(Top) Crowds greet Mountbatten on the day of Independence; Gandhi with the viceroy at the latter’s house on April 1, 1947

London, June 4: Lord Mountbatten’s personal papers covering the Partition and the transfer of power to India have been “saved for the nation” and will be permanently lodged at Southampton University, it was announced today.

A total of 250,000 documents belonging to the last viceroy of India, including 50,000 photographs, will be available for research to Indian scholars and historians.

The documents tend to show that Gandhi “acquiesced” in the partition of India, according to Chris Woolgar, a professor of history at Southampton and head of special collections in the university library.

The history taught in India is somewhat different: it holds the view that Gandhi never ever accepted the Partition while Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbahi Patel and others felt they had to go along with Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s demand for Pakistan if only to stop the communal massacres that accompanied the British withdrawal from India.

At a crucial point in the negotiations, Gandhi met Mountbatten, the viceroy, who was relieved to discover that the Mahatma was observing a vow of silence. “I am sorry I can’t speak,” wrote Gandhi. “When I took the decision about the Monday silence I did reserve two exceptions.... But I know you don’t want me to break my silence ....”

The notes, pencilled on the back of used envelopes, “chart Gandhi’s shift from fervent opposition to the partition of the country, to reluctant acquiescence”.

Indian historians will not necessarily go along with this interpretation but the Mountbatten papers at Southampton will prove a treasure trove for research scholars for decades to come.

Included in the documents are the papers of Edwina Mountbatten — she did a great deal of charity work in India — but Nehru’s letters to Mountbatten’s wife are excluded from the collection. “They are with her daughter and we may not see them in our lifetime,” admitted Woolgar.

The Mountbatten papers are part of a mountain of 4,500 boxes of archival material that have been lodged in purpose-built facilities at the Hartley Library in Southampton University since 1989.

The Mountbatten home was at Broadlands, Hampshire, which Nehru used to visit on his trips to the UK. But the history of Broadlands stretches back 300 years during which period it was also the home of Lord Palmerston, the foreign secretary.

But the material was only on loan to Southampton.

“We are only six miles down the road, that’s why it all came to us,” explained Woolgar.

When the trustees of Broadlands decided to sell the material, Southampton University was given first refusal right. With the help of a generous donation of £1,993,760 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the university has now been able to raise the asking price of £2.85 million. Without the money there was the risk that the collection might have been broken up and many valuable documents lost to private buyers from overseas.

“I’m very relieved,” Woolgar told The Telegraph.

He added: “It is impossible to overestimate the archives’ historical and national impact. Without them we would find it difficult to understand fully the foundations of the independent states of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.”

Carole Souter, chief executive of the fund, said: “This acquisition is of immense national and historical importance. Now that the fundraising target has been reached, the University of Southampton is on track to ensure that the records of those who stood at the very forefront of British political life will be preserved for future generations of historians, scholars and the public to explore and enjoy.”