Indian Summer?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />Alex Von TunzelmannHenry Holt, Aug 2007, $30.00ISBN: 9780805080735The aftermath of WW II reverberated around the globe at?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" />midnightonst1ate Month="8" Day="15" Year="1947">August 15, 1947/st1ate>, when theBritish Empirefor practical purposes ended.Although some colonies remained in the fold, the crown jewelIndiawas freed.Four hundred million people gained their liberty, but perhaps one million died in the ensuing fighting to carve out segments of the subcontinent and many more millions were exiled as ethnic cleansing took hold fromKashmirtoPakistantoIndiato the Sikh region.The key players on the world stage were English diplomat Louis Mountbatten, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Islamic League leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah and the ever presence of the mythical Mohandas Gandhi.Alex von Tunzelmann provides the epic picture, but uses that as background to enable readers to get inside and personal with those critical leaders who history books paint heroically, but the author places them under a microscope revealing their flaws as well as their more known strengths.Whereas Gandhi served as a moral example to emulate, he allowed no grays or compromise as the Moslems and Sikhs learn first hand.Whereas Jinnah helped create East andWest Pakistanas a viable but geographically split nation, he wanted nothing to do with the British or the Hindi so he also ignored the poverty of what would later become independentBangladesh.Mountbatten thought he was a great diplomat but his issues were flag designs while people died on the streets and his much more capable spouse had a tryst with Nehru, Ghandi's son-in-law and moral heir apparent.Historical readers will enjoy this deep look at "The Secret History of the End of an Empire" as those placed on pedestals find their statues somewhat crumbling under Ms. Von Tunzelmann's somewhat titillating review.Harriet Klausner