Description
Liberty or Death
‘Extraordinarily able and nuanced… This is a brilliant book on an important subject… There can surely now be no serious doubt French is the most impressive Western historian of modern India currently at work’ FRANK MCLYNN, Glasgow Herald “At midnight on 14 August 1947, Britain’s 350-yearold Indian Empire was cracked into three pieces. The greatest mass migration in history began, as Muslims fled north and Hindus fled south, nearly a million. being massacred on the way. Britain’s role as a world power came to an end, and the course of Asia’s future was irrevocably set.
Liberty or Death offers a controversial reinterpretation of the last years of British rule in India, including the disastrous mistakes made by politicians, and the bizarre reasoning behind many of their decisions. Exploring the interplay between opposing characters such as Churchill, Wavell, Nehru, Patel, Jinnah, Mountbatten and Gandhi, it reveals a fascinating tale of idealism and manipulation, hope and tragedy. With sources extending from newly declassified intelligence documents to the memories of families of Bihari refugees, Patrick French gives a riveting account of an epic debacle, the impact of which reverberates across South Asia to this day.
‘French tackles a subject of extreme complexity, calling for scholarship, sobriety and considerable analytical powers. He has achieved almost complete success… It is a huge, crowded and kaleidoscopic canvas, which the author handles with remarkable authority… It is also enormous fun to read’
PHILIP ZIEGLER, Daily Telegraph
Well-researched, beautifully written and immensely scholarly’
ANDREW ROBERTS, Sunday Times
‘French is a natural storyteller…a delightful tale of intrigue, ham-handedness and just plain blundering …quite hilarious’
SWAPAN DASGUPTA, India Today
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.