On 15 August 1947, 400 million people were liberated from the British Empire. One of the defining moments of world history, this event had been brought about by a tiny number of people. They included Jawaharlal Nehru, the fiery prime minister; Mohandas K. Gandhi, the mystical figure who enthralled a nation; Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the Muslim leader who would stop at nothing to establish a separate state of Pakistan; and Dickie and Edwina Mountbatten, the glamorous but unlikely couple who had been dispatched to get Britain out of India without delay.

 

Indian Summer depicts the dramatic sweep of events that ripped apart the largest empire the world has ever seen. It reveals the secrets of the most powerful players on the world stage: the Cold War conspiracies, the private deals, and the intense and clandestine love affair between the wife of the last viceroy and the first prime minister of free India.

 

The Secret History

of the End of an Empire