Chapter 317 The Rich and Powerful of India

Gandhi sat topless and cross-legged on a straw mat with a wet towel over his head as a way to cool off the heat. Flies darted about him, and gusts of pungent, unpleasant odor were blown in by the sultry summer breeze.

When he flashed the program he had proposed to Mountbatten for discussion, the leaders of the Congress Party were all stupefied, even breathless. To them, the program was not only grotesque but downright nonsensical.

They simply could not believe how the Mahatma whom they had embraced and worshipped could come up with such a scheme. How could the fruits of victory be so easily handed over to their opponents when the British had already promised to leave? Hardly any of them showed any understanding of the aged Mahatma’s program.

Gandhi repeatedly persuaded these leaders, who had come here in a luxury automobile. Telling them that if not, Mountbatten would agree to partition. And once partition was done, bloodshed would break out on a much larger scale, bringing India to the brink of extinction once again. He wanted everyone to think calmly, indeed to think seriously in the interest of the people of the country, and not to give up the glimmer of hope for India’s integrity.

Patel’s fierce opposition was actually expected by Gandhi, but Nehru likewise did not give his support, even though Gandhi had been grooming Nehru to be the leader of the Congress party.

Handing over the future India to Jinnah, whether out of Hindu feeling or out of the Congress Party’s quest was indefensible, and it was not a question of Gandhi’s prestige alone.

For the first time in his life, Gandhi was faced with so much opposition from people who had respected him so much just a day before.

The Congress leaders did not necessarily fail to see the factor behind Gandhi’s assertion that the British should be driven out first, and that after the British left, the rest would be a problem for the Congress and the PMLN, and that without the British as a factor, things would be much better.

In fact Gandhi did say this at the Congress meeting, “Even if there must be partition, it is between us and the PMLN, and it can be partitioned just as well when the British leave.”

The reasoning was so, but before the dawn of victory, everyone wanted stability. Gandhi’s idea that with the British gone, it might be possible to force the PML-N into line was a good one.

But it did not mean that there were no problems. It was only thirty years since the Congress Party had emerged from the crowded field of parties in British India, and now it was overwhelmingly dominant among Hindus.

But once Gandhi, the symbol of the Congress Party, has bowed to Jinnah of the PML-N, will Hindus still support the Congress Party?

The top brass of the Congress Party can understand Gandhi, but the countless Hindus who are united by their religious beliefs may not necessarily understand the Congress Party. If they support Gandhi’s claims, the Congress party could be abandoned in the eyes of the Hindus.

In this pre-dawn darkness, who dares to make rational choices when they see decades of struggle coming to a harvest?

It is true that the PML-N is a difficult opponent, but the PML-N will not be able to divide the supporters of the Congress Party, while it is not necessarily the case with other Hindu parties, and these forces that are currently clustered around the Congress Party are the real enemies, who are capable of destroying the foundations of the Congress Party.

Whether it is the enlightened faction represented by Nehru or the conservative faction represented by Patel the opinion is unanimous. There is nothing enlightened about such issues either, once enlightened the Congress party is gone.

So neatly, through the different perspectives of the opposition, it eventually disheartened Gandhi that it turned out that he really couldn’t solve the problem and make British India whole.

The integrity of British India was and is only on Jinnah, never on anyone in the Congress Party. Unfortunately that important leader of the Congress Party back then, Ali Jinnah, who maintained the unity of the whole of India, has been dead for twenty years, and the current Ali Jinnah will never let up on this issue.

Jinnah had also been the lawyer par excellence, two meters tall and graceful. He once said that nonviolent resistance was merely a movement of those who were ignorant and illiterate. Jinnah, unlike Gandhi, was fond of organizing a grand ceremonial procession when he went on a tour, spearheaded by elephants fully clad in gold and silver, with a military band playing the Blessed Be Our King music.

Nehru was no more than a boastful professor in the eyes of Ari Jinnah, Gandhi was rated a little higher, as a cunning fox.

Nehru, who had gotten the key to the problem from Gandhi, had wanted to talk to Jinnah, but Ali Jinnah, who had gotten the news from Alan Wilson early on, cited illness as the reason for saying that talking was possible, but it would have to wait a while.

“We invited Nehru along with the governor to try to solve the Rohingya problem a little bit.” Alan Wilson took the Secretary General of Sir Barron Ismay, after the approval of the trip by the Churchill MP, came to the Governor General of Mountbatten forwarded, “the Rohingya problem, essentially the conflict between Burma and India, in the sense that in fact, and agreed to still partition of India is similar to the problem, just a little more tiny, if this matter succeeds, perhaps to British India’s problem solving would be enlightening.”

“Senator Churchill feels the same way?” Mountbatten, who had wanted to refuse and wait for Ali Jinnah’s reply, did not say the words of refusal once he heard that Churchill also meant this.

Mountbatten was only forty-seven years old age-wise, and Churchill was actually a politician of the previous era for him, a contemporary of his father.

The relationship between the two is very good, when Mountbatten went to university, Churchill, who was already the Secretary of State for Defense, also helped him with debates, and it was almost like a forgotten relationship. Naturally if Churchill thinks so, Mountbatten can’t disagree, he can’t break this old man’s heart.

What’s more, in times of war, as Prime Minister Churchill who Mountbatten much care, can not because Churchill is not Prime Minister now, he is disrespectful to the other side.

“The local leader on the Burmese side is Aung San, right?” At the critical moment, the experience of being the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in Southeast Asia still made Mountbatten think about Burma, “He can also be the leader of the Burmese?”

“It was the choice of the Burmese.” Alan Wilson shrugged, it was a known fact that Aung San himself had experience working with the Japanese during the war.

But then, most of the countries in Southeast Asia actually had no ill feelings towards Japan, being colonies of European countries themselves, not even their own countries, so naturally it wasn’t a war against invasion, not unlike the situation in China.

Even because China was an ally of the Allied Powers, the local Chinese in Southeast Asia also existed as an ethnic group that was introduced to check and balance the local natives, and many Southeast Asian countries hated the Chinese, that’s a fact, there’s nothing to avoid.

“Alright then, I’ll see if I can sort this out with Nehru, and have the Rangoon side say if they can get Aung San to come over.” Mountbatten finally agreed, but taking the initiative to go to Burma was out of the question, he was the Viceroy of India, it would be a great favor to mediate, and take the initiative to go to Rangoon?

“I’ll telegraph Burgess at once.” Alan Wilson nodded his head in agreement, as long as the Governor General agrees, as for whether the Rohingya problem can be solved, who cares? Who wants to solve the problem anymore, it’s just a matter of finding something for the Governor to do.

Similarly Alan Wilson also has his own things, the same and the future of British India related to the same very important.

Involved is the future of India’s economic map, it is very simple, India is independent, now everything in the British Empire will be owned by the Indians, of course, private property Indian government may not be confiscated, but the important industry?

Who can guarantee that Nehru will not find ways to play a trick and use means to get his hands on the valuable wealth of the British?

So this matter should be avoided, to be handed over to a trusted person, on the one hand, cash, on the other hand, and India’s current wealthy class to form a relationship of interest, adding a layer of umbrella.

If Nehru finally gets his hands on it, the damage will be done first to these local Indian tycoons and then to Britain. It would be better if he didn’t go for it, and all in all it wasn’t too much of a loss either way.

The Birla family was one of the targets chosen by Allen Wilson. During the First World War, the Birla family’s fortune increased from two million rupees to ten million rupees by dealing in the export of jute, cotton and other commodities, and in the opium trade. After the war, they invested in the jute and cotton spinning industry, and in the thirties they invested in sugar, paper and other industries, forming a consortium. During the Second World War, the Birla family again invested in machinery, coal mining and other sectors. Now the assets have reached two hundred million rupees.

Calculated according to the exchange rate, the Birla family is actually richer than the Governor, not to mention the Tata family.

The Tata family, during the First World War, Tata won huge profits and after the war established a number of enterprises in the power generation, chemical, machinery, oil and grease, cement and financial sectors. To the outbreak of World War II, the Tata father and son company through its managers line has controlled twenty-two companies, monopoly consortium has been formed.

The Birlas and the Tatas, along with Indian tycoons from all walks of life across the subcontinent, received an invitation from Sir Barron to come to New Delhi and see what the British were up to.

The short Indian winter had passed again, so short that almost Allen Wilson didn’t think he’d been here, and an electric fan was spinning on the ceiling of the apartment, but it was as slow as in a dream.

The windows were covered with metal-framed screens, and beyond them was a tropical garden with several paths running through it. It was filled with European podocarpus and palm trees. The silence was extraordinary. There was not a breeze in the garden and the house was very dark.

Empty, spacious, faux goldwork. A piano. The chandelier was off. An assortment of flowers and plants. Everything was dead quiet except for the fan that rotated fantastically and symbolically.

The Rohingya question was just as much a figure of fun, and the meeting of the Viceroy with Nehru and Aung San was merely a cover for his own conversation with the buyers, for which he had to make ample preparations to get these grown-up Indian tycoons to hand over their money.