PANDIT COUNTRY

In the summer of 1945, the crème de la crème of Indian politics gathered in the small city of Simla, in the hills of northern India. For almost 100 years, Simla had been the summer capital of British India, where annually the entire machine of government decamped from sweltering Calcutta and later Delhi to the cool and picturesque hill station. In 1945, that period of India’s history was coming to an end as Britain prepared to grant its imperial jewel independence, and Simla was where it would be hammered out.

Delegates arrived from across the country, many in carriages or rickshaws pulled by men up the steep drive to the Scottish baronial style Viceregal Lodge, the summer home of the Viceroy of India. But one arrival drew everyone’s attention. Riding a piebald horse and wearing his trademark achkan and cap was Jawaharlal ‘Pandit’ Nehru, president of the Indian National Congress that had fought for decades to secure the colony’s independence. The entrance stopped the press and other attendees in their tracks, and was typical of the man who would become