Viceroy vindicated
Sir: Lord Wyatt's interesting article (Even his fasts were a fraud', 9 August) reminded me of conversations we had about Gandhi while Lord Wyatt and I were both fellow guests at a villa in Tuscany some years ago.
Gandhi's manipulative tactics tried on the Cabinet Mission in 1946 had been prac- tised for years. The late Lord Glendevon told me that during his father's (Lord Lin- lithgow's) viceroyalty, while the local press was talking about an aloof viceroy, much work went on behind the scenes to arrange meetings with Gandhi. After some prevari- cation, a date would be arranged, Gandhi would arrive, courteous greetings would be exchanged, but when the Viceroy got down to the agenda one of Gandhi's aides would put his fingers to his lips and say, 'Your Excellency, I am sorry but Mahatmaji has declared today a non-speaking day.'
John Glendevon said that his father should never have accepted an extension of his viceroyalty. This, plus two individuals, contributed to shortening his life. The indi- viduals were Gandhi in India, duplicitous and tricky to deal with, and Winston Churchill in England, egging on the Indian princes not to join the Federation envis- aged in the Government of India Act 1935. Glendevon, who advised his father, felt strongly enough about it to turn down Churchill's offer to become his PPS, after the 1945 election.
On the day in January 1948 when Gandhi was assassinated, Glendevon was travelling with his father in a London taxi. He asked Linlithgow whether Gandhi was truly a great man. The former viceroy, after a reflective pause, replied, 'Yes he was a great man, but he treated me unkindly.' While the Indian press had always shouted loudly about how beastly the Viceroy was to Gandhi, Lord Linlithgow knew different- ly.
It is curious how and why historians, or others, have not speculated and expatiated on the question, 'In the centuries-old histo- ry of India, who was the one who came nearest to uniting the whole of the sub-con- tinent?'
Answer: Lord Linlithgow — but for the short-sightedness of the Indian princes (who were to lose all anyway a few years later) and the outbreak of the second world war, plus Gandhi's and Churchill's machi- nations, he would have brought about a federated India.
Narindar Saroop
25 de Vere Gardens, London W8
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