Brian 48nav (11136),
Yes - We exchange emails with a widowed niece of mine in Melbourne every day: I wrote a long critique of "The Viceroy's House" (DVD version of the book just published) to her, ending:
..."The hopes that the Lion would lie down with the Lamb proved vain; there were huge and violent exchanges of population both ways across the arbitary border; there was naked slaughter of men, women and children on an enormous scale. The estimate at the time was two million * dead and many times that number homeless refugees. Of course, the Indian view was that it was all Britain's fault - blind to the the fact that, when the "colonial oppressor" left, Pax Britannica went with him ! - and this was the predictable (and predicted) result. Our "Daily Mirror" wrote ruefully at the time:
"THEY KNEW" - Isn't it annoying when the wrong people turn out to be right ? - and we see the Indians behaving exactly as the old Blimps and Curry-Colonels said they would !" (Coincidentally, BBC 1 TV is starting a new two-parter on this very subject tonight)"...
and a day later:
..."I was far more impressed with the first episode of "My Family And Me: India 1947" (BBC 1 last night), personal experiences of British residents paying their first visit to the home villages of their forefathers. Very affecting. (Would I like to go back [if I could] ? - No, it's always a mistake: you cannot go back in time, the India I knew doesn't exist any more)"...
[Note *: revisionist historians have massaged this figure down to one million - I prefer the original figure; the truth is nobody knows, it is all guesswork anyway as nobody was counting].
Danny.