Word: mountbatten
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Constituent Assembly rose. Together they pledged themselves "at this solemn moment . . . to the service of India and her people. . . ." Nehru and Prasad struggled through the thousands of rejoicing Indians who had gathered outside to the Viceroy's House (now called the Governor General's House) where Viscount Mountbatten, who that day learned he would become an earl, awaited them. There, 32 minutes after Mountbatten had ceased to be a Viceroy,* Nehru and Prasad rather timidly, almost bashfully, told Mountbatten that India's Constituent Assembly had assumed power and would like him to be Governor General...
...people made it their day. After dawn half a million thronged the green expanse of the Grand Vista and parkways near the Government buildings of New Delhi. Wherever Lord and Lady Mountbatten went that day, their open carriage, drawn by six bay horses, was beset by happy, cheering Indians who swept aside police lines. A Briton received a popular ovation rarely given even to an Indian leader. "Mountbattenji ki jai [Victory to Mountbatten]," they roared, adding the affectionate and respectful suffix "ji" usually reserved for popular Indian leaders...
...then Nehru (who sometimes shows the instincts of a traffic policeman) harangued the crowd to be more orderly. Once he espied a European girl caught up in the swirl. She was Pamela Mountbatten, the Governor General's 18-year-old daughter. Nehru literally slugged his way through the crowd to rescue her, brought her to the platform...
...Council House the Constituent Assembly heard Mountbatten take the oath as Governor General.†"Regard me as one of yourselves," he told them, "devoted wholly to the furtherance of India's interests." Then he swore in the new Indian Government. Messages of congratulation from over the world were read. The most original was a greeting in verse from Chinese Ambassador Lo Chia-luen. It read...
Partly Friendly. Then Viscount Mountbatten, clad in a dazzling white naval uniform, arrived with Lady Mountbatten. The crowd cheered him too, and a Scottish band, in kilts and Glengarry bonnets, piped a greeting. Shortly before their arrival, an Indian band, celebrating the separation of India's wandering child, had tooted somewhat tactlessly, "You'd Be Far Better Off in a Home."* Inside the Assembly Building, the Briton and the Moslem got down to the business of transferring power from the British Crown to the new dominion of Pakistan. It was a formal, cut-&-dried affair. Although Pakistan...