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

By Alex von Tunzelmann

The last days of the British Raj. The end of empire. A love affair between Edwina Mountbatten, wife of the last British viceroy to India, and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister.

The stroke of midnight on 15 August 1947 liberated 400 million people from the British Empire. With the loss of India, its greatest colony, a nation admitted it was no longer a superpower, and a king ceased to sign himself Rex Imperator.

It was one of the defining moments of world history, but it had been brought about by a tiny group of people. Among them were Jawaharlal Nehru, the fiery Indian prime minister with radical plans for a socialist revolution; Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Muslim leader who would stop at nothing to establish the world’s first modern Islamic state; Mohandas Gandhi, the mystical figure who enthralled a nation; and Louis and Edwina Mountbatten, the glamorous but unlikely couple who had been dispatched to get Britain out of India without delay. Within hours of the midnight chimes, the two new nations of India and Pakistan would descend into anarchy and terror. Nehru, Jinnah, Gandhi and the Mountbattens struggled with public and private turmoil while their dreams of freedom and democracy turned to chaos, bloodshed, genocide and war.

Indian Summer depicts the epic sweep of events that ripped apart the greatest empire the world has ever seen, and saw one million people killed and ten million dispossessed. It reveals the secrets of the most powerful players on the world stage: the Cold War conspiracies, the private deals, and the intense and clandestine love affair between the wife of the last viceroy and the first prime minister of free India.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9781551996202

Alex von Tunzelmann

Alex von Tunzelmann lives in London. She read history at University College, Oxford, and afterwards worked as a researcher on books for authors including Jeremy Paxman, Felicity Lawrence, John Kay and Alison Wolf. Her first book, Indian Summer, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2007. 

Reviews for Indian Summer

[mouldywarp_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have two books on this subject - one is turgid (almost unreadable) but this one is easy to read and very well written.

[eoin-311239 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not so secret, but the history is my favorite kind: broad-stroke politics viewed from the actual lives of participants. Beautifully written.

[rajivc_18 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Alex writes well. The style is taut, and the book reads well. At times, it can almost read like a thriller. She has done a good job of writing about the events of the times. It was a very complex period in India's history, one where truths will be very difficult to analyse. She seems to be clearly fascinated by Nehru and the Mountbatten's. On the other side, she does not seem to be an admirer of Jinnah or Gandhi. This shows. What is missing from the book, is the analysis of how Jinnah went from being a champion of Hindu-Muslim unity to the Champion of Pakistan. He does seem to have been more sinned against than the sinner. What slips through, unintentionally, is how the ambitions of the various leaders lead to one of the most bloody events in world history. She dwells a lot on the actions of Nehru and Edwina post the events. She does not dwell so much on how much they contributed to this. Certainly, as per her, the relationship between Nehru and Edwina seems to have caused damage to any prospect of India staying as one country. This may have been unintentional, but this is what came through to me.You can't change history, however. It is done.

[paperdust · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With one of the best opening paragraphs ever, this book deals with the history, politics and play between Britain & India. I knew little about Indian independence before reading this book. It offers interesting (albeit romantic) introductions into the backgrounds and relationships between the key players - Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah and the Moutbattens. The author then whips up the tension during those delicate moments leading up to Britain's departure and the doomed carving up of India & Pakistan. The reading got a little heavy for me in part two; I was confused as to who's fighting whom among the Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. (Who's on whose side? Who defected?...) Will revisit.