Table Of ContentThe Last Years
of British India
By the same author:
The Necessary Hell: John and Henry Lawrence and the Indian Empire
The Orchid House:
Splendours and Miseries of the Kingdom ofOudh 1S27-18S7
A History of India: From Earliest Times to the Present Day
Asia in the European Age 1498-1^55
Asia in the Balance
Nehru: a pictorial biography
The Battle ofPlassey and the Conquest of Bengal
Battles of the Indian Mutiny
MWU CENi.tAL Li.:RARY
Ace: No; ^()9G^
Date: iU4"8S'
The Last Years
of British India
MICHAEL EDWARDES
CASSELL LONDON
ALLIED PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LTD
BOMBAY • CALCUTTA • NEW DELHI • MADRAS
CASSELL & COMPANY LTD
35 Red Lion Square • London WCi
and at
MELBOUENE • SYDNEY • TOKONTO
JOHANNESBtTRG • CAPE TOWN • AUCKLAND
© Michael Edwardes 1963
First published 1963
Made end printed in Great Britain by
Cox and Wytnan Ltd, London, Reading and Fakenham
F.963
To the memory of the men, women and
children murdered in the streets and fields
of India, who, though they did not fight
for their country's freedom, paid for it
with their hves.
Prefc
ace
The primary aim of this work is to place in its proper historical context
one of the most significant and portentous events of modem times—
the end of Britain's Indian empire. This event was not only of funda
mental importance to the three countries involved—^Britain, India and
Pakistan. It was also the first step in the devolution of power by the
once-great maritime empires to the peoples of their colonial depen
dencies. From Britain's actions a whole new world was bom in hope,
a hope that has since been firayed and tattered by tragedy and suffering.
Consequently, the transfer of power in India has been subjected to the
mythomania of statesmen and politicians. In British Labour circles, the
act of a British Labour prime minister in granting independence to
India was and still is seen in an almost rehgious hght as the fulfilment
of a long-held and often-repeated promise to end the evils of colonial
ism. There is some truth in such a behef, but very little, for great events
are always compounded of much more than doctrine, however deeply
felt it may be. The common Conservative attitude in 1947 was that the
Labour government's decision to quit India was an act of treachery
which was, in turn, the product of small-minded weakness. In the
course of this book, I hope to show that even this apparently childish
attitude was not without some grain of truth to support it,
France, Holland and Portugal, too, saw Indian independence as
treasonable, a sort of stab in the imperial back, and their attempts to
restrain their own colonial peoples firom independence offers proof of
it. The tenacity with which France, Holland and Portugal tried to hold
6n to their overseas dependencies has made some of Britain's ex-sub
jects beheve that her demission of power may well have been another
of those Machiavellian acts for which the British were famous—at
yu
viii PREFACE
least according to nationalist propaganda. Even a gesture as sweeping
as the transfer of power in India might be part of some labyrinthine
plot cooked up in Whitehall. However fatuous such beKefs may seem
in cold print they should not be dismissed as without consequence.
Many men have died in the past for beUefs no less foohsh and un
founded, and they will no doubt continue to do so in the future.
The present work is an essay in explanation, an attempt to display
and examine the many and diverse ingredients of an historical event
and to disentangle them from the web of propaganda and special
pleading. The actual transfer of power in India is, in one sense, only a
minor part of the drama of the decline and fall of British India—as, in
Sophocles' tragedy, the self-imposed exile of Oedipus is but a result of
the impact of vast and complex forces. By defining the British depart
ure from India in this way, I do not mean to diminish its importance in
the historical sense, nor, for that matter, the interest which it must hold
for the ordinary reader. Such interest is perfectly understandable, for
many of those who were intimately involved in the moves that cul
minated in India's independence from Britain are still alive and have
been subjected to both uncritical praise and ill-informed blame. Those
who search here for new revelations may well find them. However, it
is not my primary purpose to expose, but to attempt to give a reason
ably objective view of what actually happened and why. This book is
not propaganda for or against any of the controversial figures con
cerned in the transfer of power. When opinions are expressed, they are
solely my own. These opinions are based upon facts, facts emerging
out of my ovwi knowledge—for I was present when these great events
were maturing and came to fulfilment—and facts which have been
given to me by the men and women involved, in one way or another,
in the making of history. For those facts which are the scaffolding of
the book, I must express my gratitude to the many who have willingly
talked to me and answered my often impertinent questions. To
record all their names would be impossible; some of my informants,
in fact, have specifically asked that I should not mention theirs. I can
only thank them collectively and hope that they will not feel that I
have misinterpreted them or done them any intentional injustice.
The writing of contemporary history is always difficult. Much of the
real material of such history is not, at least officially, available to the
historian. There is also the question of how truthfid one's informants _
PREFACE m
are. I have taken every opportunity of checking the statements of
individuals, and where no such opportunity has been available I have
used my judgement to decide upon the truth. That judgement, as with
all human aaivity, is faUible, but I have tried to reduce the margin of
error to the thinnest possible line.
While preparing this work, which has taken many years of research
and inquiry, I was also engaged among other projects in virriting a
military appreciation of another major event in the history of British
India, the Mutiny of 1857. No historian of the Indian Mutiny can do
without that great work, J. W. Kaye's History of the Sepoy War, pub
lished like the present work only a few years alter the events it describes.
Kaye's story too was hedged with all the difficulties of contemporary
history—controversy, whitewash, and dehberate perversions of the
truth. I can do no better in stating my own position than to adopt the
words Kaye used in the preface to the second volume of his book:
It is probable that the accuracy of sorne of the details in this volume, especi
ally those of personal incident, may be questioned, perhaps contradicted, not
withstanding, I was about to say, all the care that I have taken to iavestigate
them, but I believe that I should rather say 'by reason of that very care'. Such
questionings or contradictions should not be too readily accepted; for, although
the authority of the questioner may be good, there may be stiU better authority
on the other side. I have often had to choose between very conflicting state
ments; and I have sometimes found my informants to be wrong, though appar
ently with the best opportimities of being right, and have been compelled to
reject, as convincing proof, even the overwhelming assertion, 'But I was there.'
It has often been said to me, in reply to my inquiries, 'Yes, it is perfectly true.
But these men are still living, and the truth cannot be told.' To this my answer
has been: 'To the historian, all men are dead.' If a writer of contemporary
history is not prepared to treat the living and the dead alike—to speak as freely
and as truthfully of the former as of the latter, with no more reservation in the
one case than in the other—^he has altogether mistaken his vocation, and should
look for a subject in prehistoric times.
'To the historian,' wrote Kaye ninety-three years ago, 'all men are |
dead.' He might also have added that the author of that tiresome Latin
tag which begins 'De mortuis ...' was not an historian. The dead—the
legally dead, that is—^have of course no redress, but the living can bring
'a hbel action. The reader will realize from this how carefully I have
checked my facts.
Contents
PART ONE: THE BRIGHTEST JEWEL t
1 The Brightest Jewel 2 The Legislators 3 The Rulers
4 The. Nationalists ' 5 The People
PART TWO: THE STRUGGLE 35
1 For Moral Effect 2 Non-cooperation 5 Marking Time
4 Stage Lightning and Teapot Thunder 5 Round Table and
After 6 A New Charter of Bondage 7 The Mad World of
War S A Post-dated Cheque g Quit India loJaiHind!
PART THREE: THE VICTORY 89
1 Dramatis Personae 2 Three Wise Men 5 The Menac
ing Shadows 4 The Key to Indian Freedom 5 Wars of
Succession 6 Leaping in the Dark 7 Moments of Truth
8 A Crucible for Chaplets p The Peace Treaty without a
War 10 The Tryst with Destiny
POSTSCRIPT: THE PLEDGE REDEEMED 225
1 The Inheritance 2 The Inheritors
m
INDEX 237
