But for Mountbatten, it could have been June 1948!

New Delhi, July 17 (UNI) India was to get its freedom someday in June 1948, but Lord Mountbatten tinkered with the country's 'tryst with destiny', announcing at a press conference that the all-important date would be August 15, 1947, a full ten months ahead of the deadline.

Lord Mountbatten became Viceroy on March 23, 1947 with the British government setting June 1948 as date for the transfer of power.

''It soon became a very short time for so much to be resolved. In fact, it soon became clear that it must become much sooner,'' says a book, 'India Remembered', written by Pamela Mountbatten, daughter of Lord Mountbatten.

The book also discloses that her father was extremely reluctant to become the Viceroy of India.

''...it is no secret that my father did not want the job of Viceroy. The command to divest England of the last jewel in the Empire, garnered under his great grandmother, was not an easy one to accept,'' writes Pamela.

At the start of June (1947), after the announcement that the plan for Partition had been accepted, ''there was an enormous press conference and in answer to the all-important question, my father replied that the Transfer of Power would take place on the 15th August 1947.'' This would be ten months earlier than the original deadline but it was necessary if there was any hope of avoiding civil war, says the book.

About the reluctance of her father to become India's Viceroy, she writes that he also knew that it could mean the ruin of what had so far been a glorious career, for India was wracked with political troubles and many before him had failed to forge a straight path towards independence.

The deadline of June 1948 had been set but there was no clear idea as to how to meet that date successfully.

''My father therefore made his feelings of reluctance known and also threw in some strong provisos, including the use of his old aircraft, a York, which he had used in South East Asia.'' Lord Mountbatten also requested a commitment from the Board of Admiralty that he might return to the Navy when the job was over and, most important of all, what were virtually plenipotentiary powers.

Finally, it appeared as though the Prime Minister and the Cabinet might accept all these demands, he went to the King.

'Bertie', he said, ''they will be sending me out to do an almost impossible job. Think how badly it will reflect on the family if I fail.' But the King replied, ''Think how well it will reflect on the family if you succeed,'' and told him he must go.

According to Pamela, the family was at that time not even aware that Nehru had himself put 'my father's name forward as a potential candidate' in his meetings with Sir Stafford Cripps during the Cripps Mission of 1946 when the British Government had become committed to a policy of complete independence for India.

''Lord Wavell, the current Viceroy, was a good man and well respected, but he was not held in affection, nor in confidence. He was also hamstrung by the government in not being allowed to talk to Gandhi, around whom so much revolved,'' says the book, predominantly based on her diary jottings during her stay in India.

''(Prime Minister) Atlee realised that a new man, a different personality, was required - and that man should be my father,'' writes Pamela.

He had, in fact, been proposed earlier by Leo Amery in 1942, and in 1945 he had written to Edwina to tell her, ''You would make the world's ideal Vicerine.' In 1946, Krishna Menon had also put his name forward as a Viceroy acceptable to Congress and Atlee perceived him as 'an extremely lively, exciting personality.' He had 'an extraordinary faculty for getting on with all kinds of people,' and was also 'blessed with a very unusual wife.' Finally, 'a popular hero, a liberal, and perhaps best of all, the 'King-Emperor's cousin' was dispatched to India to oversee the granting of independence no later than June 1948.

Mountbatten made it August 15, 1947.

UNI