Moni Malhoutra

‘Life was slower, but it was very enjoyable’ 

The first ten years of my life were the last ten years of British rule in India. India was a much poorer country at that time, much less educated, much less urbanised, much less crowded. The cities were safe, there was little traffic and life was slower, but it was very enjoyable.  

My father was in the Indian Medical Service. It was a branch of the British Indian Army, so wherever the Army went to fight, the Indian Medical Service went with them. In World War Two, my father had been posted to Singapore. When I was about three and a half years old, Singapore surrendered suddenly to the Japanese and my father was taken a prisoner of war. We did not know at that time whether he would ever return, whether he was alive or dead.  

We went to live with my mother’s family in Amritsar. Her father was a cloth merchant, and she remembered Gandhi coming to Amritsar when she was little. Gandhi had called for a boycott of all British goods. When he saw her wearing her pretty English cotton frock, he said she should burn it, but she refused. She was always a practical and resourceful woman. She was able to meet the challenges which came her way, especially when my father became a prisoner of war.  

Thankfully, my father did come back. At that point, we were put into boarding school. During that time, we became aware that independence was about to be declared but it was only later that I came to understand what partition really meant. I do have a very vivid memory of learning that Mahatma Gandhi had been shot. My family went by train to the Sangam in Allahabad, where Gandhi’s ashes were to be submerged. I still remember the extraordinary, pin-drop silence on the streets as the procession passed us.  

‘A voyage of discovery’ 

I went to Oxford by boat. The trip took about two weeks. I sailed out of Bombay, got off at Marseille and went to Paris, and then made my way to London and Oxford. 

Being at Oxford was a fantastic, rich experience, like a voyage of discovery. So many things coming together, and so much fun: study, travel, conversations, tutorials. It was one of the most stimulating and rewarding periods of my life. I’m very glad I went to Balliol. It was very cosmopolitan, with people from all over the world. It had students from all sections of British society too, not just the grand public schools, and some of the friendships I made have been lifelong. 

The history tutors were remarkable. I was taught by Christopher Hill, a wonderfully warm individual and the greatest authority on seventeenth-century English history and by Dick Southern, the medievalist. He was saintly and put you at your ease, but you were aware that you were in the presence of someone who had greater knowledge of his subject than almost anyone else. I went to concerts and to lectures, to the Ashmolean Museum and the Playhouse, and to plays and opera in London. I did a lot of travelling, both in the UK and in Europe. It was the most enriching experience.  

‘The Commonwealth was determined to fight racial discrimination’ 

Joining the Commonwealth Secretariat in London was a bit of an anti-climax at first, but that changed very quickly. If the British Empire embodied the notion of racial superiority, the Commonwealth was founded on the principle of racial equality. The Commonwealth was becoming quite a lively actor on the international stage, and I found myself deeply involved in Southern Rhodesia, and then in South Africa. In both cases, the role which the Commonwealth played was important and productive. In Rhodesia, five million black Africans were being denied majority rule by the small white minority. In the aftermath of a prolonged civil war between whites and blacks, the Commonwealth sent a multi-national Commonwealth Observer Group to monitor the pre-independence election in 1980. It was a fraught exercise. We weren’t popular, either with the white government of Southern Rhodesia or with the British government, both of whom wanted a particular party to win, but our vigilance and interventions at critical moments helped ensure a free and fair election and international recognition of the outcome, with Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe. 

In 1986, the Commonwealth sent an Eminent Persons’ Group to South Africa to try to persuade the apartheid government to change course and move to a non-racial South Africa. The Commonwealth was extremely determined, as it had been in Rhodesia, to fight racial discrimination and end the spiralling violence in the country. We held detailed discussions with President Botha and his ministers and people from all sections of society. We also met Nelson Mandela in Pollsmoor Prison. He was a very commanding figure. You could see the authority that he exuded. Even his jailers were respectful towards him. He laid out his vision for a non-racial South Africa and told us that his meeting with the group was the most important in his 24 years in prison and welcomed our efforts to break the deadlock and start genuine negotiations. In the end, at that time, our work did not bring the resolution we wanted as our negotiating concept - steps to be taken before negotiations could begin - was rejected by the South African government. In our failure lay success. When we got back to London we published our report. The rejection of the group’s proposals triggered a wave of stringent sanctions against South Africa by the US, Europe and the Commonwealth (except Britain), which three years later forced the government to release Nelson Mandela, ironically on the very conditions set out in our negotiating concept. When Mandela was released, he and Winnie Mandela came to London to thank those who had helped them. Their first port of call was the home of the Commonwealth Secretary General.