As the last Viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten oversaw the Partition of British India into India and Pakistan. As Charles Allen notes in this interview from 1976, Mountbatten’s role in Partition is controversial: both Pakistanis and Indians have accused him of favouring the other side. In this clip, Mountbatten states that he did not favour a particular side, although he noted that Jawaharlal Nehru, president of the Indian National Congress, was easier to deal with than Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the All-India Muslim League.

About the British in India Oral Archive

These interviews were carried out between 1975 and 1976 to supplement the BBC's popular Plain Tales of the Raj radio series. The project was jointly conducted by the National Sound Archive (NSA), the India Office Library & Records (IOLR) and the School of Oriental and African Studies. The NSA and the IOLR became part of the British Library in the early 1980s and are now known as the British Library Sound Archive and the India Office Records respectively.

CHARLES ALLEN:

It has been said by Pakistanis that you were too pro-Nehru, too pro-Gandhi, pro-Congress, and anti-Pakistani. And conversely it has been said by Indians and Congress people that you were, that you gave way to Jinnah, not that you were pro-Jinnah, but that you gave way to him, and should have held out for a united India. Would you comment on that?

LORD MOUNTBATTEN:

Yes I’ll just say this. I was pro the country as a whole. I was pro nobody individually and I was anti nobody individually. Of course I found Nehru a much easier person and more friendly person to deal with than Jinnah, but I must say I was certainly very frank and free with Jinnah as well.