Opinion of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma

[You kip if you want to...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Mountbatten,_1st_Earl_Mountbatten_of_Burma

HP.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Mixed. He didn't deserve to be blown up, thats for sure. Lean FF perhaps.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Lean HP

[Oakvale]

Very much a HP.

[ingemann]

I don't see the big argument to declare him either, at least not from the wiki article. He seem more like a 19th century stateman than a 20th. But that seem a small reason to declare him a horrible person.

[Simfan34]

Strong FF.



Look at that throne! I bet they had to pry him out of it.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Strong FF.



Look at that throne! I bet they had to pry him out of it.

Assuming that is the throne of the Viceroy of India, he probably couldn't get out of it soon enough.  He was a horrible Viceroy and if I were judging him on just that I would have called him a Max HP rather than a Lean HP.

[RogueBeaver]

FF for WWII, mega-HP in India.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Lean HP; certainly didn't deserve his fate.

[Simfan34]

Strong FF.



Look at that throne! I bet they had to pry him out of it.

Assuming that is the throne of the Viceroy of India, he probably couldn't get out of it soon enough.  He was a horrible Viceroy and if I were judging him on just that I would have called him a Max HP rather than a Lean HP.

I'm being facetious. While Mountbatten was said to revel in the viceregalty's imperial trappings- and sitting enrobed in the throne like that, who wouldn't? I'd probably send a telegram to London saying "you don't want India? Well I do, and I'm not getting out of this chair!" With New Delhi, the Viceregal Palace's, and the country as a whole on a monumental scale, it's a testament to the difficulties of the job that its viceroys didn't all become megalomaniacs.

On a more serious note, Mountbatten did his best to keep India united, in league with Gandhi and Nehru, working with the leaders of the princely states to accept a united India. The real HP in this situation was Jinnah, although the only way to describe India's conduct in the following years would be dick-ish as well. It is in that regard I think the British, and thus Mountbatten, were too quick to abandon the princes.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

That was part of Mountbatten's problem, but not only did he get Britain out of India too fast, I think South Asia would have been better served by not being united into two religiously oriented states, but split up into smaller linguistically oriented states.  Granted, Hindistan would be the elephant in the room, as it would have been the largest state by far, and it would have been landlocked, but it could have been done and likely with far less bloodshed, but it would have meant the British would have had to stay longer and grant independence to different parts of the subcontinent at different times.