With the appointment of Lord Mountbatten of Burma as the last viceroy of British India, the end of British rule in India began. The British started loosening ties with India and retreating from the Indian colony. The last years of British Raj were the most crucial as they gave birth to a new independent country, Pakistan. This book covers the events that occured during the achievement of independence by Indians at the cost of partition of their own land. The violence that entailed between Hindus and Muslims was an outcome of the seed of divide sown by the British rulers. The princely states underwent major shocks as did the common people in the face of extreme resentment between religious communities and chaos. Jawaharlal Nehru, a British-educated leader was at the helm of affairs, Muhammad Ali Jinnah demanded a separate land for people of his religion and Mahatma Gandhi was following his own path of non-violence to achieve certain means. With vivid descriptions of the bloodshed that was witnessed during the India Pakistan partition and accounts of the horrid state of affairs during the years 1947 and 1948, 'Freedom at Midnight' is considered to be one of the most honest narratives of the tale of Indian independence.
