gattaca Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 'At the stroke of the midnight hour when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.' Those powerful words, memorable to everyone who loves India, were uttered by the father of the modern nation, Jawaharlal Nehru, when the country became independent more than 60 years ago. Behind this famous 'tryst with destiny' speech lay a deeply personal fight to escape the domination of the British Raj, a struggle all the more meaningful because of Nehru's private life. For the handsome widower had formed a more than usually deep bond with, of all people, the beautiful wife of the chief representative of the occupying power, Edwina, Lady Mountbatten. If you came across their romance in a novel, you would dismiss it instantly as fiction. But the fact is the couple shared an extraordinary love. Their deep attachment lasted from the moment they met in 1947 in New Delhi until the day Edwina died 13 years later. It was such a meaningful relationship that even Lord Mountbatten himself found it best to turn a blind eye. Perhaps he even encouraged it, so that he could benefit from any insight into the Indian mind that his wife could pass him at this pivotal time in their history. This fascinating personal intrigue was to have been the basis of a new film, Indian Summer, starring Hugh Grant and Cate Blanchett as Lord and Lady Mountbatten. As for the handsome Nehru, rumour has it he was to be played by Irrfan Khan, star of the hugely successful Slumdog Millionaire. 'Dickie was devoted to Edwina, but awkward in bed' But so concerned are the Indian government to protect their favourite statesman's reputation that, after nine months of costly pre-production in Delhi, filming has been dramatically ordered to cease. Indian politicians have demanded to see the script to know just how explicitly the relationship will be portrayed. Hitherto, those who know the truth about the relationship between Nehru and Lady Mountbatten (including Mountbatten's two daughters) have always insisted the couple never consummated their great love, and that it was more spiritual than physical. But what is the real story? Certainly, there are aspects of Lady Mountbatten's early life that will shock India's ruling elite, who even today do not allow their Bollywood stars to kiss on screen. The spoiled favourite granddaughter of a Jewish financier close to the royals, Edwina Ashley was the richest and most glamorous deb of her time. In 1922, she married the handsome, though impoverished, 21-year- old Lord Louis Mountbatten. Known in the family as 'Dickie', he is nowadays best remembered as Prince Charles's great-uncle and mentor, tragically killed by an IRA bomb in 1979. Ostensibly it was the perfect match, but the sexually inexperienced couple had little in common. After a fumbling honeymoon, some of it spent in Hollywood, Mountbatten resumed his career as a naval officer. Meanwhile, the stylish Edwina, described as one of the six best- dressed women in the world, shopped at Chanel, played bridge, and danced the Charleston until 3am, sometimes with Fred Astaire. At weekends, their country home was full of guests (including the Prince of Wales) arriving in fast cars and even aeroplanes. Vain, charming and boyish, Dickie was devoted to Edwina, but still awkward in bed. He famously named her breasts Mutt and Jeff - the nicknames that World War I soldiers gave their campaign medals. To him, sex was unromantic, 'a mixture of psychology and hydraulics'. There were also mutterings that he preferred men. Things went downhill after their daughter Patricia was born in 1924. While Mountbatten doted on the new arrival, the passionate Edwina was pathologically jealous of her own child being the centre of attention. 'A divine little daughter. Too thrilling, too sweet,' she trilled to her diary - but then packed the baby off to nannies on the South Coast. The highly sexed Edwina then proceeded to look for lovers from all walks of life. Nehru, like both Mountbattens, had bisexual tendencies Her first was the aristocratic Lord Molyneux. He was followed by a rich, polo-playing American, Laddie Sandford, and then by Mike Wardell, the good-looking manager of a London evening newspaper. At times, she juggled all three at once. 'Lord Molyneux is in the morning-room and Mr Sandford in the library, but where should I put the other gentleman?' asked a desperate flunkey when they happened to visit together. While her husband was posted to Malta in the early Thirties, she turned to American golf champion Bobby Sweeny. Next came playboy Larry Gray, before she went on a Mexican cruise and jumped into bed with the elder of two Californian brothers, Ted Phillips, quickly followed by his sibling Bunny. This serial sexual gallivanting went on until the birth of her second daughter Pamela in 1929. By now, Mountbatten, too, was seeking other women. In 1931, he was flirting with the 18-year-old future Duchess of Argyll and even kept her photo in his cabin. 'The only photo of any girl!' he wrote to her. Later, there was Barbara Cartland and the Frenchwoman Yola Letellier, on whom Colette based her novel Gigi. Edwina was fiercely jealous, but she didn't think to change her own habits. Throughout the Thirties, she had dozens of admirers, known in the private slang of the Mountbatten circle as 'ginks'. As Mountbatten himself once put it: 'Edwina and I spent all our married lives getting into other people's beds.' She even dallied with conductor Malcolm Sargent, and then embarked on her most adventurous affair to date, with the bisexual West Indian cabaret pianist Leslie Hutchinson. Although Edwina successfully sued a newspaper for saying she had a black lover, there is not much doubt she conducted an on-off relationship with 'Hutch' for 30 years. She famously gave him a gold bracelet bearing her name, a gold cigarette case and, conclusively perhaps, a jewelled penis sheath from Cartier. This sexual track record seems like an unlikely apprenticeship for a woman to become the great love of the socialist founder of modern India. But Edwina, the social butterfly, also had a strong streak of idealism. Never one for empty titles, she seems to have climbed in and out of bed looking for a cause. With the onset of World War II, her tireless work in the bombed- out East End was followed by a spell in South-East Asia repatriating British refugees from prison camps and hospitals. Not for nothing did the blood of her great-great-grandfather, the distinguished 19th-century reformer Lord Shaftesbury, run in her veins. Mountbatten's war service culminated, of course, in the recapture of Burma from the Japanese. Beside her bed was a collection of his letters Indeed, both had such a successful war that in 1947 they were posted by the new Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee to Delhi, as the last Viceroy and Vicereine of India to facilitate the smooth transition of power to Nehru, the country's nationalist leader. While the young Edwina had been playing the field, the patrician Nehru had been working hard for his country. Born in 1889, son of a leading lawyer, he came from a rich and influential family with distinctly Anglicised tastes in clothes and culture. The boys were educated in England and the girls had English governesses who gave the children English names. Jawaharlal became 'Joe', his sisters 'Nan' and 'Betty'. After Harrow and Cambridge, Jawaharlal was called to the Bar in London, but he soon returned to India. In 1916, he had married the high-born Kamala, riding to his Maharajah-style wedding in Delhi on a white horse. But he had already come under the spell of the charismatic Gandhi, at the time a failed lawyer who, having been shabbily treated in British-owned South Africa, returned to his own country fired up against social injustice and determined to free it from foreign domination. Nehru sympathised with Gandhi's non-violent philosophy. At home, meanwhile, his frail wife started her own radical crusade to improve women's rights. Interestingly, the Nehru marriage somewhat mirrored that of the Mountbattens. In her 30s Kamala developed into an irresistibly attractive woman who was always surrounded by infatuated young men, including Feroze Gandhi (no relation to the Mahatma), the future husband of her daughter, Indira, who would of course later became the country's fiery leader. Many people are convinced Kamala and Feroze conducted a long and satisfying affair. However, Kamala died at a young age of tuberculosis in 1936. And though Nehru had also had affairs, he never remarried. His only love now was his country - until he met Edwina Mountbatten. It wasn't Edwina's first visit to India - she had engineered an invitation to the Viceregal Lodge before her marriage in hot pursuit of Mountbatten, who was also staying there. Neither was it the first time she had met Nehru. She and Dickie had warmed to the man, whose aquiline features resembled Mountbatten's own, in Singapore in 1946. Its a big article don't want to bore you. If you are intrested read below. So this how india and pakistan was formed. We have this nehru guy picture in my school when I was studying does he really deserve to be there. source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1216186/The-shocking-love-triangle-Lord-Mountbatten-wife-founder-modern-India.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adi B Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 its known,read about this few years back..chacha was thadki tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gattaca Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 But idiots still support the Gandhi family like they are divine. Nehru is like this and we all know abt indira gandhi and rajiv and sonia as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moniker Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 ^Nehru is like what? He could've had consensual sex with whoever he wanted, who are you to decide? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Outsider Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 ^ Modi fanboyzz are jealous because Modi does not get any action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maniac Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 ^ Modi fanboyzz are jealous because Modi does not get any action. We are happy that he doesn't have Herpes like a certain uncle with the jacket :giggle: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachin=GOD Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 ^ Modi fanboyzz are jealous because Modi does not get any action. he does have a wife but doesn't live with her. In fact he has maintained no relations with her yet has his people watching her so she doesn't talk to the media etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desi Cartman Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 How the feck govt gets to decide what movie someone can make ? Freedom sirf naam ki hai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gattaca Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 ^Nehru is like what? He could've had consensual sex with whoever he wanted' date=' who are you to decide?[/quote'] He was the prime minister and if he sleeps around then their is no possibility of his decisions being influenced ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gattaca Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 We are happy that he doesn't have Herpes like a certain uncle with the jacket :giggle: Think Nehru died of syphilis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muloghonto Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 He was the prime minister and if he sleeps around then their is no possibility of his decisions being influenced ? Totally depends on personality. Some guys will do anything to get into another woman's pants. Some guys will bed them and then ignore them. If sleeping with a politician was such a surefire way of garanteeing influence then every single lawmaker in the world would be chased by a dozen girls paid by the lobby groups.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beetle Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Have you read about the original Gandhi sleeping with young girls to test his celibacy? It borders on abuse of power and influence ....sick!! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1264952/A-new-book-reveals-Gandhi-tortured-young-women-worshipped-shared-bed.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FischerTal Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Have you read about the original Gandhi sleeping with young girls to test his celibacy? It borders on abuse of power and influence ....sick!! :agree: and people still treat him as the "mahatma" :(( sardar patel should have been given father of country title, or netaji Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muloghonto Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Have you read about the original Gandhi sleeping with young girls to test his celibacy? It borders on abuse of power and influence ....sick!! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1264952/A-new-book-reveals-Gandhi-tortured-young-women-worshipped-shared-bed.html Well if he was sexually gratifying himself (which IMO is a possibility but against body of evidence, so i dont buy it) then it would be sick I suppose. If it was his whole 'temptation is right in front of you but you must resist to build character', it would come across as strange to us but is no different than some of the more draconian celibacy orders in history. My only problem with Gandhi is this: he got old and more interested in his cult of personna and being a 'guru/mahatma to millions of followers' than an independence leader. He pretty much relinquished major politics to Nehru by 1940 and only figured in talks to lend them credibility as a figurehead more so than a party interested in persuing his/her political agenda. Had India been autonomous after WWI, which is really what everyone in INC was hoping for (swaraj), we'd probably see Gandhi in a very different light than we do today- which is a remarkable politician who near the culmination of his life's ambition got bored with it and persued his own cultish stardom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tendulkar Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Old news on nehru and mountbattens wife. Very old news! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tendulkar Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Have you read about the original Gandhi sleeping with young girls to test his celibacy? It borders on abuse of power and influence ....sick!! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1264952/A-new-book-reveals-Gandhi-tortured-young-women-worshipped-shared-bed.html Still a great man for india and was fantastic politician with good ideas and values. BUT NOT A SAINT!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beetle Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 >>>http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/gandtantric.htm I don't believe in the vilification of the dead but there is so much out there that it just doesn't appear to be hearsay. It is just too disturbing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muloghonto Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 :agree: and people still treat him as the "mahatma" :(( sardar patel should have been given father of country title, or netaji Sardar Patel. Netaji is a great character but his contributions towards independence are indirect. Definitely more indirect than Gandhi or Patel's contributions. Netaji was pretty much the most eligible bachelor in town- the man who clearly was the best candidate to lead INC but never got a fair shake. Then he spent the rest of his years fighting extreme odds which prevented any actual decisive contribution towards independence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FischerTal Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Sardar Patel. Netaji is a great character but his contributions towards independence are indirect. Definitely more indirect than Gandhi or Patel's contributions. Netaji was pretty much the most eligible bachelor in town- the man who clearly was the best candidate to lead INC but never got a fair shake. Then he spent the rest of his years fighting extreme odds which prevented any actual decisive contribution towards independence. i agree that netaji was fighting a lost cause with the INA, but never given the respect he deserved, just like Sardar Patel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beetle Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Still a great man for india and was fantastic politician with good ideas and values. BUT NOT A SAINT!!! Fantastic politician I agree...but good ideas and values .....I disagree. In this age and if all fact were out ...he would be labeled a hypocrite,pervert ,pedophile,abuser of power and influence. He was lucky to live in times when leaders could get away because only selective information was available to the people . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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