Dominique Lapierre (1931–2022)

A magnificent account of the last stage of India's struggle for independence, the compulsions that made the British (mainly Mountbatten) and the Indian leaders agree to partition, and its bloody aftermath. The account of Gandhi's last days is deeply understanding and profoundly moving, showing how deeply the authors have penetrated into the mind of India and its philosophical and religious well-springs. It is also a unique work, based as it is on face-to-face interviews and conversations show more with so many of the last remaining witnesses of the era: Mountbatten, definitely, but also a host of retired administrators, associates of the main leaders, ordinary people, and most surprisingly, the remaining members of the Hindutva group that carried out the assassination of the Mahatma. A massive book of over 700 pages, one has to finally drive through it with determination in order to keep the thread and reach the end; but the story is such a captivating one, keeping its interest however many times one reads about it, and told with such depth of understanding and personal knowledge, that one is borne along by the narrative, even to the extent of reading all the Notes at the back (something which I have rarely managed with other such tomes). show less

This is a fascinating book about the Indian Independence and Partition. It has very interesting character sketches of the main players in the process: Mountbatten, Nehru, Gandhi and Jinnah, though I wasn't sure how impartial these views were. It gives a vivid description of the events leading up to independence, and just after it - it's a very readable account rather than a dry factual one. I had never thought about the minutiae of splitting India's assets with Pakistan and the practical show more aspects of partition, and it's incredible it all happened so fast. The chapter about the maharajas and their strange quirks is all very entertaining. The violence that breaks out after partition is really just horrific, both in the numbers and the individual tales - it's just hard to imagine murder being so widespread. And Gandhi is an undeniably unique and strange man with a real gift for bringing people together. Fascinating book anyway, well worth reading. show less

Last year I read Animal's People by Indra Sinha, an excellent novel about the slum dwellers who lived around the Union Carbide plant releasing the deadly chemicals. The novel was set years after the release, and focused on the tragic effects the disaster had on those people and their attempts to hold the company responsible.

This book sets the stage for the disaster with the history of Bhopal, how the plant came to be built, its executives and employees, and the manner of its operation, from show more the beginning until the accident, which occurred during a period of time the plant's operations were being phased out. It also introduces us to a number of the families who resided in the makeshift dwellings surrounding the plant.

It may be my imagination, but having read Animal's People, I think that this book is slightly too sympathetic to Union Carbide, or at least to the American employees who were running the plant. For example, in the acknowledgements section the author thanks the individual "who made us welcome in their charming house..., enabling us to reconstruct the happy years when Warren was in charge of the Bhopal factory." Or, "The pursuit of perfection was Carbide's hallmark." The accident itself occurred when Americans were ceding management to Indian employees, and it was those employees whose mistakes or inaction caused the chemical release. However, it was the American owners who stinted on proper safety equipment when building the plant, on maintaining what safety equipment there was, and who failed to provide adequate training for the employees.

The book was written shortly after the accident, and does not stress that Union Carbide has failed (and has actively resisted) to pay adequate recompense to the victims. The long-term health problems of the victims is also not completely considered, although the author has a charity which does provide some assistance to victims with health issues. With those caveats, I can state that the book is informative and moving. It is well-written--certainly in such way that it is a page-turner, and tells a compelling story. show less

In 1947, the British empire, still devastated from its epic struggle against Hitler's Germany, began the unprecedented process of a global empire self-dismantling. The Indian subcontinent, and its partition into the modern nations of India and Pakistan, was the first and greatest jewel pried from the British crown; and its loss was not without equal measures heroism and villainy, tragedy and triumph.

Having read the authors's previous works "Is Paris Burning?" and "O Jerusalem," this was a show more natural pickup. The authors are skilled at teasing out the human element in great movements, and at painting the broad themes of history in small brushstrokes of personal recollections. "Freedom at Midnight" is no exception, even when the narrative thread (for me) got lost at times in the multiplying thicket of individual tales of savagery and horror from the Punjabi massacres. Even then, the oral histories collected and retained in this volume are invaluable artifacts of a unique time in human history, when both the brutality and the nobility of human nature found expression in a transition of power unrivaled in the annals of history. show less