Dethroned #2: VP Menon's Plan

A key aspect to how things played out once Lord Mountbatten became Viceroy was the fact that the British PM, Attlee, wanted to close shop in India. Quickly. He wanted Britain to focus on rebuilding itself after World War II. Therefore, he gave plenipotentiary powers to the new Viceroy. Discretionary powers. London need not be consulted. Unheard of powers, writes John Zubrzycki in Dethroned.

 

A Cabinet Mission led by Cripps, in 1946, proposed India start as a union of all provinces, both Hindu- and Muslim-majority, and princely states. Foreign relations, defense, and communications would be common policy. Post-independence, they could all choose their future course.

 

This set the cat among the pigeons. The princely states (rightly) worried that the new Indian government would have no reason to allow them their personal rule. Many saw which way the wind was blowing, and started to think of how best to secure whatever they could. Others, however, thought they could chart their own course even after the British left. Yet others tried to play the Congress against the Muslim League, seeing which of them would promise the princes more.

 

Then there was Conrad Corfield, the Viceroy’s advisor on princely states. In theory, his interactions and relations with the princes, should have been an asset, a way to facilitate agreements with the Congress. But Corfield believed that the British owed it to the princely states the option of independence from both India and Pakistan (since they had pledged allegiance to the British monarch for ages). Not surprisingly, the Congress viewed the man as seeking the Balkanization of India (it was even called ‘Plan Balkan’ by an incensed Nehru). Patel and Menon loathed Corfield, and told as much to Mountbatten. Since Mountbatten had absolute powers, Corfield was told to leave India – he was clearly part of the problem, not the solution.

 

With the Commission’s “Plan Balkan” out, with Corfield out, Mountbatten had no option but to turn to Menon to come up with a new proposal on how power should be handed over to India. Until then, Mountbatten hadn’t care for Menon, and Menon resented the slight. But Menon seized the opportunity. In 3 hours (the time he was given), he framed the high-level plan that would be followed from then onwards – both India and Pakistan would be given dominion status, the princely states would be merged into one or the other, the lion’s share of the military and bureaucratic machinery of the Raj would go to India. Mountbatten agreed, so did Nehru, and Mountbatten travelled to London to get its endorsement. He was accompanied by Menon, the “man who had just saved Mountbatten’s reputation” and “most probably his job”.

 

London agreed. Now it was time to execute Menon’s plan.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Killing Gays

Killing in the name of God: it’s been done for centuries and continues to happen today. But killing people because they are gay? That’s a phenomenon unique to the “Abrahamic God of the desert”, writes Richard Rodriguez . The most recent example of that was the massacre in a gay club in Florida, the worst mass murder in the US since 9/11. But what’s the connection of the “desert religions” to homophobia? Is it just coincidence? No, says Rodriguez: “In such a place, the call to belief was tribal, not individualistic. Sexuality was an expression of faith to increase the tribe. Allegiance to God and to one’s ancestors was fulfilled by giving birth.” Rodriguez also raises a very interesting point about context being very important in how we perceive the same (or similar) actions: “(Florida murderer) Mateen might have been offended by the sight of two men kissing in Orlando, but one wonders what he have would made of Arabian and Afghan societies, where men stroll arm in arm and e...
Read more

Brexit

Before the Brexit polls, my dad asked me the reasons for Leave. I googled and didn’t find any reasons which sounded very convincing. And yet Brexit happened. What was I missing? What articles had Google missed?! Today, you’d think that the usual after-the-event geniuses would be able to come up with reasons. So what are we hearing now? Why did they vote to Leave? 1)       There were those who always hated being part of the EU, joined by those who thought immigration was taking away jobs, and the racists who just hated immigrants. (Funnily enough, the immigrant issue wasn’t really that big a deal. At least not for Britain. I wonder if Angela Merkel rolling out the red carpet for Syrians created a perception problem that couldn’t be fought with facts). 2)      Then there were the many who felt that only the city of London benefitted while the rest of Britain got nothing. 3)      For some politicians, this was a...
Read more

Viruses - Bacteriophages

One of the chapters in Pranay Lal’s Invisible Empire starts with these lines: “Say the word ‘virus’ and the first thought that comes to the mind is of the diseases they cause.” But they can also be the cure for some diseases, he writes.   The Britisher, Ernest Hankin, was sent to India. His job was to “protect British troops from infectious diseases”. Like cholera. By 1894, he was curious about the Maagh Mela in Allahabad, on the banks of the Ganga. Over 3 million devotees arrived every day during that festival. He inspected the waters during this period: “There was very little bacterial contamination of their waters despite the multitudes of people and their cattle bathing in them, discarding their waste and burning corpses along their banks.” By 1895, he had written a paper that the Ganga was cleaner than most British or European rivers , “despite the way they were treated”. He wondered why that was the case, how the Ganga managed to avoid the decay seen in European ...
Read more