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the “man with an angora cap”, standing between India and Independence and the visceral violence was accompanied by varying degrees of acceptance from rulers of 565 princely states to the idea of India. In a prescient November interview of Time, Mahatma Gandhi said, “The fear haunts me that India must yet go through a deeper blood bath.”
MUTUAL GENOCIDE
India became free, but paid a heavy price. Between 7,00,000 and 20,00,000 people lost their lives in the violence that followed the division—the exact figure remains uncertain. There was a mass exodus, perhaps the first of its kind as people left their homes and lands. It was initially believed that the new boundaries were permeable. But that remained a dream as hostilities mounted between the two countries.
FIRST CUT
* Actor Pramila became the first Miss India. Bombay’s Home Minister Morarji Desai presented her the title. Also known as Esther Victoria Abraham, Pramila starred and worked behind-the-scenes in Ardeshir Irani’s Mother India that became the first Indian film to be screened at Buckingham Palace. * Prem Mathur became the first woman with commercial pilot licence
DID YOU KNOW
Edwina Mountbatten called Jawaharlal Nehru ‘Jawa’ and visited him every year in February, after Independence, according to Patrick French’s book Liberty or Death.
Courtesy By India Today
