Flanked by Lord and Lady Mountbatten, Mahatma Gandhi takes center stage on the steps of the Rashtrapati Bhawan, wrapped in his trademark white dhoti, on the 31st of March in 1947 – some four months prior to the day India rushed to gain her independence at the hour of midnight on the 15th of August of the very same year.
Gandhi at the time was visiting what then was still the Viceroy’s house in New Delhi and was among a long list of political leaders including both Nehru and Jinnah, who may have possibly preceded him with their intentions of welcoming the Mountbattens to India.
It was a visit Gandhi was to make again in April, 1947 and later repeat on the 6th of June in 1947 – three days after plans for the creation of Pakistan and Independence of India were formalized and publicly announced to the world, on the 3rd of June, 1947.
While in his April meet Gandhi was to request the last British Viceroy of British India to persuade Muhammad Ali Jinnah to form the new central government to avoid the division of the country – which since Gandhi and Jinnah’s failed talks at Malabar Hills in Bombay in the September of 1944, was now well en route to becoming a reality.
In the month of June he was to again request Mountbatten to convince Jinnah to solve his issues with the All India National Congress, and which had led the Viceroy to arrange a meeting between the two on the 17th of June in 1947.
Mountbatten, last Viceroy of British India.
Appointed by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee on the 20th of February in 1947, and entrusted to assist the former British Dominion attain her independence as an undivided nation, though Louis Mountbatten’s priorities were also centered on avoiding a partition at any cost, he, nonetheless, had found it extremely difficult to prevent the division, given the prevailing circumstances.
As a mediator between the All Muslim League and the All India National Congress, his role was to smooth out tensions. Yet with communal violence escalating and insurmountable roadblocks cropping up between political parties, the partition of British India had become an inevitable reality.
In the end Mountbatten was forced to speed up the process of Independence by rescheduling the date of the transfer of power from June in 1948 to the 15th of August in 1947 – almost nine months ahead of time.
Criticism of Mountbatten.
Although his decision back then was taken in concurrence with both Indian and future Pakistani political leaders, and with a view of avoiding a possible civil war with too few British troops left in India to monitor and prevent a bloodshed.
Mountbatten, nonetheless, has come to be criticized by modern day historians – who hold the opinion that his speeding up of the transfer of power had left too small a window for local leaders to work out their differences, and ultimately resulted in the displacement of 15 million people and the death of over a million from mob violence, riots and clashes.
Louis Mountbatten from the beginning was always hesitant to accept the position of the last Viceroy of India. Fully aware of the political turmoil that engulfed this erstwhile dominion of the British empire, and the controversy it would lend to his otherwise flawless career, he had reluctantly accepted the post of Viceroy on the 20th of February in 1947.
On the 15th of August, 1947 as India had celebrated her independence, the Mountbattens had quietly spend their time in redoing the interiors of the Viceroy’s house. They had removed all traces of India’s Imperial past and later welcomed Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajender Prasad in the early morning hours.
After the creation of Pakistan on the 14th of August in 1947 and India’s independence on the 15th of August, Louis Mountbatten was requested by Rajender Prasad and Jawaharlal Nehru to act as the Governor General of Independent India. A role he had gracefully accepted and continued in for a period of ten months till replaced by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, the first governor general of Independent India.
No.9 Army Film and Photographic Unit.
This photo is from a series of photos captured by an uncredited photographer of the No.9 Army Film and Photographic Unit. A department of the British Indian army which had covered both the proceedings of World War II in the eastern theater and political events in India. It is now archived at the University of Manoa in Hawaii, under the category: Political Activism and Public Life.
Louis Mountbatten was personally requested to step in as last Viceroy by none other than Nehru himself. Nehru had shared a close friendship with his wife Edwina Mountbatten, and which may have led the Muslim League to be suspicious of Mountbatten’s efforts.
Even though as a Viceroy, Mountbatten, had held several talks with the leader of the Muslim league, he had yet failed in persuading Jinnah from abandoning his idea of a separate nation.
His failure had not stemmed from his lack of desire or ability but for a string of communal riots which had further strengthened Jinnah’s claim that Hindus and Muslims deserved their own individual nations – with the last straw being a terrible massacre that had occurred on the 16th August in 1946, and witnessed the deaths of 20,000 Hindus and Muslims over a three day killing spree in the city of Calcutta.
Gandhi’s suggestion of allowing Jinnah to form the government did not also achieve fruition. Deemed impractical by members of the All India National Congress, it had been discarded as an in effective solution to ending the communal violence and preventing a partition.
I F I This is an Independent story produced to unravel the history behind this vintage photo of Gandhi and the Mountbattens from 1947. The story also sheds light on the friction that existed between the All India Congress Party and the Muslim league, riots and massacres, and all of which in the end had speeded up the division of India and ushered in Independence. It has been created from facts curated out of literary and historical sources. I
