168.
43 CRA to WSC, 4 July 1947; WSC to CRA, 14 July 1947, both in CP: CHUR 2/43B, ff 199–200, 188–9.
44 TNA: PREM 8/549, ff 26–30.
45 A further clue had come when DM presented his draft proposals for the transfer of power to MAJ on 18 May. At that stage, there had been an A version and a B version: in A, there was to be one common constitutional Governor General for the two dominions; in draft B, there was to be a separate Governor General for each dominion. MAJ underlined the word ‘separate’ in his copy. It was the only word on the page he highlighted. QP: IOR Pos 10762.
46 EA to Lady Brabourne, cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 408.
47 Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 11, 4 July 1947. ToP, vol XI, pp. 899–900.
48 TNA: PREM 8/549, ff 26–30.
49 Judd, The Lion and the Tiger, pp. 184–5.
50 John Grigg, ‘The Pride and the Glory’, Observer, 2 September 1979.
51 French, Liberty or Death, p. 316.
52 Bakhtiar cited in Ahmed, Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity, pp. 132–3.
53 Ibid, pp. 146–7; Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada in Merchant, The Jinnah Anthology, p. 70.
54 Ian Stephens, a newspaper editor who observed the situation first-hand, wrote elliptically in 1963 that ‘some Leaguers had come to suspect that Lord Mountbatten, in his proposed dual role, would subconsciously or otherwise load the dice against Pakistan, because of the friendships he and his wife had formed with leading Hindus. But Mr. Jinnah seemed to be above such suspicions.’ Stephens, Pakistan, p. 175.
55 DM to CRA, 3 July 1947. TNA: PREM 8/549, f 3. See also Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 398.
56 India Office memorandum, 7 July 1947. PREM 8/549, ff 38–40.
57 TNA: PREM 8/549, ff 26–30.
58 CP: CHUR 2/43B, ff 196–7; TNA: PREM 8/559, ff 18–19. See also Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 132.
59 MAJ to WSC and CRA via Lord Ismay, 9 July 1947. CP: CHUR 2/43B/171–3.
60 DM to CRA, 9 July 1947. TNA: PREM 8/549, f 5.
61 EA to Dowager Marchioness of Reading, 27 July 1947. MP: MB1/Q61. ‘Morally, logically as well as personally feel it’s wrong’, EA wrote privately; cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 409.
62 Times of India, 14 July 1947, p. 1.
63 DM to CRA, 25 July 1947. MP: MB1/E5.
64 EA to Dowager Marchioness of Reading, 27 July 1947. MP: MB1/Q61.
13. A FULL BASKET OF APPLES
1 The old Viceroy’s House in which DM had proposed had been given to Delhi University in 1933. Visitors may still observe a small plaque in the registrar’s office commemorating the Mountbattens’ engagement.
2 EA to Dowager Marchioness of Reading, 27 July 1947. MP: MB1/Q61.; EA to the East India Association, 13 October 1948. Asiatic Review, vol xlv, no 161 (January 1949), p. 446; MKG to EA, 18 July 1947. MP: MB2/N41.
3 Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 408.
4 Frances, Mrs Ambrose Diehl to EA, 27 July 1947. MP: MB1/Q20.
5 MAJ cited in Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p. 206. This tends to contradict Alan Campbell-Johnson’s assertion that MAJ once said: ‘The only man I have ever been impressed with in all my life was Lord Mountbatten. When I met him for the first time I felt he had “nur”,’ which Campbell-Johnson translates as ‘divine radiance’. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 230. Like Hamid, Campbell-Johnson is an erratic source, but on this occasion Hamid’s story is more convincing.
6 EA cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 408.
7 Times of India, 19 July 1947, p. 6; 22 July 1947, p. 8.
8 Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 406; Masson, Edwina, p. 178.
9 EA to Dowager Marchioness of Reading, 27 July 1947. MP: MB1/Q61.
10 The assassination was later traced to his political opponent, U Saw.
11 Liaquat Ali Khan cited in Viceroy’s Personal Report No 14, 25 July 1947. ToP, vol XII, p. 339.
12 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 138.
13 Viceroy’s Personal Report no 13, 18 July 1947. ToP, vol XII, p. 231.
14 Viceroy’s Personal Report no 14, 25 July 1947. ToP, vol XII, p. 339.
15 Carthill, The Lost Dominion, pp. 27–8.
16 See Sen, The Argumentative Indian, especially essays 1 and 6.
17 Carthill, The Lost Dominion, p. 27.
18 Lord Curzon to Queen Victoria, 12 September 1900. Cited in Chopra et al, Secret Papers from the British Royal Archives, p. 89. See also Gilmour, Curzon, pp. 184–5.
19 See Patrick French, Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer (HarperCollins, London, 1994), p. 158.
20 Mountbatten, Diaries 1920–22, 25 November 1921, p. 196.
21 Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p. 61.
22 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 192. Henry Hodson gives this figure as 20 lakh rupees (£150,000): Hodson, The Great Divide, p. 428.
23 Andreas Augustin, The Imperial New Delhi, p. 50.
24 ‘A Prince’s Ransom’, Guardian, 28 May 2001; ‘A Paperweight Worth 400 Crores – and Much More’, Hindu, 24 August 2001.
25 Allen & Dwivedi, Lives of the Indian Princes, pp. 329–30; George Birdwood, The Industrial Arts of India (Chapman & Hall, London, 1880), vol 2, p. 118; Akshaya Mukul, ‘National Treasure Up for Sale in Dubai’, Times of India, 3 January 2006.
26 Miller, I Found No Peace, p. 152.
27 Malik Habib Ahmed Khan cited in ibid, p. 153.
28 Cited in French, Liberty or Death, p. 246.
29 Robin Jeffrey, ‘Introduction’, in Jeffrey, People, Princes and Paramount Power, p. 16.
30 Ziegler maintains that DM personally favoured the tactic of organizing princely states into blocs that might form separate nations – something like ‘Plan Balkan’ – as had Napoleon in Germany. But there was no time to institute such a complex plan and, in any case, Congress would have been furious. Ziegler, Mountbatten, pp. 405–6.
31 JN, 10 June 1947, cited in ToP, vol XI, p. 233.
32 Viceroy’s Personal Report No 10, 27 June 1947, ibid, p. 687. See also Brown, Nehru, p. 174. Patel had been an outspoken critic of the princely states since the late 1920s, when he had described them as ‘disorderly and pitiable’, with ‘no limits to their slavery’. On the other hand, he had already demonstrated an ability to make concessions to the privileged classes in order to keep the process running smoothly. Two months before, Indian citizenship policy had been established, with a clause stating that no titles should be conferred by the Union and no citizen should accept titles
from a foreign state. At Patel’s suggestion, the ruling was not made retrospective. ‘After all,’ he had joked, ‘some people have spent so much money in obtaining titles – let them keep them.’ Patel cited in Krishna, Sardar, p. 296; The Times, 1 May 1947, p. 4.
33 CRA to DM, March 1947 [no day dated]. MP: MB1/D254.
34 Viceroy’s Personal Report No 14, 25 July 1947. ToP, vol XII, p. 338.
35 Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 411.
36 Patel cited in Krishna, Sardar, pp. 322, 319, 323.
37 Walter Monckton, for the Nizam of Hyderabad, described DM’s methods as ‘an exact replica of those in which Hitler indulged’; another agent told Sir Conrad Corfield that ‘he now knew what Dolfuss felt like when he was sent for to see Hitler: he had not expected to be spoken to like that by a British officer: after a moment’s pause he withdrew the word “British”.’ Both cited in Bradford, George VI, pp. 524–5.
38 Roberts, Eminent Churchillians, p. 102; Allen & Dwivedi, Lives of the Indian Princes, p. 317.
39 See, for example: James, Raj, pp. 624–9; Roberts, Eminent Churchillians, pp. 102–3; Cannadine, Ornamentalism, pp. 156–8. In fact, the Butler Committee, which looked into the question of princely rights and British responsibilities alongside the Simon Commission in the 1920s, produced an inconclusive and extremely complex set of findings, clear only in its statement that the states should not be transferred into a relationship with an independent Indian government without their permission. Hodson, The Great Divide, pp. 27–9. DM would doubtless have argued that they were not.
40 Hodson, The Great Divide, p. 22.
41 Pethick-Lawrence to DM, 18 April 1947. ToP, vol X, p. 327.
42 DM cited in Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 408.
43 Nizam of Hyderabad to WSC, 19 June 1947; WSC to Nizam of Hyderabad, 24 June 1947; both WMP: 29, ff 201, 209.
44 Viceroy’s Personal Report No 15, 1 August 1947. ToP vol XII, p. 454.
45 Patel cited in Krishna, Sardar, pp. 339–40.
46 Viceroy’s Personal Report no 17, 16 August 1947, ToP, vol XII, p. 767; Allen & Dwivedi, Lives of the Indian Princes, p. 320; Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 411; Hodson, The Great Divide, p. 380 (footnote).
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