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Old Monday, July 29, 2019
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Post Book reviews

Original Title: Freedom at Midnight: How Britain Gave Away an Empire
Authors: Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre
ISBN: 8125904808 (ISBN13: 978812590480
Language: English

Reviewer: Agha Shahriyar Khan

Review

The book’ Freedom at Midnight” encompasses the politico-social happenings of most important year of Indian history- 1947. It covers the step by step political saga of Indian partition along with role of various personalities in this struggle. It also depicts the pain of migration along with the stories of vicious communal massacres in Punjab. Besides, it highlights the conundrum created by the princely states in the division of British India which strained the relations between two new dominions, Pakistan and India, permanently.

There are many distinctive features of this book. For instance, the in-depth description of the most important personalities of the era and their role in Indian partition.

The first protagonist of the saga of 1947 is the last viceroy of India, Louis Mountbatten, who arrived in British raj with almost an impossible task: to bridge the differences between Congress and Muslim league and transfer the power to Indian subjects. Assiduously, Mountbatten achieved this gigantic task in few months. The author summarizes the role of Mountbatten in these words, “In, barely two months, he had achieved the impossible, established the dialogue with Indian leaders, set the basis of an agreement, persuade his Indian interlocutors to accept it, extracted the whole-hearted support of both the government and opposition in London. “

The second important character of this book is non-other than the prophet of non-violence: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The book illustrates Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence and noncooperation, his efforts to mitigate the communal violence of 1947 and his tactics like fast unto death to pressurize the govt. The author, interestingly, does not hesitate to unearth the personal life of Gandhi particularly his relationship with a girl named Manu. The book also includes the investigative detail of Gandhi’s assassination. Nevertheless, the author extols the Gandhi’s role through the words of Mountbatten, “Mahatma will go down in history on par with Christ and Buddha”.

M.A Jinnah, the father of the first Islamic state, is the third important character of this book. The author beautifully explains Jinnah’s personality traits- his aristocratic style, sheer will power, believe in parliamentarian democracy, and his consuming determination to realize the sheer dream of Pakistan. The books also discuss the least discussed topics like Jinnah’s deteriorated health and his efforts to keep it a secret and a hidden story of the inaugural procession of Jinnah in Karachi on the eve of independence and RSSS assassination efforts on this procession. The author praises Jinnah’s role in the following way, “It was he, more than Gandhi or anyone else, who held the key’s to India’s future.”

The role of Nehru and Patel were also discussed by author but in minute detail. It is pertinent to mention here one interesting fact claimed by this book: Nehru, after assuming premiership, surrender his executive powers to Louis Mountbatten in order to mitigate the chaos of migration because Nehru believed he was a brilliant agitator but an amateur administrator.

Apart from the role of various leaders, the painful depiction of the biggest migration of modern history made this book distinctive. The sad stories of vicious communal massacres and sheer craziness on both sides of borders tell its readers the darkest side of humankind. The author writes about the trails of cold-blooded murders infuse with communal hatred, “It would be unique, a cataclysm without precedent, unforeseen in magnitude, unordered in pattern, unreasoned in savagery”.

This book, however, has its weak points. For instance, the author fails to do justice with story of Kashmir accession. Similarly, the author does not describe the raison deter (Nehru and Mountbatten's back-door understanding) behind the biased and unjust boundary award drafted by Cyril Radcliffe. Besides, the book portrays the one sided story of the war of 1948 instead of giving an unbiased analysis. These loopholes downgrade the standard of this book to some extent. Nevertheless, this book is must read for anyone who wants to know the detail and intricacies of the partition year and suffering of hapless people.
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