Indian Summer

Alex Von Tunzelmann’s work Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, is a tale of the creation of India and Pakistan told around the lives of “Dickie” Lord Mountbatten, Edwina Mountbatten, and Nehru. The other characters central to India obtaining freedom move in and out with the events. There are secrets, some historical and others anecdotal but it is not an academic book but rather a history book that’s an engaging and racy read. Her style of writing engages with personal lives and weaves anecdotes into a historical narrative. She develops the character of Mountbatten as someone who knew that bloodline and access mattered in furthering his professional success. His one great quality was to make and use contacts to get ahead in life. So, he endears himself to the prince and king of England and changes his allegiance with the change in monarchy. As a military officer, he bordered on being professionally incompetent. She chronicles Dickie’s flair for symbols and ceremonies, his less-than-average performance as a Naval officer.

However, Mountbatten was entrusted with the job of setting Britain free as the financial burden of the war was no longer sustainable. Attlee had set a deadline of June 1948 but he managed to set Britain free by 1947. He presided over the partition of the two countries and was responsible for the contentious setting of the boundaries. He never liked Jinnah and the dislike was mutual. Interestingly, Churchill was remarkably fond of Jinnah and even set up a scheme of secret telegrams to bypass official correspondence. Till his last breath, Jinnah continued to blame Mountbatten for the bloodshed of the partition. Edwina was always ready to part ways with him and theirs was a relationship of odd compromises. She continued to find solace outside her marriage while Mountbatten allowed her that latitude knowing well that it would keep her wedded to him. As regards the relationship between Nehru and Edwina it was never defined as a physical one, it was always more intimate and spiritual. She never shied away from her intimacy with Jawaharlal and Dickie knew that his relationship with her wouldn’t match the affection she had for Jawaharlal. Alex describes it as a spiritual embrace of two people who adored each other. She avoids asserting whether that relationship was ever consummated, and it is in fact of no importance whatsoever. The depth of their relationship can be gauged by the fact that Nehru’s letters lay by strewn her bedside when she passed away in 1960. Lady Mountbatten's depiction is just as compelling. Her personal eccentricities are not overlooked, but presenting her charitable work throughout her life, the fact that she devoted her considerable intelligence and energy to the service of others, shows why she is universally praised for her life work in relieving the suffering of her fellow human beings, wherever she happened to be located.

Mountbatten had a profound influence on Jawaharlal Nehru, and continued to have it, many years post-independence, to the extent that when Nehru passed away the British High Commission in Delhi complained “Now that Nehru is gone we shall no longer have the enormously valuable access to the India Government‘s inner councils which Lord Mountbatten‘s personal friendship with him gave us at crucial moments”.

Alex does well to cover the events leading up to the creation of Pakistan and the bloodshed of the partition. She tells the story of the partition through the eyes of Dickie, Edwina, Nehru, Gandhi, Patel and Jinnah and their roles. The sordid account is interspersed with gut-wrenching tales of indescribable violence. Britain wanted to quit India with dignity, if possible, but speed above all; the cost in human lives was of secondary importance. Hence, when Gandhi told him "You must face the bloodbath and accept it”. Closing the section on the partition she laments the scale of the human loss, "The very incomprehensibility of what a million horrible and violent deaths might mean, and the impossibility of producing an appropriate response, is perhaps the reason that the events following partition have yielded such a great and moving body of fictional literature and such an inadequate and flimsy factual history. What does it matter to the readers of history today whether there were 200,000 deaths, or 1 million, or 2 million? On that scale, is it possible to feel proportional revulsion, to be five times more upset at 1 million deaths than at 200,000?"

Her portrait of Nehru is emotive and honest. She describes him as temperamental yet charismatic, moderate and sane, bringing balance in negotiations. His trysts with women, and his intelligent and reticent ways, after the demise of Kamala Nehru, appealed to many a woman — including Padmaja Naidu, the niece of Sarojini Naidu, and finally, Lady Mountbatten. There is also a small anecdote of him warming up to the presence of Jacqueline Kennedy.

Her portrayal of Patel, Bose, and some arguments about Kashmir, and Mountbatten’s role in the integration of the princely states and the creation of Pakistan are questionable. But then again it is not meant to be the definitive book on the partition of the two nations. If you want a non-academic historical page-turner, go for it. Alex is a gifted storyteller.