The Fall of the British Empire

[DanaC]

The last viceroy of India, Louis Mountbatten, quickly signed the Indian Independence Act in an attempt to partition the area into a majority Musliim state of Pakistan and a majority Hindu India. Thousands died in the panic of the mass migration that followed and as the British withdrew from their outposts it seemed as though the sun was finally setting on the Empire.

And at this point the various branches of my father's family left India, he with his younger brother, his mother and his father. Some months after they arrived in the cold and damp northern english city of Manchester, they were joined by two of his cousins, both teenagers, a little older than Dad. They stayed with Dad's family, until their parents were able to make it to England.

In one branch of the family, Dad's second cousins I think, there had been a terrible falling out between the parents and a teenaged son, just a few months earlier. The son had left, they didn't know where he'd gone. Sp the parents and the infant sister left India - leaving their 14 or 15 year old son behind in all the turmoil. Little sister, and subsequent little sisters, were never told of their missing brother. They didn't know he existed. Their family never talked about him, nor did any of the wider family they were in contact with. Somehow, not sure how, one of the sisters found out and asked her mum about him, but I don;t know what she said in resopnse - can't recall now if she refused to talk about him still.

Some years later - about 10 years ago I think - they tracked him down and are now in contact.

Dad saw some pretty nasty stuff before they left. Witnessed, not the detail, but t he occurrence of a massacre. He was walking down a road coming down from his school in the hills,and as the road bent round and down there was a shelter (can;t recall if it was brick or wooden) where people cuold wait for the coaches that came by a couple of times a week. He saw a hindu family running from a different direction and go into the shelter. A few minutes later he saw a group of men armed with sticks and knives go into the shelter - there were screams and he saw a little of the aftermath. He'd have been about 11 or 12, I think.

At some point he saw a decapitated head in the road. Don't know if that was the same incident. I do know they left India quickly with what they could take with them in a single trip and everything else was left behind.

The culture shock must have been staggering. I think sometimes about what that must have been like, for Gran especially. From servants and absolute assumptions of entitlement in a land where you can just grab fresh mangoes straight from the tree and everywhere you look it is colourful - to a wet and grey 1940s Manchester, a modest semi-detached house, and a full-time job at Kelloggs to supplement Grandfather's salary.