The Scandal That Shaped Partition: India’s First Prime Minister

Anita and I have decided we're going to take it in turns to do a deep dive into a period of history or a historical character that we are completely obsessed with, or in my case, a place. Nita, it's your turn first, and you've chosen to revisit a period that Empire listeners will no doubt be rather familiar with, because we've now done it. twice in various ways uh on Empire. Most recently with Sam, the partition of India. But this time you're exploring something we didn't really go into in any detail, which is also one of the most scandalous and perhaps the most consequential of the personal relationships during partition.

I mean history is made by people and their stories, and this is the story of a love triangle at the heart of partition. It's the story of a rebellious heiress called Edwina Mount Battle. Braton, and the two men who orbited around her as if she were the sun, her husband, Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, and Jawal al Nehru, who would become the first Prime Minister of a free India. And I'm joined by the brilliant author and friend of the show, Alex von Tunzelmann, to tell his story. Now, it's obviously quite a saucy story, but what actually led you to choose this as your deep dive uh into history?

Because, I mean, you know, we always say on Empire, you know, the episodes of the past that shape the present, and there is a continuing political row going on in India about just how much Nairy was in the thrall of the British. Did he let India down? Now, you know, two camps on this, one that says he was a canny operator, he did exactly the right thing, the best thing for India, because he got close to the power that mattered, and that was the Mount Batons. The other, though, keeps talking about some of the imagery from that time.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (10 minutes, 1,701 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 10 episodes for $5, and monthly plans are cheaper still.