The Partition Omnibus

The partition of India was perhaps the one significant event in the modern history of South Asia that not only redefined religious, cultural, and territorial boundaries, but also unleashed a series of forces that continue to vex South Asian politics even today. The Partition Omnibus brings together, for the first time, four authoritative readings on the genesis and development of the idea of Partition, its inevitability, the upeheaval that followed the creation of Pakistan, and the attendant problems of nationalism and decolonization. In the first book, Prelude to Partition , David Page examines, with the eye on Indian Muslim politics in the 1920s, the forces responsible for the Pakistan movement. He discusses how Muslim rule in Punjab and Bengal became a real possibility with the Communal award, which in turn was an outcome of the constitutional reforms of 1920. The Origins of the Partition of India 1936 1947 , investigates the act of decolonization by the British and its far-reaching consequences for their international status. The third book, Divide and Quit , gives a vivid account of the growth of the idea of the partition of India and its inevitability. Penderel Moon gives a first-hand account of the manifestations of communal frenzy and the efforts made to prevent the breakdown of the civil government. Mark Tully and Tapan Raychaudhuri have contributed. Finally, another first-hand account based the reports of a government fact-finding organization, Stern Reckoning documents in great detail the riots, massacres, casualties, and political occurrences that led to the partition An insightful introduction by Mushirul Hasan holds the varied issues in this volume together.