ORPHANED AT FREEDOM - A SUBCONTINENT'S TALE

In the middle of August, 1947, two nations – the Dominion of India and the

Dominion of Pakistan – came into being through a Partition of the British Indian

Empire.

The Princely States, which owed their existence to the British, acceded to

either of the two Dominions.

Jinnah, as Governor-General of Pakistan, and Nehru, as Prime Minister of

India, took the oath of office swearing allegiance to George VI, who was still the

King of both the Dominions but no longer the Rex Imperator or King-Emperor.

The Dominions eventually emerged as the Republic of India in 1950 and

the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956. Twenty-five years on, in 1972, a third

country – the People’s Republic of Bangladesh – was born out of the liquidation

of East Pakistan.

A United India – if it had been preserved – may have been an equal,

militarily and economically, of the People’s Republic of China.

Arun Bhatnagar’s Book is an engaging and absorbing account of a

Subcontinent that passed through the High Noon of Empire, saw unity dissolving

into division and experienced euphoria and despair, progress and tragedy, victory

and defeat. The narrative, during the years 1911-1999, traverses (by way of the

life-story of an Indian member of the ICS, later a practicing Barrister and

Politician) various dimensions of history, politics, economy, culture and

administration.

The Afterword conveys the reader into the twenty-first century when

unfriendly neighbours are in alliance to thwart New Delhi’s interests.