![]() ![]() ![]() The last post-WWII viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, brought forward the date of Independence by one year, against the time-frame set by the British Parliament in London. Failing that, after World WarII, when British power waned considerably, they just decided to dump India and go home. The British were desperately trying to chalk out a workable plan of Independence acceptable to both parties of the conflict (Muslims and Hindus) for at least a decade. The consequences were catastrophic as, inter alia, there were unresolved border disputes between the newly independent states of India and Pakistan (the latter divided into East and West wings), princely states, including Kashmir, were left in constitutional limbo, and millions of people were uprooted from their ancestral homes in a tragedy which cost up to one million lives. ![]() The central argument of the book is, as the name indicates, that British, when they decided to leave India, did not plan the transfer of power properly enough. This review is going to be shorter than usual. ![]()
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