ARCHIBALD WAVELL, Britain’s Viceroy in India (1943-47), was vastly superior to his wooden-headed predecessors, Linlithgow and Willingdon, and more upright than his flamboyant successor, Mountbatten. In this, he resembled Irwin and had the same commitment to India’s Independence. Though not as erudite as Curzon, he was a cerebral and literate man and won universal respect for his humility. He was a soldier who loved poetry.

Wavell was sacked unceremoniously by Prime Minister Clement Attlee in February 1947. At one of his farewell staff parties, he told his guests that his fate reminded him of King Nebuchadnezzar, who was dismissed by an angel of the Lord – “w

The exiled monarch now put out to grass,/With patient oxen, and the humble ass,/Said as he champed the unaccustomed food,/‘It may be wholesome, but it is not good.’

Wavell was president of the Poetry Society, the Kipling Society, the Royal Society of Literature and the Browning Society and corresponded with T.S. Eliot. On one occasion he stood as drama critic of The Spectator. His anthology Other Men’s Flowers was much appreciated.

An article for The Geographical Magazine entitled “Poetry of Place” was a small anthology of its own, describing places that Wavell knew or would like to have visited and the sonorous poems that inspired him to think of

So long as Tara Devi sees/The lights of Simla Town/So long as pleasure calls us up/Or Duty drives us down.

THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY

Wavell was more upright than his flamboyant successor, Mountbatten (right).

It was his fate to fall foul of two Prime Ministers, Winston Churchill and Attlee. It was also his fate to deal with the squabbling politicians of the Congress and the Muslim League.

To him goes the credit for standing by the Cabinet Mission’s Plan, the last chance for preserving India’s unity. He despised Stafford Cripps for his dishonest jugglery with the Rules of Procedure of the Constituent Assembly to appease the Congress. The Muslim League withdrew its acceptance of the Plan.

It collapsed because despite Cripps’ overture, the Congress would not accept it, either. Wavell prepared a “Breakdown Plan” for British withdrawal from India. It cost him the viceroyalty.

Most of the book covers Wavell’s record in service as a soldier. He also served as commander-in-chief in India. The record of his parleys with Indian leaders from June 1945 until the end of 1946 will particularly interest students of that period. The record as a soldier explains, however, why he played a straight bat in India. Rajaji and Maulana Azad admired him greatly. Wavell was “adamantly opposed to the formation of Pakistan”. But that did not cut much ice with the Congress.

He was, by temperament, a man whom it was easy to misunderstand – taciturn and too straight by half. It is only fair to add that towards the end he was completely out of his depth. He had to go. This able biography helps us to get a good measure of the man.