The Last Durbar

Shashi Joshi

Description

The existing histories of the Partition of British India have very little chance of capturing the moods and mindsets, the helplessness and the frustration of those who steered the course. The histories written thus far have either focused on political narratives or on the ideological analysis. More recently, the spotlight has turned towards the madness and pathology of hatred and mass murders. The Last Durbar tells it as it was - without the epic quality of conventional writing filled with the rhetoric of freedom and greatness, and without the legalese and constitution-making vocabulary of the Transfer of Power. The personal and political meet and separate at the last durbar, with Louis Mountbatten on the throne, and the modern, constitutional 'durbars'hail the advent of freedom and bid farewell to each other. The play is based on private papers of Mountbatten, including verbatim records, testimonies, and discussions of the leading political figures. It is a nuanced and multi-layered account of the months and days that eventually led to the independent nations of India and Pakistan. Drama is the only genre of written history that allows us to fully portray the complexity of such a process and frame the atmosphere to the concentrated moment. The history of Partition has never before been told in this way.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Lord Mountbatten
• Compañía Británica de las Indias Orientales
• Nueva Delhi
• Pakistán
• South Asia
• Durbar
• Punjab
• Earl Mountbatten of Burma
• East India Company
• Muslim
• Hindu
• British
• History
• Asia
• Pakistan
• Independence
• India
• Louis Mountbatten
• Penjab
• Partition
• Darbâr
• Compagnie anglaise des Indes orientales
• Delhi
• New Delhi

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 31 décembre 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351940807
• Langue: English

Extrait

About the Book
The existing histories of the Partition of British India have very little chance of capturing the moods and mindsets, the helplessness and the frustration of those who steered the course. The histories written thus far have either focused on political narratives or on the ideological analysis.
More recently, the spotlight has turned towards the madness and pathology of hatred and mass murders. The Last Durbar tells it as it was - without the epic quality of conventional writing filled with the rhetoric of freedom and greatness, and without the legalese and constitution-making vocabulary of the Transfer of Power. The personal and political meet and separate at the last durbar, with Louis Mountbatten on the throne, and the modern, constitutional ‘durbars’ hail the advent of freedom and bid farewell to each other.
The play is based on private papers of Mountbatten, including verbatim records, testimonies, and discussions of the leading political figures. It is a nuanced and multi-layered account of the months and days that eventually led to the independent nations of India and Pakistan.
Drama is the only genre of written history that allows us to fully portray the complexity of such a process and frame the atmosphere to the concentrated moment. The history of Partition has never before been told in this way.
THE LAST DURBAR
Shashi Joshi has a Phd in history from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She began her academic career as senior lecturer in history at Miranda House, University of Delhi, was Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, and from 1983-97, was co-director of an Indian Council of Social Science research project. She is currently Senior Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, India.
The author has several publications to her credit including Struggle of Hegemony in India: The Colonial State, the Left and the Indian Natinal Movement, Volume I, and Struggle for Hegmony in India: Culture, Community and Power, Volume 3.

Dedicated to Adya, Tia, and Tishya
ROLI BOOKS
This digital edition published in 2015
First published in Pakistan, 2006 by Oxford University Press
First published in India in 2007 by The Lotus Collection An Imprint of Roli Books Pvt. Ltd M-75, Greater Kailash- II Market New Delhi 110 048 Phone: ++91 (011) 40682000 Email: [e-mail] Website: www.rolibooks.com
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eISBN: 978-93-5194-080-7
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Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
History in Dialogue: An Introductory Note
List of Characters
Acronyms and Glossary
The Last Durbar
Select Bibliography
Preface
Much history writing has emerged from the Partition of the Indian subcontinent. And yet the whys and wherefores of the decisions takenduring the run-up from March 1947 by the leaders involved continue to remain unclear and intriguing. We still ask the most basic questions: how could such wise and clever political leaders not avoid the divisionof the country? How could they not anticipate the holocaust it would unleash? Continued dissatisfaction with the answers provided by scholars only tells us that the narrative mode of history writing cannot refl ect the simultaneity and multiplicity of perpetually shifting positions and accents: the clashing wills and confl icting lines of argument as they are revealed in the minutiae of daily records.
The existing histories of the Partition have very little chance ofcapturing the moods and mindsets, the helplessness and frustrations, the anguish and fi nal despair of those who steered the course. At times they appear to box at shadows, at other times they move slowly towards the apparently inevitable. The histories written in India thus far haveeither focused on political narratives or ideological analysis. More recently, the spotlight has turned upon the blood and gore, the madness and pathology of mass murders and hate. This work tells the story as it was—without the epic dimensions of conventional writing fi lled withthe rhetoric of freedom and greatness, and also without the legalese and constitution-making vocabulary of the Transfer of Power . It captures the ticking of the clock in ‘real time’—with a mix of cynicism, fair play, strategic advantage, pelf and profi t juxtaposed with all too human and frail visions, desires, prejudices and isolations.
Bing Crosby sings as breakfast is eaten; the protocol and ceremony of the Order of the British Empire runs parallel to the columns of refugees; the gracious sophistication of the viceregal public relations machine and the bowing and curtseying at the balls intersect with the exercise of power with a capital P. Bach and Chopin play as the Indian world goes mad.
All this and more comes into play as the endgame reaches its fi nalmoment and denouement. The personal and the political meet and separate ‘as the Last Durbar’ with Louis Mountbatten on the throne, and the modern, constitutional durbar is to proclaim a republic and bid farewell to each other.
This work, based scrupulously and completely on the private papersof Mountbatten, including verbatim records and testimonies, discussionsand suggestions of the leading Indian actors, is a blow by blow,nuanced and multilayered account of the months and days that led tothe Indian partition. It exposes the palpable relationship of the leadingactors in this drama, the moves and countermoves, the interactions andmanoeuverings between a range of characters against the backdrop ofmomentous events and developments that transfi gure their imaginationfor better or worse. Past policies and platforms mutate rapidly, ofteninto diametrical opposites, and lifelong patterns jerk into newtrajectories. Marginalized and shunned elements, traditionally kept outof the reckoning at Round Tables and parleys at the top, threw most ofthe fi gures that were centre stage into confusion and turmoil. TheJournalist and the Administrator spin order out of chaos with wordsand prescriptions. And yet, the relentless speed of disorder defi es anymiracles. The prosaic and the poetic, the narrow and the expansive, thewise and the foolish, and the hopeful and the bleak are fusedtogether.
It is only the dramatic genre of writing history which allows us to recover the complexity of such a process and frame the atmosphere of that concentrated moment. It also raises interesting issues about writing: the main concerning ‘voice’ and its textual representation. It also admits more documentary evidence than historical studies usually do. That evidence, here, takes the form of statements from the actors involved in the events who are all extensively quoted: it better inscribes the view of historical discourse. As Certeau remarks: ‘History is never sure: made of “two series of data”, namely of ideas we have about the past on the one hand, (and) of “documents” and “archives” on the other, the history book is a “book divided”.’
Acknowledgements
Without the Fellowship and support given to me by the Hartley Institute Library, Southampton University, and its then Director, Dr Woolgar from May to July 1998, I would not have had the opportunity to research the ‘Mountbatten Papers’ housed there. I place on record my gratitude both to Dr Woolgar and the Hartley Institute Library.
Renuka Misra, Primila and Charles Lewis read the manuscript and encouraged me greatly. Charles, especially, was most generous in help and advice in the process of publication. My loving thanks to them.
I must also record my debt to some authors whose writing was invaluable in evolving a balanced perspective: Leonard Mosley, Trevor Royle, Penderel Moon, Richard Symonds and other accounts of the events that follow. The biographies and memoirs of many of the characters such as Lord Ismay, Edwina and Louis Mountbatten who fi gure in my work gave this writing a sense of their times, not least because of the language and vocabulary that prevailed then. My debt to all of them is great.
Alan Campbell-Johnson’s Mission With Mountbatten provided ‘structural support’ in crafting the manuscript. After a thorough consultation of the ‘Mountbatten Papers’ it was clear to me that Alan’s account was scrupulously faithful to the stenographical notes dictated by Mountbatten immediately after each interview with representative Indian leaders. I have taken no license with the words recorded in the archive.
History in Dialogue: An Introductory Note
The first thing that needs to be said is that this is not a play meant for the stage. It is a book of history in dialogue form, that is, a ‘dialogical history’ as opposed to narrative history.
This new form should not be misunderstood as an attempt to‘dramatize’ historical events. All the drama in it is in the Mountbattenrecords itself. The ‘offi cialese’ some characters speak is also inherentin the records to which I scrupulously adhere to.
The sensitive subject of conversations, confabulations and negotiations between historical persons on the Partition of India ought not to be embellished or modified in any way to serve the interest of theatrical production. What obtains between the covers of this work is completely loyal to the actual words uttered by the characters.
So much so that friends who read the transcript wanted a more dramatic finale