Page 94 of The Secrets of the Tea Garden

CHAPTER 18

Belgooree, Assam, June

They huddled around the wireless in the sitting room to hear the announcement. Libby, her stomach in knots, sat close to her father on the sofa, while Harry perched on the arm of his mother’s chair. Clarrie had encouraged the servants to come in and listen too. Theirkhansama, Mohammed Din, stood tall and erect behind the sofa, keeping an eye on the others.

Libby watched James warily to see how he would take the news. Her father was still listless and withdrawn at times but he seemed more content since coming to Belgooree and had regained some of his old vitality under Clarrie’s attention. It was Clarrie too who had suggested that Breckon be brought over to help revive James’s spirits; the dog now lay at his master’s feet. But this broadcast from the outside world might set her father back. Lord Louis Mountbatten, the new Viceroy of India, was to make a pronouncement on India’s Independence.

Before Libby had left Calcutta she had seen newsreels of the dashing naval officer and his glamorous wife meeting with the top Indian political leaders, Nehru and Jinnah. There had been brief clips of the viceregal couple touring the country with their daughter to witness the devastation that communal violence was bringing to parts of the Subcontinent. There was no sign of the aloofness of viceroys of the past:the Mountbattens appeared refreshingly unstuffy. Even Gandhi had warmly welcomed them.

Yet here in the hills, Libby felt guilty that she and the family at Belgooree seemed cocooned from the unrest and far removed from the tensions of Calcutta and Bengal. How were Ghulam and Fatima? Libby had eagerly read any copies ofThe Statesmanthat Harry had brought up from Shillong at the end of the school week to see if there were any articles by Ghulam. There had been one about the council in Calcutta attempting to house Hindu refugees arriving from East Bengal and another covering a heated debate at the council about the future of Calcutta that had led to punches being thrown. But she could glean nothing from the newspapers that told her about how life really was for him and Fatima.

Despite Flowers’s encouragement, Libby had not written to Ghulam. Many times she had got out her typewriter with the intention of typing a letter. But she had not even been able to decide on the endearment, let alone pour out her feelings to him. She felt sure he would scoff at any soppiness or be embarrassed by a declaration of love. So no letter had ever gone further than the passionate thoughts in her head.

Libby tried to put Ghulam from her mind and concentrate on the broadcast. The Viceroy was speaking. He was talking about his last two months in India spending every day consulting with as many communities and people as possible.

‘Why doesn’t he just get on with telling us what’s happening?’ James fretted.

‘Shush, Dad,’ Libby said, ‘he will do.’

‘...a unified India would be by far the best solution of the problem.’

‘Unified India?’ James seized on the words. ‘Did he say unified? Does that mean—?’

‘Dad!’ Libby exclaimed. ‘Please, just listen.’

Clarrie put a hand on James’s arm which calmed him. Libby didn’t miss the fond look they exchanged. Mountbatten spoke about India being a single entity with unified communications, currency and services and his hope that communal differences would not destroy this. Libby held her breath. Perhaps there was still a chance that India could remain one country and that the Viceroy had a plan. The room went very still as Mountbatten said he had urged the political leaders to accept the Cabinet mission plan of 1946 which had met the needs of all the communities.

‘...To my great regret it has been impossible to obtain agreement either on the Cabinet mission plan or on any other plan that would preserve the unity of India.’

Libby’s brief hope was immediately dashed. The Viceroy continued. There was no question of coercing large communities into living under a government where another community had the majority.

‘...and the only alternative to coercion is partition.’

‘Oh, God!’ James cried. ‘Surely not?’

Libby felt leaden inside as Mountbatten went on to say that because the Muslim League had demanded the partition of India, Congress was demanding the partition of Punjab and Bengal. He, himself, was opposed to both.

‘For just as I feel there is an Indian consciousness which should transcend communal differences, so I feel there is a Punjabi and Bengali consciousness which has evoked a loyalty to their province. And so I feel it was essential that the people of India themselves should decide this question of partition.’

‘What does that mean?’ asked Harry. ‘Can people vote against it?’

Clarrie held up her hand. ‘Listen, he’s saying something about Bengal and Assam.’

‘...but I want to make it clear that the ultimate boundaries will be settled by a boundary commission and will almost certainly not be identical with those which have been provisionally adopted.’

‘Provisional?’ James echoed in bewilderment. ‘What provisional boundaries?’

‘They must have made an attempt at drawing state borders,’ said Libby unhappily. ‘So that people have an idea of what partition might look like. How else can they vote on it?’

‘Will Assam be split in half too?’ Harry asked anxiously.

As they questioned his words, Mountbatten was speaking about the Sikhs and his sorrow to think that the partition of the Punjab would definitely split them but saying that they would be represented on the boundary commission.

‘The whole plan may not be perfect, but like all plans its success will depend on the spirit of good will with which it is carried out. I have always felt that once it was decided in what way to transfer power, the transfer should take place at the earliest possible moment ...’

They listened to him explaining that the British Government would transfer power to either one or two new governments with Dominion status rather than wait a long time for a whole new constitutional set-up for India to be agreed.

‘This I hope will be within the next few months. I’m glad to announce that his Majesty’s Government have accepted this proposal and are already having legislation prepared ... Thus the way is now open to an arrangement by which power can be transferred many months earlier than the most optimistic of us thought possible, and at the same time leave it to the people of British India to decide for themselves on their future ... This is no time for bickering, much less for the continuation in any shape or form of the disorders and lawlessness of the past few months. We cannot afford any toleration of violence. All of us are agreed on that ... I have faith in the future of India and I am proud to be with you all at this momentous time. May your decisions be wisely guided and may they be carried out in the peaceful and friendly spirit of the Gandhi-Jinnah appeal.’