Independence and Partition : The Erosion of Colonial Power in India

Contents: Introduction. I. Background: 1. Nationalist activity and Government response at the end of the war. 2. Planning of the political offer, the Simla Conference and its breakdown. II. Imperialism and Nationalism: 3. Congress strategy and popular nationalist activity. 4. "Popular movements": myth and reality. 5. Imperial hegemony and colonial policy. III. Imperialism, Nationalism and Communalism: 6. "United and quit". 7. "Decide on a date and Quit". 8. "Divide and Quit". IV. Nationalism and Communalism: 9. Congress and the Muslim league's demand for Pakistan. 10. Two faces of Hindu Communalism: majority reaction, minority fears. 11. Hindu communal pressure on the Congress. V. Denouement: 12. Congress accepts partition. 13. Why Gandhi accepted the decision to partition India. Conclusion. Appendix. Select bibliography. Index.

"The Sage Series in Modern Indian History brings together historical studies that share a broad common historiographic focus. This, the first volume in the series, is a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of a defining period in India's recent past--the attainment of independence and the simultaneous division of the subcontinent. Exploring the interplay of imperial, national and communal forces during the freedom movement, Sucheta Mahajan highlights the contradictory reality of an independence that also brought partition in its wake. She provides an insightful view of an era which marked the end of colonial rule in India while being a crucial phase during which the foundations of independent India's polity were laid.

"The focus of the book is on the role of nationalist forces in the developing crisis of the colonial state in its last years. It critiques the agenda of western-dominated scholarship on India and ploughs an independent path in the writing of the history of the Indian people's struggle against imperialism. Sucheta Mahajan establishes that Indian independence was neither a voluntary withdrawal nor a magnanimous gift from the British, but the inevitable result of the erosion of colonial power in the face of the nationalist challenge.

"A special feature of the book--which is based on extensive research, interviews and hitherto unutilized documents--is that it treats independence and partition as inter-related themes. It also weaves together into an integral history the diverse strands of imperial policy, the national movement and communal politics.

"With its bold new reassessment combined with its contemporary relevance, this book will be of considerable interest to students and scholars of modern Indian history, the freedom movement and partition, as well as to all those in the fields of sociology and political science." (jacket)