Before reading this article, we sincerely invite you to click "Follow", which is not only convenient for you to discuss and share, but also brings you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support.
In 1953, when Premier Zhou Enlai met with the Indian delegation, he put forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru expressed great approval and support for this principle. The introduction of this principle promoted peaceful exchanges among Asian countries, and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru played a great role in it.
However, Nehru was not as "pacifist" as he appeared, and over time many of his shortcomings and problems were gradually discovered. Among them, the most curious and discussed is his underground love affair with Edmona, the wife of the British Lord Mountbatten.
Edmona's daughter once said in her memoirs that the relationship between her mother and Nehru was pure. She called the relationship between her father and Nehru a "happy threesome."
Is the relationship between Nehru and Edmona real? Why was Edmona's husband, Lord Mountbatten, able to accept it?
Born well
Coming from a prominent family in India, Nehru grew up in a privileged family environment and lived a well-dressed life. We all know that India has had a strict caste system since ancient times.
This system divides people into four classes, from highest to lowest, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vedas, and Shudras, a strict system that others cannot understand and has been popular in India for thousands of years and has been the mainstream of society.
Nehru, on the other hand, was from the noblest caste, his ancestry was Kashmir, a high caste belonging to Brahmanism, which doomed Nehru to be different from ordinary people from birth.
Nehru's ancestors were very favored by the emperor when he was alive, and the emperor once ordered that the ancestor's family move to the capital, closer to the emperor's residence, the imperial palace. In addition to this, the emperor would also grant them official positions.
Therefore, the Nehru family has been officials for generations, and their ancestors either served in the royal palace or held important positions in government departments and judicial departments. It can be said that from the inside out, from top to bottom, the Nehru family was loved and favored by the emperor. Therefore, Nehru's final career can be regarded as a kind of "inheritance" of the family.
In addition to their political prominence, Nehru's family was also very wealthy, and as a result, Nehru's parents paid great attention to his education.
In terms of education, Nehru grew up with a Western-style education. When he was a child, his parents specially hired a European tutor for him, so that he could be influenced by Western culture, and later he was sent by his parents to the United Kingdom for 7 years of junior and higher education for more professional study.
The long period of Westernized education can be said to have made Nehru's personal habits and his perspective and concept of things deeply imprinted with the shadow of Western culture, especially in his emotional concepts.
After Nehru stepped into politics, he always wore the Congress party's white olive-shaped hat on his head every time he appeared in public. He also likes to wear a straight suit and pins a rose to the buttonhole of his vest.
In addition to his neat appearance, Nehru also had the elegant temperament of an English gentleman, showing the elegance and neatness of a mature man in every gesture. This is mainly due to the fact that he lived in England for many years, and his father also taught him Western etiquette habits from an early age.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Edmona will be attracted to such Nehru.
Mutual affection
Edmuna is the wife of the British Lord Mountbatten, and when it comes to the British Lord, we have to mention the entanglement between the two countries, Britain and India.
In the mid-to-late 18th century, Britain entered India on the pretext of developing commerce and established the East India Company in India, thereby controlling the supply of raw materials such as linen and cotton in India.
East India Company
Later, Britain exposed their nature as an aggressor, not only arbitrarily oppressing Indian workers and people, but also taking the opportunity to invade and colonize India.
Although the Indian people resisted many times and tried to drive the British away, they were quickly suppressed by the British. In the end, India completely became a British colony and was ruled by Britain for more than a hundred years.
After World War II, Britain spent a lot of manpower and material resources in World War II, and did not have much energy to control India. Seeing that Britain was tired of dealing with the war and had been secretly accumulating strength, waiting for the rise of the country, India seized the opportunity to get rid of British rule over them.
However, India has been under British rule for hundreds of years, and years of development have made them economically and politically inseparable from British help, so they cannot completely separate from Britain.
Mr. and Mrs. Mountbatten
So India, seeking independence, engaged in years-long negotiations with Britain. Lord Mountbatten was one of those who came to negotiate with India on behalf of Britain.
Nehru and the Mountbattens had a long relationship, and they discussed the subsequent development of the relationship between the two countries. However, what was unexpected was that in this exchange, which symbolized the two countries, Nehru actually developed a friendship different from friends with Mountbatten's wife Edmona.
Madame Edmona was also of noble origin and high social status. A good education since childhood, coupled with her marriage to Lord Mountbatten, often frequented important social occasions, making Madame Edmona behave elegantly and generously.
While in India, Mrs. Edmuna accompanied her husband, talking to Indian officials coming and going, and behaved appropriately.
When people around her mention Edmona, they will praise her.
What is even more valuable is that although she comes from a famous family, she never looks down on civilians and is very humble and easy-going. After several interactions, Nehru was not only fascinated by Madame Edmona's beautiful face, but he was also gradually attracted to Madame Edmona's personal charm.
Nehru has remained single since the death of his wife. The presence of Madame Edmona soothed Nehru's long loneliness and loneliness. And Madame Edmona was also attracted to Nehru in the process of getting along.
Both of them are well-known figures in society, and Madame Edmona still has a husband, so their relationship is bound to not see the light. But Nehru could not hide his feelings for his wife, and even in public, he followed him with enthusiastic eyes.
Matthew was the secretary who had been with Nehru for many years, and he often followed Nehru to attend occasions and also dealt with personal matters for Nehru, so he took Nehru's feelings for his wife in his eyes.
Matthew mentioned in his memoirs that Nehru could not help but show pride whenever he stayed by Mrs. Mountbatten's side. He also placed a photograph of Mrs. Mountbatten in his bedroom, numbering the correspondence between the two and carefully treasured it.
Judging from these details, Nehru had a deep affection for Edmona.
Even after the Mountbattens left India for England, Nehru did not break ties with her. Every year he travels to the UK to attend the Federal Chancellery, and he always takes the opportunity to meet Edmuna.
And when Nehru could not come to England, Edmuna would come to Delhi to meet him. And so they maintained an underground romance.
Once, Nehru and his party were on vacation in a villa on the mountain, but Nehru and Edmona were nowhere to be seen at mealtime.
At that time, the governor asked his son Rusi to go to the room to ask Nehru to eat, and Rusi ran upstairs to open the door of the room, and before the words could be spoken, he saw an amazing scene: Nehru and Edmona kissing!
Frightened, Rusi hurried downstairs, but Nehru and Edmona, who were caught, looked very calm, as if they were doing something very commonplace.
Nehru's secretary also once admitted that Edmona would spend the night in Nehru's room.
Since then, the personal relationship between Nehru and Madame Mountbatten has been completely exposed to everyone's eyes. Nehru and Edmona were unimpressed by the advice and worldly eyes of those around them.
The relationship lasted until Edmona's death. For the death of his lover, Nehru did not show much pain in front of the world. However, his close friend has revealed that Nehru could not calm down in private.
Compared to Nehru's deep affection for Edmona, his first wife was less lucky.
A confusing love triangle
Nehru's emotional entanglement with Madame Mountbatten occurred when they were approaching middle age, and Nehru's emotional experiences in his youth were full of drama.
Because he studied abroad all year round and surrounded himself with open and enthusiastic foreigners, Nehru was particularly fond of blonde, tall, fair-skinned women when he was in school. Similarly, he is very quick to date girlfriends and changes girlfriends frequently.
However, Nehru's father, who was far away, wanted Nehru to start a family soon. So he asked Nehru to return to India to marry the wife he had chosen for him. The father personally chose a marriage partner for Nehru, and the girl's name was Kamela, who was also from a nobleman.
Nehru, who heard the news, was dissatisfied in his heart, because he had always advocated free love and free marriage, and did not want to marry a girl he had never even met. However, he could not disobey his father's orders, and eventually returned to India to complete his wedding to Kamela.
After getting married, Nehru devoted himself entirely to his career and showed little concern for his wife.
Kamela is also dissatisfied with Nehru's busy independent career all day, she wants to live a simple and happy life, but her husband can't give her, so Kamela will not take the initiative to care about Nehru.
After the two gave birth to a daughter, Kamela raised her daughter wholeheartedly and deliberately distanced herself from her husband's family to prevent what they did from affecting him.
Therefore, Nehru's relationship with his wife was weak, which is reflected in the fact that even in his autobiography, Nehru does not describe much of his wife.
After his wife's death, Nehru did not choose to remarry. He takes care of his daughter while running his own business. It was not until the appearance of Edmona that Nehru's life was given a different color.
When Nehru was in love with Edmuna, Edmona's husband, Lord Mountbatten, was not ignorant, but his performance was also unexpected.
Lord Mountbatten had a distinguished background. His father was the Prince of Butenberg of Germany, his mother was a princess of the Bulgarian royal family, and he himself was a cousin of George VI, whom the late Queen Elizabeth II called her uncle when she saw him.
In addition, he also had inhuman talents in military and political affairs, and joined the navy at the age of 13.
Mountbatten
Lord Mountbatten fell in love with Edmona very early, and the two met at a ball, when Mountbatten was 20 years old.
The Edmona family was very wealthy, her grandfather was Sir Ernest Cassel, a famous British financier, and her good tutor and good appearance made her stand out among the ladies.
At the ball, the young Mountbatten saw the beautiful Edmona, and it was not difficult to fall in love with such an excellent girl. After talking with her, Mountbatten learned that in addition to her beautiful appearance, this girl also has a gentle character and an intelligent interior, and he quickly falls in love.
After two years of dating, Mountbatten married Edmona as he wished, and the two men had a deep relationship and were inseparable.
However, Mountbatten could never have imagined a trip to India, and his wife fell in love with someone else.
At that time, Nehru undertook the main task of negotiating with Mountbatten. Generally speaking, when representatives of the two countries negotiate on issues of national interest, the scene will be full of gunpowder, or the surface is peaceful, but they fight in private.
However, Nehru and Mountbatten were surprisingly on good terms.
They often went out or party together, and Mountbatten always brought his wife, Edmona. It was in the process that Nehru and Edmona developed a camaraderie that surpassed that of friends.
Mountbatten was not completely unaware of the unusual dealings between his wife and Nehru. On the contrary, with his rich experience, he can perceive the different atmosphere that permeates his wife and Nehru.
In a letter to his daughter, Mountbatten directly stated that he was aware of his wife's dealings with Nehru.
But surprisingly, he did not go into a rage and did not take action to stop the two people, he chose to endure and even facilitate them.
We can learn a little about Lord Mountbatten's true thoughts from his letters to his wife.
In the letter, Mountbatten told his wife that he knew that the relationship between Nehru and his wife was a "platonic" love affair, and that they were only very compatible on a spiritual level, so he did not need to worry too much.
On the other hand, he also found that his wife's temper was obviously much better after socializing with Nehru, and she was more cheerful and lively. Therefore, in the face of his wife's romance, Mountbatten seemed very calm.
The three people maintain such a strange relationship in this way. Until the death of the protagonist of the love triangle, Madame Edmona.
Depressed, Mountbatten worked all day, trying to numb himself and hide his grief with his busy work.
The emotional entanglement of Nehru, Mountbatten and Edmona is a secret story that people talked about after tea and dinner in the last century, and people especially like the emotional entanglement between these famous people, as if they can explore the joys and sorrows of these celebrities.
Nehru experienced such an unforgettable relationship in his later years, and politically, he was not satisfied.
He once wanted to invade and occupy the Chinese territory of Tibet through peaceful negotiations. India diplomatically threatened China not to liberate Tibet, but Nehru overestimated the strength of India's armed forces and underestimated China's determination to defend its sovereignty.
In the face of India's provocations and lawlessness against Chinese territory, China resolutely chose to fight back in self-defense after the peace negotiations were fruitless. A month of self-defensive counterattacks brought the Indian army to a complete disintegration. Nehru had to withdraw from the Sino-Indian border.
At this point, Nehru's illusions about dominating Asia were completely shattered.
Nehru in his later years never seemed to emerge from this failure. Two years after the war, the Indian leader, who was talked about in his life, ended up depressed. What he left behind is his turbulent life experience and the secret love affair with Mrs. Mountbatten.