The two major legal systems of the world, other than Muslim law are Common Law and the Civil Law legal systems. The stability of the British crown, except for the Cromwell period (1653-1658), over centuries has permitted England to evolve the Common Law adversarial system. In such system each lawyer represents the interest of the individual citizen against the other before the court which follows the precedents of past decisions. This approach to legal problem solving is in contrast to the Civil Law system where the entire body of law is pronounced and declared law at one time as Napoleon did. Romans who ruled England and much of Europe left legacy of legal concepts in both systems, such as Habeas Corpus.
There are four Inns of Court in London, England, which are Lincoln’s Inn, Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray’s Inn. They have regular dinner meetings but the examinations are conducted by external bodies. Barristers argue in court and provide opinions to Solicitors who deal with clients. Common law Tort, Contract, equity etc. developed with the presenting the arguments and Judges made decisions which became binding for future court decisions. Judges are appointed from the Barristers with 10 years experience and once appointed became neutral in decision making. This legal system along with the democratic system of parliament elected by the public and making laws formed the foundations of modern democratic societies. This system evolved in England and was later adopted by most Commonwealth Countries which were past colonies of England. The chapter on Lincoln’s Inn in this novel describes the development of Lincoln’s Inn.
The profession of Solicitors developed later in the history of England. It still remains a separate profession in England that deals with clients and legal work that does not entail court hearings. Solicitors can appear in lower level courts. United States, Canada (outside of Quebec), India and most commonwealth countries follow the Common Law model for legal dispute resolution. Barristers enjoy a higher status in the legal system and society and the professions of Barristers and Solicitors remain separate in England, but in most other countries which follow common law system the two profession are combined as the modern society needs the combination of the two skills and the clients need to trust the lawyer who is doing to argue his case and development of trust requires direct contact with the Barrister. The English system lags behind in this unification of the two profession.
Mahatma Gandhi, in keeping with passive Hindu tradition, led the non-violent movement for independence. He was scorned by Winston Churchill as a Fakir when it came to granting independence after the end of the war in 1945. Atlee as the Labour Party prime minister finally granted independence to India in 1947. It set in motion the process of dismantling of the British Empire of about 60 colonies by granting of independence and right of self governance. Most of the colonies became independent in the nineteen sixties period described in this novel.
The current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, a Hindu Gujarati, is leading the country to reunite the country and industrialize it with the slogan “Make it India’, and to regain the glory of Indian civilization of 5000 years. Many have come to India including Alexander the Great of Greece, and have gone. Muslims from the present day Afghanistan and Iran came to India with raids and finally conquered India in 1192 defeating the Hindu king Prithviraj Chauhan. The contribution of Hindu Indian civilization to the world culture is the tradition of pacifism and vegetarian philosophy of life with tolerance of others.
Subhash Chandra Bose was a Bengali Indian who did not believe that British would leave India without armed conflict. Gandhi and Bose disagreed at the Indian National Congresss on how India could gain independence. Voice of Gandhi on passive resistance prevailed. He was house arrested by the British and escaped to Berlin in 1942 where during the second world war he was supported by Hitler. There he married his secretary Emily Schenkl who was Austrian. Bose and Emily Schenkl had a daughter born in 1942 called Anita Bose and who later married and became Pfaff. She is a Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Ausberg in South Germany near Munich. As of the date of this book she is about 74 years of age and alive. Bose died mysteriously on about 18th August, 1945 in Taiwan. British Secret Service was looking for Bose. Mukherjee Commission appointed by Indian Parliament did not find tangible evidence of British involvement in the death of Bose in the report published on 17th May 2006. Hitler supported Bose in Berlin and gave grant of 750 German Marks per month to Bose to operate ‘Azad Hind Radio’ in Berlin which broadcast the military effort of Bose to liberate India. About 3000 Indian soldiers, fighting for the British in Lybian campaign of British against Germans, during the second world war were brought to Germany and trained by the Germans to fight for Indian independence. This part of the history is ignored by western historians. This novel mentions the story of Bose in the Berlin chapter.