• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy
• Books
• Gallery

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

The article “Jinnah, Jaswant and Partition” (Business Line, August 20) was well-written and put forward an interesting historical aspect to debate. However, the author could also study and write on the role of Lady Edwina Mountbatten and her direct or indirect contribution to the Partition. It is said (and there are various books on the subject) that Lady Mountbatten had enormous influence on Jawaharlal Nehru’s thinking. Perhaps the Lady did urge Nehru, who had the Mahatma’s ear and was a key player in the Congress, to agree to the Partition.

Let us admit that important events of enormous consequence often occur as a result of small, innocuous factors. It is possible that Lord Mountbatten, in a tearing hurry to complete the task assigned to him, (namely, to get the British out of the Indian subcontinent as soon as possible) did use all available levers to influence Indian leaders of the time.

We are now a mature democracy. It is time we dispassionately discussed the reasons for Partition without rancour and with meticulous historical accuracy, based on the documentation available.

The world is entitled to know: Why did the Partition happen? And who were the key players who made it happen?

S. Ganesh, Chennai

More Stories on : Letters | Books | Politics

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line