Kemper Lectures
The Transfer of Power in India
- continued
Philip S. Ziegler, April 24, 1988
The 15th of August 1947 was a day of ecstatic euphoria for the citizens of the two new nations and was hardly less acclaimed in the former imperial power itself. The sternest critics were temporarily muted, the doubters hoped for the best, the optimists anticipated something even better. For the Indians and Pakistanis it was a day of rejoicing at a great victory won; there might be storms ahead but during that day at least there was no need to contemplate them. For the British the triumph was more equivocal, yet they comforted themselves with the reflection that they had made the greatest act of enlightened self-sacrifice in recorded history and by so doing had won the loyalty and affection of those who otherwise might have been expected to become their enemies. A deluge of congratulations descended on Nehru and Jinnah, the leaders of the two new nations; on Mountbatten, the former Viceroy, in New Delhi; on Attlee, the Labour prime minister, in London. The British congratulated the Indians; the Indians the British; and above the welter of self-satisfaction, rang the trumpet call of that guru of Washington’s political commentators, Ms. Walter Lippmann: “Perhaps Britain’s finest hour is not in the past. Certainly this performance is not the work of decadent people. This on the contrary is the work of political genius requiring the ripest wisdom and the freshest vigour, and it is done with an elegance and a style that will compel and will receive an instinctive respect throughout the civilized world. Attlee and Mountbatten have done a service to all mankind by showing what statesmen can do, not with force and money, but with lucidity, resolution and sincerity.”
Philip S. Ziegler, April 24, 1988
The 15th of August 1947 was a day of ecstatic euphoria for the citizens of the two new nations and was hardly less acclaimed in the former imperial power itself. The sternest critics were temporarily muted, the doubters hoped for the best, the optimists anticipated something even better. For the Indians and Pakistanis it was a day of rejoicing at a great victory won; there might be storms ahead but during that day at least there was no need to contemplate them. For the British the triumph was more equivocal, yet they comforted themselves with the reflection that they had made the greatest act of enlightened self-sacrifice in recorded history and by so doing had won the loyalty and affection of those who otherwise might have been expected to become their enemies. A deluge of congratulations descended on Nehru and Jinnah, the leaders of the two new nations; on Mountbatten, the former Viceroy, in New Delhi; on Attlee, the Labour prime minister, in London. The British congratulated the Indians; the Indians the British; and above the welter of self-satisfaction, rang the trumpet call of that guru of Washington’s political commentators, Ms. Walter Lippmann: “Perhaps Britain’s finest hour is not in the past. Certainly this performance is not the work of decadent people. This on the contrary is the work of political genius requiring the ripest wisdom and the freshest vigour, and it is done with an elegance and a style that will compel and will receive an instinctive respect throughout the civilized world. Attlee and Mountbatten have done a service to all mankind by showing what statesmen can do, not with force and money, but with lucidity, resolution and sincerity.”