Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins
Fantastic Story !
A famous major work on Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru, Mount Batten and
Partition.
Personal Review: Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins
The crown of the British Empire was always India, yet ruling it was a very
complex task due to the enormous number of different religious and ethnic
groups. When it became clear after the end of the Second World War that
Britain would be forced to grant independence to her Indian colony, Lord
Mountbatten was appointed to the post of the final British Viceroy to the
colony. Once the British flag was lowered for the last time at midnight,
hence the title, it was up to the people of India to govern themselves, a
task that seemed impossible at the time.
This book is the best account of a short, yet climactic event of history that
I have ever read. It is spellbinding to read this account of how the entire
subcontinent seemed to degenerate into anarchy. I recently watched the
remake of "War of the Worlds" where the train signal goes off and the
burning train moves through the town. Something similar actually
happened in India during the transition to independence and self-
government. Trains would pull up to stations and blood would be dripping
from the passenger cars, all of the people on board had been killed by
rampaging members of other groups. Even the Indian military fractured on
ethnic and religious lines, Hindu units massacred Muslims and Muslim
units massacred Hindus. The only reliable military units that the
government had were the Ghurka units, where they existed, they provided
the only reliable protection for the people.
There have been other instances where a society suddenly collapses into
ethnic and religious hatreds, with a slaughter of one or both groups taking
place. Recently, we have seen it again in Bosnia and Rwanda. However,
nobody has ever captured these events in such detail and clarity as Collins
and Lapierre have, it is one of the hardest books to put down that I have
ever read. It should be required reading in any course dealing with the
history of the British Empire, India or even the twentieth century.
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