The Scandal That Shaped Partition: India’s First Prime Minister

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1:29Anita and I have decided we're going to take it in turns to do a deep dive into a period of history or historical character that we are completely obsessed with, or in my case, a place. Anita, it's your turn first, and you've chosen to revisit a period that Empire listeners will no doubt be rather familiar with, because we've now done it twice in various ways on Empire. most recently with Sam, the partition of India. But this time you're exploring something we didn't really go into in any detail, which is also one of the most scandalous and perhaps the most consequential of the personal relationships during partition.

2:08Anita:I mean, history is made by people and their stories. And this is the story of a love triangle at the heart of partition. It's the story of a rebellious heiress called Edwina Mountbatten and the two men who orbited around her as if she were the sun. Her husband, Louis Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India, and Jawaharlal Nehru, who would become the first prime minister of a free India. And I'm joined by the brilliant author and friend of the show, Alex von Tunzelman, to tell his story. Now, it's obviously quite a saucy story, but what actually led you to choose this as your deep dive into history?

2:46Anita:Because, I mean, you know, we always say on Empire, you know, the episodes of the past that shape the present. And there is a continuing political row going on in India about just how much Neri was in the thrall of the British. Did he let India down? Now, you know, two camps on this. One that says he was a canny operator. He did exactly the right thing, the best thing for India, because he got close to the power that mattered. And that was the Mountbatons. The other, though, keeps talking about some of the imagery from that time. And there's one photograph, Willie, you know it as well as I do, which is Nehru sat at Edwina Mountbatten's feet.

3:23Anita:Yes. And it's, you know, sort of there are a few of him sort of gazing adoringly. But the enemies of, you know, Congress and the politics of Nehru say, look, this is evidence that this was a weak leader who bowed down to the British. So that's really we're getting to this relationship. What was it? Because it's still currency in the political debate right now. So I know how I feel about this. I think that Nehru was an extraordinary figure. And I'm a fan, though I think that his economic legacy is something which perhaps was a slight kiss of death to the Indian economy for 30 or 40 years. But as a human being, as a writer, as a politician, as a statesman, I think he's the most extraordinary figure.

4:08But I'm very intrigued to see where you and Alex take this. And you and Alex tell this story, I believe, in four parts, one per week. And this week's episode is already out for members, exploring the origin story of Nehru. Then there's the Mountbatons and their very unconventional marriage, even by contemporary standards. And the last two episodes on how the three individuals collide as the Raj is failing and partition is unfolding around them.

4:38Anita:Yeah, absolutely. And we have a clip right now from the series where we're talking about the rather improbable way that Nero and the Mountbatons quite literally fall into each other's arms. So to access the full series, just head to empirepoartuk.com, empirepoartuk.com and become a friend of the show today. So, okay, I mean, look, you can see a relationship developing between Dickie and Nehru. That's unsurprisingly not the relationship I'm most interested in at this moment in time. Edwina and Nehru. Yeah. How? Well, there's the most extraordinary scene goes down, which is, you know, there are great crowds following Nehru everywhere in Singapore.

5:21Anita:And Nehru's going to come and visit. Mountbatten's there and, you know, he's bringing Nehru there. And they go to meet her and this crowd surges forward. And they surge so much that they actually, and Nehru's there with his sister Krishna and her husband, Raja. And the crowd goes forward so fast that they push them over. So Edwina's on the ground, right? You know, being trampled under this crowd. And Neri says to Mountbatten, your wife, your wife, we must go to her. And they link arms and rush forward. And actually she's already kind of got herself up, but they sort of pick her up together and get her out of this place and to safety.

5:58Anita:I mean, can you - How could you be more of a human metaphor? I mean, it's like, you know, you're going to think I wrote this for the movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did not. This is what happened. Yeah. So the most extraordinary kind of meet cute that you've ever seen. Yeah. Is that in a way the whole relationship has kind of played out in this moment. It's so extraordinary. I mean, are there any written records about what she thought when she first clapped eyes on him? I mean, I sort of get the impression at this point there's fascination. Oh, definitely. You know, he's got lovely manners. Yeah. And I mean, he tells great stories.

6:29Anita:He's an incredibly charismatic person. And very handsome as well. We mentioned that Mountbatten was very handsome. Yes, we forgot to say that. We really should say that Nero also - He wasn't tall, but he was very handsome. No, quite short. Short king. But, you know, Edwina also wasn't very tall, so that was fine. She's not bothered by that. So there was this kind of extraordinary intimacy. And it kind of sets the tone for this whole trip, which actually has a completely different tone from other British imperial trips, where Nero is suddenly like, oh, hold on, these people are being decent to me.

6:56Anita:This is weird. So when Mountbatten then says, look, you know, I know you're going to go and lay a wreath on this Indian National Army Memorial, but like, honestly, everybody is getting really spicy about it. Would you mind just not doing that? And Narek goes, yeah, whatever. You know, and he's been totally committed to doing that. And he's like, sure, man, like, because actually you're clearly trying to help me out. Yeah. And then he was addressing this massive rally at the Jehan Basar Stadium there, you know, and he's, and the crowd, it's a huge crowd, estimated very differently, if we say, by the British and the Malayans.

7:25Anita:so the british are like oh yeah there's like 3 000 people in the malay newspaper it's like 50 000 people so who knows you know a large crowd 3 000 men of the indian national army are there and it's a very you know it is getting it's tense quite full on very tense and the crowd starts chanting blood blood blood right in this way and narrow told them off he was like stop this you know he did good scolding exactly there are a number of occasions where you see him yeah no There are a number of occasions. There's a time, I think, I mean, the Attenborough film sort of, you know, does it in a different way where people were eventually shouting death to Gandhi.

8:04Anita:Yeah. And he goes wading into the crowd trying to find out who was it. But he has, you know, there are times where he stood up in front of a crowd saying, stop this. I want you to stop this right now. He's not afraid of a big crowd. No. Although, of course, he's not a complete Gandhi and a complete Bazavis. He's like, look, if we need you to fight, I'm going to call you guys. Right. But just... Let me try. Stop with the blood charm. That's not the way we're doing this. And it kind of works. And things settle down. And so, it's sort of an extraordinary visit. And we know, you know, then they all went to dinner together.

8:34Anita:And we do know that from that dinner, people were saying they clearly all made a very strong impression on each other. And this was like a really serious event. So, I mean, there is the bit of it, you know. But there is also a very serious point because that dynamic with those deep roots is going to matter so much when we come to his time as a Viceroy. We do hope you enjoyed that clip from our members' mini-series on the scandal that shaped Partition. To access the full series, head to empirepoduk.com and become a friend of the show today.

9:13It is out of control in the White House right now. Welcome to The Rest is Politics US. I'm Katty Kay. I'm Anthony Scaramucci. Who is the worst politician in Washington right now?

9:26Anita:They don't know how to manage Donald Trump. I talked to the people that organized the abduction. I'm telling you why they did it. The White House is in a bind, Anthony. Here's what I would say to you about FAFA. The chaos is the strategy. It should not have happened, and it is a violation of international law. Is he losing control of the party? I survived 11 days in Trump's White House. I know the SOB. I've been covering politics in Washington for almost 30 years. Twice a week, we break down what's really going on in Trump's White House. The big issue for the United States is going to be we were once seen as a benevolent superpower, and now we're seen as an aggressor.

10:07You know, he can lie about a lot of things, but he can't lie about what people are feeling about the economy. If you really want to understand what's going on in Trump's mind, just search The Rest is Politics U.S. wherever you get your podcasts.