A Tryst With Destiny. Review on Freedom At Midnight - Dominique Lapierre

''Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.''

Jawaharlal Nehru, in a speech to the Indian Constituent Assembly on Aug. 15, 1947.

Freedom At Midnight by Collins and LaPierre chronicles the end of the British Raj - the end of Empire on the subcontinent and the embodiment of the movement started long years before by Mohandas Gandhi. Told in a series of vignettes, this informative and entertaining book opens with the appointment of Lord Louis Mountbatten as the last Viceroy of British India. Hand-picked for a job he didn't want, Mountbatten set out to liquidate British rule over the sub-continent under peaceful terms and with due process and dignity. Although he didn't accomplish all that he set out to do, Freedom At Midnight makes it clear that he was more successful than anyone might have thought possible.

The book jumps back and forth throughout the long chronicle of Britain's adventure and involvement in India. While some might find this a bit disjointed and difficult to follow, it never stops being entertaining and is easy to read throughout. It offers up personal glimpses of the key players involved and some strange asides about historical figures.

Winston Churchill does not fare too well for his obstinancy - ''I have not become the King's First Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire''. While the authors fall short of vilifying Winnie in this regard, they spare no pains to emphasize his long antagonism towards Mohandas Gandhi - ''The nauseating spectacle of this former Inner Temple Barrister, now half-naked Faqir,..parlaying on equal terms with the representative of the King/Emporer!''

Gandhi himself is on display in a rather candid, warts and all biography scattered throughout the various chapters of the book. The advocate of non-violence apparantly also sang the praises of salt-water enemas, slept with two young nieces to test his theories about sexual abstinence, and incurred enormous expenses for security (''My dear Lord Louis, you would not believe how much money it has cost to keep that old man in poverty'')

The rigid, puritanical figure of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the prime mover for the creation of Pakistan, comes under similar scrutiny. This stern, austere lawyer repaid the hospitality of his best friend by eloping with his 16 year old daughter. Pakistanis may be somewhat less than enthusiastic about the manner in which Jinnah is presented here, but the approach of Collins and LaPierre does strive to be objective.

Among the key figures, only Jawaharlal Nehru seems to be without some major flaw of character which is not deemed to be worthy of mention. But it is noted that Nehru himself took up a lathi (a stave used by police) to personally participate in riot control in the aftermath of Independence.

Freedom At Midnight skims over a number of significant portions of the story, including the manner of Britain's initial involvement in India, the decline of the Mogul Empire and the rise of Sikkhism. Of the Sepoy Mutiny, which marked the demise of the East India Company and formal rule by the British Crown, they barely acknowledge the fact that it happened. This event begs for more detail which is not forthcoming. Similarly, the two bloody wars fought with the Sikhs for control of the Punjab is confined to a single sentence.

Where they do dwell upon detail is in the rioting and violence which took place immediately after Independence. At midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, British India became the separate countryies of India and Pakistan. Almost immediately, the major cities along the two new frontiers erupt in sectarian violence. Collins and LaPierre do linger over details such as a train pulling into New Delhi with all the passengers slaughtered and the aisles of the cars literally awash in blood. Scenes such as Moslem women being rounded up, paraded naked through the streets of Amritsar and massacred at a mosque border on sensationalism if not downright titillation.

Yet significant time is spent on contrasting the various methods used to put down the violence. Gandhi began a hunger strike in Calcutta which went further towards re-establishing order than the deployment of troops accomplished along the frontiers of the Punjab. And interwoven into the background of the story is the figure of Naturam Ghodse, the fanatic Hindu nationalist who would eventually assassinate Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Freedom At Midnight might be construed as a flawed book in that it attempts to cover too broad a subject without enough attention to some of the pertinent details. There is some validity to this claim, and much of what is presented here will leave an interested reader looking for some added detail. One will have to refer to the extensive bibliography to find it. But Collins and LaPierre do an excellent job of provoking such curiousity. As a history of India, it is woefully incomplete. As an explanation of the politics and intrigue which manifests itself in the ongoing controversy over Kashmir, it is barely adequate. But as a condensation of a drama which played out over a period of several hundred years, it is superb. As an introduction for the newcomer interested in the emergence of modern day India and Pakistan, it is highly recommended.