Shameful Flight

Shameful Flight
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 258
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780199745043
ISBN-13 : 0199745048
Rating : 4/5 (43 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Shameful Flight by : Stanley Wolpert

Download or read book Shameful Flight written by Stanley Wolpert and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-09-17 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Britain's precipitous and ill-planned disengagement from India in 1947--condemned as a "shameful flight" by Winston Churchill--had a truly catastrophic effect on South Asia, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead in its wake and creating a legacy of chaos, hatred, and war that has lasted over half a century. Ranging from the fall of Singapore in 1942 to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, Shameful Flight provides a vivid behind-the-scenes look at Britain's decision to divest itself from the crown jewel of its empire. Stanley Wolpert, a leading authority on Indian history, paints memorable portraits of all the key participants, including Gandhi, Churchill, Attlee, Nehru, and Jinnah, with special focus on British viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten. Wolpert places the blame for the catastrophe largely on Mountbatten, the flamboyant cousin of the king, who rushed the process of nationhood along at an absurd pace. The viceroy's worst blunder was the impetuous drawing of new border lines through the middle of Punjab and Bengal. Virtually everyone involved advised Mountbatten that to partition those provinces was a calamitous mistake that would unleash uncontrollable violence. Indeed, as Wolpert shows, civil unrest among Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs escalated as Independence Day approached, and when the new boundary lines were announced, arson, murder, and mayhem erupted. Partition uprooted over ten million people, 500,000 to a million of whom died in the ensuing inferno. Here then is the dramatic story of a truly pivotal moment in the history of India, Pakistan, and Britain, an event that ignited fires of continuing political unrest that still burn in South Asia.


Shameful Flight Related Books

Shameful Flight
Language: en
Pages: 258
Authors: Stanley Wolpert
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-09-17 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Britain's precipitous and ill-planned disengagement from India in 1947--condemned as a "shameful flight" by Winston Churchill--had a truly catastrophic effect o
Shameful Flight
Language: en
Pages: 258
Authors: Stanley A. Wolpert
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-09-17 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ranging from the fall of Singapore in 1942 to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, this text provides a vivid behind-the-scenes look at Britain's decisi
Island of Shame
Language: en
Pages: 287
Authors: David Vine
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-01-23 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

David Vine recounts how the British & US governments created the Diego Garcia base, making the native Chagossians homeless in the process. He details the strate
Gandhi's Passion
Language: en
Pages: 337
Authors: Stanley Wolpert
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2002-11-28 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

More than half a century after his death, Mahatma Gandhi continues to inspire millions throughout the world. Yet modern India, most strikingly in its decision t
India and Pakistan
Language: en
Pages: 144
Authors: Stanley Wolpert
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-09-13 - Publisher: Univ of California Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Stanley Wolpert's new book, India and Pakistan, represents another major contribution to his analysis of the subcontinent. In this work, he provides a hopeful