The tortuous and blood-stained road to Indian independence and partition is uncannily like the path taken in other countries. The most important political leaders are Mahatma Gandhi (Inner Temple), Mohammad Ali Jinnah (Lincoln’s Inn) and Jawaharlal Nehru (Harrow, Trinity College Cambridge and Inner Temple) … and Lord Mountbatten who, like my cousin Richard, went to Lockers Park and, unlike Richard, to the Royal Naval College, Osborne.
An English education seems to be a prerequisite to gain freedom from British rule. The pattern in India has a remarkable resemblance to Ireland a quarter of a century earlier, where the founding of the Irish Free Sate was followed by a civil war. In both countries Britain conceded the principal of independence many years before it was implemented. Differences between Muslims and Hindus, Catholics and Protestants with Britain trying hopelessly to see fair play make for tragedy, although it is hard to see any other outcome even with hindsight.
Various forms of Home Rule were mooted for Malta after World War Two until independence was achieved in 1964. Politicians on left and right differed but the Catholic Church unifies the country to this day.
I have got up to 1947 in Alex von Tunzelmann’s, Indian Summer. Mountbatten has arrived as Wavell’s successor as Viceroy. Poor old Wavell; he was not given enough soldiers or weapons to beat Rommel in North Africa and then was given the starving Indian sub-continent to rule as Commander-in-Chief and Viceroy. He was a good soldier, less accomplished as a politician but, at heart, a deeply good man who gave his life to serve his country. His anthology of poetry, Other Men’s Flowers, is a memorial many of us might envy but few could emulate. He only selected work that he knew by heart.
Meanwhile our exploration of Gozo continues. On Friday we walked to Qbajjar for another excellent seaside lunch. Pronouncing place names here is tricky and I was relieved when a local told me to stop trying because I will never succeed. Gozo is peppered with red letter boxes, red ‘phone boxes and even Belisha beacons and the beacons are still being installed. This is a Maltese newspaper story from 2015.
The Qormi mayor also announced that LED belisha beacons will be installed at six different locations to make pedestrian crossings safer. The LED lights will be installed at Triq San Bartolomew, Triq il-Wied, Triq il-Mithna.
Less about India, more about Malta … tomorrow.
Good to have your amiable reflections on the decline of Empire: so little discussion of this stuff is halfway understanding of British ideas – or prejudices.
Also great to have admiring talk of Wavell: when I read all around Sir Percy Hobart, I was bowled over by that generation of senior military figures, for instance Ironside, Spears, Alan Brooke, Ismay. They seemed such feeling and expressive men.
May I add FM Lord Alexander. Digression: one of his brothers is my great-uncle (by marriage) and I have his ivory hair brushes.