Unveiling the Hidden Past: A Look at the Collapse of the Indian Empire

Ava H.: ‘ Inglorious Empire’ referred to ‘Indian Summer’ frequently and in very positive terms and it was similarly lauded by the author of on anarchy: No wonder ! What an exciting , brilliantly edited and complied , highly readable and fascinating account of the end of the Raj. The personalities and the actions of the Mountbattens were fundamental to the persistently troubling outcome of the Partition of India insofar as their influence tilted the map in favour of India in Kashmir , to name but one . It is disturbing to acknowledge the importance of strengths and weaknesses in personalities of leaders as having taken such a strong and decisive role in the decision making which ultimately resulted in the deaths of millions of innocents and which left Pakistan to this day plagued by extremism and violence . One cannot help but dismiss the British monarchy and aristocracy as revoltingly out of touch and blind to the effects of its own policies in India and elsewhere , putting into perspective the shocking ignorance and mediocrity of many of its members. This book is so compulsively readable that it should not be started unless you are prepared to not put it down until the tragic...

Canada on Feb 16, 2023

Sameer Chopra: The level of research packed in this book is just extraordinary. I was pleasantly surprised. A brilliant analysis of the last years of the Raj in India with reference to 5 key players: Nehru, Gandhi, Jinnah and Dickie and Edwina Mountbatten. Those of us who now think of Nehru as a foolish, naive idealist will be surprised to find out how much of a pragmatist he was in comparison to Gandhi. Yes, the Nehru-Edwina love affair was real, and the book gives a no-holds barred account of their closeness. Nevertheless, it refuses to judge these individuals from a specific ideological standpoint, British or Indian. In the process, it reveals their humanity and these momentous personalities become so much like us. A masterpiece!

India on Dec 23, 2022

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Japan on Aug 09, 2020

Kaisar Ahamed: Perfect

Germany on Nov 18, 2019

Narelle Stevens: I loved the way the book developed the characters. I was hoping for more intimate detail of the Jawaharlal Edwina love affair. My sense is that it may have been one of the true love affairs of our time.

Australia on Nov 04, 2018

Vishal Lalani: tunzelman presents the little known facts about the end of india. indeed there were many things i did not know or imagine. like how lucky we are that india did not disintegrate into many little states after partition. how kashmir is something india got hold of unfairly, perhaps due to the emotional wishes of one man, nehru. the book sheds more light onto the greyer side of gandhi's role in the partition, or in fact in the independence struggle itself. tunzelmann is not kind on anyone, be it nehru, gandhi, jinnah or mountbatten. however, he does not sit judgement but presents things as he happened; or at least how he thinks they happened. it is indeed amazing that someone as incompetent as mountbatten got such a large role to play in india's independence; and also that unless you go close to the scene, you can't see him for who he was. teaches you that history is not to be trusted as accurate ; you probably have to get multiple perspectives. this one brings some balance into the picture !

United States on Nov 20, 2014

Linda Linguvic: Subtitled, "The Secret History of the End of an Empire" by an Oxford trained historian, this non-fiction book was a slow read for me. It is only 380 pages long but it is so fact filled that I found I couldn't read it for more than a few minutes at a time because I wanted to absorb it all. There certainly is a lot to absorb too because I knew little about the history of India. From a short description of the once-powerful Mogul empire and the colonization of the British, most of the book is about the events leading up to and surrounding the 1947 withdrawal of the British and the partition of India and Pakistan. The strength of the book, however, lies in its portraits of the people most involved with these events and their colorful personalities. It's a behind-the-scenes look at history and the people who were in the drivers' seats at the time.

Central to the story is "Dickie" Mountbatten, India's last viceroy, and his wife Edwina. They are brought to life with all their complexities and frailties and by the end of the book I felt I knew them both completely. No doubt that they loved India and were saddened to watch its upheaval which caused millions to lose their lives in...

United States on Apr 16, 2010

I. Martinez-Ybor: It was clear that Britain could not afford empire. The Jewel had to go. Unfortunately, what held it in place was Britain. And Britain didn't have that much of a clue as to how/where to split it up. Thus, diffidence dictated that it be done as close to ethnic/religious lines as possible, and the state of the British economy, as hastily as possible. Indeed they could have borrowed words from Louis XV ".... apres mois, le deluge." Let the natives sort out their mess. No one more diffident to see it through than Lord Mountbatten. But, did it have to be so bloody messy? It seems that Mountbatten's personal haste brought about all that criminal waste. But who knows the extent to which it would have been less so a year later.

This is history from the top down, which probably is at it should be given the events it chronicles. It focuses squarely on the Mountbattens, the Nehrus, Gandhi and Jinnah. The British Parliament may have decided, but these people pulled the triggers that gave us India, a precariously and maladroitly drawn Pakistan (which later begat Bangladesh), and a festering Kashmir (of course, part of India today, but remember the Sikhs?)which to this day hovers...

United States on Sep 06, 2007