Rating: 
Summary: AWESOME
Review: A passionate and moving account of one of the world most under rated events! Wish I were there to witness such an exciting event. The best of Dominique's Master Pieces.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-written, though lengthy and a bit over-dramatized
Review: As an Indian American I figured it was about time I learned some of the basics of India's struggle for independence and the partitioning of the country. Freedom at Midnight describes the 1947 through early 1948 time period, when a couple decades of revolutionary efforts by Gandhi et al finally resulted in Britain's decision to leave India. Alas, the parting wasn't as quick and easy as hoped for. While the struggle for independence had unified the Hindus and Moslems of India to some extent, when it was won their ancient animosity for each other led to tensions that caused the leaders to partition the country and later erupted into some of the most appalling and senseless slaughter of the century.Although the book begins with a few flashbacks into the backgrounds of the major characters, the focus is on 1947. So you won't learn more than the essential history of Gandhi's peaceful revolution or details of the growing distrust between the Hindu and Moslem segments of the population that the British in the 1940s were barely able to keep from exploding into bloodshed. What you will get is a very well-written and moving account of India's final viceroyalty under Lord Mountbatten, the fall of the maharajas, the helplessness of Nehru and Patel in the chaos of late 1947, the agony of the Punjab during the mass migrations between the two countries, Gandhi's assassination, and a few other topics. From the acknowledgments and chapter notes at the end of the book it's evident that the subject matter was thoroughly researched, mostly from primary sources. Certainly, many of the conversations and descriptions must be fictional but the general historical accuracy of the material is highly credible. Freedom at Midnight is a long book considering the relatively short time period covered. Weighing in at around 520 pages (not including the ending notes), I feel that it was a bit much. About 250 pages would have been adequate for solid and well-written coverage of the material. The authors chose to add a lot of "color" to the story, as in dramatization. Lord Mountbatten is certainly made out to be a superman who can do it all. We are treated to in-depth coverage of the maharajas' excesses. Probably too much is made of Gandhi's Spartan habits. Numerous case studies of unfortunate Hindus and Moslems caught in the bloodshed are interesting but largely unnecessary to the account. Finally, the plot against Gandhi's life is very interesting but, again, told in more detail with more drama than was strictly necessary for enjoyable yet informative reading. I'll say this though: it never gets boring. Overall, recommended to all readers who enjoy history but don't a mind a bit of drama added into the mix! Make sure you get a copy that has photographic plates in it; the photos are well-selected and augment the story well.
Rating: 
Summary: Good read as fiction, very poorly researched
Review: Collins and Lapierre are among the most overrated historical writers of all time. The writing of "Freedom at Midnight" is good and the text is interesting, and in my opinion they would do quite well writing fiction. One would think given the pages and pages of references at the back that this is a thoroughly researched book, but this is a good instance of how statistics can lie.
Here are some of the big errors I found in the book:
1. The biggest whopper is that Messrs. Godse and Sawarkar enjoyed a homosexual relationship. Nobody who knows even an iota of the facts from any other sources will believe this -- all I could do was shake my head and smile at this preposterous claim, which incidentally does not even provide a reference.
2. The life of the maharajas chapter - all lies. The reference for this whole chapter is a book written by an Englishman who wanted to impress people back home. It is akin to claiming a "Wild West" account as fact.
3. There is no RSSS. The organization is RSS, Swayamsevak is one word. This just smacks of poor research. I doubt the writers have even looked at the covers of some of the books they have claimed as references.
4. Many place and people names are badly misspelled. There is no Pavel in Bombay for instance. The place name is Parel, and it is not a high income locality. In fact, it has a huge factory workers' colony.
I found several more, and am sure still many more exist in the book -- I am just a typical Indian, no historian or anything like that. Although this book is very interesting, I wish I had not read it and would not recommend it to anyone who wants genuine knowledge about India. Whatever I knew of the book's subject is now mixed up with the book's lies, so I don't even know what is true or not anymore. Surely, false information is worse than no information at all.
Rating:
Summary: A sweeping narrative of dramatic events
Review: Collins and Lapierre's epic novel is a wonderful read. A quick-moving portrait of India during its tumultous independence period, it manages to both explain the grand picture while keeping us in touch with the human element by relating numerous personal stories. You really feel like you are there at the time. Even if you had no previous knowledge of India you will come away feeling like an expert. The only drawback is the final chapters, when the narrative really begins to lag, and slow to a snail's pace.
Rating:
Summary: Debatable Information
Review: Fascinating book! A must buy! But way too much regard for the 'Butcher' Mountbatten.Read 'The Proudest Day' (written by British authors) for more info on his bungling of the power transfer.
One more thing.The authors term Veer Savarkar(a misunderstood revolutionary) as a 'homosexual'.
Huh?This,after reading tons & tons of material on Savarkar.Can anybody tell me how the authors found out this 'fact' ?Mind you,this guy was termed as a fanatic,& not many people took him seriously ...certainly not the establishment.
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: For everybody who wants to know the story of independence of India, this will be a fantastic book; for those who want a good book, it reads better than any fiction, science-fiction, thriller you probably ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Mahatma for the New Generation
Review: For me Mahatma was just one of the leaders initially, apart from the fact that he happens to be a famous fellow libran that I could boast off with my friends. His strength was understood when we read page by page his "exprements with Truth". But when I read this book, I learnt why he stood tall, called "Mahatma - the Sacred Soul" among humans. It baffles to read that he held sanity, principles, idealogies till the moment he walked in to his death path when a whole nation gone berseking. Always humanity thrived not on their rights but applying their learnings from their wrongs. This is possibly the best medicine for the likes of all countries that are beliving in weapons to rule one country. Our country was ruled by this fragile man with a walking stick and round glasses. Learn and apply learning. Krish iyer, India
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read
Review: Great book, well written and researched. I just wanted to comment on Vijaya Dantuluri's review. Satyagraha does not mean "true anger". I don't know where that came from! "Satya" means Truth and Agraha means "insistence". The Sanskrit word Satyagraha is thus derived from the combination of the two and it means "insistence on the Truth". This is very important because what Vijaya says is completely opposite of Gandhi's philosophy. There was no anger. Anger is violence. NON-VIOLENCE and TRUTH were the basic tenets on which the freedom struggle was fought. And the book demonstrates that quite well. THE BOOK IS INDEED ABOUT SATYAGRAHA!!
Rating:
Summary: A must read for every Indian or anyone interested in India.
Review: History has never been so intriguing. Being an Indian I read the book from an Indian standpoint and for me it was an incredible experience. Having grown up in India I have been exposed to a lot of material about Independence but none have aroused such thought as "Freedom at Midnight". A masterfully written, superbly researched and above all a very human account of what happenned in that period of Indian History. Mountbatten comes across as the hero of India and though Gandhi is shown to be more human than saint his actions were definitely that of a Mahatma. This book gave me a better understanding of my own country. A must read for every Indian or anyone who is interested in India.
Rating:
Summary: A moving and detailed account of the Raj and Partition
Review: I am not an expert on the subcontinent, and I found this book to be well written and gripping. It ties together events occurring at nearly the same time, so the reader gets a feeling for the huge tragedy that overtook India. I had read Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet and Staying On, which are fictional accounts of the Partition. This book filled in many of the historical details that serve as backdrop for the Scott novels. I like that this book does not glamourize the English Raj, many of whom were clerks elevated to masters in the British India. It does seem more negative toward Jinnah and the Muslims than the Hindus, but I do not yet know whether this is a fair depiction. The Sikhs come off very badly. It succeeds in inspiring the reader to seek out more facts about India and Pakistan.
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