On the Bench continues....

The parties to the arbitration asked me to help Daya Krishan in the knotty problem of dividing the estate. This was done to the satisfaction of all concerened. R. B. Gopal Dass, the eldest son of the late Rai Bahadur, wrote to me on 3rd of July, I946. “It is with genuine feelings of everlasting gratitude and thankfulness that I write this letter to you. Every member of our family and all our friends and well-wishers are deeply obliged to you for your untiring efforts to resolve the muddle and to settle the complicated affairs of our family, thereby saving us all from endless litigation which would have cost us very dear indeed. It was through your unfailing tact, your limitless store of wisdom, your patience and perseverance, and your interest in the family, that the arbitration has been successfully accomplished. "









CHAPTER 14
BIRTH-PANGS OF NEW INDIA


THE YEAR 1947 opened a new chapter in the history of India. It was during this year that India attained independence. Why the Britishers left when they did has remained a mystery to me. Some say that the British left India voluntarily and handed over the administration of the country to the Congress at their own initiative true to their democratic ideas. Others have taken the view that they left because they found it unsafe and unprofitable to remain any longer owing to the strong feeling of patriotism that had developed in the country under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. There are still others who hold the view that the British left because they discovered they could no longer rely on the Indian armed forces as indicated by the R. I. N. mutiny. Be that as it may it redounds to the credit of the British statesmen that they left the country and handed over the administration of a sub-continent which they had been exploiting for over a hundred years, in a very graceful manner. Another instance of abdication of power in this manner is unknown to history.


to be continued....