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"The parties and receptions in imperial India's principal cities - Bombay, CAlcutta, Lahore, Delhi, Simla - were lavish affairs. Everyone with any standing had a ballroom and a drawing room at least 80 feel long, and in those days, there were none of those horrible buffets where people go to a table with a plate and stand around eating with whomsoever they choose. The average private dinner was for 35 or 40 with a servant for each guest.

There were the little traditions. Two jokes greeted every visitor: 'Everything in India smells except the roses' and 'The government of India is a despotism of dispatch boxes made bearable by the regular loss of their keys.' One never gave in to the climate. No right-thinking Englishman would be found without a coat and tie even in the most torrid weather. Mad dogs and Englishmen went out in the noonday sun."

In tropical climes there are certain times of day  
When all the citizens retire to tear their clothes off and perspire.  
It's one of the rules that the greatest fools obey,  
Because the sun is much too sultry  
And one must avoid its ultry-violet ray.  
The natives grieve when the white men leave their huts,  
Because they're obviously, definitely nuts! 

  

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun,  
The Japanese don´t care to, the Chinese wouldn´t dare to,  
Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve to one  
But Englishmen detest-a siesta.  
In the Philippines they have lovely screens to protect you from the glare.  
In the Malay States, there are hats like plates which the Britishers won't wear.  
At twelve noon the natives swoon and no further work is done,  
But mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. 

  

It's such a surprise for the Eastern eyes to see,  
that though the English are effete, they're quite impervious to heat,  
When the white man rides every native hides in glee,  
Because the simple creatures hope he will impale his solar topee on a tree.  
It seems such a shame when the English claim the earth,  
They give rise to such hilarity and mirth.  
Ha ha ha ha hoo hoo hoo hoo hee hee hee hee ...... 

 

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.  
The toughest Burmese bandit can never understand it.  
In Rangoon the heat of noon is just what the natives shun,  
They put their Scotch or Rye down, and lie down.  
In a jungle town where the sun beats down to the rage of man and beast  
The English garb of the English sahib merely gets a bit more creased.  
In Bangkok at twelve o'clock they foam at the mouth and run,  
But mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. 

  

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. 
The smallest Malay rabbit deplores this foolish habit.  
In Hong Kong they strike a gong and fire off a noonday gun,  
To reprimand each inmate who's in late.  
In the mangrove swamps where the python romps  
there is peace from twelve till two.  
Even caribous lie around and snooze, for there's nothing else to do.  
In Bengal to move at all is seldom ever done,  
But mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.

Freedom Page

"When Indira Gandhi was 17 her mother died of cancer. Devastated by her loss, Gandhi began five years of studying in Europe and India seemingly without direction. Although Gandhi had vowed to remain single, she decided to marry Feroze Gandhi, a family friend. He was a Parsee, a member of a small cultural group that had fled from Persia centuries earlier to escape Muslim persecution. Since the Nehrus were of the Brahmin or priestly class of India, Gandhi was criticized for her choice of a husband not only by her father but also from the public. Despite these protests the couple were married in 1942."

Source:

Indira Gandhi

What sinners we are in America - we eat beef at least 2 or 3 times a week!

Jonathan, still in a Gandhian daze.

In Dec 1928, Congress considered a draft constitution for a federal Dominion of India. Motilal Nehru had drawn it up in consultation with members of all parties. Muslims accused the Mahatma of trying to set up a Hindu Raj. Jinnah had demanded some modifications in the report, but received no encouragement from the Congress leaders, and for him this was ‘the parting of the ways’.

Jinnah was six feet tall and exceedingly thin. Dress in Savile Row suits, coupled with his style of living, he gave the impression of being a highly Westernized cosmopolitan aristocrat. His clothes remained European until the last years of his life, when he adopted the sherwani and shelwar of a Muslim. English had become his principal language, for he never mastered Urdu, and he was both fluent and colloquial in the tongue.

A highly successful lawyer, Jinnah’s intense ego sustained his emaciated body. Suave and ruthless, he could be arrogantly and infuriatingly wrong, but his honesty of purpose was unquestionable and he was ‘incorruptible by any outside agency’. He looked with disdain upon any minds less intricate than his own. Quick, clever and sarcastic, his greatest delight was know to be to confound the opposing lawyer with confidential asides and to outwit the presiding judge in repartee.

Born to a family of moderate means in Karachi, Mohamed Ali Jinnah attended schools in his native province before going to England at the age of sixteen to study law. He arrived in England in 1982 just as the first Indian, Dadabhai Naoroji was elected to British Parliament. Jinnah was a secretary to Naoroji for fourteen years.

Jinnah returned to Bombay as a qualified barrister, he spoke, thought and had his being in politics. A colleague of Gokhale in the old Imperial Legislative Council, his efforts to bring about harmonious cooperation between Hindus and Muslims were widely recognized.

When Congress launched the noncooperation movement under Gandhi’s guidance Jinnah left the Congress, since he was essentially a constitutionalist and a parliamentarian. In the 1920 Congress his was the solitary voice raised in opposition.

Indian Muslims refused to follow Jinnah so in 1931 he settled in London and practiced law. He loved India but felt helpless. He had no intention of returning to India… Liaquat Ali Khan, the Muslim leader, repeated to him that Nehru had indiscreetly said at a private dinner party that ‘Jinnah is finished’. An infuriated Jinnah packed up and sailed back to India just to ‘show Nehru…’. His self imposed exile had lasted about three years.

"Pakistan resisted such a conspiracy for it was directed to abolish its very existence. And hence a great game continued to brew in the region that watched the invasion of Soviets into Afghanistan wherefore Pakistan was targeted to a severe move of terrorism from Afghanistan"

"The only thing Muslim about Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the fact that his parents happened to be Muslim." page 106

The huge hollowing crowd greeting Mountbatten, his wife, and 17-year old daughter Pamela was meant to give final proof that it was the Moslem League (Jinnah) and not the Frontier Gandhi (Ghaffar Kahn) which now commanded the Providence’s support.

"...the maharajas had been for almost two centuries the surest pillar of British rule in India. It was in their relations with the states that the British had applied to greatest effect the 'Divide and Rule' doctrine with which they were accused of governing India. In theory, the British could remove a ruler from his throne for misrule. In fact, a ruler could get away with almost any kind of outrageous behavior down to and including a few discreet murders without the British disturbing him - provided that his loyalty had remained intact."

"What continues to baffle people is the conversion of Jinnah from a liberal, Anglicised, seemingly secular politician, whose proudest title was Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity and whose early political life was spent fighting for a united India, to the champion of an exclusive Muslim identity. It is one of the most intriguing yet least explored areas of modern South Asian history."

"It is a dream that the Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve a common nationality, and this misconception of one Indian nation has gone far beyond the limits and is the cause of most of your troubles and will lead India to destruction if we fail to revise our notions in time. The Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, literatures."

"As in most divorce cases, the bitterest arguments between the two parties came over money. The most important sums were represented by the debt that Britain would be leaving behind. After having been accused for decades of exploiting India, Britain was going to end her Indian adventure five billion dollars in debt to the people she was supposed to have been exploiting. That enormous sum had been run up during the war, part of the crippling price that Brtain had had to pay for the victory which left her bankrup and hastened the great historical process now beginning."

"Lahore was a tolerant city and communal distinctions between its 500,000 Hindus, 100,000 Sikhs and 600,000 Moslems had traditionally mattered less than anywhere else in India....Sikhs, Moslems and Hindus rumbaed and did the fox trot together. At receptions, dinners and balls, the communities mingled indiscriminately."

If India could exist without Partitioning under British Rule then why could it not continue under Democratically Elected Congress rule without Partitioning?

Anyway, Partition has been done and the population movement begun. Bloody, very bloody. It is amazing to me that people who had lived in harmony for so many years could go about killing one another. The British were involved in leaving India, India and Pakistan were involved in Negotiations and the problems of setting up new Government, Military, Rail, Postal and Civil services. No one seemed to have the time to stop or even try to stop the Killing. Individuals were shocked and bemoaned the savagry but by and large could only watch and wring their hands.