Farewell in nineteen forty seven
This is how it all ended and started. Here's some incredible newsreel footage of the last British soldiers leaving India and the idea of a nation being born. Nationalism was a big thing in the 20th century. Even though I am aware of the propagandist nature of all newsreels, it still amazes me how congenial the final exchange must have been. There are a lot of post-mortem theories speculating that Britain left only because World War II had devastated the British Empire etc. but the magic of nineteen forty seven was that the British left as friends wishing India well and India wishing the last leaving soldiers a safe return back home. The magnanimity of this gesture is a testament to Gandhi and his non-violent movement.
Sure, they left us with the horror of partition and we still deal with the consequences, but even at that devastating moment in history, there was a sense of dignity in bidding farewell to a colonial imperialist power... with peace.
This film also gives us a fascinating glimpse into the birth of a young nation and the innocent hope of a better tomorrow. We've come a long way from naive innocence to a kleptocracy.
