Monday, April 14, 2014

Review of Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire


The first thing that comes to my mind after reading Indian Summer by Alex Von Tunzelmann is that why does it take a westerner to write such an intriguing story about Indian History. The reason is beyond my comprehension till date as common sense suggests the otherwise. The Indians must be having greater access to archives, letters of iconic personalities and first hand interviews of the survivers. This I am saying as I have also read Indira by Katherine Frank and found it excellent.


The Indian Summer is based on dissection and deep research into the true personalities and personal lives of Mountbatten and Jawahar lal Nehru in the backdrop of Indian Independence movement, giving an microscopic and magnified version of the last few months on the British Raj in India. Although the book starts in a bit sluggish way describing in detail the lives of Mountbattens in 20s and 30s and Indian freedom struggle but one later feels its requirement in order to personify the true characters and lives of the Mountbattens and to build the story. The book catches the tempo in the later half giving not only the details of the events but also the personal conversations and discussions of the personalities we read so much about and allows us to have a closer glimpses at their personal lives. The book presents the facts not only on the basis of here says and rumors but are thoroughly researched based on the letters exchanged between personalities involved and the evidences gathered otherwise. This book unravels the humane side and peels of the layers of their character and brings to life their common and simpler side of some of the greatest personalities of India. We read about the leadership roles of Nehru, Patel and Gandhi in our history books but its very difficult to personify them with just those details. This book fills the gap between political and personal life of leaders and having human insight into their lives.

The writer though falters few times to reach conclusions based on conversations and indirect references but otherwise depicting a neutral account of the events.

Nehru’s personality comes out as a great visionary leader whose intellectual level was way higher than other leaders who sometimes compromised with their ideals and vision in tiring circumstances.
After reading this book I would to delve more into the books that discusses the ideas and experiments of Gandhiji and gives me more insight into the Kashmir problem.

In the end … a good and interesting read.
Rating: 3.5/5