Bleak, Forceful Doc On Indian Partition has Lesson for Today

Summary

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This hour-long retrospective study, which airs tonight at 8 on History, examines the disastrous consequences of Britain's partitioning of India into two separate nations, along religious lines, after being forced out of "the jewel in the crown" of its empire 60 years ago.

What begins with a straightforward indictment of Britain's far-reaching colonial ambitions during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries soon becomes a detailed examination of the political figures and strategies that propelled India's faith-driven division of territories.

[Alan Mendelsohn] focuses on four key political figures -- Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British viceroy of India (described by historian/author Stanley Wolpert as "a man of great ego, as well as of very little intellect"), Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founder and first president, and Mohandis Gandhi, the political strategist whose philosophy of non-violent opposition would inspire the world.

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Bleak, Forceful Doc On Indian Partition has Lesson for Today

Watching TV / Brad Oswald

YOU know that old saying about those who ignore history are destined to repeat it?

Well, all the political/military masterminds guiding th...

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