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| Image Courtesy: Alex von Tunzelmann |
I doubt reading history can make an individual wiser. I am
certain that it can shock us. This shock wave takes birth at the crack between what
is the perceived history and the stories behind that history. Often the stories
behind history are beyond reconciliation resulting in mass violence and
murders. Salman Rushdie tried that once and he faced the fatwa. Dan Brown tried
to decipher Da Vinci in his rather playful quirk called The Da Vinci Code. And this book is still banned among many
Christian communities. I remember one of my friends’ words that he had spoken
to one of his students, “If you wrote a paper on The Da Vinci Code, you might end up in trouble.”
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| Image Courtesy: Google |
Indian
Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire by Alex
von Tunzelmann, published in 2007, is one such book that can shake some of us
from our foundational thoughts on Indian history, especially the story of
Indian freedom struggle. Unlike many of the so-called groundbreaking books, Tunzelmann’s
book does not relocate the existing paradigms or unravel a chaotic vision. In a
gentle act of unearthing, Indian Summer:
The Secret History of the End of an Empire portrays the story of Indian
struggle for independence in a rather fresh light, leaving some of the stones
unturned. For Tunzelmann,
unlike a recent comment by Arundhathi Roy, the author of God of Small Things, Gandhi remains an influential figure. In Tunzelmann’s
own words, “It is within the context of this tightening of the imperial
shackles that the swift and dazzling rise of Gandhi can be understood.” (38)
For someone who studied Indian history Tunzelmann’s book might
not bring any enlightenment. However, with her evocative style and lucid prose,
Tunzelmann wins open the reader’s mind into a historical landscape beautiful
like a novel and wondrous like a museum of exotic samples. Rarely can one feel
bored reading Indian
Summer, although this books is a long historical non-fiction. Tunzelmann
narrates the history of the grand downfall of an empire and the equally thrilling
turns in the history of two newly independent nations with a history of
millennia. She does it in a language that is charming and lucid. In finding the
drama in history, Tunzelmann has been exceptionally successful. And this makes Indian
Summer a book worth reading.
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| Image Courtesy: Google |
What makes Indian Summer
the most impressive book on Indian freedom struggle is its ardent advocacy of
how some individuals changes the course of the history of three nations. The Mountbattens
and the Nehrus play crucial roles as individuals in the formative history of
three nations—Britain, India and Pakistan. “Dickie and Edwina had met in
October 1920,” she writes. I quoted this line to indicate how story-like her
narrative style and concerns are, in this book.
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| Image Courtesy: Google |
The scope of the book, though, does not end with telling the
world how some influential individuals influenced the national history of three
nations. Indian
Summer proves that national histories are often misguiding. For example,
any student of Indian history or Post-colonial Theory would doubtlessly blame
Lord Macaulay for his infamous educations reforms as the grease in the grand
machinery of British Imperialism. However, in Tunzelmann’s research one might
come across, quite unprecedentedly, a different Macaulay, presenting his
opinion regarding the interference of The East India Company in India. “Presenting
the scheme to parliament, Thomas Babington Macaulay freely admitted that
licensing out British sovereignty to a private company was inappropriate.” (15)
Indian Summer presents some interesting out look into these events that are
kept rather obscure due to many factors. Occasionally surprising with an
undoubtedly capturing narrative style, Indian
Summer is surely worth a shot, not just for history buffs, but also for
those who keep an eye open for spicy stories. Alex von Tunzelmann’s second book
is Red Heat published in 2011.
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