Very rarely, do you come across a history book that commands to be read - every day, every hour, every minute. Tunzelmann has mined the history of our nation to give us facts hitherto unknown: the eggheadedness of Mountbatten, his rather unconventional marriage to Edwina and Nehru - Nehru the superhero. My favorite character in the book was Nehru - a man with the backbone to take on international powers, with the very Indian ability to get into streetfights with rioters and hooligans (just imagine a Prime Minister in a fistfight with a street hooligan!) and also to charm politicians when he wanted to. I know most people will pick this book up for details on the Nehru/ Edwina affair, but Tunzelmann manages to dig up more dirt on the Indian partition and its key players than any other historian I have ever read: Guha for example, pales in comparison. Perhaps the fact that she is focusing on an event, on a smaller period of time helps her uncover the amount she does.
It is somewhat ironical, but also typical that it took a foreigner to tell us the truth about everything. I am a little surprised that this book hasn't been banned yet for one frivolous reason or the other.
'Indian Summer' is essential reading for those who want to understand how our nation and our petulant neighbor were born.
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