"Good morning" "So beautiful." "I could just ride on and on." "but I'm afraid I have to get back pretty soon." "I'm having a meeting with Sardar Patel." "He's Nehru's deputy in the Congress Party." "so they tell me." "I think he's going to try to tell me who's boss." "Good morning" "You British talk about giving independence to India as if it were some great and noble gesture." "you are going to quit." "...but all we have heard is talk." "to discuss ways and means to transfer power as soon as possible." "If it's really to be soon the Congress Party will help you find the ways and means" "Let's get back to business." "This question of pensions to be paid to British members of the Indian Civil Service after independence." "The amounts proposed are too much." "If they are not adjusted the British government can pay the lot themselves" "As home minister these are the only terms I'll accept." "I must ask you to reconsider this Mr Patel." "It's not something I'm prepared to discuss." "Then you leave me no alternative but to send for my aircraft." "Why? and you have just handed me the perfect excuse to give it up." "You don't mean it..." "I assure you I do. who thinks he can just walk in here and throw his weight around." "Either you withdraw that minute now... or I send in my resignation." "I think we may be able to work together after all." "Stop Baldev." "Higher." "Your Excellency?" "120 looks like a classic case of malaria to me." "and I don't suppose she's the only one in her village who's got it." "They say many have the fever." "It is something they have to accept." "The don't have to accept it. ... or for treatment." "We'll have to do something about that ..." "Dilip ask her ...if she'd mind coming with us." "we'll make her better." "old story isn't it." "I suppose he takes tea." "I suppose so." "I've heard a lot about him but I still don't know what to expect." "Some of his friends call him Mickey Mouse." "Your Excellency." "Mr Gandhi." "What a rare pleasure." "My apologies that I could not accept your invitation" "Your Excellency." "My wife has been very keen to meet you." "I see the famous Lady Louis" "Famous?" "My friends in Malaya and Burma have told me how you were the first into the jungle after the war with food and medical supplies." "What better claim to fame than to have saved thousands of lives." "Thank you." "my grandniece Manu." "She is my walking stick." "Won't you sit down Mr Gandhi." "I've heard your name pronounced Gandhi and Gandhiji." "Which is right?" "My name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi." "The 'ji' is added by some people to express respect or affection." "Lord Louisji forgive me." "I am being frivolous when we have important things to talk about." "don't apologise." "I'd really prefer in these early meetings for us just to chat and get to know each other." "What a delightful idea." "I am very curious to know more about Your Excellencies." "I had hoped to learn more about..." "Mr Gandhi." "A great British principle which I learned ...in my early days in London was the principle of fair play." "I believe it is known as "give and take"." "Ah!" "Here's tea." "Mr Gandhi." "no." "If you will excuse me... has everything I need." "She always carries it with her." "Mr Gandhi." "...like Pandit Nehru ..." "And like Sardar Patel." "Mohammed Ali Jinnah." "you see what you are up against Lord Louis... a battery of London trained Indian lawyers." "what is that you're having Mr Gandhi?" "It is my daily diet." "Lemon soup." "And the other one?" "Goat's curds." "Would you care to try some?" "I don't think I'll have ..." "Please." "It's very good." "Very nourishing." "Would you like some more?" "Finish the bowl." "thank you." "Perhaps one has to be born with a taste for it." "May I say..." "I'm one of those who's always admired you." "What you've fought for." "Your personal sacrifice." "Your love for your people." "Ah hah!" "But I also love Englishmen." "I have tried to let nothing into my heart but love." "comes understanding." "they are the answer to everything." "I am grateful for your welcome but it feels unreal to be sitting here after the horror I have witnessed in these past months." "Whole villages slaughtered in the name of the one God." "Can there be any greater obscenity?" "even more painful is the thought that it might lead to India being divided." "You must have heard this from others ...but hear it from me." "There must be no partition." "It would make a mockery of my life." "Of everything that I have stood for." "let me put my cards on the table." "I came here with the firm determination that" "India would not be split into two separate states." "I must admit that..." "I am beginning to see no alternative." "and the Muslim League go on refusing to cooperate ...you will not reject it?" "I am willing to consider any suggestion especially if it comes from you." "perhaps we may still do a good day's work." "Please don't rush forward." "You'll all get your pictures." "Gandhiji." "This way..." "One more please..." "Lord Mountbatten." "Can we have a statement?" "Have you agreed a date for independence? or is it back to civil-disobedience?" "what about the partition?" "have you agreed to partition?" "Can we have a statement?" "do you agree with Mr Gandhi's stand against partition?" "No statements." "A press communique will be issued later." "Thank you gentlemen." "Well that was short and sweet." "What do you think?" "Hey!" "So apparently we have another Viceroy who backs the Congress Party" "Mr Jinnah." "How else can explain that photograph except as... a piece of Congress propaganda?" "Mr Jinnah. as if he were in a hut in some village." "As simple as a fox as childlike as a hyena." "there whoever she was mixing his nasty little bowls of goat curds." "It's a wonder they didn't bring the damn goat in here." "You see the whole trouble with Gandhi is that you can never trust him" "Just when you think that you've reached a firm agreement with him ...he goes back on it." "Whenever he changes his mind he says it's because of his inner light" "To hell with his inner light!" "It always works to his own advantage." "It's typical of him that when he returns to Delhi he settles himself in the worst slum he can find ...among the untouchables." "He wants to be thought of as a saint." "he is the sort who would respond to the Mountbattens." "Lord Louis knows that the large conferences involving the leaders of all parties have always ended in bitterness and disagreement." "he's having his own meetings on a basis of one-to-one." "And that is to create friendly contact before the conference stage is reached." "Friendly contact ..." "I'm always wary of a man who is too eager to offer his friendship." "he'll demand a high price in return." "Drive on Baldev." "Stop here Baldev." "Will you see what's happening here?" "Your Excellency." "It's best we leave here." "Why?" "The village has been affected by Cholera." "Your Excellency." "We don't have spare nursing staff or beds after the riots." "Has anyone been inoculated?" "Your Excellency." "Has that woman been infected?" "So far she has escaped." "But she cannot leave because her father is in there." "He is dying." "Dilip ... would you get me some water please?" "Be careful of that." "please." "Your Excellency." "old man old fellow..." "...that's better." "There you are and provided I can assure him that Congress accepts it he is prepared to consider it." "What is this solution Bapuji?" "no one has thought of it." "If Jinnah will not accept a government and insists on partition you and the government simply resign." "And call new elections?" "No." "Don't you see?" "You ask Jinnah to form a government." "Just hand it over to him." "As a gift to him?" "To prevent the greater evil of partition." "That's too high a price." "Vallabhbhai." "I don't even want to understand." "Jawaharlal?" "I believe Jinnah is bluffing." "and the League is not so powerful as he is trying to make out." "many Muslims support us and Congress." "They have not joined the league." "Will you do nothing to halt the shameful vivisection of our country?" "Bapu ..." "I will do anything practical." "There was a time when both of you trusted my instincts." "I have offered you the least extreme of the only remaining alternatives" "Which are?" "You tell the British to get out now and leave India to chaos." "Do you realise what it would mean?" "Yes." "It would lead to a bloodbath." "But it would prevent partition." "And power would be yours to deal with unrest wherever it breaks out" "Unrest!" "We would have civil war not to mention the princely states." "They would simply declare their own independence off us." "Then you are left with only one option." "Let the government resign without agreeing to the creation of Pakistan" "The British will be forced to remain to keep India united." "we would have them on our back for another 100 years" "Gandhiji." "They are nightmares." "I'm sorry." "I have followed your instincts before." "But in this I cannot." "Pug." "So he really meant it?" "Oh!" "No question." "He wanted me to propose the scheme." "no if it were given Congress approval." "Good shot!" "Thank you." "They'll never agree." "Do you think so George?" "I don't think Dickie expects them to." "I don't even think he wants them to." "I think we're being very slow to see what's under our noses." "I don't follow." "The Mahatma's proposal to hand over the government to Jinnah as Dickie's already said." "In fact it's so imaginative that the" "Congress Party are bound to throw it out." "So the distance between them and Gandhi will widen." "was it fair to encourage him to suggest it." "Oh come on!" "I admire him tremendously." "But I have enough problems without him confusing the issue still further" "I shall enter into discussion on one condition only. until we're better acquainted and I know more about you." "If your staff has not already given you then they have entirely failed in their duty." "I know some of what the world knows but I should like to hear the rest from you yourself." "how did you come to join the Muslim League?" "I understand you were once a leading member of the Congress Party." "The policy of England has always been divide and rule." "I was convinced that with Muslims and Hindus united independence would come much sooner." "What led you to change your mind?" "Gandhi!" "... it was his policy of civil-disobedience. but to violence and outrage on both sides." "And so it proved." "And since I believed that true freedom I left the Congress Party to..." "... Gandhi." "Your Excellency ... the only protection Muslims will have sovereign state." "(Mountbatten) Pakistan!" "(Jinnah) Pakistan! you must grant  the principle of Pakistan then" "I shall have to divide the Punjab and Bengal." "Bengal a nation. he is a Punjabi or Bengali." "To divide these nations would lead to greater bloodshed." "Exactly...you have just given me the perfect argument against partition providing you give it to me completely." "This is the only solution acceptable to me." "Squad." "Eyes left." "Eyes front" "What can I say?" "After a whole series of talks with Jinnah I'm no further forward." "Pug." "What about the other Muslim leaders?" "and it's called 'Pakistan'." "I know that none of you is going to like this but I am very reluctantly coming to the conclusion that any draft plan for independence must include some form of partition." "we face the threat of a civil war in the very near future." "it's against everything that I believe in ... but ..." "I agree is there of the Congress Party going along with it?" "none." "(V.P. Menon) Except (Mountbatten) Yes V.P.?" "We seem to have overlooked something." "I seem to remember a resolution forced through Congress by Sardar Patel both of Bengal and Punjab." "(Mountbatten) Subdivision?" "Well that would mean that the Congress Party... the idea of partition." "then I'm not going to beat around the bush anymore." "This will have to be done in the strictest secrecy." "I'm going to go on this tour of Peshawar and the North West Frontier with Edwina." "I want you George and V.P. to work with Pug on a draft plan for a federated state of India." "to include the partition of the disputed territories." "We've got to get on with this." "he saw how useful that resolution could be?" "Straight away." "Ismay is working on the draft plan right now." "(Sardar Patel) Good." "You are sure we are doing the right thing?" "That partition is the answer?" "It's the only one left." "If the whole apparatus of state is not to come crashing down round our ears." "Are you going to tell Nehru tonight?" "No ... he will take another year to accept it." "And Gandhi ... never." "We have to get the ball rolling whether we like it or not." "I suppose so." "V.P." "we just have to bite on the bullet." "Good night Good night Vallabhbhai." "Thank you very much." "what's next?" "Is there any left?" "Hope it's lunch." "We're starving." "Your Excellency." "Your Excellency sir." "news of your visit got out and Muslim agitators have been going round the hill tribes whipping them up to make some kind of demonstration." "They've heard rumours about partition." "000 of them." "and highly excited." "but their mood is turning ugly and they are threatening to march on Government House." "We simply don't have enough troops or police to hold them off." "Well that would be insanity anyway." "I'd better go and show myself." "Unless you were to get back in your plane." "Martin" "Sir" "Tell your officer to keep out of sight." "Make sure he understands no police or troops to show themselves." "Your Excellency." "?" "Yes Sir." "Pakistan zindabad!" "What's that flag?" "you'd see it was Pakistan." "Pakistan zindabad!" "Pakistan zindabad!" "Pakistan zindabad!" "Wave." "Wave to them." "Pakistan zindabad!" "?" "It's absolutely incredible." "I'd say it's very lucky Their Excellencies are wearing green bush shirts." "Green is the colour of the prophet Mohammed." "The tribesmen have taken the shirts as a compliment." "I'll see you again." "Whenever spring breaks through again." "This sweet memory across the years will come to me." "Go around it." "Edwina" "You were right about what I would find in the Punjab. and wish you could have been spared it." "I have to write a report for the Red Cross." "How can I write things that nobody in England will understand" "Wells choked ..." "with the bodies  of children." "Men blinded and  mutilated." "forced to watch their mothers being raped and murdered." "Edwina." "Well how can you let it go on?" "How can you politicians allow villages to be torn apart that have lived together for centuries." "as you know... how can you let it go on?" "How many families must be wiped out before something is done to stop it?" "There are places you know... listen Edwina." "There are places where Hindu and Muslim and our police have orders to ...protect those communities..." "The police are powerless and even the army can only control a few areas ... you know that." "Have you seen the children living in terror?" "You see ... they are your future as well as Jinnah's." "For God's sake let there be a Pakistan... if that's what it will take for the children to stop living in fear." "Edwina." "gentlemen." "At last we have a workable plan." "Have the leaders of both parties agreed to it?" "more reluctantly... he agreed in principle." "he's a realist." "than none at all" "I'd like you to take a copy of this to London as soon as possible." "Dickie thank you." "You've done a remarkable job in a very short time." "There's still a very long way to go." "And some of us are very worried at the speed of it all. and it's the only way." "I hope you'll be able to get some rest while we're away." "to relax." "Good luck." "daddy." "those mountains over there." "That must be Tibet." "You feeling better?" "much." "nearly." "Mizzen's dying to go exploring." "I'll take him." "I'd like to look around myself." "Come on Mizzen." "sir?" "Pug Ismay said they had jumped at it." "now that it's all done?" "I don't like the plan very much and I doubt if Congress will." "or as an Indian national." "Both ..." "I think the plan creates more problems than it solves." "It offers too many options." "And I think it can lead to India being fragmented." "you're entitled to your opinion V.P." "but I can't say I agree with you." "What about the Princely States?" "Supposing they choose total independence." "It's unlikely." "But that would be their right." "the King to find a way to keep some of the links between us." "But now ..." "India won't even be in the Commonwealth." "I don't see why not." "What do you mean?" "I have heard it suggested that we might be prepared to stay in." "Who's suggestion?" "It was in a conversation with Sardar Patel." "he's been agitating for complete separation for 50 years." "but I did point out to him that if India were to accept... it would be exactly like independence." "There would be no need to spend a year or so forming a new constitution" "And that it can all be settled almost with the stroke of a pen." "And what did Patel say to that?" "that if it really meant that power Congress will almost certainly accept Dominion status." "you're a genius." "I can put it to Nehru this weekend." "The Dominion of India." "That makes the whole thing perfect." "the last time I was here was with Gandhiji to discuss the cabinet mission plan with Sir Stafford Cripps." "Strange how hopeless everything seemed then." "Do you think the prospects look better now sir?" "Well ..." "Any word from London?" "Well there's no harm in telling you the word is they've approved it." "Congratulations!" "No amendments?" "very favourable." "It was worth coming all this way just to hear that." "I wonder if you would excuse me." "but it's bad enough without giving him privileged information. and I think it's information he should have." "that we may get a spot of bother from Mr Jinnah" "He's quite capable of suspecting a conspiracy between us and the Congress Party." "He's quite capable of suspecting his own mother." "Well that's so delightful ..." "Your family tree?" "it's a hobby of mine." "I have here the draft plan for independence as approved and amended by the cabinet." "and I'd like you to take a quick look at it." "I don't know how to thank you." "Take your time." "Read it as carefully as you wish." "I don't need to." "It's completely unacceptable." "What's wrong with it." "Everything!" "It would split India up into another Balkans." "Please ... you might at least let me know your main objections." "Very well." "We accepted the concept of partition ... of Pakistan." "But this proposal ... to give the princes and provinces... 000." "it is fragmentation." "surely?" "No!" "It is a possibility. it could which alone can prevent the breakdown of law and order." "And we shall never accept the concept of Pakistan and Hindustan." "It must be clear..." "that India remains... while it is Pakistan that breaks away." "as it stands ... is dead." "Will you let me have your objections in writing?" "I do. to give us a chance to revise." "I must leave in the morning." "But there can't be anything more important for both of us." "There's a train in the evening." "Will you stay till then?" "It's all I ask." "until tomorrow evening." "Goodnight." "I cabled London last night and let them know the plan had been scrapped." "I hadn't guaranteed it would be accepted." "V.P." "only certain sections." "the most important ones." "There's nothing for it." "It'll have to be completely redrafted in the light of his comments." "And I want you to do it." "Very well sir." "On the basis that the provinces have only one choice India or Pakistan." "One choice." "And let's put in your suggestion of the offer of Dominion status." "Can you start right away." "Yes sir." "I'd better get back to Delhi." "I mean right away ... now!" "How soon can I have it?" "It will take about a week sir." "No use." "I must have it by 6 o'clock this evening." "I might as well pack my bags." "Has he gone?" "10 minutes ago." "And?" "he accepted the new draft." "What now?" "to explain myself." "Will you go?" "If I don't  they'll send a cabinet minister out to replace me." "I'll want you with me ... and do you think I should take V.P.?" "I do." "Right ..." "I'll cable Attlee with a copy of the new plan." "we can be in London in 24 hours." "So you had better get your skates on." "Yes sir." "you're in for a grilling." "George and I spent a whole week talking them into one plan and now you've told them to forget all about it." "They're hopping mad." "And they're beginning to wonder whether you know what you're doing." "Are they?" "He'd better start unrolling his hammock." "this time I guarantee but a positive acceptance of the revised plan by all Indian parties." "Without it." "Without the certainty ... of full independence ..." "in the near future ... the prospects are for the loss ... of any hope of our retaining Commonwealth ties and for the inevitable escalation of violence into a nationwide civil war." "gentlemen." "it seems that Lord Louis may well be right." "there is a serious problem" "(Attlee) with passing the Indian independence bill." "Mr Attlee you could get it through parliament before the end of this session." "Oh yes." "It can be passed by the Commons with no difficulty." "The problem is the Conservative majority in the House of Lords." "Mr Churchill's opposition to Indian independence is unwavering and he can block the bill in the Lords for 2 years." "But that would be too late." "Tragically late." "Can't you explain that to him." "for some time ..." "Mr Churchill and I have been unable to communicate." "This needs a personal approach." "don't look at me." "He hasn't spoken to me since I took on the job." "sir." "I hear you've been having a high old time." "I'd like to talk to you about it." "India!" "... no I don't want to talk about India." "Not to you anyway." "I came to appeal to you ... we must get the independence bill passed as soon as possible." "And you expect me to help you?" "To destroy 200 years of British history." "To abandon our duty to those millions who we protected and administered for so long." "sir" "I do not blame the Indian people ... for them" "I've got every respect and affection." "But it's them who will suffer." "If we don't get the legislation through quickly" "India will face anarchy on an unimaginable scale." "That is what will happen anyway once British administration is withdrawn is diminished." "What could possibly induce me to assist in bringing that about?" "perhaps." "And it would allow me to honour a promise" "King George." "What promise?" "To keep a link ... between Great Britain and India." "the leaders of both the Congress Party and the Muslim League are prepared to accept Dominion status." "Do you have that in writing?" "I left a letter from Pandit Nehru at 10 Downing Street." "And what about that sophisticated old faqir?" "Does he still run about dressed in one of his old bed sheets?" "as well." "I regret you two have never met." "Hmm ... perish the thought." "although he still is the unknown quantity" "He will not influence Congress on this." "Not if it means freedom by the end of the year." "At least  if India remains as part of the Commonwealth  all might not be lost." "The British public will back you." "and the Conservative Party?" "I would help to get the necessary legislation through parliament..." "... without delay." "India can have her damned independence sooner than she ever expected."