Gandhi’s Emissary

by Sudhir Ghosh

In 1946, at the age of 29, the author was chosen by Mahatma Gandhi to act as unofficial emissary between the British Labour Government and India in the delicate negotiations which resulted in the country’s independence. His unique position enabled him to give the world a moving and informed account of the principal actors in the drama that led to the division of India and Pakistan and the creation of a parliamentary democracy in India. With the resurgence of interest and debate on Partition in India and Pakistan, and around the world, in the context of current international groupings, it is fitting that this book be brought back into circulation.

364 pages, Hardcover

First published August 26, 2007

Reviews

[Abhishek Kanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This surely must be one of the best-written and most informative books yet published on the transfer of power to India and some of the pathetic events that followed. The author, Sudhir Ghosh, a Bengali educated at Cambridge, was chosen by the Mahatma, whilst still a young man, as a reliable and steady bridge between Great Britain and India', to interpret India and the Mahatma to the Attlee government. Ghosh had a matchless view of four dramatic figures close at hand: Gandhi himself, Sir Stafford Cripps, Pandit Nehru, and the canny Indian conservative, Vallabhbhai Patel. He was also intimately concerned in the partition of colonial India into two antagonistic sovereign states, Muslim and Hindu. The choice proved a wise and fruitful one. Sudhir Ghosh won the confidence of Stafford Cripps, Pethick Lawrence and the other British statesmen concerned with the then burning problem of India's independence; and it is clear from their letters to him that they had a high regard for his knowledge of the situation in India at that time, and of his statesmanlike qualities.

The story of those anxious negotiations in 1946 is unfolded with a high sense of drama, enhanced by a restraint which is not often to be found in Indian political writers. A most revealing passage tells of a hitherto unreported secret meeting at night, in a Delhi garden, between the British Ministers and the Mahatma, when the negotiations were grinding to their inconclusive end.

One is left with the question why a man of such quality and experience should not now be given a greater share in shaping his country's destinies in hour of need. The answer probably is as Mr. Ghosh says the frightening determination of well entrenched mediocrity in India to prevent talent from coming anywhere near the sources of power. Ah! A memorable read...