The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan
Yasmin khan
Penguin, Rs 495

Yasmin khan has written a fascinating book because it raises many questions about the methodology behind Partition, as well as its bloody legacy. Reading it one wonders about present day India. Had the Cabinet Mission plan been accepted, would things have been any different to what they are today? It had offered Pakistan “in spirit if not in letter by devolving power to Muslims within a united India”. There were good reasons for the Muslim League to accept the plan, but for the Congress workers it was “appeasement”. But most importantly it was rejected because it visualised a weak centre and strong provinces.

It is the revenge of history that today in India we have exactly that: strong states and an increasingly weak centre scrambling to keep together its supporters. There are, still, constant cries of “minority appeasement”. In Pakistan it is, as visualised, a strong centre, but without many of the democratic norms so close to Jinnah's heart.

Khan examines Partition from a fresh perspective refusing to accept any of the popular concepts of an “orderly transition of power”. She points to the chaotic circumstances under which Radcliffe — a stranger to India — parachutes in with his Partition portfolio and within six weeks has divided up the country. Likewise, the Bengal Boundary Commission and the Punjab Boundary Commission are invited by various troubled states to look at the conditions, and they decline as they simply don’t have the time.

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