Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi, India.
Photographer: No.9 Army Film and Photographic Unit.
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, 1947 – barely four months prior from the day India rushed to gain her independence at the hour of midnight on the 15th of August, 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, 1947 – just three days after, the plan for the creation of Pakistan and independence of India was 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 to persuade Muhammad Ali Jinnah to form the new central government in order to avoid the division of the country – which since Gandhi and Jinnah’s failed talks in Malabar Hills, Bombay, in September, 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, leading the Viceroy to arrange a meeting between the two on the 17th of June, 1947.
Appointed by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee on the 20th of February, 1947, and entrusted to assist the former British Dominion attain her independence as an undivided nation, though Louis Mountbatten’s priorities too were centered on avoiding a partition at any cost, he none the less 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, the Viceroy’s 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, and in the end he was forced to speed up the process of independence by rescheduling the date of the transfer of power from June 1948 to the 15th of August, 1947 – almost nine months ahead of time.
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, none the less, has come to be criticized by some modern day historians. Who claim the speeding up of the transfer of power 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 had always been hesitant to accept the position of the last viceroy of India. Fully aware of the political turmoil that had developed in the country and the controversies it would lend to his otherwise flawless career, he had reluctantly accepted his post of Viceroy on the 20th of February, 1947.
On the 15th of August, 1947 as India celebrated her independence, the Mountbattens quietly spend their time in redoing the interiors of the Viceroy’s house. They removed all traces of India’s imperial past and later welcomed Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajender Prasad in the early morning hours.
After Pakistan’s formation on the 14th of August 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 gracefully accepted and continued in for a period of ten months till replaced by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, the first governor general of Independent India.
This photo is from a series captured by an uncredited photographer of the No.9 Army Film and Photographic Unit. A department of the British Indian army which covered both the proceedings of World War II in the eastern theater and political events in India. It was later archived by the University of Manoa at Hawaii under the category: Political Activism and Public Life.
Louis Mountbatten, incidentally, was personally requested to step in as last Viceroy by none other than Nehru himself. Who is believed to have been in a relationship with his wife Edwina. A close association that may have led the Muslim League to be suspicious of Mountbatten’s efforts.
Even though the viceroy held talks with the leader of the Muslim league, he remained ineffective in persuading Jinnah from abandoning his idea of a separate nation – as further strengthening Jinnah’s claim at the time that Hindus and Muslims deserved their own individual nations, had been a string of communal riots including the terrible tragedy of 16th August, 1946 which 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 was also not to 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.
