Nov 08, 2006 04:18 AM
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(Updated Nov 08, 2006 04:22 AM)
Finally got through Freedom At Midnight last weekend which is no less than an accomplishment, on my part to be specific. At the outset I'd say it's a magnum opus - the spelling errors aside. Although it read like a history book, it gives one a ringside view to what went on behind the scenes as Aug 15th 1947 drew close. Towards the end it even focused on the assassins of the Mahatma, looking at their strategies and how they concretised their plan/s. Lapierre and Collins have done a brilliant analysis of every character in the book - be it Jinnah or Godse, Nehru or Mountbatten. Thankfully they did not dig into the Nehru-Edwina equation at all, and concentrated instead on the equation Nehru shared with Lord Mountbatten.
Freedom At Midnight chronicles the end of the British Raj in India. The book opens with the hand-picked appointment of Lord Louis Mountbatten as the last Viceroy of British India. The book sort of eulogizes Lord Mountbatten's endeavours to liquidate the Raj under peaceful terms which even the authors accept in the preface to the latest edition.
The book sways to and fro in history and can be difficult enough at times to Nazi's like me who have a limited data bank regarding the precedent events. However, the language of the matter is beautiful and facts inter woven with dexterity and thorough research.
Freedom At Midnight highlights a substantial deal about the tension gravid events of the past whether it is the British's initial involvement in India, the decline of the Mogul Empire and the rise of Sikhism. However of the Sepoy Mutiny or the two bloody wars fought with the Turban-ators, the authors hardly concede the verity that it happened. While where they do dwell upon detail is in the rioting and violence immediately after freedom - trains packed with gory images of dead bodies spilled with blood, brutal harassment of Moslem women in Amritsar, etc. Yet quality time is spent on contrasting the different modes tried to control the agitation. Gandhi's hunger strike in Calcutta followed by re-establishing order along the frontiers of Punjab and juxtaposed into the background of the story is the figure of Nathuram Ghodse, the fanatic Hindu nationalist who ultimately assassinated the Father of the Nation.
Freedom At Midnight bugs into the reader an uneschewed element of curiosity no matter the number of times s/he rummages through the bibliography (in especially gone cases like me). However, atleast for all history-allergic and event -oblivious people out there, the book is a must read. And if you belong to a genre like mine where you just know how to spell history and that's it, believe you me, the book offers a wide and pellucid info about the time's of yore in struggle, leaving you but with an annoying itch… only to scratch more.
