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December 31, 2006
The final countdown
A play based on the private papers of Mountbatten, including verbatim records, testimonies and discussions with leading political figures in the run-up to Partition. 
Shashi Joshi dramatises crucial behind-the-scenes gambits in the push for Partition.
Mountbatten’s study. Mieville and Erskine Crum seated. Campbell-Johnson puts papers together and moves towards exit.
Mieville: Where are you rushing off to Alan?
Campbell Johnson: I have to arrange for Dickie to leave for London — he’s taking the revised plan personally. Pity me, its sweltering outside — 113 degrees in the shade! Moan. [Leaves]
Mountbatten: [Walks in and sits at desk and looks at watch] His Royal Highness is late. I’m going home Eric, you hold the fort while I’m away. Keep the gentlemen busy with all the nitty gritty details of the plan.
Ronnie: [Enters] Mr Jinnah phoned to say he is delayed but Mr Bhabha is outside, says he just wants to see you for a minute. [Mountbatten nods and Bhabha shown in]
Mountbatten: I congratulate you Mr Bhabha on your efforts behind the scenes. You seem to have persuaded Mr Patel to accept dominion status.
Bhabha: [Smiling] I have indeed worked hard on this front — and I am really glad to see the Congress leaders are at last taking a realistic view. But I feel that you are making a mistake in dealing so much with the idealistic dreamers instead of realist men of action.
Mountbatten: Do you mean I should deal with Vallabhai Patel instead of Nehru?
Bhabha: I cannot say more, you may take it as you like. All responsible people in India are bound to take dominion status as the only solution. If we succeed in the first six months, no part of India would ever dream of leaving the Commonwealth.
Mountbatten: I sincerely hope so. Well, I’m off to London tomorrow.
Bhabha: I am delighted to hear that. Everybody in Bombay is saying: why doesn’t the Viceroy go home? No one else can ever settle this.
[Jinnah and Liaquat Ali ushered in. Bhabha leaves.]
Mountbatten: So gentlemen, you have studied the draft plan. Are you satisfied?
Liaquat Ali: There are a few minor details, your Excellency. Purnea used to be a part of Bengal — it has been removed. And, ...
Mountbatten: I’m sorry, Mr Khan, I cannot tie myself down to any discussion of transfer of areas at the present stage. Sir Eric Mieville is to go into such questions and telegraph me in London — I’m going home tomorrow morning to settle things finally. All I ask of you is an acceptance of the general principles.
Jinnah: The general plan is acceptable to us.
Mountbatten: Very good. So, Sir Mieville will send the plan to the Indian leaders tomorrow. I intend to recommend to HMG that the transfer of power in India should take place as soon as possible. I have informed my prime minister of your desire that Pakistan should remain within the Commonwealth. Congress has now put forward a similar request I shall pass both requests to HMG. [Leans back] So? You have got your Pakistan. What exactly does it mean by the way?
Jinnah: Well, Lord Mountbatten, P is for Punjab; A is for Afghan — that is the Pathan of the NWFP; K is Kashmir; as for — this letter does not exist in Urdu; S is for Sindh and ‘tan’ for the last syllable of Balochistan.
Liaquat Ali: Your Excellency, the literal meaning of Pakistan is ‘pure land’.
Mountbatten: I see. The question which now requires clarification is whether you, Mr Jinnah would prefer Pakistan to have its own governor-general or to share a common one with India?
Jinnah: I cannot commit myself on this subject straightaway but I have given some thought to it and I feel that it would be better to have two governor-generals. [Mountbatten’s pleasant manner freezes] Of course, there should be a representative of the Crown who would be responsible for the division of assets between the two states. I am extremely keen that Your Excellency should fill that post, needless to say that I have complete faith in your Excellency. And all your awards will be binding on me. I sincerely desire that you should stay on and be the supreme arbitrator.
Mountbatten: [Cold] I am honoured by your remarks, but I cannot consider taking on a post such as you suggest, nor would anybody else wish to. It would be an impossible position — the so called arbitrator would be junior in rank to the governor-general who is the King’s representative.
Liaquat Ali: Excellency, if the two states wanted separate governor-generals, how would the division of assets take place?
Mountbatten: In that case they would both form an arbitration board. I should tell you that I am under extreme pressure from Congress who state that they will not continue in the Interim Government unless they are granted dominion status immediately after the announcement of the plan.
[Silence]
Mountbatten: Mr Jinnah, please send me a letter giving a full description of your scheme of a supreme arbitrator and two governor-generals by day after tomorrow. However, I wish to make it quite clear that if HMG finds your scheme impracticable, you will assure in writing your acceptance of the appointment of a common governor-general.
Jinnah: No, no, no! That is impossible — I cannot give it in writing.
Mountbatten: If HMG decides that your suggestion is unworkable?
Liaquat Ali: I realise the point your Excellency wants us to include in the letter is only accepting an alternative if HMG does not agree to the scheme.
Mountbatten: That’s right. Please give the letter to Sir Mieville day after tomorrow and he will send a copy of it to the Congress. You see, Mr Jinnah, besides requiring the approval of HMG your suggestion would also require agreement by Congress.
Ronnie: [Peeping in from door] Mr Patel and Mr Nehru are outside, your Excellency.
Mountbatten: Please show them in. [Stands up and moves to exit. Jinnah and Ali rise and follow. Patel and Nehru are brought in as Mountbatten returns]
Mountbatten: Well, does the Congress accept the plan?
Nehru: Yes, it is accepted.
Mountbatten: I would like to tell you that your point concerning the Hindu areas in Sindh has been matched by Mr Jinnah’s concern over Purnea district, he says it should go to Bengal. I have decided that questions of this kind should be referred to the Boundary commission — we will not take them up now. Is that agreed?
Nehru: Well, yes, we can leave it for now, but ...
Mountbatten: So this will be the final plan for transfer of power. I leave for Britain tomorrow morning to present it to HMG.
Nehru: Yes, but I have to strongly stress upon one thing — once the announcement is made, the interim government should be treated by convention as a dominion government.
Mountbatten: That will be difficult — because of the Muslim League — but on my own part, I will give the government as much freedom as it wants in the day-to-day administration.
Nehru: Lord Mountbatten, if the Interim Government is treated as a dominion government, it will have a great psychological effect. I am prepared to have you as our governor-general, giving over riding powers both in the protection of minorities and also on any matter affecting the separation of the Pakistan area. There ought to be no difficulty with the League then. You see, the present state of affairs is intolerable and I would be ready to resign if our request is not conceded.
Mountbatten: Can we not do this: we can have Muslim League members working in the Congress departments and vice versa ...
Patel: Absolutely not acceptable — impossible!
Mountbatten: Mr Nehru?
Nehru: I am afraid not — I cannot accept that.
Mountbatten: Well, I will put forward your point of view to HMG — I think I can devise some means by which Congress will have a free hand so far as administration of India is concerned. What about Calcutta? In the event of partition, can Calcutta be declared a free port — you have to have an agreement on the jute trade?
Patel: I am strongly opposed to treating Calcutta as a free port.
Mountbatten: Perhaps you can go into the case for and against with Sir Eric Mieville while I’m away. Mr Nehru, Lady Edwina will be here shortly to give you a report on her trip to Multan, you must excuse me now, I have to prepare for my flight tomorrow.
[Patel and Mountbatten walk out. Edwina enters]
Edwina: I am sorry Jawahar — I’m in no state to talk very much. Here are some of the papers that record what I saw and also what measures are being taken. As you know we leave for London tomorrow, 8:30am.
Nehru: You look very tired perhaps you are overworking.
Edwina: I visited all the hospitals and riot wrecked villages. [Dead voice] There was a child with his hands chopped off. A pregnant mother had been disemboweled — whole families wiped out. I don’t know how to describe it to you.
Nehru: I saw something like it in March — 2,000 people died then. [Bitterly] India is becoming an unholy mess of bloodshed and hatred. I have such a sense of hopelessness ... for the first time.
Edwina: I think Dickie and his advisors are right, partition appears to be the only way out.
[Nehru sits with head down in the fading light.]
[Outside the room, Christie and Abell are talking]
Christie: What’s happening inside?
Abell: Mr Nehru and Lady Mountbatten grieving together for Mother India after her tour of riot-areas.
Ismay is in his drawing room. Jinnah is ushered in by the bearer …
Ismay: I’m really glad that you could come — I’m very disturbed about the relationship between you and Lord Mountbatten. I want to have a most serious and frank talk with you, if I may.
Jinnah: Of course, we have always welcomed each other’s frankness, have we not?
Ismay: You must give me a patient hearing and then you may tell me what you think has gone wrong. First of all, your announcement that you intend to assume the appointment of governor-general yourself came at the 11th hour and this put the viceroy in an extremely awkward position. I may tell you it has lost you a lot of ground in England amongst all shades of political opinion.
Secondly, the Viceroy had practically asked you to restrain your press but your paper has been chortling over the fact that Congress is going to have a European governor-general, while Pakistan is to have one of its own nationals.
“Your paper has been chortling over the fact that Congress is going to have a European governor-general, while Pakistan is to have one of its own nationals.”
Then there is the question of the flag. You had given a provisional agreement to a Pakistan flag with the Union Jack in the corner, but subsequently said that you could not accept it.
Finally, you are now refusing to fly the customary flag for a dominion governor-general on your official residence and not willing to allow the Pakistan navy to fly the White Ensign. Lord Mountbatten is a naval man and the last refusal is the unkindest cut of all. He feels the rebuff so deeply that he is thinking of sending the Prime Minister a telegram saying that it seems hopeless to try to cooperate with you.
Jinnah: I am being completely misunderstood. From the start I dissented with the idea of a joint governor-general. I was sure, I’m still certain, that it would never work.
Ismay: Our grievance is not about your decision, but the fact that you waited until the 11th hour to announce it. I may remind you that Sir Eric Mieville and I had asked Mr Liaquat Ali Khan in the very early days of June to persuade you to nominate the governor-general of Pakistan as soon as possible. If you had only said frankly that you proposed to be governor-general yourself, a great deal of misunderstanding and trouble would have been saved.
Jinnah: I must reiterate that I never gave the Viceroy the slightest grounds for believing that I would agree to a common governor-general. As for the Muslim press, they did no chortling until the Congress attacked me for having first agreed to a common governor-general and then breaking my word. This was an intolerable and untrue accusation and had to be countered.
Ismay: What happened to the Viceroy’s original design for the flag?
Jinnah: I admit that when I first saw it, I did not see any objection to it but my colleagues pointed out that it would be impossible to have the cross and crescent on the same flag. All the old hatreds and rivalries would be revived.
Ismay: But you even object to flying the dominion flag over your residence.
Jinnah: I think it is a mistake for the king to continue signing himself ‘George R.I.’ after August 15. He will no longer be Emperor of India and it will be resented.
Ismay: What does that have to do with the dominion flag, you will be part of the Commonwealth and all dominions fly it.
Jinnah: Surely, I am entitled to fly any flag I like over my own personal residence?
Ismay: Your residence will, in a sense, not be a personal one. It would be the residence of the King’s representative and it seems only right that the King’s emblem should be flown.
Jinnah: But look at the position of Ireland — India and Pakistan will have the same constitution as Ireland has. Unlike the other dominions we will be able to secede from the Commonwealth without an act of British Parliament. I am therefore in favour of the Irish model.
Ismay: I am not aware that if Canada or Australia desired secession, it would require an act of [the British] Parliament. In any case, I am not concerned with constitutions but with the practical applications. Do you really wish the relations between Pakistan and the UK to be the same as those which now obtain between Eire and the UK? We do not help them with officers, or supply them with the latest equipment. Nor do we admit them to our staff colleges. In fact, they enjoy none of the benefits of a dominion. You, on the other hand, appear anxious to have a very large number of British officers and officials to help you. You have insisted that Pakistan wanted to be at once and always a member of the British Commonwealth.
Jinnah: [Resigned manner] You know, Lord Ismay, I have acquired the reputation of having complete authority over my people merely because I always study their views and wishes and faithfully express them.
Ismay: That was precisely what Mr Churchill had claimed to do for the British people in 1940.
Jinnah: [Smiles, nods] Although I personally would not object to flying the dominion flag. I have a feeling that my people would resent it. It would be a thousand pities if it is flown and then removed as the result of agitation.
Ismay: I do not agree. If you start off by flying your own flag, British public opinion will attribute this lack of customary and friendly courtesy to you. But if the dominion flag had to be given up owing to pressure from your parliament, public opinion in England will not take it so badly.
Jinnah: Well, I will have another talk with my colleagues on this and let you know the result. You mentioned something about the navy — there must be some misunderstanding. The Pakistan navy will certainly fly the White Ensign — it is an emblem of comradeship between all the navies of the dominions. I will ensure that it is flown.
Ismay: Thank God — it really upset the Viceroy.
Jinnah: [Rising] I must leave …
[Ismay walks him to the door where Jinnah stops and puts his hand on Ismay’s shoulder and speaks]: I beg you to assure the Viceroy that I am his friend and yours for now and always. I beg that he should judge me by my deeds and not by words.
Evening,Viceroy’s House. Mountbatten with Edwina, a bearer serves drinks and leaves. Mozart plays softly.
Mountbatten: I’ve finally landed myself in a position from which I must extricate myself with honour.
Edwina: Jinnah’s done something? He came to see you in the morning.
Mountbatten: Yes. He had been promising to send me a letter on who he wanted as the first governor-general of Pakistan. The moment he entered, he dropped his bomb, ‘Your Excellency I have to ask you to recommend to London that I be appointed as the governor-general of independent Pakistan’.
Edwina: Doesn’t he realise that only with a common GG, will Pakistan stand any chance of securing its fair share of the national assets?
Mountbatten: Precisely. I asked him if he realised what it might cost him. He just shrugged and said it may cost him several crores of rupees in assets, to his great regret. He looked triumphant rather than regretful as he said that. I’m afraid I rather lost my temper and told him it might just cost him the future of Pakistan, and left Ronnie to show him out.
Edwina: That’s no good. You can’t allow him to get under your skin.Mountbatten: What do you think I should do? If I stay in India, I’ll be forever accused of taking sides. If I go home, I let down the Congress leaders.
Edwina: It’s very straightforward, Dickie. We must leave on the transfer of power. That is the only way you can preserve your reputation for impartiality.
Mountbatten: I’m just whacked and worn out and would really like to go. But Krishna tells me I cannot let Nehru down. To refuse to stay because Pakistan doesn’t want me would be to cause unmerited offence. In both cases I’m in the wrong. [Pause] I’m so depressed because until this stupid mishandling of the Jinnah situation I’d done so well. It has certainly taken me down many pegs.
Edwina: No one is indispensable, you always say. You can explain this to Nehru. He will surely understand you’re exhausted. You’ve been looking rather worn out.
Mountbatten: I feel haggard. And the job is getting more and more difficult. Dear old V.P. Menon told me a few days ago that all the leaders have gone neurotic and Nehru is heading for a breakdown. He said that the only man who can hold India now is me. I get so harassed by the scenes and squabbles about partition — it’s only by a show of optimism that I keep them all together. The one saving grace is the monstrous burden of the Punjab and Bengali partitions will be off my back — I direct everyone to Radcliffe from July 8.
Edwina: I forgot to ask — Alan said you declared August 15 as D-Day?
Mountbatten: [Perks up] The date came to me as if by inspiration — it is the anniversary of my appointment as supreme naval commander. You remember?
Edwina: [Stands beside his chair with hand on his shoulder] Of course I do. There is another anniversary coming up, our silver-wedding on the 17th. We’ll throw a party and invite both Nehru and Jinnah and ease the tension. Cheer up Dickie.
Mountbatten: I can just see them doing a jig together.
Excerpted with permission from
The Last Durbar: A Dramatic Presentation of the Division of British India
By Shashi Joshi
Oxford University Press Plot # 38, Sector 15,
Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi
Tel: 111-693-673
ouppak@theoffice.net
www.oup.com.pk
ISBN 0-19-547217-9
194pp. Rs250
Shashi Joshi is senior fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, India. Her books include Struggle for Hegemony in India: The Colonial State, the Left and the Indian National Movement.
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