New Delhi, June 27 -- On the morning of 26 July 1945, while London still smouldered from the Blitz, a formally dressed man approached Buckingham Palace, the regal building in the heart of the City of Westminster that still carried the scars of multiple German bombings on it.

VE (Day) celebrations had barely faded when Conrad Corfield arrived to receive his knighthood, unaware that he would soon become one of the last men standing against India's unity.

It wasn't just a day of great significance for Corfield. By that evening Winston Churchill, having led Britain through the war with a mix of pragmatism and rhetorical brilliance, called on the King to tender his resignation after an unexpected, humiliating defeat in the elections. Later t...