Seal of freedom

I was perhaps the last Indian to use the Great Seal of the Secretary of State for India in Whitehall. In fact, I am certain I was the last since I operated the seal at 5 pm on Thursday, August 14, 1947, a day before Independence day, after which there was no secretary of state for India. I was a student in London at the time and also doubled as a journalist, writing occasionally for an Indian paper back home. Some of us were invited to tea by Lord Listowell, who was deputy to the Secretary of State for India on August 14, that is, independence day eve, and the tea was to be held in the India Office. India Office, the place from which Britain governed its empire in India for years, was a gloomy old bui

This article was originally published on December 04, 2021.