nehru went to the airport to see off the last viceroy of india

8/8/2019 Nehru Went to the Airport to See Off the Last Viceroy of India

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Nehru went to the airport to see off the last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, in June1948. Here, he is seen with Lord Mountbatten's daughter, Pamela.

The American first lady Jacqueline Kennedy visited India in 1962 and charmed her hosts,including prime minister Nehru.



Once a prince of Sarila; Narendra Singh Sarila, I.D. Tauris, London, pp 300, Rs 895.00

In the first half of the 20th Century, till India won back its Independence in 1947, morethan a third of the country was ruled by what a poet would have described as “princes and

prelates and periwigged charioteers” who were a law unto themselves, unless they

crossed the Laxman Rekha drawn by British agents stationed in their capitals to keep aneye on their activities. As Narendra Singh Sarila, prince of a small state in Central India —Sarila—writes in his evocative memoirs, those were “halcyon days of bejewelled andeccentric maharajas, life in marble palaces mirrored in lakes or in mighty stone fortresseson craggy hills, tiger hunts on elephant back, bewitching princesses hurtling on horseback or awaiting their lovers in projecting balconies trellised in stone, armies of retainers and

polo, music and laughter”. “Bewitching princesses” may be something of anexaggeration, but most of these rulers certainly lived a life of splendour who believed in



the divine right of kings, even while kow-towing to third rate British agents who probably hailed from some middle class families in their home country.

Sarila, one of the smallest states, not larger than about 100 square miles, with a capitalwhose residents did not number more than 10,000, could boast of a 30-room palace and a

12 hectare lake close by, that could have been the envy of a Maharaja. Then came the eraof post-second world war India which Narendra Singh describes as a time of “mellowglow before a sunset”, when princely India nearing its end was “bathed in radiance,

probably unmatched anywhere in the last century”. The end of princely rule came quicklythereafter. India finally became one, a country ruled by elected rulers and not byheriditary monarchs. But how was it like to be a prince in those days when to be a ruler,even of a minor state, was to be a lesser God? Narendra Singh provides an answer,unsentimentally, but in vivid and colourful detail like detached but self-appointedhistorian who wants to record an era that Time had swallowed. Narendra Singh acceptedthe fall of the rulers that he witnessed from close quarters, with an apparent sense of equanimity and admirable poise. It was fortuitous that he received an appointment in the

last day of the British Raj to be an ADC to Lord Louis Mountbatten, and when, finally onJune 21, 1948, the last British Viceroy and Governor-General bid good-bye to his staff ina sort of silence of sorrow”, Narendra Singh like many of his royal contemporaries gotenlisted into the Indian Foreign Service.

This book is a record of his place in India in the pre-and immediate post-Independencedays and of his assessment of leaders like Nehru and Sardar Patel in action. WhenViceroys travelled in those pre-aviation days in trains, Narendra Singh recalls how thevillages near the railway lines would be “combed for strangers and suspicious charactersand every inch of the railway track scrutinised to ensure that no landmines had been

placed anywhere near the line”.

Narendra Singh has no illusions either about British or princely power. One brief chapter is devoted to why the latter collapsed. As he says: “The princes and their nobles never had a realistic chance of providing a viable government for India. They lacked the unity,dexterity and realistic view of the country’s future and how it should be organised”. Therulers fell like a house of cards. Narendra Singh’s description of the way the VicergalPalace worked is fascinating. His reports on Jawaharlal Nehru are no less so. Sometimein 1948, Nehru came calling on the Mountbattens. Says the author: “He was chummywith Their Excellencies. Came for ten minutes. Stayed for two hours”. Nehru was takenup by Lady Edwina Mountbatten. On one occasion Narendra Singh had to give a messageto Lady Edwin, when she was supposed to be entertaining Nehru. Writers the author: “AsI entered, my eyes fell on Panditiji’s highly polished Peshawari chappals, neatly placedon the carpet. They were sitting on the Knole sofa facing each other, their positionsrevealing an extraordinary intimacy between them. I delivered the message andwithdrew, receiving a forgiving smile from the Premier and nonchalant one from Her Excellency…” Narendra Singh does not say so, but it is clear that Mountbatten used hiswife to influence Nehru. He writes: “Mountbatten persuaded Nehru to take the issue of Pakistan’s invasion of Kashmir to the untried forum of the United Nations SecurityCouncil. This hamstrung India from winning back northern Kashmir along Chinese



Sinkiang. That China acquired direct territorial contact with Pakistan through northernKashmir was of immense geopolitical significance for the future. It harmed India”.

Furthermore he writes: “Mountbatten’s success, with Leftist Krishna Menon’s help, in re-inforcing Nehru’s anti-American propensities, though done to safeguard British

commerce with India against aggressive American competition and to buttress the BritishCommonwealth, resulted in Nehru cold-shouldering the United States generally, whichmade America less hesitant not only to woo Pakistan as a partner in the cold war but alsoto put pressure on India over Indo-Pakistan issues”. That is simply put.

The background is more complicated. Britain and the US were hand-in-glove with eachother to reduce India’s influence as a non-aligned country and to strengthen the hands of Pakistan. Nehru’s hands had been effectively tied which he either probably did not realiseor it was too late for him to do anything to free himself. Nehru says the author “had tohave somebody he could turn to for counsel throughout his life”. Krishna Menon wasdisaster. Nehru reportedly told Chief Ministers of the federal states that he chose

Tagore’s Jana gana mana over Vande Mataram because he felt that the tune to which theformer was set “was conducive to western orchestration”. The truth is that he hadsuccumbed to Muslim pressure against Vande Mataram, whether Nehru would admit to itor not. It seems that Lady Edwina once told Narendra Singh in 1958 that if Nehru hadrelinquished his Prime Ministership then “he would have been a truly great PrimeMinister”. There surely is some truth in that. But what is most fascinating about this brief Memoir is its graphic detailing of another day and culture. For that one can’t be gratefulenough for the author. The GenNext needs to know what India was like in the forties of the 20th century and, insofar as the princes were concerned the author has excelled.Praise be.

nehru went to the airport to see off the last viceroy of india

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