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108 Sir Terence Shone to Commonwealth Relations Office, 28 December 1947, TNA: DO 142/543.
109 Commonwealth Relations Office to Sir Terence Shone, 29 December 1947. TNA: DO 142/490.
110 CRA to JN, 29 December 1947. TNA: DO 142/490. CRA had based his opinion on a letter written by Philip Noel-Baker, who had said that the Indian government ‘appear to think that they can bring their present campaign to victory, and stifle resistance in Kashmir, if they cut off supplies and reinforcements to their opponents by occupying the Pakistan territory which now serves as their opponents’ base. I do not know who can have given them such advice, but I believe it to be a dangerous military miscalculation. Many of those who are in the field against them are Poonchis or other Kashmiries [sic]; I know them to be excellent soldiers; I think it most unlikely that the Indian Army could successfully maintain enough troops in Kashmir to counter their guerrilla tactics, and to bring them to submission.’ Philip Noel-Baker to Sir Terence Shone, 27 December 1947. TNA: DO 142/490.
111 Foreign Office to Ambassadors, 2 January 1948. TNA: DO 35/3162.
18. MAYBE NOT TODAY, MAYBE NOT TOMORROW
1 Richard Symonds to EA, 1 January 1948. MP: MB1/Q68; also Symonds, In the Margins of Independence, p. 88.
2 Commonwealth Relations Office memorandum on the Kashmir dispute, May 1948. TNA: DO 142/540.
3 Sir Laurence Grafftey-Smith to Commonwealth Relations Office, 7 January 1948. TNA: DO 142/542.
4 ‘The number of genuine tribesmen from the North West Frontier which have come into the area to assist these local insurgents appears … to be very small. It should be remembered that the Poonch area produced 60,000 troops for the last war, most of whom are now home. These are formidable fighters.’ Foreign Office to Ambassadors, 9 January 1948. TNA: DO 35/3162.
5 Commonwealth Relations Office memorandum on the Kashmir dispute, May 1948. TNA: DO 142/540.
6 Foreign Office to UN Delegation in New York, 12 January 1948. TNA: DO 142/490.
7 UK High Commissioner India to Commonwealth Relations Office, 5 January 1948. TNA: DO 142/542, Commonwealth Relations Office memorandum on the Kashmir dispute, May 1948. TNA: DO 142/540.
8 Brown, Nehru, pp. 178–9.
9 CRA to Philip Noel-Baker and embassies, 10 January 1948. TNA: DO 142/490.
10 The Light (Lahore), 16 May 1948, p. 3.
11 Akbar, Nehru, p. 448.
12 DM cited in Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 450.
13 Sir M. Peterson to Foreign Office, 13 January 1948. TNA: DO 35/3162.
14 Cited in letter from J.G.P. Spicer to L.N. Helsby, 1 November 1948, TNA: CAB 127/143.
15 Symonds, In the Margins of Independence, p. 97.
16 MKG, fragment of a letter, 7 January 1948. CWMG, vol 90, p. 376.
17 MKG, fragment of a letter, 9 January 1948. CWMG, vol 90, p. 388.
18 Vallabhbhai Patel cited in French, Liberty or Death, pp. 359–60. See also SWJN (2), vol 5, pp. 21, 30; Akbar, Nehru, p. 454.
19 A top-secret telegram from the British High Commissioner to the Commonwealth Relations Office mentioned this possibility. Sir Terence Shone to Archibald Carter, n.d. (January 1948), TNA: DO 133/93.
20 Khilnani, The Idea of India, p. 75; Seton, Panditji, pp. 158–9.
21 UK High Commissioner (India) to Commonwealth Relations Office, 13 January 1948. TNA: DO 35/3162.
22 Bourke-White, Portrait of Myself, p. 292.
23 MKG cited in Governor General’s Personal Report no. 8, 3 February 1948. AAS: Mss Eur D714/86.
24 Akbar, Nehru, p. 429.
25 DM cited in Collins & Lapierre, Mountbatten and the Partition of India, p. 36.
26 Governor General’s Personal Report no. 8, 3 February 1948. AAS: Mss Eur D714/86. See also DM’s record of the meeting, AAS: IOR Neg 15561/195C, ff 96–8.
27 Hutheesing, We Nehrus, p. 218; Brown, Nehru, pp. 179–80; SWJN (2), vol 5, pp. 6–7.
28 MKG, 18 January 1948.CWMG, vol 90, p. 444.
29 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 272.
30 MKG cited in Malgonkar, The Men Who Killed Gandhi, p. 153.
31 Report of ACB Symon to Philip Noel-Baker, 4 February 1948. TNA: PREM 8/741.
32 See speech in SWJN (2), vol 5, p. 32; also Pioneer (Lucknow), 29 January 1948, p. 1.
33 Hutheesing, We Nehrus, p. 222; Frank, Indira, p. 218.
34 Report of A.C.B. Symon to Philip Noel-Baker, 4 February 1948. TNA: PREM 8/741.
35 Hutheesing, We Nehrus, p. 224. Similar sentiments were expressed during a memorable scene in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, in which Amina and Ahmed Sinai are at the cinema when news of MKG’s assassination comes through. Amina’s relief when the assassin is revealed to have a Hindu name is obvious. ‘By being Godse he has saved our lives!’ Rushdie, Midnight’s Children, p. 142.
36 Malgonkar, The Men Who Killed Gandhi, pp. 20–1, 85.
37 Nayantara Pandit to Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, 18 February 1948. Private collection of Nayantara Sahgal.
38 Sahgal, Prison and Chocolate Cake, p. 219; also Moraes, Jawaharlal Nehru, p. 348.
39 Hutheesing, We Nehrus, p. 225.
40 Bourke-White, Portrait of Myself, p. 298.
41 Hutheesing, We Nehrus, p. 226.
42 According to journalist Pran Chopra, cited in Adams & Whitehead, The Dynasty, p. 137; see also Report of A.C.B. Symon to Philip Noel-Baker, 4 February 1948. TNA: PREM 8/741.
43 SWJN (2), vol 5, p. 35.
44 Hutheesing, We Nehrus, pp. 227–8.
45 Report of A.C.B. Symon, to Philip Noel-Baker, 4 February 1948. TNA: PREM 8/741.
46 CP: CHUR 2/44.
47 Coward, Diaries, 30 January 1948, p. 103.
48 Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 427.
49 Gopal, Nehru, vol ii, p. 26.
50 Peter Murphy to EA, cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 423.
51 Ibid, p. 423.
52 Barratt with Ritchie, With the Greatest Respect, p. 47.
53 Hough, Edwina, p. 182.
54 JN to EA, cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 429.
55 Hutheesing, We Nehrus, p. 198.
56 MP: MB2/N14.
57 Brown, Nehru, pp. 180–1; DM to Krishna Menon, 7 February 1948. MP:MB1/F37.
58 Pandey, Remembering Partition, p. 145; Dalton, Mahatma Gandhi, p. 167.
59 Sarojini Naidu cited in John Grigg, ‘The Power and the Glory’, Observer, 2 September 1979.
60 Krishna Menon to DM, 3 February 1948 (dated 1947 in error). MP: MB1/F37.
61 DM to Krishna Menon, 7 February 1948. MPJMB1/F37.
62 Rita Pandit to Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, 17 February 1948. VLP: correspondence with Rita Dar.
63 EA to Agatha Harrison, 20 February 1948. Seton, Panditji, plate xix, between pp. 140–1.
64 Sir G. Squire to Foreign Office, 11 January 1948. TNA: DO 142/490.
65 MAJ cited in Ahmed, Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity, p. 178.
66 Bourke-White, Portrait of Myself, p. 291.
67 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 255.
68 DM to CRA, 8 February 1948. TNA: DO 142/496.
69 CRA to DM, 10 February 1948. TNA: DO 142/496.
70 DM to CRA, 11 February 1948. TNA: DO 142/496.
71 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 287.
72 DM to CRA, 24 February 1948; Philip Noel-Baker to CRA, 25 February 1948 and 26 February 1948; Philip Noel-Baker to Sir Terence Shone, 3 March 1948; all TNA: PREM 8/821; see also TNA: DO 142/496.
73 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 245; DM to Walter Monckton, 29 November 1947. WMP: 30, f 652.
74 Nizam of Hyderabad to Walter Monckton, 16 January 1948. WMP: 31, f 76.
75 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 313.
76 Nizam of Hyderabad cited in ibid, p. 329.
77 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, pp. 300–1.
78 Ibid, p. 304.
79 Kux, Estranged Democracies, p. 68.
80 Rajagopalachari cited in
Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 297.
81 Ibid, p. 317.
82 UK High Commissioner in India to Commonwealth Relations Office, 18 April 1948. TNA: DO 142/496.
83 Horace Alexander to EA, 22 April 1948. MP: MB1/Q6.
84 EA to Horace Alexander, 19 May 1948. MP: MB1/Q6.
85 DM, report of an interview with JN, 3 May 1948. AAS: IOR Neg 15561/195F, f 23.
86 SWJN (2), vol 5, p. 271.
87 EA to Sheikh Abdullah, 30 May 1948. MP: MB1/Q101.
88 DM, report of interviews with JN and Vallabhbhai Patel, 20 April 1948. AAS: IOR Neg 15561/195A, f 45.
89 JN to Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, 30 March 1948; Chakravarty Rajagopalachari to JN, 2 April 1948; JN to Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, 11 April 1948; Chakravarty Rajagopalachari to JN, 15 April 1948. NML: Papers of Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, Inst. V, correspondence with JN.
90 JN to Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, 6 May 1948; all NML: Papers of Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, Inst. V, correspondence with JN.
91 Chakravarty Rajagopalachari to JN, 12 May 1948. NML: Papers of Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, Inst. V, correspondence with JN.
92 EA to JN, cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, pp. 427–8.
93 DM to Lady Brabourne, 12 June 1948. Cited in Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 473.
94 Roberts, Eminent Churchillians, pp. 125–6.
95 Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 428.
96 Countess Mountbatten of Burma cited in Adams & Whitehead, The Dynasty, p. 148.
97 Lady Pamela Hicks in ‘Mountbatten’, Secret History, Channel 4 Television. Lady Pamela made a point of stating that she did not believe the relationship to be physical.
98 DM to Lady Brabourne, 22 May 1948, cited in Ziegler, Mountbatten, p. 460.
99 JN to EA, 12 March 1957, Cited in ibid, p. 473.
100 JN to Indira Gandhi, 19 May 1948. Nehru and Gandhi, Two Alone, Two Together, p. 553.
101 EA to JN, cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 428.
102 JN to EA, cited in ibid, p. 429.
103 EA cited in ibid, p. 429.
104 Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, p. 349.
105 DM: farewell memorandum, in DM to Vallabhbhai Patel, 19 June 1948. MP: MB1/D150. Notably, India already had a female ambassador, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, who happened to be a widow. DM made no recommendations as to ambassadors’ husbands.
106 JN to EA, cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 430.
107 Illustrated Weekly of India, 20 June 1948, pp. 9–11.
108 JN to EA, 18 June 1948. MP: MB1/R447.
109 Indian News Chronicle, 21 June 1948, p. 1; Statesman, 21 June 1948, p. 1.
110 Holman, ‘Lady Mountbatten’s story’, part 5.
111 JN cited in Holman, Lady Louis, p. 12.
112 JN to King George VI, 21 May 1948. RA: PS/GVI/C 280/292; Sir Alan Lascelles to JN, 17 June 1948. RA: PS/GVI/C 280/294; JN to Sir Alan Lascelles, 23 July 1948. RA: PS/GVI/C 280/296; Sir Alan Lascelles to JN, 29 July 1948. RA: PS/GVI/C 280/303.
113 JN to EA, cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 432.
114 JN himself disliked his name, and had almost thought of changing it a decade before after ‘a BBC announcer got hopelessly muddled over it and went on ha-haing’. JN to Krishna Menon, 25 March 1937, cited in Akbar, Nehru, p. 307. In contrast, DM seems to have had no trouble spelling Vallabhbhai Patel or Chakravarty Rajagopalachari’s names.
115 MP: MB2/N14.
116 Times of India, 22 June 1948, pp. 1, 3.
117 Chakravarty Rajagopalachari to CRA, 23 June 1948. TNA: PREM 8/808.
IV. AFTERWARDS
19. A KISS GOODBYE
1 Chakravarty Rajagopalachari to DM, 23 June 1948. MP: MB1/F42.
2 Anonymous friend cited in Hough, Edwina, p. 199.
3 EA to JN, cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 434.
4 JN to EA, cited in ibid, p. 435.
5 JN to DM, 3 July 1948. MP: MB1/F39.
6 Chakravarty Rajagopalachari to DM, 1 July 1948. MP: MB1/F42.
7 Truth, 2 July 1948, p. 2. See also Chakravarty Rajagopalachari to DM, 8 July 1948. MP: MB1/F42.
8 DM to Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, 16 July 1948. MP: MB1/F42.
9 CP: CHUR 2/153B, ff 286–7.
10 Wolpert, Nehru, p. 401.
11 DM to WSC, 23 July 1947. CP: CHUR 2/153B, f 281. WSC to DM, 4 August 1947. CP: CHUR 2/153B, f 282.
12 Leo Amery, Diary, 29 June 1948. LAP: AMEL 7/42.
13 EA to the East India Association, 29 June 1948. Asiatic Review, vol xliv, no 160 (October 1948), pp. 354–5.
14 JN to DM, 3 July 1948. MP: MB1/F39.
15 DM to JN, 15 July 1947. MP: MB1/F39.
16 DM to CRA, 6 July 1948. MP: MB1/E5.
17 DM to JN, 15 July 1947. MP: MB1/F39.
18 DM to JN, 28 July 1948. MP: MB1/F39.
19 JN to DM, 1 August 1948. MP: MB1/F39.
20 DM to JN, 15 August 1948. MP: MB1/F39; see also DM to JN, 10 September 1948. MP: MB1/F39.
21 DM to JN, 28 July 1948. MP: MB1/F39.
22 Jinnah, My Brother, p. 35.
23 MAJ cited in Akbar, Nehru, p. 433. See also Singh Sarila, The Shadow of the Great Game, p. 94.
24 Jinnah, My Brother, pp. 37–8. MAJ had said: ‘Fati, may God protect you … There is no God but Allah … Mohammed is the messenger of Allah.’
25 DM to Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, 25 September 1948. MP: MB1/F42.
26 Chakravarty Rajagopalachari to DM, 5 October 1948: MP: MB1/F42.
27 JN to Indira Gandhi, 6 October 1948. Nehru & Gandhi, Two Alone, Two Together, p. 559.
28 EA cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 437.
29 DM to JN, 25 September 1948. MP: MB1/F39.
30 Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 437.
31 DM to Chakravarty Rajagopalachari,16 October 1948. MP: MB1/F42.
32 Smith, Fifty Years with Mountbatten, pp. 87–8.
33 Hough, Edwina, p. 199.
34 JN to Indira Gandhi, 28 October 1948. Nehru & Gandhi, Two Alone, Two Together, p. 561.
35 The Tatler & Bystander, 27 October 1948, pp. 97–101.
36 DM to Chakravarty Rajagopalachari,16 October 1948. MP: MB1/F42.
37 DM to King George VI, 10 October 1948. RA: GVI/PRIV/01/24/174.
38 JN to Indira Gandhi, 28 October 1948. Nehru & Gandhi, Two Alone, Two Together, p. 561.
39 Hutheesing, We Nehrus, pp. 237–8.
40 EA to Dennis Holman, n.d. MP: MB1/R231.
41 JN to EA and EA to JN, cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, pp. 447–8.
42 Daily Herald, 27 February 1953, p. 1; The Times, 27 February 1953, p. 7.
43 Sir Alan Lascelles to J.R. Colville, 27 February 1953. TNA: PREM 11/340.
44 Akbar, Nehru, p. 569.
45 The witness was Russi Mody, later chief executive of Tata Steel; his father was Sir Homi Mody, Governor of Uttar Pradesh (formerly the United Provinces). The incident took place between 1949 and 1952. Ibid, pp. 390–1.
46 Cited in Mathai, My Days with Nehru, p. 154; see also Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 469.
47 JN to DM, 25 March 1952. MP: MB1/G28. See also Ziegler, Mountbatten, pp. 501–2.
48 DM cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 475.
49 EA to DM, cited in ibid, p. 476.
50 DM to EA, cited in ibid, p. 476.
51 Rajkumari Amrit Kaur to EA, 6 August 1949. MP: MB1/R127.
52 Sahgal, From Fear Set Free, p. 141.
53 JN to Indira Gandhi, 2 May 1953. Nehru & Gandhi, Two Alone, Two Together, p. 583.
54 Mullik, My Years with Nehru, p. 51.
55 Viceroy’s Personal Report No 15, 1 August 1947, TOP, vol XII, p. 452.
56 DM to JN, 18 February 1952. MP: MB1/G28.
57 DM to JN, 18 October 1953. MP: MB1/H167.
58 JN to DM, 16 November 1953. MP: MB1/H167.
59 DM to JN, 11 February 1954. MP: MB1/H167.
60 JN to Indira Nehru, 4 January 1937. Nehru & Gandhi, Freedom’s Daughter, p. 307. During 1937,
JN was romantically involved with Padmaja Naidu, whom he often compared to an ‘Ajanta Princess’. Akbar, Nehru, pp. 393, 568.
61 EA to A. Wahid, 5 February 1957. MP: MB1/R573.
62 DM to JN, 25 January 1953. MP: MB1/H167; JN to DM, 20 March 1949. MP: MB1/F39.
63 DM to King George VI, 12 April 1949. RA: GVI/PRIV/01/24/178.
64 DM to JN, 18 April 1951. MP: MB1/G28.
65 EA cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 454.
66 DM to WSC, 18 September 1952. TNA: PREM 11/340.
67 Seton, Panditji, p. 315.
68 Mullik, My Years with Nehru, pp. 125–31.
69 EA to JN, cited in Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten, p. 440.
70 Pimlott, The Queen, p. 184; Heald, The Duke, p. 102. The problem had been pointed out even before the wedding. Cyril Hankinson, editor of Debrett, wrote in Queen magazine that ‘it may be decided to continue the Windsor Dynasty by a similar process [of proclamation as in 1917]. If this is not done, however, Princess Elizabeth’s children will be of the House of Mountbatten.’ Queen, vol 195, no 9582, 23 July 1947, p. 15.
71 Pimlott, The Queen, p. 183. Pimlott argues that Edinburgh was unacceptable because it was a title, rather than a family name, and that a conversion to the House of Mountbatten would have followed the precedent set by Prince Albert. In fact, the royal name acquired when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert – that of Saxe-Coburg Gotha – was a title. Albert’s surname was either Wettin or Wipper, according to the College of Heralds. The House of Edinburgh would, therefore, have followed precedent; it would have been as patriotic as Windsor, and no more artificial; it would also have avoided any undesirable association with DM or the Battenberg family. It is hard to imagine what the objection to this could have been, apart from a simple dislike of Philip in the royal household.
72 Philip cited in Pimlott, The Queen, p. 185; Bradford, Elizabeth, p. 172; Lady Colin Campbell, The Royal Marriages: Private Lives of the Queen and Her Children (Smith Gryphon, London, 1993), p. 85.