‘Failures for having dreamed of a united India’: Diplomat KM Panikkar anticipated Partition in 1941

In the spring of 1942, Panikkar received a shock.

He had known for some time that the maharaja was ill, but he hadn’t known the extent of it. Now, Ganga Singh informed him soberly that he had, for a long time, been living with throat cancer. His doctors had told him that he had mere months to live.

It was a moment Panikkar would never forget. This was the second maharaja he had served with for such a long time. Of Sadul Singh, Bikaner’s mercurial son and heir, he knew little, but it was clear that this was yet another turning point in his career.

In fact, turning points were everywhere.

In February 1942, Linlithgow’s muttered imprecations about the direction of the guns of Singapore came true. Long held to be an impregnable citadel, the island fell to the Japanese that month. They were here now, at India’s door from the south and from the northeast, holding over 62,000 Commonwealth and British troops captive. It was a stunning blow to Britain’s prestige in Asia, and it led inevitably to the popular feeling that the British were not, after all, as invincible as they seemed.

The authorities in New Delhi were nervous that Hindus had a “brotherly feeling” for the Japanese....

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