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The stroke of midnight on 15 August 1947 liberated 400 million Indians from the British Empire. One of the defining moments of world history had been brought about by a tiny number of people, including Jawaharlal Nehru, the fiery prime minister-to-be; Gandhi, the mystical figure who enthralled a nation; and Louis and Edwina Mountbatten, the glamorous but unlikely couple who had been dispatched to get Britain out of India without delay. Within hours of the midnight chimes, however, the two new nations of India and Pakistan would descend into anarchy and terror. INDIAN SUMMER depicts the epic sweep of events that ripped apart the greatest empire the world has ever seen, and reveals the secrets of the most powerful players on the world stage: the Cold War conspiracies, the private deals, and the intense and clandestine love affair between the wife of the last viceroy and the first prime minister of free India. With wit, insight and a sharp eye for detail, Alex von Tunzelmann relates how a handful of people changed the world for ever.
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The stroke of midnight on 15 August 1947 liberated 400 million people from the British Empire. With the loss of India, its greatest colony, a nation admitted it was no longer a superpower, and a king ceased to sign himself Rex Imperator.
It was one of the defining moments of world history, but it had been brought about by a tiny number of people. Among them were Jawaharlal Nehru, the fiery Indian prime minister with radical plans for a socialist revolution; Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the Muslim leader who would stop at nothing to establish the world's first modern Islamic state; Mohandas Gandhi, the mystical figure who enthralled a nation; and Louis and Edwina Mountbatten, the glamorous but unlikely couple who had been dispatched to get Britain out of India without delay. Within hours of the midnight chimes, the two new nations of India and Pakistan would descend into anarchy and terror. Nehru, Jinnah, Gandhi and the Mountbattens struggled with public and private turmoil while their dreams of freedom and democracy turned to chaos, bloodshed, genocide and war.
Indian Summer depicts the epic sweep of events that ripped apart the greatest empire the world has ever seen, and saw one million people killed and ten million dispossessed. It reveals the secrets of the most powerful players on the world stage: the Cold War conspiracies, the private deals, and the intense and clandestine love affair between the wife of the last viceroy and the first prime minister of free India.
Steeped in the private papers and reflections of the participants, this is an extraordinary story of complex passions and divided loyalties. With wit, insight and a sharp eye for detail, Alex von Tunzelmann relates how a handful of people changed the world for ever. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An extremely impressive first work from Alex von Tunzelmann. Clearly very thoroughly researched, the book manages to wear its scholarship lightly and is written with wit and a sophistication that is refreshing in works of this nature. The author views the tumultuous events of 1947, so relevant in this sixtieth anniversary year, through the prism of the personalities of, and the personal relationships between, the main players on the Anglo-Indian stage. The result is an immensely readable history and perceptive analysis of the partition of India and the role played in its genesis and execution by the Mountbattens, Nehru, Jinnah and Ghandi (and others). There are also some fascinating photographs - not least the wonderful cover photo.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I attended a book signing event on the 13th November 2007 in Brighton were the author talked about the complexities of writing such an epic in which she looked at the dynamics that bought about the fall of an Empire and the most unlikely love story ever not to be reported by the press, that of Edwina Mountbatten and Nehru, India's first Prime Minister.
The book is surprisingly good, I have to confess I didn't have high hopes when I purchased it but the subject is of such interest to me I was willing to take a chance and buy it and I am glad I did.
Ms Von Tunzleman has a written a book that has obviously been researched extensively, both here in the UK and also in India and her candid no nonsense approach to all the subjects she touches, such as Hindu and Muslim hostilities, Mahatma Gandhi's strange predilections that made people both love and hate him, to the fate of the dispossessed, the love story between Nehru and Edwina makes it very interesting to read to the point that you can't put it down.
For a historian Ms Von Tunzleman has made this book very accessible to the ordinary reader, she goes into great detail but she is never boring as she explains how India became a British Empire and how when it finally crumbled into dust, it did so, so swiftly that no one, least of all the British were prepared for the backlash that was to follow.
A superb book with many photos of an era that depicts two nations in transition, India the Jewel in the Crown striking out on its own and Great Britain, suddenly realising that its days as the greatest Empire in the world have come to an end, not so much a tragedy as the inevitability of change in a world flinging of the chains of colonial paternalism.
The book is surprisingly good, I have to confess I didn't have high hopes when I purchased it but the subject is of such interest to me I was willing to take a chance and buy it and I am glad I did.
Ms Von Tunzleman has a written a book that has obviously been researched extensively, both here in the UK and also in India and her candid no nonsense approach to all the subjects she touches, such as Hindu and Muslim hostilities, Mahatma Gandhi's strange predilections that made people both love and hate him, to the fate of the dispossessed, the love story between Nehru and Edwina makes it very interesting to read to the point that you can't put it down.
For a historian Ms Von Tunzleman has made this book very accessible to the ordinary reader, she goes into great detail but she is never boring as she explains how India became a British Empire and how when it finally crumbled into dust, it did so, so swiftly that no one, least of all the British were prepared for the backlash that was to follow.
A superb book with many photos of an era that depicts two nations in transition, India the Jewel in the Crown striking out on its own and Great Britain, suddenly realising that its days as the greatest Empire in the world have come to an end, not so much a tragedy as the inevitability of change in a world flinging of the chains of colonial paternalism.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In 2007 a number of books came out about British India, Partition and the end of the Raj. I find this part of history fascinating but couldnt decide when on a limited budget what to read. I picked Indian Summer and was so pleased that i did.
Indian Summer is a great history book, very readable and accessible. it covers all the main historical figures and characters with lots of information and ancedotes about them all.
Nothing new another reviewer said? Personally I did not realise that Lady Mountbatten and Nehru where rumoured to be having an affair (which influenced a lot of decisions made then), that Gandhi's importance had really waned by 1947 and he was deeply unpopular with sections of the Congress party and most untouchables and that he had some unusual ways of testing himself with young women, that Jinnah seemed to regret the foundation of Pakistan and that Bangladesh/East Pakistan had been designed not to work and therefore be rejected by the Muslim League which might explain some of the problems it faces today. I found this book packed with new information and insights. And I teach History!
A truly fascintating read, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Indian history.
Indian Summer is a great history book, very readable and accessible. it covers all the main historical figures and characters with lots of information and ancedotes about them all.
Nothing new another reviewer said? Personally I did not realise that Lady Mountbatten and Nehru where rumoured to be having an affair (which influenced a lot of decisions made then), that Gandhi's importance had really waned by 1947 and he was deeply unpopular with sections of the Congress party and most untouchables and that he had some unusual ways of testing himself with young women, that Jinnah seemed to regret the foundation of Pakistan and that Bangladesh/East Pakistan had been designed not to work and therefore be rejected by the Muslim League which might explain some of the problems it faces today. I found this book packed with new information and insights. And I teach History!
A truly fascintating read, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Indian history.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good Read
My brother recommended this to me and bought it for me for Christmas. Surprisingly enjoyable and thoroughly recommend it. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Capone Boy
The setting of the sun on the British Empire
The sub-title of this book, "The secret history of the end of an empire" is probably a bit misleading. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Aidan J. McQuade
Bringing history to life
I find some historical books rather dry for my taste, but this book really brings this era to life. Alex von Tunzelmann succeeds in not only educating us about a time in the past... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Rebecca
Fascinating and well worth a read
Having never covered the British Empire at school and having travelled to India and picked up a good bit of history on the way, wanted to read an account of how India gained... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Rebecca C
Alex's triumph
An excellent and well researched historical journey, with lots of the authors pointed and very accurate observations presented with a mixture of worthy cynicism as to the usual... Read more
Published 20 months ago by JoPat
The Setting of the British Raj
It is appropriate that I finished reading this book at the stroke of midnight 14 August 2007. This first book by the author is a wonderful retelling of the events and personalities... Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2009 by Mr. Leong Wai Hong
Gripping and excellent "Indian Summer"
I purchased this book and decided to read it on my regular flight to India.It is a very well written book and brings Lord Mountbatten to view in a real sort of way. Read more
Published on 10 Aug 2008 by harri181
Excellent readable history
Von Tunzelmann has made a great fist of this. It's refreshing to see the incompetence of Mountbatten put into perspective in a way that all the hagiographies up to now have not. Read more
Published on 22 April 2008 by Mr. J. L. Christian
Amusing but nothing new
I looked forward to this but on reading this one had the feeling that the author had done little else but read "Freedom at Midnight" and watched the DVD "Lord Mountbatten The Last... Read more
Published on 22 April 2008 by Paul Grainger
No secret; not entirely about the end of an empire.
Alex von Tunzelmann, student of history at Oxford and editor of OSU's Cherwell newspaper in 1998, passes this book as "the secret history of the end of an empire". Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2007 by T. R. Santhanakrishnan
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