India Remembered

Description

In March 1947, Lord Louis Mountbatten became the last Viceroy of India, with the mandate to hand over 'the jewel in the crown' of the British Empire within one year. Mountbatten worked with Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohandas Gandhi and the leader of the Muslim League, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, to devise a plan for partitioning the empire into two independent sovereign states, India and Pakistan, on August 15, 1947. Mountbatten remained as interim Governor-General of India until June 1948. During this time, Lord Mountbatten's daughter and India's mother, Pamela, was with her parents. She kept a diary recounting this extraordinary tale of history and recollections of their trips to stay in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Orissa and Assam, and the exotic palaces of Indian rulers; and the Rajputs in Central and Western India, the imperial palace-cities built by the mughals. "India Revisited" is a scrapbook of private family photographs taken during this historical period (Edwina Mountbatten walking arm in arm with Nehru through a courtyard, or Ghandi taking tea for the first time at Viceroys House) and photographs taken presently inside their audience halls, private apartments and service quarters.

Author description

India Hicks is the granddaughter of Earl Mountbatten of Burma most famously known for his role in history as the last Viceroy of India. She is the author of Island Life. She lives in the Bahamas with her partner and three children. Pamela Mountbatten lives in Oxfordshire.