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| Pamela Mountbatten sets the record straight | | 'Nothing physical' between Edwina and Nehru | |
BL KAK
NEW DELHI, JULY 17: Reiterating that Edwina, wife of Lord Mountbatten, was in deep love with Jawaharlal Nehru, Pamela Mountbatten sets the record straight by emphasizing that speculation that there was any kind of physical relationship between the two was misplaced. Speaking exclusively to well-known Indian commentator, Karan Thapar on behalf of CNN-IBN, Lady Pamela said that there was 'nothing physical between her mother and Pandit Nehru'.
In her book, Lady Pamela says that "towards the end of the 15 months we wpent in India, the immediate attraction between my mother and Panditji (Jawaharlal Nehru) blossomed into love". And when she was asked what did she mean by 'love', Pamela was quoted as saying: " I mean a very deep love, the kind of love that the knights of old...esoteric love really, nowadays everybody assumes that it has to be a carnal love, but you can just have as deep and emotional love with two like souls in a way, people who really grow to understand each other, and be able to listen to each other and to complement each other and find solace in each other".
Karan Thapar's another question to Pamela Mountbatten: In you book you write with incredible candour - " my mother had already had lovers, my father was inured to it." But then you add - " the relationship with Nehru remained platonic. Can you be really sure of that? Pamela's reply: " I would say yes, because anyway, Nehru was a very honourable man, who liked my father - there was great affection between the two. And it was nearly always in my father's houses - either in England or in India that they were together and I think he would have never dishonoured his freind's...
Pamela Moujntbatten added: "My mother was so happy with Jawaharlal, she knew that she was helping him at a time when it's lonely at the pinnacle of power, it really is, and if she could help, and my father knew that it helped her, because a woman can after a long marriage feel frustrated and perhaps neglected if somebody's working terribly hard. And so if a new affection comes into her life, a new admiration, she blossoms and she is happy".
Did Pamela want to suggest that Jawaharlal Nehru and her mother, Edwina, needed each other? Pamela Mountbatten reply ran thus: "I think they did, and my father understood that need, and of course it made my mother - who could be quite difficult at times, as many extraordinary women can be - happy. And yet this time when she was so happy with everybody you know, it was lovely to be with her, when there were no prickles".
Equally significant point raised by Karan Thapar during his conversation with Pamela Mountbatten: "You say that the Edwina-Nehru relationship was also of use to your father as Viceroy, that he often appealed to Panditji through the influence your mother had, and that this was particularly useful in handling tricky situations like Kashmir". Pamela's reply: "That is true and he did use her like that, but he certainly wasn't going to throw her. He didn't say to her 'go and become the Prime Minister's lover because I need you to intercede.' It was a by-product of this deep relationship...
Stating that many people in India believe that, in fact, the decision that Jawaharlal Nehru took to refer Kashmir to the United Nations, was taken under Lord Mountbatten's advice, Karan Thapar asked Lady Pamela if that could have been an area where her mother's influence could have been particularly useful. Lady Pamela was quoted as saying: "I think it could have been, because Panditji being a Kashmiri of course - you know inevitably the emotional side comes in from one's own country, doesn't it? And my father just in dry conversation mightn't have been able to to get his viewpoint over. But with my mother translating it for Panditji, and you know appealing to his heart more than his mind, that he should really behave like this - I think probably that did happen".
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