Dethroned #3: Enlisting Mountbatten

VP Menon was happy to be the behind-the-scenes man. Let Patel be the face. Menon was also astute enough to use flattery to persuade Mountbatten (“earning the gratitude of Indians for generations” by “achieving the basic unity of the country”) to tell the princes that they would have to pick a country – India or Pakistan; that independence was not an option. There was another reason he (and Patel) wanted Mountbatten involved – failure could be laid at his door; and everyone knew how much Mountbatten cared for glory and posterity, so he could be trusted to do his best once his name was publicly tied to the endeavour, explains John Zubrzycki in Dethroned.

 

But it became evident many princes didn’t like the options. Patel told Mountbatten not to worry, that India could(?) take them by force once the British left. Mountbatten wasn’t so sure – some of the bigger states had armies, were well-armed. He told Patel that such an approach might lead to civil war. One version of events says that Patel agreed that the princes could have all control over their areas except foreign affairs, defense and communication, but only if Mountbatten could deliver all 565 “apples” (princely states). Mountbatten said he might not be able to deliver a couple with certainty (560 he offered); Patel agree to buy such a basket.

 

Mountbatten bluntly told the princes in the next meeting that they had no choice. Even London was taken aback. Jinnah tried telling Mountbatten to leave things open, let independent India and Pakistan sort the princely states later. But Mountbatten feared civil war, and did not want history to say he was the man who had fractured British India via his mismanagement. So he set about, just as Menon and Patel had wanted, doing everything he could to deliver the basket of apples to Patel in time…