Photo: Anu Pushkarna

Those days that age Philips Talbot in New Delhi

In 1939, 24-year-old Talbot was sent on a fellowship by the Institute of Current World Affairs, New Yorkto report about India, a country Americans hardly knew anything about. The assignment proved to be a tryst with history. He saw freedom as well as Partition. Be it the Mahatma, Nehru or Jinnah –he interacted with them all. He wrote his observations as part of the assignment and forgot about them. Now these letters are being published as a book, ‘An American Witness to India’s Partition’, by Sage Publications. A youthful and relatively neutral primary historical source is ready for scholars as well as avid readers.

Talbot says India had come a long way over these decades. “In those days there was a lot of political activity, but not much economic activity. Young people expected the same kinds of jobs as their fathers and did not expect much change in their lives except politically. Now there are new industries, a vibrant service sector and a level of economic activity not foreseen then. Now I see a rapidly modernising country,” he observes.

“Politically, I have been interested in the rise of regional and lower caste parties. Groups having no voice in those days are now running some of the States,” he adds .

Talbot says awareness about India in the U.S. hasgrown manifold over the past decades. “During colonial times, the British resisted American business involvement in India. The post-independence socialism of India, too, was not appealing to the U.S. But now American business is highly interested in India. Before 1947, there was no substantial Indian presence in America. No college there taught anything about modern India. Today, millions of Indians reside in the U.S. and South Asian programmes of study flourish in colleges,” he notes.

Going down memory lane, Talbot shares his memories about national leaders and Partition. “When I first went to meet Mahatma Gandhi at the Sewagram Ashram near Wardha, I expected a frail man. But I found a very vigorous, hard-working man with immense powers of concentration. He would guide the Ashram residents in their nutrition and health while carrying out programmes like education and village reconstruction. He was always clear in his negotiations with the British,” he recalls.

“Jawaharlal Nehru was an elegant man with a great sense of history and political leadership. His socialism, I hold, derived from his belief that the private sector in India in those days was inadequate to take over the commanding heights of the economy. Pakistan was unfortunate in losing Jinnah, its tallest leader, soon after independence,” Talbot argues.

Talking of Partition, Talbot says that the Muslim League, which was earlier a party of landlords promoted by the British policy of Divide and Rule, acquired mass support by 1939. “The Congress party in its enthusiasm after taking seven provinces in the 1937 provincial elections hoisted Congress flags in schools and sang Vande Mataram – a song Muslims were apprehensive about. Its Hindu symbolism made Muslims fear majoritarian rule in independent India. The Congress was relatively inexperienced in governance those days, which made it unwittingly hurt Muslim sensibilities. With post-independence experience in governance, the distinctly secular trend that Nehru emphasised became a happy feature of Indian governance,” he concludes.

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