January 1st, 1936

Government House, Bombay

Mood

The new year was rung in by the sound of champagne corks. The great and good had gathered at Government House to celebrate, from the civilian government to army officers in their smart uniforms to the exiled maharajahs resplendent in silk and jewels. Junior officers poured champagne and laughed as the music played, but the senior officers wore dour faces. The Viceroy, Rufus Isaacs, was not even buried and his death had done much to darken the otherwise festive mood.

In one of the side rooms, an informal meeting of the Provisional Government had convened around a map of the subcontinent. The smoke of pipes and cigarettes hung like a cloud above the map of India, presaging the storm to come. Baron Ismay had led the men into the meeting, and was joined by Lord Chetwode and a gaggle of army officers. Stroking his mustache was the Maharaja of Bikaner Sir Ganga Singh. Singh had served in the Imperial Army Staff in the Weltkrieg, and had been in the Hall of Mirrors when the Allies had surrendered. He had come to represent the exiled princes whose lands had been lost to the new Indian republic, including his own kingdom of Bikaner. The men put on their best faces, but few had any illusions about their situation. If they had, the map before them would have dissuaded them. What had once been the jewel in the Empire's crown had been reduced to a shadow of itself. To the north, the new Indian republic loomed like a colossus yet the ceasefire of 1925 had stayed its march south.

"Gentlemen," Ismay began, "our situation is somewhat grim. For a decade, we have had the benefit of peace. Our neighbor to the north has its own politics to deal with. If we are to move forward, we shall need a new viceroy. This was not something any man in the room did not know, yet the appointment was a source of unresolved tension. Whomever was chosen would set the tone for years to come.

Discussions continued late into the night.