Nikhil Advani’s stunningly created Partition drama Freedom at Midnight goes really hard at fleshing out Gandhi, Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, and Muhammad Jinnah while telling a story that is known to everyone—at least in broad strokes. From beginning to end, the series manages to hold its audience. It is, of course, adapted from the very controversial book of the same name, by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. Some of you might find Freedom at Midnight‘s ending a bit abrupt. In this article, we’re going to look into that and also discuss a bit about the possibility of this show getting another season.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens in the Series?
The amount of urgency Freedom at Midnight shows is admirable. Without wasting a second, it places us in the middle of the conflict. In a rain-soaked Calcutta, Mahatma Gandhi promises his followers that India is going to stay united, no matter what a certain Muhammad Jinnah demands. That is followed by an all-important cabinet meeting at Shimla, called by then Viceroy Archibald Wavell. The meeting is attended by INC leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, along with their president Maulana Azad, as well as the leader of the Muslim League, Muhammad Jinnah. It is quite evident that the British are planning to leave India, and they plan to hand control of the subcontinent over to the Indians. INC is obviously the party with the majority of the votes and the first in line to form the new government. But there’s one huge problem. Jinnah wants to divide India and form Pakistan as an independent country where the Muslims are a majority. The INC leaders are not on board with the idea, so the meeting is ultimately fruitless. The rest of Freedom at Midnight is primarily about how Jinnah constantly keeps plotting and planning to get what he wants, and the Congress leaders try their best to counter him.
What Does Jinnah Do?
Freedom at Midnight doesn’t shy away from taking a side and showing Jinnah in a villainous light. Not that there’s anything wrong with it given Jinnah is known for his religious politics and often regarded as the man without whom Pakistan probably wouldn’t have existed and India would have remained a united nation. He is probably also the man who is most responsible for the eternal conflict between the two religions—Hindu and Muslim—which is still affecting this democracy. Not that I am saying Jinnah is the one who invented it, but he did put fuel to the fire, as we get to see in the show.
Former prime minister of Bengal Suhrawardy shared the same religious sentiment of Jinnah, and Freedom at Midnight does go on to extensively show the riots at Kolkata, which were a brainchild of his. Jinnah, as we see, actively refuses to take responsibility for what happened, but in private company, the man appears to be more than happy for what the ‘Butcher of Bengal’ (that’s what Suhrawardy is known as now) has done. In a flashback, we see Jinnah proposing the INC form a government with the Muslim League back in 1937, and the proposal getting thwarted by Congress. Instead, they offer to let him rejoin, which Jinnah obviously refuses. Throughout the narrative of Freedom at Midnight, we get to see fragments of what really happened between Jinnah and Congress and how the man ultimately turned so bitter and started plotting against his own country. My apologies if I sound a bit biased, but the show has made its stance pretty clear.
When Viceroy Wavell comes up with the idea of inviting Jinnah to join the government, Nehru is not at all happy with it. But upon Vallabhbhai’s suggestion, he still goes to see Jinnah at his residence and table the offer. Jinnah and Nehru have a verbal altercation, and the former ends up rejecting it, which is exactly what Vallabhbhai wanted. However, Jinnah quickly changes his mind and accepts the offer after realizing it works in his favor only. But instead of himself, he puts Liaquat Ali Khan forward, who gets to be the finance minister and eventually troubles Congress a lot—exactly what Jinnah wanted. All this while, Jinnah is battling tuberculosis without anyone knowing (other than his sister, Fatima), but clearly, Pakistan seems to be more important to the man than his own health. Meanwhile, Bengal sees another horror when riots break out in Noakhali (now a part of Bangladesh) between the Muslims and Hindus. Gandhi decides to go there and take control of the situation in a non-violent manner, while Nehru, Vallabhbhai, and others stay at the INC headquarters to decide their next move.
Dickie, Edwina, and Jawah
They are, of course, Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was the last Viceroy of India; his wife, Lady Edwina Mountbatten, aka the Vicereine; and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India. By now it is common knowledge that Nehru shared a very close friendship with the Mountbattens. There are also stories about him having a platonic relationship with Edwina and her husband being aware of it. Of course, Louis Mountbatten admired Jawaharlal Nehru so much and always valued his opinion.
After Viceroy Wavell fails to contain the situation in India, British prime minister Clement Atlee sends Mountbatten to the battleground. Initially skeptical, given that becoming the Viceroy of India was never his aspiration, Mountbatten ends up accepting the position when Atlee convinces him that it will eventually propel his political career. Mountbatten being a close relative to the royal family also helps here. Upon setting foot in India, Louis and Edwina decide to win over the people in order to make their exit as peaceful as possible. Be it Nehru or Jinnah, Mountbatten greets everyone graciously and tries to find a solution to the ever-growing problem. More riots have broken out all over India by now, with Punjab and Bengal being reduced to two powder kegs given the two states’ Muslim populations.
The Punjab Problem
Bengal might have come under Jinnah’s grip thanks to Suhrawardy, but Punjab appears to be a tough cookie for him to crack. With Congress ruling the state and chief minister Tiwana being a strong supporter of Gandhi’s ideology, Jinnah finds it further difficult as he’s unable to get the man to fold. So he resorts to the two things through which he has achieved so much: violence and hatred. The Muslim League successfully riles up the Muslim population of Punjab, who create a ruckus good enough for Tiwana to quit.
But that doesn’t entirely solve Jinnah’s problem, as he fails to convince the Akali Dal, who are big in Punjab (and also the third most important player in the Indian political landscape), to join him in Pakistani Punjab. The Sikh majority party rejects the idea of becoming a minority in Pakistan, as they would rather remain the same in India. It also makes sense considering India is set to be a secular democracy, and the proposed Pakistan is going to be an Islamic republic. Of course, the Muslim League and their supporters continue to commit barbaric acts all over Punjab. It reaches the point where Lord and Lady Mountbatten decide to visit the state and take a look at it all by themselves.
Gandhi, meanwhile, visits the Mountbattens at their residence and comes up with the outlandish idea of offering Jinnah the post of prime minister of India. Mountbatten promises to do so only if Gandhi makes sure that both Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel are on board with it. However, upon seeing the horrors of Punjab, the viceroy decides to change his mind. On the other hand, Gandhi also fails to convince both Vallabhbhai and Nehru, two of his most essential people, to give the prime minister post to Jinnah. Both Vallabhbhai and Nehru tell Gandhi that they would rather accept Jinnah getting his Pakistan, as long as he doesn’t bother India again. The more this story moves ahead, the more partition seems inevitable.
Mountbatten’s faulty plan
The clock keeps ticking as the Viceroy needs to come up with a proper transfer of power plan that he plans to reveal to all the major party leaders on May 17, 1947. Suhrawardy suddenly comes to see the Viceroy and floats the idea of an independent Bengal. That obviously makes him a traitor to the Muslim League, but Jinnah still doesn’t seem to mind as long as his own demands for Pakistan are getting fulfilled. Despite his chief advisor V.P. Menon advising him against even considering it, Mountbatten decides to go ahead with the plan. Keeping Menon on the sidelines, he drafts the plan with General Hastings and Sir Radcliffe, two of his trusted allies. The plan they come up with is India divided in three ways: India, Pakistan, Bengal. Each princely states and the feudal lords get to choose which way they want to swing. By the time Menon voices his objection, Mountbatten has already sent to Britain and taken the all-important approval.
However, when he breaks the plan in advance to his close friend Jawah while holidaying in Shimla (something that worries Jinnah), Nehru is expectedly fuming at him and threatens to leave. Edwina convinces him to stay, and Mountbatten finally comes to the conclusion that the plan has many flaws and might prove to be fatal. So he has no other choice but to ask Menon to draw up another plan, hopefully a better one, and take it to Britain, this time by himself. Needless to say, the cabinet meeting was postponed to the 2nd of June, 1947, which worried the whole nation and every party whose fate is associated with it. The INC, of course, has the upper hand, given they are already aware of what’s going on thanks to Nehru and also Menon, who turns out to be an ethical spy for Vallabhbhai Patel.
Is Gandhi able to stop the Partition?
If there’s one man who has always stood against the idea of India’s partition and never changed his stance no matter what, then that has to be Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. In a flashback that dates back to 1915, we see Jinnah, then an esteemed member of the Congress party, introducing Gandhi at Bombay Gujarat Sabha. With his rousing speech about how the people of India should embrace their Indianness instead of trying to walk and talk like the British (which a suited-booted Jinnah takes as a dig). Gandhi further inspires the nation, irrespective of religion, with his idea of non-cooperation with the British and demanding full independence (Purna Swaraj). The Congress party and most of its major leaders—Sarojini Naidu, Chittaranjan Das, and Motilal Nehru—decide to follow in Gandhi’s footsteps, but Jinnah seems to hate the idea. He also doesn’t approve of mixing politics and religion and ends up leaving the Congress. From that point, Jinnah always stood on the opposite side of the fence and opposed Gandhi.
In the present day (by which I mean the year 1947), Jinnah appears to be getting what he always wanted, and Gandhi’s dream of having an independent unified India is on the verge of being shattered. What is even more heartbreaking for the man are two of his biggest pillars of strength, Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel, giving up on India as a united nation and seeming to agree with the Partition. The show does make us see things from their side as well, and why they have no choice but to accept things as they are. Gandhi is genuinely hurt and decides to go reclusive on his party. As per Mountbatten’s revised plan, Jinnah gets his Pakistan, which includes a portion of Punjab and a portion of Bengal where the Muslims are the majority. The moment the news of Partition breaks, riots start to break out. Even Maulana Azad’s house is attacked because of his religion. The show doesn’t go further showing us the horror that followed, and chooses to draw the curtain there, with the striking image of people putting posters claiming Gandhi didn’t fulfill his promise on the walls.
Will there be another season?
Even though the original book concludes with Gandhi’s assassination (by Nathuram Godse), I don’t think Freedom at Midnight should get another season. In my humble opinion, the show has already told the story it was set to, and any more of it will be like stretching a rubber band. If it still happens though, we will be seeing Nehru in his prime ministerial role, how the newly formed Indian government is working, and Gandhi’s final days before the tragedy. I’m not sure if that’s enough content to do a whole season, but ultimately it’s up to Nikhil Advani and Sony Liv.
