Liberty or Death: India's Journey to Independence and Division - Softcover

French, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241950406 ISBN 13: 9780241950401

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2011

Synopsis

Liberty or Death is Patrick French's vivid and surprising account of the chaotic final years of colonial rule in India, acclaimed as the definitive book on this subject.

At midnight on 14 August 1947, Great Britain's 350-year-old Indian Empire was broken into three pieces. The greatest mass migration in history began, as Muslims fled north and Hindus fled south, and Britain's role as an imperial power came to an end.

Journeying across India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, Patrick French brings to life a cast of characters including spies, idealists, freedom fighters and politicians from Winston Churchill to Mahatma Gandhi. The result is a compelling story of deal-making, missed opportunities, hope and tragedy.
'A fine, lucid book ... vividly drawn with novel-like touches'
  Hanif Kureshi

'Extraordinarily able and nuanced ... a brilliant book on an important subject ... French is the most impressive Western historian of modern India currently at work'
  Herald
'Beautifully written'
  Sunday Times
'French is a natural storyteller ... a delightful tale of intrigue, ham-handedness and just plain blundering'
  India Today

Patrick French is the author of India: A Portrait, Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer, which won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Royal Society of Literature W. H. Heinemann Prize, Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land, The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Hawthornden Prize.

About this title

Review:

A remarkable achievement ... a huge, crowded and kaleidoscopic canvas, which the author handles with remarkable authority ... It is also enormous fun to read (Daily Telegraph)

A fine, lucid book ... vividly drawn with novel-like touches (Hanif Kureshi)

Beautifully written (Sunday Times)

French is a natural storyteller ... a delightful tale of intrigue, ham-handedness and just plain blundering (India Today)

From the Back Cover:

At midnight on 14 August 1947, Britain’s 350-year- old Indian Empire was cracked into three pieces. The greatest mass migration in history began, as Muslims fled north and Hindus fled south, nearly a million being massacred on the other way. Britain’s role as a world power came to an end, and the course of Asia’s future was irrevocably set.

'Liberty or Death' offers a controversial reinterpretation of the last years of British rule in India, including the disastrous mistakes made by politicians, and the bizarre reasoning behind many of their decisions. Exploring the interplay between opposing characters such as Churchill, Wavell, Nehru, Patel, Jinnah, Mountbatten and Gandhi, it reveals a fascinating tale of idealism and manipulation, hope and tragedy. With sources extending from newly declassified intelligence documents to the memories of Bihari refugees, Patrick French gives a riveting account of an epic debacle, the impact of which reverberates across South Asia to this day.

“ Extraordinarily able and nuanced...This is a brilliant book on an important subject... There can surely now be no serious doubt French is the most impressive Western historian of modern India currently at work”
FRANK MCLYNN,' Glasgow Herald'

”French tackles a subject of extreme complexity, calling for scholarship, sobriety and considerable analytical powers. He has achieved almost complete success... It is a huge, crowded and kaleidescopic canvas, which the author handles with remarkable authority... It is also enormous fun to read”
PHILIP ZIEGLER, 'Daily Telegraph'

“Well-researched, beautifully written and immensly scholarly”
ANDREW ROBERTS, 'Sunday Times'

”French is a natural storyteller... a delightful tale of intrigue, ham-handedness and just plain blundering...quite hilarious”
SWAPAN DASGUPTA, 'India Today'

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0241950406
• ISBN 13: 9780241950401
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 512