Day of Dust & Silence

Great clouds of dust rolled in with blistering heat from the Rajputana desert and hung over New Delhi this week. Outside the Viceroy's House hundreds of heavily armed British and Indian troops mopped their faces, sputtered and coughed. Inside, around a huge table in the viceregal study, India was being divided.

Just back from London, Rear Admiral Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, Viceroy of India, stoutly urged the Hindu, Moslem and other leaders and princes to accept Britain's plan to keep India united

(TIME, June 2). But he knew that was a hope long gone. He offered the alternative operation. British India could be cut into three great sections--two Pakistan areas and one Hindustan. Pakistan and Hindustan could be full-fledged Dominions of the British Commonwealth. Britain was ready to help set them up so that they could be in business within a few months. Most Hindu and Moslem leaders swiftly agreed.

Then Mountbatten invited Mohandas Gandhi to his office. The crickety little Mahatma, spiritual leader of the Hindu millions, had never been as obdurate in opposition to division. For an apostle of nonviolence, he had used, a few days before, strong language: "Let the whole nation be in flames; we will not concede an inch of Pakistan." But in the Viceroy's office, he listened as Mountbatten talked, scribbled questions on a pad of paper, but uttered no sound. The Mahatma was observing his day of silence.

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