Dec 14, 2007

Indian Summer - Alex Von Tunzelmann

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For anyone interested in the history of India and Pakistan during the time leading up to the collapse of British Empire, this is a terrific read. The young author has carefully crafted the story around four central participants; Louis Mountbatten, his wife Edwina, Pandit Nehru, and Mohatma Ghandi. The history is in a readable story form and it's authenticity is backed up with an extensive bibliography.
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Mounbatten is portrayed as a pompous and vain "want-a-be royal" dressed in a spotless white military suit with colorful medals, a brilliant sash, a gleaming silver sword on one hip, and an admiral's hat. He comes off as a shallow, cuckolded man trying to follow the "How To Govern" book.
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Edwina Mountbatten, by comparison, is seen as an angel. She is not exactly perfect, but close. Her decades long love affair with Nehru is openly disclosed, but her activities on behalf of India's poor more than compensate for her semi-private romance. She is, for me, a more interesting participant than her husband.
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Pandit Nehru is shown to be a complicated person indeed. Devilishly handsome, a delight with the ladies, fiercely devoted to Indian progress, capable of elation one minute and the depth of despair the next. He was, apparently, a very capable and widely admired politician, and was a strong supporter of Ghandi.
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Ghandi, that strange little man wrapped in a burlap rag, gathered to himself a tremendous power over the Indian people. His political ideas were widely followed and his influence on political affairs was greatly respected.
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The one missing link in this book is the almost surgical removal of anything involving the poverty, pain, filth, and overwhelming numbers of the sick and hungry poor. The entire book is about officers only. No enlisted men need apply. It is a book about the elite ten percent of India's population, and no real mention is made of the other ninety percent. I see this as something of a fatal flaw and therefore recommend this book as good but not excellent.
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