THE GREAT DIVIDE: Britain-lndia-Pakistan

by H. V. Hodson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1970

A semi-official British history of Indian independence and the partition of Pakistan from india, which ranks as one of the finest and most thoroughly researched studies of the period. A Constitutional Advisor to the Viceroy in 1941-42, Hodson draws on the Mountbatten archives, Sir Stafford Cripps' private correspondence, the private papers of previous viceroys Linlithgow and Wavell, and Gandhi and Ali Jinnah, as well as interviews with V. P. Menon, George Abell, Field Marshal Auchinleck, Olaf Caroe, et al. Avoiding personalized petite histoire, Hodson carefully dissects the major issues of British policy in India before independence: the Act of 1935 and the Round Table discussions of that year, the Simla Conference, the Cabinet Mission, and the epic of Lord Mountbatten, last viceroy of India. Mountbatten, armed with a complete mandate carte blanche from Atlee, is the hero of the book. It is he who must pick the next government of India and he does so very carefully through informal conversations with Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah and others. He judged Jinnah ""a visionary"" with ""a complete lack of administrative knowledge or sense of responsibility"" but obviously useful as a counterfoil to the Congress-Hindu leadership. Mountbatten ""passed into the popular consciousness of India as a liberator, perhaps the liberator of the nation."" Hodson's tacit denial of all British atrocities, oppression and plunder and his profoundly righteous belief in British motives will not deter the historian, but they diminish the book's value for general readers. From the other side of the tables, a solid counterpart to V. P. Menon's Transfer of Power In India (1957).

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION