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1 The Mountbatten Viceroyalty reconsidered

Personality, prestige and strategic vision in the partition of India
  • Ian Talbot
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The breakup of India and Palestine
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch The breakup of India and Palestine

Abstract

Scholars have debated whether the contemporaneous partition policy in Palestine and India indicates that partition was a British policy agenda at the end of empire. This chapter argues for a more nuanced view. Mountbatten is blamed by some for imposing partition with its ensuing human tragedies. However, when he arrived in India on 22 March 1947 as the last Viceroy, he still hoped to resurrect the Cabinet Mission proposal of the previous year which envisaged a post-imperial order of a united India, albeit one with a weak centre. Documentary evidence overwhelmingly suggests an official reluctance to divide and quit India. Strategic connections between partition in India and Palestine were far less clear cut than scholars have asserted. Partition in both instances could, however, be seen as a means to extricate Britain from conflicts that threatened national prestige and aspirations to retain defence and economic interests after decolonisation. Expectations of ‘neocolonial’ power foundered both on the unanticipated aftermaths of partition in India/Pakistan and Palestine and on Britain’s diminished postwar economic and military power.

Abstract

Scholars have debated whether the contemporaneous partition policy in Palestine and India indicates that partition was a British policy agenda at the end of empire. This chapter argues for a more nuanced view. Mountbatten is blamed by some for imposing partition with its ensuing human tragedies. However, when he arrived in India on 22 March 1947 as the last Viceroy, he still hoped to resurrect the Cabinet Mission proposal of the previous year which envisaged a post-imperial order of a united India, albeit one with a weak centre. Documentary evidence overwhelmingly suggests an official reluctance to divide and quit India. Strategic connections between partition in India and Palestine were far less clear cut than scholars have asserted. Partition in both instances could, however, be seen as a means to extricate Britain from conflicts that threatened national prestige and aspirations to retain defence and economic interests after decolonisation. Expectations of ‘neocolonial’ power foundered both on the unanticipated aftermaths of partition in India/Pakistan and Palestine and on Britain’s diminished postwar economic and military power.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Dedication v
  3. Contents vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Foreword by Lucy Chester xiii
  6. Acknowledgements xvi
  7. Introduction - Connecting the partitions of India and Palestine 1
  8. Part I: The partition of British India
  9. 1 The Mountbatten Viceroyalty reconsidered 35
  10. 2 The paradigmatic partition? The Pakistan demand revisited 57
  11. Part II: The partition of Palestine
  12. 3 Partition and the question of international governance 75
  13. 4 Fighting for Palestine as a holy duty? The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and the partition of Palestine in 1947 91
  14. Part III: The partitions of India and Palestine compared
  15. 5 The communal question and partition in British India and mandate Palestine 113
  16. 6 India’s dilemmas of pragmatism v. principles 138
  17. Part IV: The consequences of partition for South Asia, the Middle East and beyond
  18. 7 The partitions of India and Palestine and the dawn of majority rule in Africa and Asia 159
  19. 8 ‘Unfinished’ partition 193
  20. 9 Civil war, total war or a war of partition? Reassessing the 1948 War in Palestine from a global perspective 222
  21. 10 Partitioned identities? Regional, caste and national identity in Pakistan 259
  22. Afterword 278
  23. Index 289
https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526170323.00009

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Dedication v
  3. Contents vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Foreword by Lucy Chester xiii
  6. Acknowledgements xvi
  7. Introduction - Connecting the partitions of India and Palestine 1
  8. Part I: The partition of British India
  9. 1 The Mountbatten Viceroyalty reconsidered 35
  10. 2 The paradigmatic partition? The Pakistan demand revisited 57
  11. Part II: The partition of Palestine
  12. 3 Partition and the question of international governance 75
  13. 4 Fighting for Palestine as a holy duty? The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and the partition of Palestine in 1947 91
  14. Part III: The partitions of India and Palestine compared
  15. 5 The communal question and partition in British India and mandate Palestine 113
  16. 6 India’s dilemmas of pragmatism v. principles 138
  17. Part IV: The consequences of partition for South Asia, the Middle East and beyond
  18. 7 The partitions of India and Palestine and the dawn of majority rule in Africa and Asia 159
  19. 8 ‘Unfinished’ partition 193
  20. 9 Civil war, total war or a war of partition? Reassessing the 1948 War in Palestine from a global perspective 222
  21. 10 Partitioned identities? Regional, caste and national identity in Pakistan 259
  22. Afterword 278
  23. Index 289
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Heruntergeladen am 3.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.7765/9781526170323.00009/html
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