In this clip from an interview with Charles Allen in 1976, Braj Kumar Nehru discusses Mountbatten’s role in the Partition of India. 

Who was Braj Kumar Nehru?

B K Nehru was an Indian diplomat and politician. Cousin of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, B K Nehru joined the Indian Civil Service in 1934 and held several prominent government positions in the Punjab. In 1957 B K Nehru became India’s secretary of economic affairs, and from 1961 to 1968 he was ambassador  to the US. 

In this interview, B K Nehru tells Allen that he does not blame Mountbatten for rushing independence. He recalls that in 1946 he felt that if the British had not transferred power there might have been more riots and violence. While B K Nehru highlights that British officials left many loose ends, he states that Mountbatten did not make a major mistake in hurrying Partition.

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. The collection includes interviews conducted in the UK, India and Pakistan with a wide range of people, including Lord Mountbatten, B K Nehru and British civil servants. The interviews cover the role of the Viceroy, the royal family, missionary work, the police force, the Indian Civil Service in Burma, trade and shipping in Calcutta (now Kolkata), the Japanese invasion during the Second World War and the Nehru family. The interviews were conducted almost exclusively with those who had roles in the administration of the British government in India, and this is reflected in their content. The full recordings from the British in India Oral Archive are archived at the British Library Sound Archive, with collection reference C5.

CHARLES ALLEN:

See, Mountbatten has been blamed for rushing independence for 9 months and creating an atmosphere of panic, and possibly by saying “on such and such date it will be divided”. One wonders, I mean, do you blame him for that?

BRAJ KUMAR NEHRU:

No, I don’t blame him for that. A lot of people do blame him for that, but my own feeling was in 1946 that if India had not been divided and responsibility had not been transferred, there would have been more of the riots and bloodshed. Perhaps the total number of casualties would have been less, and perhaps all the people in Pakistan, all the minorities in Pakistan, would not have been uprooted. But given the situation at the time I don’t think that Mountbatten did wrong in hastening the  Partition. Maybe he could have… see a lot of loose ends were left because it was done in such a hurry. But one makes… if he made a mistake he made a minor mistake. Maybe a month or two later would have been better or a little more time for the organisation would have been better but I don’t think it was such a major mistake that he hurried the Partition.