Against History, Against State: Counterperspectives from the Margins Book

The author's main focus is on the displacement of millions of people and the communal violence that erupted in 1947,as the British finally prepared to leave India.

She does seem to be an admirer of Nehru and Gandhi,both of whom she portrays rather flatteringly.

Most of the book deals with the violence in the dying days of the British Raj and the plight of millions of displaced persons and refugees as they struggled to cross the new borders.

Punjab and Bengal were key battlegrounds as refugees were massacred and women were raped.After some normalcy was restored and the violence had abated,many of the refugees were still left with an uphill task,trying to rebuild their lives with little resources.

All that violence hardened the attitudes of both countries towards each other and was the first step in turning them into permanant enemies.An iron curtain descended and wars and nuclearisation followed.

In the introduction,the book states that partition benefited a few at the expense of many.

Well,hundreds of millions of Pakistanis have benefited from the creation of Pakistan,all the difficulties and sacrificies not withstanding.It would be a bit difficult for an Oxford academic like the author,sitting thousands of miles away,to appreciate this.

During the British Raj,India's Muslims did not get sufficient economic opportunities and jobs.The author has nothing to say about this,it was a key factor driving the demand for Pakistan.

In addition,what the book does not mention is that even today,communal violence is not an infrequent occurence in India and the lot of India's Muslims is not a happy one.