Freedom at Midnight

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It had epitomized the Victorian ideal of India better than anything else -dark, plucky soldiers staunchly loyal to their distant empress, led by doughty young Englishmen, straight arrows all, steady under the Pathans’ fire, good at games, stern but devoted fathers to their men, chaps who could hold their liquor in the mess. Because anything good that comes out of India, well it has to be influenced by the higher race, even in ancient times. Today Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, has inherited that great office, Prime Minister of what was once the vastest democracy on earth.

The composition of this book is such that you won't find it difficult to read through the pages, and the authors have weaved it with simple, yet strong literature. And also Gandhi’s role in maintaining the peace between Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs during the aftermath of partition was commendable. Charlemagne was a direct ancestor; among his uncles and cousins were Kaiser Wilhelm II, Alfonso XIII of Spain, Ferdinand I of Rumania, Gustav VI of Sweden, Constantine I of Greece, Haakon VII of Norway and Alexander I of Yugoslavia.This book enticed my appetite to read more history about the formation Modern India and the Leaders of that time. Four and a half centuries of human history bore the imprint of that discovery and its consequences: the economic, religious and physical exploitation of the nonwhite masses throughout the globe by the white, Western, Christian masses at its core. There was, he said, “a cherished conviction shared by every Englishman in India, from the highest to the lowest, by the planter’s assistant in his lonely bungalow and by the editor in the full light of his presidency town, from the Chief Commissioner in charge of an important province to the Viceroy upon his throne-the conviction in every man that he belongs to a race which God has destined to govern and subdue. This was, in essence, the dichotomy between the fathers of the two nations that formed after the Partition of British India.

A whole generation of young men who might have patrolled the Frontier, administered the lonely districts or galloped their polo ponies down the long maidans was left behind in Flanders fields.Even though I have some difference with the ideology of Gandhi, one cannot deny his efficiency in bringing out the peace at worst of situations.

Meenu is full of writing prompts and she also aspire to become a published author one day or the other.

A superb introduction to events which lead to the modern nation of India, but one should read other histories for some contradictory accounts. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). Unfortunately, but perhaps not surprisingly, this book is still the best-selling account of Indian independence. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. This book brought many incidents which have been buried deeply behind the pages of history into light.

The Sikh, Hindu and Moslem components of the Indian Army all gave heartfelt farewells to their comrades who would be moving to their respective countries at partition. Lapierre is proud that after spending a great deal of time in Jerusalem he knows each alley, square, street, and building in the Holy City intimately. Not surprising, then, that he comes across as a helpless and powerless spectator who could do nothing in the face of consummate madness, rioting, killing, raping, and plundering that swept the Indian society on the eve of Partition/independence and continued into many months. Too bad that the authors had decided to make this a drama, with the Viceroy Mountbatten as its tragic hero, and time as the villain.India would harbor a leper population the size of Switzerland; as many priests as there were Belgians in Belgium; enough beggars to populate all of Holland; fifteen million sadhus, or holy men; 20 million aborigines, some like the Nagas of Nagaland still hunting human heads. The narrative style of the book immerses readers in the visual landscape of the falling Raj and allows them to step into the minds of the great actors of this time. Attlee whose reform would go on to prove to be fruitful for England, is shown as just another weak and meek bureaucrat. I am happy at the generation I am living in, but after reading this book, it made me wonder whether I have missed the most epoch making time of my country, well any country for that matter. The Urdu of the deputies of the Punjab was read from right to left; the Hindi of their neighbors in the United Provinces from left to right.