Jinnah's escape, Gandhi's struggle, Nehru's tryst: The last 24 hours of British Raj

India Today

4 days ago

It was August 14, 1947. The sun baked Karachi with a festive fury, casting long shadows across the thronging crowds as Lord Louis Mountbatten's plane touched down. The last Viceroy of India, sweating under his impeccable uniform, had a schedule tighter than a busy filmstar: swear in Muhammad Ali Jinnah as Pakistan's first Governor-General, deliver a congratulatory speech, and bolt back to Delhi before the clock struck midnight. But his pulse was racing faster than the clock because of a last-minute input: a plot to assassinate Jinnah.advertisementWhy August 15British Prime Minister Clement Attlee intended to transfer power by June 30, 1948. But sensing the growing unrest and the real threat of violence between communities, Mountbatten decided the handover had to happen much sooner. When pressed for a date at a press conference, Mountbatten made a spontaneous decision. 'The date I chose came out of the blue,' he later admitted in his own words, as quoted in Freedom at Midnight. He wanted the act to feel decisive and under his control, showcasing he was 'master of the whole event.' As the dates whirred through his mind 'like numbers on a spinning roulette wheel,' he landed on August 15.August 15 was intensely personal: it was the second anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II, a pivotal moment linked to Mountbatten's own triumph as Supreme Allied Commander in Southeast Asia. The Allied victory and the announcement of peace was broadcast on August 15, 1945, just two years earlier. He felt this resonated as a symbol of a 'new birth in Asia,' transforming a military victory into a political one.An Inauspicious Day
August 15, 1947, was considered deeply inauspicious by Indian astrologers, a concern widely acknowledged in both historical accounts. The astrologers declared that August 15 fell on a Friday, which, according to their calculations, was a particularly unlucky day for significant new beginnings. That date coincided with the dark lunar fortnight (Krishna Paksha Chaturdashi) and was immediately followed by Amavasya, the new moon day, traditionally viewed as highly inauspicious for auspicious events like the birth of a nation.Astrologers warned that starting independent India's journey on August 15 could invite calamities. One prominent astrologer, as quoted by Lapierre and Collins in Freedom at Midnight, wrote to Mountbatten: 'For the love of God, do not give India her independence on August 15. If floods, famine and massacres follow, it will be because free India was born on a day cursed by the stars.'To address these strong sentiments, the Indian leaders devised a compromise: the official transfer of power took place at the stroke of midnight between August 14 and 15. This timing was symbolically and technically significant—while the Western calendar marked it as the beginning of August 15, in the Hindu calendar the new day (and thus, its inauspiciousness) began only at sunrise. As a result, holding the ceremony at midnight was seen as a way to sidestep the astrological dangers associated with the sunrise of August 15, accommodating both Mountbatten's chosen date and the astrologers' warnings.9:00 AM KarachiadvertisementA day before his arrival in Karachi, a CID officer had sent a chilling warning to the Viceroy: 'Sir, the plot is on.' According to the intelligence report, at least one and probably several bombs would be thrown at the open car scheduled to carry him and Jinnah through Karachi's streets the following morning (Freedom at Midnight).In Karachi's Constituent Assembly Hall, the air buzzed with electric anticipation. Mountbatten administered the oath to Jinnah, the gaunt, chain-smoking barrister who had carved a Muslim homeland from the Raj's crumbling empire. Jinnah, frail from tuberculosis but iron-willed, responded with a vision of unity: 'You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan.' But even as fireworks lit the Karachi sky and a 31-gun salute thundered, the jubilation masked the brewing storm.In the blood-soaked plains of Punjab, the narrative turned savage. As refugees fled in opposite directions–Hindus and Sikhs east to India, Muslims west to Pakistan–the roads became killing fields. Trains arrived at stations packed with corpses, throats slit, bodies mutilated in a frenzy of revenge. Canals in Lahore flowed crimson with blood and floating limbs, as bandits and extremists preyed on the vulnerable. The partition's toll? Up to two million dead, 15 million displaced—one of history's greatest forced migrations.advertisementThe Plot to Kill JinnahAs he sat through the speeches in Karachi, Mountbatten's heart raced: he feared risking his life for Jinnah, who had refused to cancel the 'victory parade' despite warnings of a plot to assassinate him.'A heart-stopping 31-gun viceregal salute followed them down the drive out into Karachi's streets. There, the crowds were waiting, the enormous happy, exulting crowds, a sea of anonymous faces concealing somewhere, on some street corner, at some turning, at some window ledge or rooftop, the face of the man who wanted to kill them. To Louis Mountbatten, it would seem in later years as though that 30-minute ride had lasted 24 hours.' (Freedom at Midnight)The motive behind the would-be assassination remained murky–religious extremists, political rivals, or factional enemies–but the threat underscored the fragility of Pakistan's birth. Jinnah's health, already precarious from tuberculosis, was burdened now by unseen foes lurking in jubilant crowds.advertisementCalcutta: The Mahatma's Desperate BattleFar from the pomp, in the sweltering slums of Calcutta, Mahatma Gandhi waged his own desperate battle. He had refused invitations to celebrations, sensing his place was not among politicians, but in the shattered city where Hindu and Muslim mobs had butchered neighbours indiscriminately.His frail frame leaned into the humid morning, his steps guided by prayer — slivers of hope in a city drowning in grief. Fasting once again, he occupied a modest Muslim friend's home, a quiet act of defiance and solidarity in a city scarred by hate.On August 14, as mobs bayed outside his residence, Gandhi stood at the window, one hand on his granddaughter's shoulder, the other on the unlikely ally Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Bengal's former chief minister and a past critic.'We must work until every Hindu and Muslim in Calcutta can return safely to their homes,' Gandhi implored the crowd. 'Our efforts will continue until our last breath.' Miraculously, the violence ebbed; for a fleeting moment, his moral force quelled the storm, proving that one man's hunger strike could starve out hatred where armies failed.advertisementKarachi, 3:45 PMThe Rolls Royce carrying Jinnah and Mountbatten meandered through a large crowd. On the balcony of an overhanging building, a CID officer watched, his hand tightening around a Colt.'A Hindu neighbourhood," Mountbatten told himself, this is where it will happen. For five agonising minutes, the cortege crept through those muted crowds along Elphinstone Street, Karachi's principal commercial thoroughfare. Almost all its shops and markets belonged to Hindus–embittered and frightened by the event their Moslem neighbours were celebrating. Nothing happened...The most harrowing drive of Louis Mountbatten's life was over.' (Freedom at Midnight)The plot, according to Collins and Lapierre, failed because the man assigned to throw a grenade as a signal developed cold feet at the last minute.New Delhi: 9 PMMonsoon clouds hung over Delhi with the patience of visitors expecting a spectacle. Inside 17, York Road, Jawaharlal Nehru gave final touches to his speech that was to become part of India's lore.A small religious procession, led by two seers, announced its arrival. The visitors were carrying holy water from the rivers of Tanjore, prasadam offered at a Nataraja temple in Madras, and a five-foot mace.Ushered inside Nehru's bungalow, they sprinkled him with holy water, smeared his forehead with sacred ash, laid their sceptre on his arms and draped him in the Cloth of God.But Nehru's mood quickly turned to despair. He had just been informed that Lahore was burning and water to the Hindu and Sikh quarters had been cut off in a dozen parts of the city.'Stunned, his voice barely a whisper, he said: 'How am I going to talk tonight? How am I going to pretend there's joy in my heart for India's independence when I know Lahore, our beautiful Lahore is burning?''(Freedom at Midnight)11:00 PM: The Tryst With DestinyNehru's car snaked through barricaded streets as sporadic gunfire cracked the tense night air. His British escorts scanned the shadows, and a whirlwind of emotions churned inside him. Memories of his rebellious youth, life in prison, and the relentless struggle against the British Raj flashed. His chest swelled with pride, and eyes brimmed with emotion.As he stepped into the Constituent Assembly hall, Nehru could feel the excitement: flags fluttering, conch shells blaring like ancient trumpets. Back from Karachi, Mountbatten waited for the final ceremony marking the end of the British Raj in India.At 11 PM, Nehru rose, his voice steady but laced with the weight of destiny: 'Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.'Cheers erupted as the clock hit zero, the Union Jack lowered, and the Tricolour ascended the flagstaff. Fireworks exploded over the Red Fort, and crowds surged in ecstatic waves around the India Gate. Across India, temples came alive with prayers, chimes of bells. Freedom had arrived, raw and racing.As Nehru proclaimed: 'A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.'- EndsTune InMust Watch