Synopses & Reviews
At midnight on 14 August 1947, Britain finally granted independence to the peoples of India. The Raj, that most romantic of all the great empires, was no more: India became the world's largest democracy, Pakistan the world's largest Muslim nation and not a shot was fired in anger at least not by, or at, the departing British.
Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy, described his breathtaking gallop to divide and quit in August 1947 as a personal triumph. But how justified are his extravagant claims? Writing with all their usual verve, Read and Fisher put the events of 1947 into perspective, telling the whole epic story in compelling and colourful detail from its beginnings more than a century earlier.
Their powerful narrative takes a fresh look at many of the events and personalities involved, especially the three charismatic giants, Gandhi, Nehru, and Jinnah, who dominated the final, increasingly bitter 30 years. Meanwhile a succession of British politicians and viceroys veered wildly between liberalism and repression until the dream of Macaulay's "proudest day" finally became a flawed and bloody reality.