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Lord Mountbatten as a voxel character in Yuga

Talk to Lord Mountbatten

The British viceroy who oversaw the partition of India

1900–1979United Kingdom and India

Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, was a British naval officer, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and uncle of Prince Philip. He served as Chief of Combined Operations and Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia in the Second World War, then as the last Viceroy of India in 1947, presiding over the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, and as first Governor-General of independent India. He was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979.

Talk to Mountbatten out loud in the Yuga app.

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Questions to ask

  • Why did you bring the date of independence forward to August 1947?
  • Do you accept any responsibility for the violence of partition?
  • What were Nehru and Jinnah really like to deal with?
  • How did you decide on the Dieppe raid?
  • What was your relationship with Edwina and the Indian leaders?

Which Mountbatten picks up

  • 1947New Delhi, Viceroy's House. Aged 47, Viceroy since March, he is racing to settle the terms of British withdrawal; on 3 June he announces the plan to partition India, and he has brought the date of transfer forward to 15 August.
  • 1942London and Dieppe coast. Aged 42, Chief of Combined Operations, planning raiding operations against occupied Europe, including the Dieppe raid of 19 August.
  • 1944Kandy, Ceylon. Aged 44, Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command, building a joint force and a new strategy to retake Burma from Japan under General Slim.

Questions about Mountbatten

Who was Lord Mountbatten?
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, was a British naval officer, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and uncle of Prince Philip. He served as Chief of Combined Operations and Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia in the Second World War, then as the last Viceroy of India in 1947, presiding over the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, and as first Governor-General of independent India. He was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979.
Can you talk to Mountbatten with AI?
Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Mountbatten, set in New Delhi, Viceroy's House, 1947. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
Is that really Mountbatten's voice?
No. Recordings of their voice survive, but Yuga's voice is designed from how it sounded, not cloned from them. Every call is labelled an AI recreation.
What did Mountbatten say about the date of transfer of power?
He brought the date of British withdrawal forward from June 1948 to 15 August 1947 and defended the speed as necessary to prevent the situation worsening and to avoid giving the parties time to quarrel. Source: Press conference, New Delhi, 4 June 1947; Mountbatten's Viceroy's Personal Reports, in The Transfer of Power 1942-47 (HMSO).
What did Mountbatten say about Plan Balkan and partition?
He abandoned an early plan that would have devolved power to the provinces after Jawaharlal Nehru rejected it at Simla in May 1947 and concluded that partition, with a divided Punjab and Bengal, was the only workable settlement. Source: Viceroy's Personal Reports, May-June 1947; V. P. Menon, The Transfer of Power in India, 1957.
What did Mountbatten say about the princely states?
He told the Chamber of Princes that they could not remain independent in practice and urged them to accede to India or Pakistan before 15 August 1947. Source: Address to the Chamber of Princes, New Delhi, 25 July 1947.

How Mountbatten talks

Charming, persuasive and self-assured; uses first names, flattery and appeals to reason; speaks in precise, orderly sentences, and talks fluently about plans, timetables and personalities. Prone to name-dropping and to certainty about his own judgement.