Freedom At Midnight - Dominique Lapierre & Larry Collins

There would be many books on India's freedom struggle - what makes this book apart is the authors - Freedom struggle included India, Pakistan, British and Bangladesh - But the authors do not belong to any of these country - and hence an unbiased view. International writing partnership of Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre gave us books like Is Paris Burning?, O Jerusalem. Each wrote in his own language and their works were then published simultaneously in French and English before being translated into other languages. Their work was distinguished by immense attention to detail and thorough research. Equally gripping, may be even more is this magnificently enlightening and exciting song of India's 're-birth' is what I would like to call.

This book of 774 pages is a fascinating and deeply moving account of one of the seminal events in world history, the emergence of India and Pakistan as sovereign nations. By developing the characters whom most of us already know - Gandhi, Nehru, Mountbatten, Jinnah, Churchill - could only marvel at the power and authority of Gandhi, and be riveted by the assassination story in all its detail. There are short stories on other interesting characters as well, including those who have taken crucial decisions like V.P. Menon, and those who went through hardships of migration. The writers have tried to include sense of humor as well at places, in otherwise a sad story or innumerable death, scary and large scale migration, cruelty, destruction and death. Only one voice foresaw the dimensions of the tragedy which was about to overwhelm the sub-continent. That was Gandhi's. Swift transfer of power was part of the brief Mountbatten was given by Clement Attlee when he was appointed Viceroy in January 1947, and this is what Nehru and Jinnah also wanted. It also covers the princely states' reactions to independence (including descriptions of the Indian princes' colourful and extravagant lifestyles), the partition of British India (into India and Pakistan) on religious grounds, and the bloodshed that followed. Beginning with the appointment of Lord Mountbatten of Burma as the last viceroy of British India, the writers, describes events around Indian independence and partition in 1947-48, ending with the death and funeral of Mahatma Gandhi,

The books is divided into:

1. A Race Destined to Govern and Subdue - This was the Cherished Conviction shared by every Englishmen in India from the highest to lowest. Journey started on the 24th September 1599 in a decrepit building on Leadenhall Street to form a trading firm with an initial capital of 72,000 pound subscribed by 125 shareholders. The most noteworthy creation of the age of imperialism, 'The British Raj' was formed with the simplest concern - 'Profit'. Official sanction was received on 31 Dec. 1599 when Queen Elizabeth I signed a royal charter assigning it exclusive trading rights with all countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope. They reached Surat, North of Bombay on 24th August 1600. - British arrived India in the solitary figure of William Hawkins, Captain of the Hector, a dour old seaman who was more a pirate than explorer. From there he marched to Agra, there his encounter with the great Moghul Emperor Jehangir, who made him a member of Royal household. Jehangir signed an imperial firman authorizing the East India Company to open trading depots north of Bombay. Its success was rapid and impressive. A deluge of dividends, some of them as high as 200 % came pouring down on the firm's fortunate shareholders. 'Trade not territory', the company's officers said was their policy. As trading activities grew, companies officers became enmeshed in local politics. They started expanding commerce, and thus began the irreversible process which would lead England to conquer India almost by inadvertence. The first fight was on 23 June 1757 against a troublesome Nawab in a Bengali village called Plassey. Clive's victory opened the gates of North India starting the conquest,giving way to the builders of the empire and shifting focus to territory from trade. With ambitious Governer General's Britain became successor to the Moghul Emperor in India. The Marquess of Hastings noted in 1818 that England with relinquish their domination on sound principles of policy at a time not very remote. After the mutiny of 1857, with 258 years of fruitful activities, East India Company's existence was terminated and authority was handed over to Queen Victoria represented in India by a kind of nominated king ruling a fifth of humanity, the Viceroy beginning the Victorian era. Rudyard Kipling proclaimed, that the responsibility for governing 'lesser breeds without the law' was 'placed by the inscrutable decree of providence upon the shoulders of the British race'. Massacre of 680,000 members of that race in World war I wrote an end to the legend of certain India. On January morning 1947; Clement Attlee of Labour Party , intended to name Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, Viscount Mountbatten of Burma at 46 as the Viceroy, not to govern or rule India but to give it up.

2. Walk Alone, Walk Alone - 'You shall have to divide my body before you divide India'- Gandhi had proclaimed again and again. The idea that India's Moslems should set up a state of their own, was proposed by Rahmat Ali, a Forty year old Indian Moslem in Cambridge on 28 January 1933; based on the provinces that would compose it, viz. Punjab, Kashmir, Sind, the Frontier and Baluchistan, it was named 'Pakistan-land of the pure'

3. Leave India to God - By fixing a date of not later than June 1948, Attlee was adopting one of Gandhi's most scatter-brained observations - "Leave India to God"

4. A last tattoo for the dying raj - The government who would support Mountbatten was an assembly of enemies, so he wrote to Atlee, unless they act very quickly, there would be a Civil war, on an unprecedented scale, which the British would have had neither the resource nor the will to control.

5. An Old man and his shattered dream - Operation Seduction was Mountbatten's plan, which had greater impact on Nehru and they build a decisive friendship. Nehru said, Gandhi was going around with ointment trying to heal one sore, instead of diagnosing the cause of eruption. All had problems but no solution. Truth to Gandhi was the ultimate reality with two faces - The absolute and the relative. He kept reiterating, India would be divided over his dead body, he would never agree for partition. Preferred chaos to partition. Future Pakistan was inherently unviable. Mountbatten thought it should be given a chance to fail on its own demerits to revert to a unified India. Jinnaha was a psychopatic case, hell bent on Pakistan.

6. A precious little place - Simla was the summar capital of Raj.

7. Palaces and Tigers, Elephants and Jewels - were the varied interests of various kings then. There were more concerned about their Individual interest, than that of India. In the session on what they became, it's said that they faded into oblivion, with their palaces becomeing museums, schools, hotels, or crumbling ruins. Some have gone abroad, some into business, some into government or politics.The concessions they had been granted in 1947 in return for their peaceful accession to Indian union, was terminated with a judgement by supreme court in 1973.

8. A day cursed by the stars - It was when an Indian Newsman asked, you should have a date in mind, what then is that? Mountbatten on the spur of the movement, calculated and came up with 15th August. It was a Friday, inauspicious as per Indian astrologers, that they suggested it would be better to tolerate on day longer, rather than risk eternal damnation. Swami Madamananda from Calcutta wrote for extension in the date, else massacres, floods, drought and famine would follow.

9. The Most Complex Divorce in History - Everything had to be moved. Man, material, money. Chaudhuri Mohammed Ali and H. M. Patel laboured to divide the goods and chattels of their countrymen. Kings and princes had to be convinced. Sir Cyril Radcliffe was assigned to draw the border, with very less time.

10. We will always remain brothers - RSS wanted civil war, and had even planned to assassinate the founder of Pakistan. A huge disaster was on the horizon of Punjab, and all the army was deployed there; on the other end at Calcutta it was a One man Army - Gandhi with Suhrawardy.

11. While the world slept - and India had awakened to life and freedom, it was different situation at different places - Gandhi was sound asleep.

12. Oh Lovely dawn of Freedom - India would be a nation of 275 million Hindus, 35 million Moslems, 7 Million Christians, 6 million sikhs, 1,00,000 parsees, 24,000 Jews with 15 official language and 845 dialects.

13. Our people have gone Mad - Terrible slaughter followed freedom. Hamkelya Pakistan, Larkelinge Hindustan, This was their slogan- We got Pakistan by laughing, we'll get India by fighting. When the worst of the post-partition violence was shaking India, Nehru and Patel looked like a pair of chastened schoolboys. Like 16 times before - Gandhi went on fast at Hydari house, until people came and surrendered their weapons, and he asked them to continue doing that, saying Calcutta holds the key to peace. Nehru and Patel did not know how to control this, looked like a pair of chastened schoolboys, and requested Mountbatten to help them out as he had administrate experience.

14. The greatest migration in history - No one will ever know how many people died. Horrific. Most historians of the period place the figure at half a million. Some put it as high as two million. Mountbatten preferred to use the figure 250,000 dead, an estimate undoubtedly tinged with some wishful thinking. Millions of people pulled up stakes, and changed sides. Punjab also had heavy flood. For Gandhi Love, non-violence, truth, a belief in God of all mankind was the key even then. Pain and suffering knew no religion it would be equally grievous for Muslims as for Hindus. When people congratulated him, he said it was time for condolences, and prayed that the conflagration ends. The price for partition would leave its bitter imprint for years to come. It also included stories of Boota Singh and his love for Zenib and the death, Madanlal reach India against odds, followed by his father, who wanted him to join Police, but got into action, for right and met Vishnu Karkare beginning the road to revenge.

15. Kashmir - Only Kashmir - The intractable problem of the lovely vale of Kashmir was disputed during this time. Kashmir's Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh wanted an independent state. Mountbatten warned that they would end up becoming a battlefield. Soon after independence, Pakistan wanted them to join their country. They had three plans to do it, and therefore they opted for the third and send the Pathan tribesmen who organized and armed Srinagar later in that autumn. Singh sent out an SOS for help to New Delhi. That was not possible unless the Maharaja signed a formal act accending to India. Singh did sign it in great haste and Indian troops were airlifted to Kashmir.

16. Two Brahmins from Poona: One was Narayan Godse and Narayan Apte. India had opposed to give Pakistan 550 million rupees as per agreement, , Mountbatten opposed this decision. But Gandhi during his next fast, agreed to convence withholding the payment. This angered many.

17. Let Gandhi Die - Gandhi's demand for the payment of Pakistan's 550 million rupees, transfixed the two Brahmins from Pune, one of them catalysed the virulent emotions of the two Hindu zealots and thrust them on the road to a crime that would horrify the world.Nathuram Godse was palled by the political blackmail. Along with Vishnu Karkare, the owner of the Deccan Guest House and Madanlal Pahwa, the Punjabi refugee whom the starts had destined for notoriety, they declared "We must stop Gandhi'.

18. The Vengence of Madanlal Pahwa - Per the plan chocked out by the horrified zealots, Madnalal exploded bomb in the prayer ground frightening fury. Gandhi was calm and willing to die in the act of prayer. Soon after they were to shoot Gandhi but that did not work as per plan on the 20th of January. Police got hold of Madanlal and investigations started.

19. We must get Gandhi before the Police get us. Gandhi was of the view that if his time has come to die, he would, and nothing should be done to those trying to kill him. Mehra from police wanted to give him protection, and check people comming for prayer meeting, but Gandhi strongly protested. 'Do not have or condemn the man who threw the bomb', Gandhi pleaded. He urged the police to release Madanlal. 'We have no right to punish a person we think wicked', he said. In Madanlal's confession police had materials needed to establish identity of five men among the six involved in the conspiracy. But no quick action was taken. Nathuram Godse felt that they failed on 20th January, because too many people were involved. This time, only three people should go for it and speed was the key. Nathuram Godse said, he would do it with help from Apte and Karkare. They had a good meal on 29th January, and Godse had a good rest all set for the next day.

20. The second Crucifixion: The prayer on 30th January morning was:

"For certain is death for the born, and certain is birth for the dead; Therefore over the inevitable Thou shouldst not grieve.

After his normal daily routine, Gandhi was lost in discussion with Nehru and Patel, trying to solve a dispute; so contrary to normal, he was late by 10 minutes for the prayer meeting and therefore was scolding his niece. Nathuram stepped into the corridor, bowed slowly and saying'Namaste Gandhiji, pulled the trigger three times, which tore into the chest of Gandhi - Hands clapsed in greeting, still moving, chest bebare, he said ' 'He Ram - O God!'


Book includes Maps, Illustrations, Glimpses of an Unforgettable research, preface and prologue and ends with Epilogue, What they became, Acknowledgements, Bibliography, Notes and Index.

This book is a 'must' read for all fans of history, should be included in school curriculum (but will never be); as this will help people interested in understanding Pakistan-India dynamics; including the hot topics of today like who was responsible for partition, the problem with Kashmir and the reason for with consequences of biggest migration at short notice. (6 of 2020)