Midnight's furies - A book review

" If we don't make up our minds on what we are going to do, there will be pandemonium. If we do, there may also be pandemonium"
- Gen. Hastings Lionel "Pug" Ismay , Chief of staff to Lord Mountbatten in a letter to his 
wife.

Pandemonium is the first word which comes to mind when one revisits the blood soaked days of the vivisection of India on sectarian lines in the ides of August,1947. The questions posed by partition echo to this day in the power corridors of India and Pakistan as well as the forlorn hearts of the survivors. Why exactly did partition become the only way out of the power struggle between Indian National Congress and Muslim League in the 1940s ?  Why did the birth of the new nations had to be a Caesarean surgery that involved bloodshed of a million hearts ? Who are the heroes and villains of The Great Partition Drama ? Is it even possible to fix responsibility in this complex maze of intrigues and Machiavellian plots ?
Naturally, what Ayesha Jalal once called as "the central historical event in 20th century South Asia"[1] has spawned a rich body of literature which range from academic histories (An example is "Independence and Partition" by Sucheta Mahajan) to biographies ( "The Sole Spokesman" ,a biography of Mohammed Jinnah by Ayesha Jalal) to memoirs ("An American witness to India's partition" by Phillips Talbot) to short stories (Works of Saadat Hasan Manto including the brilliant "Toba Tek Singh") to novels ("Train to Pakistan" by Khushwant Singh) to oral histories ("The other side of silence" by Urvashi Bhutalia).
Despite the surfeit of paper reams consumed to debate partition , there is still no clarity as to the "Who's and Why's" of partition. Yet, we keep reverting back to this dark page from the past as history casts long shadows and partition has particularly cast 68 years-old shadows. One such book which tries to throw light into the dim corridors of partition's history is under review. The book is titled "Midnight's furies", an appropriate title that signifies the furies unleashed in the August of 1947. It belongs to the category of academic history dealt in a chronological manner. The book has been published in 2015 and has received widespread critical and commercial acclaim. The book's author is Nisid Hajari. A micro profile of the author is mandatory before we look closer at the furies of freedom and fratricide.
Nisid Hajari is the Asia editor of Bloomberg View which serves as the editorial board of Bloomsberg News. He is a columnist on diverse issues ranging from politics to history to economics with an exclusive focus on all things Asian. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His works have appeared in a multitude of publications including New York Times, Financial Times, Esquire and Conde Nast Traveler. "Midnight's furies" is his first book but the book's style and language exhibits the sure-footedness of a veteran at work rather than the baby steps of a debutant author.

The book covers the time period from mid-1946 to the beginning of 1949. The world was slowly recovering from the scars of the Second World War even as it was getting ready for Colder version of a global conflict. India was still under the control of the empire in which The Sun Never Sets. Realisation was slowly sinking in that the twilight of the evening sun was somewhere near the horizon. The world war had ravaged the economy of Britain and prudence suggested that granting independence and severing ties with India, the "Jewel in the Crown of the empire" would be the way out.
Ever since 1885 (when Congress was formed) ,the biggest obstacle to Indian independence had ,of course, been the British. But since 1940s when the British were half-willing to transfer powers to Indian hands, the hurdles to liberation were all thrown by Indian actors . The book's premise is that it was the interplay of rivalry, animosity, distrust  and egos between the two most important personalities of the times that led to cataclysmic effects in the sands of time. One was the moody, idealistic intellectual who felt an almost mystical empathy for the toiling peasant masses ; an aristocrat who had passionate socialist convictions[2] ;  the charismatic man anointed as the heir to Mahatma Gandhi by the great man himself : Jawaharlal Nehru. The other was the frail yet determined , frigid tactician ; the most popular Muslim leader of India : Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Marxist readers will never agree to a theory which places personalities above structural causes that determine history. But Hajari pursues such a line of analysis as he feels strongly that it explains many complex knots that were tied in the decade of 1940s.
The book begins with a chapter titled " A Train to Pakistan" ,an apt nod to Khushwant Singh's classic. The book is structured into ten chapters which covers how the transfer of power took place amidst violence and bloodshed. A conservative estimate places the number of casualties at 1 million and the number of people who migrated at 14 million. This involved large scale exchange of populations in the states of Punjab and Bengal. The author has utilised official archives and correspondence between army officials and politicians of the time to unearth a startling portrait of how communities which had coexisted with each other were at each other's throats. Animal instincts were unleashed and the chapters eerily capture the shock and despair of the times.
Even as the exodus of population and the brutal attacks on fellow human beings is explained in detail, the author does not miss other equally demanding episodes of the times, be it the rift in Nehru-Patel relations, the "annexation" of Junagadh and Hyderabad , the health condition of Jinnah or how Gandhi's death helped bring Hindus and Muslims as well as Nehru and Patel together. The most detailed analysis is ,of course, reserved for Kashmir. Nehru's special affinity for Kashmir is revealed in a letter he wrote to Padmaja Naidu : "Kashmir affects me in a peculiar way; it is a kind of mild intoxication - like music sometimes or the company of a beloved person". Naturally, this personal bond translated into state policy. Pakistan's role in fomenting tribal trouble in Kashmir is also well documented. Thus in the chequered history of Kashmir, there are no concrete heroes or villains. Rather , the people of Kashmir became pawns in the Great Game between two fledgling independent nations.


The author's biggest strength is his journalistic style of story-telling. Though Hajari does not exactly cover or break new ground in unearthing fresh material related to partition, he adds minor flourishes to the descriptions of the events thus providing much needed colour and flavour to the layman reader new to history. For instance, he ironically notes that when Muslim League was busy cultivating the higher echelons of British power in the post-Quit India movement political vacuum, Jawaharlal Nehru was writing banalities in his diary inside the prison of Ahmednagar : "The cat tragedy ! Poor Chando hit inadvertently over head by cook. Hovering between life and death". When inferno was engulfing India elsewhere ,Nehru was morose over the death of a cat.
Yet another interesting anecdote is the one involving a Jinnah press conference. Jinnah promises a Muslim homeland for all followers of Islam and in the ensuing expression of joy, a Muslim notable guffaws so loudly that he loses his fake tooth set. Though such details do not add to our understanding of partition as such, they make the work more humane thus loosening the academic straitjacket nature of the book. Another poignant moment happens on the day of Independence when Nehru's face turns so sad seeing one of the bodyguards' horses fall. Only when the horse regained its footing did Nehru's expression relax and he was back to celebrating the Independence day for which he had toiled for a quarter of a century.
All this gushingly positive commentary on the book does not mask the lacunae in the factual accuracy and lines of reasoning used by the author. The most important structural flaw in the book is that the author does not go deep into the question : why the need for Pakistan ? .He satisfies himself by conflating a single person's whims with the demands of the Muslim population. On one hand, it can be conceded that without Jinnah's tireless determination, Pakistan would not have seen light. On the other hand, it is naive to believe a single person can create a nation state of his own.
Hindus and Muslims had a history of peaceful co-existence spanning across centuries despite the examples of some intolerant rulers who were known for ruthless discrimination(Example : Aurangzeb). Thus, a clear wedge between the two communities was driven only after the British regime decided to equate religion with political representation through a set of supposedly "progressive" reforms such as Morley-Minto reforms and Ramsay McDonald's Communal award etc. This sinister contribution by British helped develop separatist tendencies within some Muslims. A book which talks about the formation of Pakistan cannot afford to ignore Mohammed Iqbal , a godfather-like figure for the state of Pakistan. This historical perspective is completely ignored in the book and instead, a Nehru-Jinnah clash is made responsible for redrawing the map of India.
The most important take-away from the book is how studying the effects of partition is relevant even today. The wounds of partition have not healed and in many ways,1947 has not come to an end yet. Pakistan still defines itself in anti-Indian terms . The idea that India had wished to strangle its sister dominion in the initial years after independence has taken strong roots in our neighbour. This insecurity has led to a strong army whose budget is never revealed to the public and proxy wars with India through jihadi groups like LeT. It is important that the current leaders of India and Pakistan ensure that the furies of 1947 are put to rest.
In a touching passage of prose, the author recounts the events of the 14th of August,1947. Nehru gets a call from Lahore wherein he is briefed about the butchering which was happening in the streets. Bodies littered the streets and Nehru was in tears when he put down the phone. Yet, within hours Nehru rose to the occasion and gave one of the most memorable speeches ever : "Tryst with destiny". In it, a particular line goes : "The time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially." Even after 68 years, some pledges are yet to be redeemed. This book on partition is a good place to start and learn the lessons of history so that our pledges are redeemed substantially.

[1] Jalal,Ayesha , "The sole spokesman" .

[2]  Tharoor,Shashi : http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1554988,00.html