Freedom at Midnight (86 page)

mer governor of Bombay and Bengal provinces, and for a month Viceroy, kindly gave us his agreement as the principal trustee of the Broadlands Archives to work in those areas which lie in his concern.

The surviving members of Lord Mountbatten's staff in India in 1947-48 were without exception most generous with their time, submitting themselves agreeably to our long and exhaustive interviews, interviews which in many cases covered three or four tape-recorded sessions of at least two hours each. Not only did they patiently comb through their memories of the time, but they also searched attics and country houses for diaries dating back to 1947, letters written to wives and parents recounting their experiences, all of which were immensely valuable to us in reconstituting the atmosphere of those remarkable days.

Alan Campbell-Johnson, Lord Mountbatten's press attache in 1947-48 and the author of a remarkable, firsthand account of the period, Mission with Mountbat-ten, was particularly helpful. So, too, were Sir George Abell, his brilliant private secretary; Vice Admiral Sir Ronald Brockman, his personal secretary; Rear Admiral Peter Howes, Lord Mountbatten's senior A.D.C.; Elizabeth Collins and Muriel Watson, Lady Mountbatten's secretaries, whose recollections of the last vicereine were particularly helpful; G. Vernon Moore, a member of the Viceroy's secretariat, who provided us with most helpful descriptions; Lieutenant Colonel Sir Martin Gilliat, the Assistant Military Secretary, and his A.D.C.'s Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Burnaby-Atkins, Flight Lieutenant the Honorable W. H. C. Wentworth Beaumont, now Lord Allendale, and Captain Sir James Scott. All gave us their valuable and informal glimpses into the workings of Viceroy's House in 1947.

We owe a very particular debt to that remarkable and extraordinary man who has left his imprint on so many of the key legal studies of his time, the Right Honorable Viscount Radcliffe. Within the limitations he has always imposed in talking of his award, declining to discuss the reasoning that led him to any particular decision, he was notably frank and helpful during the course of two long interviews together. Our work on the Indian Army brought us into contact with numerous veterans of that remarkable organization—General Sir Robert Lockhart; General Sir Roy Bucher; the late General Sir Frank Messervy, first

commander in chief of the Pakistan Army; Lieutenant Colonel John R. Piatt, who commanded the Somerset Light Infantry when it became the last unit of the British Army to leave the soil of an independent India; Colonel E. S. Birnie, who furnished us with an account of the last months in the life of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, whom he had the honor of serving as his first military secretary.

It was also our pleasure and privilege to be able to meet and interview a number of that company which guided India's destinies for three quarters of a century, the I.C.S. We are particularly grateful to Sir Olaf Caroe, the last governor of the Northwest Frontier Province, probably the West's outstanding authority on the Pathan tribesmen he loved and served so long; Sir Conrad Corfield, the last shepherd of India's princes, and his principal deputy, Sir Herbert Thompson; Lord Trevelyan, who, as Humphrey Trevelyan, was the author of a fascinating account of his life as a young I.C.S. officer in India, The India We Left; H. V. Hodson, the author of the scholarly and definitive The Great Divide; Judge H. C. Beaumont, Lord Rad-cliffe's I.C.S. aide; and Maurice and Taya Zinkin, who were kind enough to read us their fascinating diary written during Delhi's troubled September 1947.

Among the many others whose assistance was invaluable were the Earl of Listowel, Britain's last Secretary of State for India; Sir Alexander Symon, Britain's first Deputy High Commissioner to an independent India; and Mr. G. R. Savage, who provided a fascinating account of the plot to kill Jinnah and Mountbatten in Karachi on August 14, 1947.

In France we owe a very special debt of gratitude to the Baron and Baroness Geoffrey de Courcel, who as France's ambassador and ambassadress in London most kindly provided the auspices of our first meeting with Lord Mount-batten.

We are also indebted to Francis Deloche de Noyelle and Jean Badbedat of the Quai d'Orsay for their assistance, and to Max Olivier Lacamp, a correspondent in India in 1947, for his account of his experiences there. La-camp is himself the author of a remarkable book, Impasse Indienne. We also wish to thank Vitold de Golish whose encyclopedic knowledge of the maharajas and their doings as well as his excellent works on them served as our intro-

duction to their fabulous world, and Gerald MacKnight for his descriptions of postwar London.

In India we are first of all indebted to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who so graciously recorded with us her recollections of her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, and her own experiences in 1947; and to her aunt Mrs. V. L. Pandit, Mr. Nehru's sister, who provided us an invaluable insight into her brother's character. Four of his former private secretaries, M. A. Baig, M. O. Matthai, Tarlok Singh and H. V. R. Iyengar, also contributed important recollections of him, as did Russy K. Karanjia, India's first ambassador to China.

Among the many other people whose assistance was particularly helpful were the late Krishna Menon; General and Mrs. D. W. Mehra, the son and daughter-in-law of V. P. Menon; Miss Maniben Patel, daughter of Vallabhbhai Patel, whose recollections of her experiences with her father were invaluable; his late Highness the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh of Patiala; their Highnesses the Raj Ma-tas of Jaipur and Gwalior, two extraordinarily able women who have become political figures of importance in their own right; Dr. Karan Singh, son of the last Maharaja of Kashmir; Inspector General of Police Ashwini Kumar, who furnished us a fascinating and poignant account of his experiences as a young police officer in the Punjab in 1947; Mr. Khushwant Singh, the author of a brilliant novel of the 1947 massacres, Train to Pakistan, who gave us an account of his personal experiences at the time; Mrs. Dina Wadia, the daughter of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, for her recollections of her father and his physician, Dr. J. A. L. Patel; Mrs. Sulochna Panigrahi for a particularly moving account of India's Independence Day; Acharya Kripalani, the last survivor of the principal Indian figures in the independence struggle; Miss Padmaja Naidu, who provided a number of trenchant observations; Mr. M. S. Oberoi for his fascinating recollections of life in the old Simla;" Rajeshwar Dayal, who offered an interesting perspective on the life of an I.C.S. officer seen through Indian eyes; the "Lion of Kashmir" Sheikh Abdullah for his recollections of the tribal invasion; Sir Chandulal Trivedi, I.C.S., the first Indian governor of the Punjab, for his vital account of the exodus and massacres.

For our material on Gandhi we owe a very special debt

to Mr. Pyarelal Nayar, his secretary, who sat through five grueling interviews. He is himself the author of what is beyond any doubt the most complete work on the last phase of Gandhi's life, a monumental three-volume study called Mahatma Gandhi — The Last Phase. We are also particularly indebted to his sister Sushila, Gandhi's physician, and to his devoted aide, Brikshen Chandiwallah, An account of our dealings with the surviving members of the group of men who killed him will be found in the notes dealing with the chapter on his assassination.

We would also wish to acknowledge a debt to a very special group of men, who not only helped us enormously in our work, but also were delightful and stimulating companions, a number of officers of the Indian Army: General Jangu T. Sataravala, whose hospitality we shall always remember: General J. N. Chaudhuri; General M. S. Chopra, whose name is engraved at the border crossing at Waga between India and Pakistan; General Harbaksh Singh. Finally, no account of our stay in India would be complete without a special word of thanks to Ambassador and Madame Jean Daniel Jurgensen, France's charming representatives in New Delhi, who were so kind to us; to Francis Dor6, France's remarkable Cultural Attach^ in India's capital; to our friends Ren6 and Claude de Choiseul Praslin and Francis and Annick Wacziarg, who made our visits to Bombay so pleasant: and to Florence Prouverelle, our old friend of other days, who is now Press Attach^ at the French Embassy in New Delhi.

Among the many Pakistani personalities who made important contributions to our work to whom we would like to address our particular thanks are Admiral Syed Ahsan, a naval A.D.C. both to Lord Mountbatten and to Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who gave us an intimate insight into the Quaid-e-Azam's momentous journey to his new nation; Badshan Khan, the "Frontier Gandhi," still alert despite the burden of his years; A. I. S. Dara, who was both a charming and hospitable friend and an invaluable source of information on happenings in Lahore in the summer and fall of 1947; General Shantd Hanid: Ambassador Ya-coub Khan, who gave us his touching and vivid account of his decision to opt for Pakistan; Ambassador Akhbar Khan and Sairab Khayat Khan, both of whom offered unique, firsthand accounts of the tribal invasion of Kashmir; Begum Feroz Khan Noon, a most gracious hostess,

who kindly recounted for us in detail her remarkable adventure in the Punjab in 1947; Chauduri Mohammed Ali, who, together with his Indian colleague H. M. Patel (with whom we had worked in India), was responsible for that prodigious task of dividing the assets of the subcontinent; Nassim Ahmed, secretary general of the Ministry of Information, who opened to us so many of Pakistan's national archives.

These, of course, are only a few among the many without whose help, encouragement and time this book would never have been possible. Space prevents us from acknowledging the real debt that we owe to them all, English missionaries, retired army officers, businessmen, civil servants, scholars, Indian and Pakistani leaders of the Congress and Moslem League, schoolteachers, journalists, hundreds of refugees from both sides who endured the agony of recounting to us in all its horror their recollections of the Exodus of 1947; many dear friends, both Indian and Pakistani, who requested us not to mention their names. To all of them, wherever they are, go our thanks and with them the assurance that their assistance has not been forgotten.

One closing word on the research for Freedom at Midnight, a gesture of gratitude to two gentlemen, Messrs. Yves Thernisien and Jean Francois Luquet in New Delhi, and to Air India, Pakistan International Airways and Indian Airline, all of whom were most helpful in our unraveling of the complexities of our numerous travel arrangements.

In the enormous task of collating the material uncovered in our research, arranging it in systematic fashion, and writing the manuscript, it was our immense good fortune to have as comrades and associates a team of remarkably able people. Key among them was Mile. Dominique Conchon, for whom Freedom at Midnight was the third of our books on which she has worked. As always her work was invaluable, her spirit indefatigable. She supervised the complex task of organizing our research material so that never in a year of writing did we misplace even one of the 6,342 pages of research with which we had to contend.

Working with her was a charming newcomer to our team, Julia Bizieau. With unfailing good cheer, she stood

by us through the long months of research and writing, a constantly engaging friend and companion, ably seconding Mile. Conchon, ready to take on any task. Among our researchers, we would like to thank particularly Michel Renouard, Professor of English Literature at the University of Rennes, who devoted his summer vacation in 1972 to conducting interviews for us in Great Britain. It was for us an especially moving reunion; Michel, as a seventeen-year-old student, was the first researcher to become associated with us when we began work on Is Paris Burning? Our close friends Alain and France Danet kindly opened to us the doors of their numerous friends in India. M. Hobherg also won our gratitude for his attentiveness in guiding our movements.

Jeannie Nagy transcribed for us many hours of tape-recorded interviews, bringing to the task the most alert Scottish ear in the South of France. Jeanne Conchon, Michael Foucher, Jacqueline de la Cruz and Marjorie Rolt all labored with us at one time or another in the preparation of our final manuscript

We must acknowledge with sadness a special debt to the late Raymond Cartier of Paris Match. He first encouraged us on the road to Freedom at Midnight. Twice during the last months of his life he read the manuscript, offering on both occasions the most helpful and constructive of criticisms. It is our regret that he could not have lived long enough to read these final pages of a manuscript to which he contributed so much.

We owe, too, a special debt of gratitude to Nadia Collins, who devoted long hours to cheerfully and ably translating our English text into French. We must particularly thank Colette Modiano who so generously accepted the task of correcting and editing the French version of the manuscript. She herself is currently embarked on a study of the Queen in whose name the Indian Empire was proclaimed, Victoria. Paul Andreota, Pierre Amado and Francis Dore all took the time to read the French manuscript of Freedom at Midnight, each offering helpful comments and criticisms.

Finally to our editors, Michael Korda of Simon and Schuster, Robert Laffont at Editions Laffont, Phillip Ziegler at Collins Ltd, Mario Lacruz of Plaza y Janes, Donato Barbone of Mondadori, Dr. Andreas Hopf of

Bertelsmann, Sharda Chawla of Vikas and our agent Irving Lazar, go our thanks for their sure support through the difficult months that led to Freedom at Midnight.

L.C. D.L.P.

La Biche Niche Les Bignoles Ramatuelle, France March 3, 1975

NOTES

CHAPTER 1 *

"A RACE DESTINED TO GOVERN AND SUBDUE"

The material on Lord Mountbatten's interview with Clement Attlee is based largely on an interview with the last viceroy and his own notes, made at the time, of their conversation. Certain material on the decision to appoint Lord Mountbatten was obtained in an interview with Lord Listowel, the last Secretary of State for India. Krishna Menon, in an interview in New Delhi, furnished the details of his conversation with Sir Stafford Cripps at which he revealed that Nehru and Congress would react favorably to Mountbatten's appointment