Barney White-Spunner

You say that you have approached the book as a soldier. What were your initial reactions while researching the events?
Having a long interest in India, and a fascination for Indian history, I had never been able to understand why the 5,00,000 strong British Indian army and the 50,000-odd British troops in India were not deployed into the Punjab to prevent the terrible violence of 1947. As a soldier myself, I found this incomprehensible. There were no other effective forces of law and order in India by the summer of 1947. In particular, the Punjab police had virtually collapsed and had lost the confidence of the Sikh community after the Rawalpindi massacres of March 1947. Preventing internal unrest was what the British Indian Army was largely constructed for. I have discovered some interesting and disturbing reasons why it didn't happen - partly because of the attitude of the Labour government in London, partly because of the attitude of Auchinleck, the commander-in-chief, partly because of Mountbatten and partly because of Congress' view. It was a terrible, terrible mistake. People say the army couldn't have been used because of the way it was recruited - specific units from specific communities and about 60% of it was from Punjab. Yet, there were 30,000 Gurkhas who were seen as neutral, many units from the south and east - and then why were British soldiers not used? Because London said they could only be used to protect European, not Indian lives.