Contents: I. Independence--the transfer of power with partition--Commonwealth--Commonwealth membership: 1. The prelude to partition: concepts and aims in Ireland and India (The 1976 Commonwealth Lecture, Cambridge University Press). 2. The Cripps Mission to India, March-April 1942 (International Journal, Toronto, vol. XXVI, no. 2, Spring 1971). 3. The last days of British Rule in India: some personal impressions (The Commonwealth and the Nations, R.I.I.A., London, 1948). 4. The Asian Conference, 1947 (The Commonwealth and the Nations, R.I.I.A., London, 1948). 5. Mountbatten: noted impact as India's last Viceroy (The Irish Times, August 1979). 6. The implications of Eire's relationship with the British Commonwealth of Nations (The Commonwealth and the Nations, R.I.I.A., London, 1948). 7. Postwar strains on the British Commonwealth (Foreign Affairs, New York, vol. 27, no. 3, October 1948, the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.). II. The Commonwealth in Asia: 8. The Commonwealth in Asia (Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia, vol. XXIII, no. 1, March 1950). 9. The triumph of nationalism in South Asia (The Listener, 14 June 1951). 10. The impact of Asian membership (The Listener, 9 December 1954). 11. The Commonwealth: problems of multiracial membership (Political Studies, vol. III, no. 3, Oxford, October 1955). 12. The Commonwealth and the future (International Studies, vol. 9, no. 1, New Delhi, December 1966). III. Reappraisals: 13. Jawaharlal Nehru: the spokesman of liberal-internationalism (The Commonwealth experience, vol. II, Macmillan, 2nd edn, 1982). 14. Indira Gandhi: heiress of the Indian revolution (The Irish Times, 1 November 1984). IV. Retrospect: 15. The partition of India in retrospect (International Journal, Toronto, vol. XXI, Winter 1965-6). 16. India and Pakistan: whither have they turned" (International Journal, Toronto, vol. XXXIX, no. 2, Spring 1984). Epilogue. India in the 1950s. 17. A visit to India and Pakistan (Contemporary Review, no. 1063, August 1954). 18. Are elephants democratic? (Comprendre, Venice, no. 20, 1959). Index.
"This volume consists of a series of articles and lectures that offer a historical commentary on the events leading to India's independence and subsequent developments. Decolonization and the replacement of the British Empire by a multi-racial Commonwealth may now seem foregone conclusions, but Mansergh shows how difficult and uncertain these were at the time.
"Some of the essays were written immediately after the events they describe; they therefore carry freshness and immediacy. Others analyse partition and membership of the Commonwealth by the new republic. These issues are related to Irish parallels which influenced the thinking of Indian and British leaders of that period.
"As well as discussing the process leading to independence and partition, this volume includes essays on the influence of new Asian members on the Commonwealth in the 1950s and 1960s, when that body was still an active vehicle for decolonization. The volume concludes with reappraisals of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, and retrospective views on partition and its consequences." (jacket)
[Nicholas Mansergh's books include Nationalism and Independence, Selected Irish Papers and The Unresolved Question The Anglo-Irish Settlement and its Undoing.]
