‘How was New Delhi, sir?’
‘New Delhi?’ He sat and rummaged. ‘New Delhi. Here we are.’ But whatever he had looked for and found he then seemed to lose interest in. He sat back, removed the glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘New Delhi. Very bad for one’s sense of proportion, New Delhi.’ He put the glasses back on and started making notes on a memorandum pad. ‘Have a drink, Nigel. I’ll have one too if you’d be so kind.’
Rowan crossed over to the area in front of the fireplace. Three sofas were arranged round it. The live-coal effect was on below the unused elements of an ornate electric fire. The drinks tray was set out on the main sofa-table. The light from the fire was caught in the facets of the cut-glass decanters. An illusion of cosiness. The air-conditioning hummed gently. The private rooms could strike uncomfortably chilly. The imaginary live fire was Priscilla Begge’s idea. She said it cheered one up. He poured whisky for himself and Malcolm his usual brandy. No ice for either of them. Not too much soda. He took the drinks to the desk and set the Governor’s on a cork mat next to a square cut ashtray. Malcolm nodded his thanks but continued writing his memorandum.
‘Be with you in a tick,’ he said presently. ‘Do sit down. I’m sorry about this by the way, you’re supposed to be off, aren’t you? Off. Making hay. That’s it, then.’ He threw down the pencil, looked at what he had written, pushed the pad aside, reached for his glass and said, ‘Cheers.’
‘Cheers.’
‘Well now. New Delhi.’
‘Interesting developments, sir?’
‘Confirmation of assumptions.’
‘Elections?’
‘Yes. War virtually over, so – elections. To the central legislature first, then in the provinces.’
‘When sir?’
‘When do we do anything in this country if there’s a choice?’
‘In the cold weather?’
Malcolm was playing with the horn-rimmed spectacles. ‘The cold weather. How comforting it always sounds. Never do today what you can put off until the weather cools down.’
‘I suppose it’s soon enough in this case. And elections are what everybody seems to want.’
‘Quite. Jinnah wants them. Nehru wants them. Even we poor overworked provincial Governors want them. Some of course more than others. Most important of all the fount of all wisdom in Whitehall wants them. I suppose we ought to be worried. Such universal agreement.’
‘And the Viceroy, sir?’
‘Oh, yes. Wavell wants them. What man could fail to seize the opportunity of at last doing something which everyone approves of? He’ll announce the decision to hold elections in a week or two, and then pop off back to London to make sure everyone is talking about the same thing, and that the British Government understands that an election in India is rather different from one at home at any time of year.’
‘Will there be an extended franchise?’
Malcolm smiled and put the spectacles back on. ‘Heaven forbid. That would take two cold weathers. Central legislature first, then the provinces that have responsible ministries, after that our kind, in Section 93. How does that strike you?’
After a moment Rowan replied, ‘It strikes me as rather problematical in regard to Section 93 provinces.’
‘Elucidate.’
‘Constitutionally, you’ll have to dissolve the existing legislature before calling for new elections. It wasn’t the elected legislature that resigned in 1939. Only Mr Kasim and his colleagues resigned. From the ministry.’
‘Quite. What’s your point?’
‘Only that constitutionally there’s no difference between provinces where ministries still exist as a result of the 1937 elections – most of them Muslim majority and Muslim League provinces – and provinces where ministries don’t exist because they were Congress ministries and resigned when Congress told them to resign. In the provinces where ministries as well as legislatures still exist the assemblies will be dissolved by due process, prior to new elections. In Section 93 provinces the Governors will have to order dissolution.’
‘Well, that’s because Section 93 provinces are under Governor’s rule. Are you suggesting that I can’t dissolve the existing assembly which exists virtually only on paper, without inviting Mr Mohammed Ali Kasim kindly to reform his ministry first?’
‘I’m not saying you can’t, sir, obviously. I’m wondering whether it’s wise.’
‘I’m under no constitutional obligation to recall Mr Kasim.’
‘The Viceroy was under no obligation to release certain political leaders from jail last June. But he could hardly have held the Simla conference without doing so.’
‘A thoroughly bad analogy. But of course, I thoroughly agree with you.’
‘Oh.’ Used as he had become to Malcolm’s habit of arguing aloud for the opposition he was often uncertain what the Governor actually believed himself. ‘May I ask why you agree, sir?’
‘I’d prefer to hear your own reasons first.’
Rowan smiled. ‘Well, I suppose the idea of elections at this stage is to inspire confidence and create an atmosphere of letting bygones be bygones.’
‘One can do that without reverting to a bygone status quo.’
‘But if you don’t revert to it the Congress will be at a disadvantage.
‘They may think so . . .’
‘Isn’t it what they may think that will count? It’s not our fault their ministries resigned in the provinces and not our fault that the ministries that stayed were predominantly Muslim, nor our fault that nowadays that virtually means Muslim League. But the fact is that the League will go into the elections with all the advantages usually enjoyed by a party already in ministerial power while the Congress will have to fight from scratch with all the disadvantages of a party that has been proscribed, its members imprisoned and its funds largely sequestrated. They might interpret the failure to invite them to reform provincial ministries as a first step to new elections as proof that we secretly sympathize with the Muslims and the idea of Pakistan and are still set on punishing Congress for non-co-operation in the war.’
Malcolm pushed the spectacles down his nose and looked at Rowan over the rims. ‘I advanced the same arguments myself but with more tactful allowance for the hostility they were bound to arouse. Unfortunately I couldn’t answer the logical and inevitable question.’
‘What question, sir?’
‘The question what I thought Mr Kasim’s response to such an invitation would be in the unlikely event of it being agreed I should extend one.’ He pushed the glasses back on. ‘How would you have answered that?’
‘I suppose by saying I’d find out the moment it was agreed I should try.’
‘That wouldn’t have been an answer. The question was, what do you think he would say? And the answer is that one simply doesn’t know. One has so little idea that one suspects he might decline as easily as accept and that he would decline because an invitation like that would force him to show his hand, and that he isn’t ready to do that yet. And if one is the least anxious, as I am, to see Mohammed Ali Kasim again heading a Congress ministry in Ranpur one is disinclined to do anything that will force him into a false position. So I am perfectly content to fall in with consensus opinion and let provinces under Governor’s rule remain so until after the elections. One doesn’t even know whether MAK will stand again, or for which party, or if he stands for his old constituency he now has a chance of holding it against the League. One knows absolutely nothing of his present intentions, let alone of his future prospects. One knows nothing about his attitude to his elder son, either.’
Malcolm took the glasses off, picked up his brandy and held it at eye-level as if examining the colour and clarity of the liquid. Then he drank it down.
‘And not knowing has become onerous. By the way, I’m losing you.’
‘What, sir?’
‘They’re taking you back into the Political Department. One of the Crown Rep’s people mentioned it and said I could tell yo
u. I won’t say I’m sorry because I know you’ll be pleased. I’ll miss you though. You’ll get instructions in about a week’s time.’
‘Did he say anything about where?’
‘No. You’ve done your probation so I should think they’ll put you in as assistant at one of the Residencies, wouldn’t you?’
‘So long as it isn’t Frontier Tribes.’
‘He asked how fit you honestly were now. So I said you were blooming. Are you? Young Thackeray seems to think you ought to have a spot of leave before you go. He was under the very odd impression that a few days in Pankot would have a therapeutic effect on your liver.’
‘Oh?’
‘But I suppose he only said that because he was afraid of being sent himself.’
‘Sent himself? To Pankot?’
‘Pankot’s where I’m told Mr Kasim is to be found in the next day or so. I want you to go up tonight, see him as soon as you can and give him the letter I’ve written. After that I want you to do whatever is necessary to persuade him to arrange the earliest possible private meeting with me, preferably here, but I shan’t absolutely insist. I’m sending V. R. Gopal with you. They’re rooting him out now. Don’t worry about the bandobast, it’s being coped with. All you have to do is pack and be ready by eleven-thirty. Is that all right?’
‘Of course, sir.’
‘Sorry it’s such short notice but I don’t want him slipping the net and turning up in Bombay or ’Pindi or Lahore or even back in Mirat before I’ve had a chance to talk to him.’
‘I take it you rule out exerting official pressure?’
‘To cause him to appear? Yes, I do.’
‘Is he expecting the letter?’
‘Possibly. I got Hunter-Evans to ring his house. His new secretary said he was resting because he was going up by car tonight.’
‘The car’s a new idea. Presumably the coffin still goes by train.’
‘Yes, I think Hunter-Evans said it did.’
‘And Mr Kasim wouldn’t come to the phone himself.’
‘He was resting.’
‘Perhaps he’ll ring back once he’s rested.’
‘Aren’t you keen to go?’
‘Perfectly keen, sir. I was just thinking of short-cuts. Obviously there aren’t any. How do I and Gopal travel?’
‘By train. They’re putting on the special coach so you should have every comfort. A car from Area Headquarters will meet you in Pankot and take you up to the Summer Residence guest house. All that’s laid on.’
‘What’s Gopal’s rôle exactly?’
‘Go-between. He and Kasim have always had a great respect for one another as you know. You’d better wear mufti incidentally.’
‘I take it I don’t hand the letter to anyone but MAK?’
‘Preferably not. I leave it to your discretion. If Kasim can’t or won’t see you then Gopal will have to give it to him. He’ll be involved with the funeral most of tomorrow, but get Gopal off to try and contact him directly you arrive. Gopal was an old friend of Mahsood’s too. He can melt into the background without arousing anyone’s curiosity. I shan’t provide you with a copy of the letter but you’ll have a separate sheet of notes for guidance which might help if MAK asks questions you feel you have to answer to get him to agree to a meeting.’
‘Will Gopal be as fully informed?’
‘No. My approach to Kasim is personal and in one way I may be sticking my neck out. It’s nothing to do with inviting him to form a ministry before the elections, though.’
Rowan looked at his watch.
Malcolm said, ‘You’d better go and get packed. I’ll send the letter and notes up. Ring down if there’s anything you want clarifying. And ring me from Pankot tomorrow night to say how things look.’
‘You’ll be rather busy tomorrow night, sir. You’ve got the reception and dinner for Chakravarti.’
‘So I have. And the foundation stone ceremony later in the week. You’d better take a copy of the days’ arrangements in case MAK asks you to suggest a time. I’ll try to fit in but I’d prefer not to cancel the Chakravarti ceremony.’
‘The stone-laying? Perhaps Mr Kasim would like to attend, sir.’
‘Which day is it?’
‘Friday, in the afternoon.’
‘Would Chakravarti be offended?’
‘Not so long as MAK doesn’t steal the scene. Chak’s been contributing heavily to secret party funds.’
‘And hedging his bets by contributing to the Hindu Mahasabha too, so they say. Perhaps the odd lakh finds its way to the Muslim League as well. After all he’s a business man with interests all over India. It’s a possibility. By all means suggest it. And ring me tomorrow night however late. If Kasim drives down from Pankot on Thursday, say, I could meet him here on the Friday morning.’
‘You have HH of Puttipur until mid-morning.’
‘But not for lunch?’
‘No, Hugh takes him to the airfield just before midday.’
‘Then Kasim and I could lunch here and go on to the ceremony at the college. Separately, naturally.’
‘Should I come back with him by car?’
‘No.’ Malcolm smiled. ‘Your job’s finished the moment he agrees to a time and place. He’ll keep his word. The special coach can be held up there until you ask for it to be coupled on. But let Gopal come back directly neither of you sees any further point in his staying. He can use the coach if you like. You can stay on and relax for a few days. I think you should, don’t you? Get some hill air into your lungs. Let’s say I shan’t expect to see you until a week today. By then instructions ought to be through from Simla or Delhi.’
‘That’s very good of you, sir.’
‘You’d better get a move on, then.’
Rowan stood up. Malcolm had never welcomed references to his wife’s frailty but he felt he couldn’t leave without saying something.
‘Thackeray tells me Lady Malcolm isn’t well, I’m very sorry.’
‘Yes. Thank you.’ He took off his spectacles again and put them down. ‘I’m sending Priscilla down.’ He stood up and, unexpectedly, came round the desk and put out his hand. Surprised, Rowan clasped it briefly.
‘I won’t actually say goodbye but I suppose there’s always a chance of our not coinciding again. One gets punted around like a bloody football in this job. Thank you for everything you’ve done, Nigel.’
‘Thank you, sir. It’s been a very happy and very useful experience.’
‘Good. I hope things pan out. Today’s rather one of those days when I can’t quite see how anything pans out for anybody. It was a real horror, I’m told.’
‘What?’
‘Hiroshima. Absolutely and inconceivably bloody awful.’
‘Unexpectedly so?’
‘We shan’t have the answer for quite a while. Someone said twenty years. That’s food for thought, isn’t it? And so is the idea that if a high-ranking Japanese delegation had been persuaded over to the States under a flag of truce to watch them test the thing, they’d have gone back and forced the Emperor to surrender then and there.’
‘As impressive as that?’
‘According to observers God knows how many miles away from the test area in the middle of the New Mexican desert. It leaves one with a rather humiliating sense of the essential parochialism of one’s own concerns.’
‘Yes. I suppose. I’d better go and get on with mine. Goodnight, sir.’
‘One thing before you go.’
Malcolm thrust his hands into his dressing-gown pockets.
‘I’ve always intended to say this when the time came. In my opinion you’re admirably suited for the job you’ve done and even more for the one you’re going to do. We have the same sort of views and much the same sort of way of expressing them to each other. We can gauge each other’s thoughts and feelings pretty accurately. But the Indians can’t, so easily. Sometimes not at all. I know it’s a wretchedly difficult thing and nothing’s worse than going to the opposite extreme, relaxing
and unbending so much that you don’t even convince yourself, let alone them.’
‘But you think I need to unbend more than I do, sir?’
‘It might help. The English manner is a formidable obstacle to mutual understanding between the races. As a young man of your age I used to believe precisely the opposite. But I was confusing mutual understanding with mutual respect and lack of understanding with lack of respect. Take young Thackeray.’
‘In what way?’
‘He’s an awfully kind-hearted boy. Full of fun. Splendid with visiting brass from Eastern Command or GHQ and with young Indian officers like Bunny Mehta. But put him with a handful of senior Indian civilians, any distinguished Indian who’s not in uniform, and he’s a different fellow. Actually he’s terrified of upsetting them or putting a foot wrong. But they don’t know that. They look at what to me and you is his rather touching but sometimes exasperating expression of boyish concentration and they interpret it as one of a fully mature sense of racial and class superiority. I don’t honestly think he feels that. But the English manner has never been much of a medium for communicating feeling. Sometimes I think that’s at the bottom of half our troubles. Wavell’s a good example. One of the sincerest and best disposed men who’s ever held that wretched post. But also one of the most silent and unbending and outwardly austere. It’s the English manner come to perfection. It won’t do. And the irony is, Nigel, that at home it’s been going out of fashion for years. Rather like one of those strains of indigenous plants that turns out to flower more profusely abroad and withers away in its home soil. Anyway. It’s worth bearing in mind.’
He began moving away from the desk to the centre of the room. Level with the sofa table he came to a halt.
‘One other thing. This girl in Pankot young Thackeray assured me would make a few days up there quite an attractive proposition for you. Miss Layton.’
‘Miss Layton. Yes.’
‘The same Miss Layton?’
Rowan nodded.
‘Have you heard from her recently?’
‘Actually we were on the phone this evening.’
‘Anything to do with a havildar of her father’s regiment who went over to Bose in Germany?’