The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan 10.6.2008 Edition

by Yasmin Khan (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0300143331

ISBN-10: 0300143338

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A reappraisal of the tumultuous Partition and how it ignited long-standing animosities between India and Pakistan

The Partition of India in 1947 promised its people both political and religious freedom—through the liberation of India from British rule, and the creation of the Muslim state of Pakistan. Instead, the geographical divide brought displacement and death, and it benefited the few at the expense of the very many. Thousands of women were raped, at least one million people were killed, and ten to fifteen million were forced to leave their homes as refugees. One of the first events of decolonization in the twentieth century, Partition was also one of the most bloody. In this book Yasmin Khan examines the context, execution, and aftermath of Partition, weaving together local politics and ordinary lives with the larger political forces at play. She exposes the widespread obliviousness to what Partition would entail in practice and how it would affect the populace. Drawing together fresh information from an array of sources, Khan underscores the catastrophic human cost and shows why the repercussions of Partition resound even now, some sixty years later. The book is an intelligent and timely analysis of Partition, the haste and recklessness with which it was completed, and the damaging legacy left in its wake.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Yasmin Khan, a British historian, has written a riveting book on this terrible story. It is unusual for two reasons. It is composed with flair, quite unlike the dense, academic plodding that modern Indian history usually delivers. Second, it turns the spotlight away from the self-posturing in the British viceroy's palace and the well-documented political wrangling between Congress and the Muslim League leaders. Instead, it focuses on a broader canvas that leads the reader through the confusion, the uncertainties, the fear and eventually the horror faced by those who were soon to become citizens of the two new states, India and Pakistan."—The Economist

". . . Rather than dwelling on New Delhi’s political intrigue, [Khan’s] insightful book focuses on the oft-ignored social undercurrents that contributed to the mass violence."—Tarquin Hall, Sunday Times

". . . an elegant, scholarly analysis of the chaotic severing of two Pakistans (now Pakistan and Bangladesh) from India in 1947. Khan’s book is splendidly researched, and she has an eye for illuminating details of how Partition affected everyday lives."—Alex von Tunzelmann, Daily Telegraph

"Khan’s angry, unsparing analysis of catastrophe is provocative and painful."—The Times

"Khan eloquently discusses the making of India and Pakistan after British rule on the subcontinent was dismantled in 1947. . . . Drawing from varied historical literature and archival sources, the author has obviously provided a new look at this still important subject. Strongly recommended for academic and larger public libraries."―Library Journal

“Much has been written on the partition of India and Pakistan, but no one work provides such a balanced account that also illustrates how few managed to foresee the consequences of their actions. . . This book, like all good history books, produces no smoking gun but shows how the blunder that resulted in so many deaths was a combination of a lack of preparation and political adventurism.”—Nesrine Malik, "100 Best Political Books", Observer

"Khan avoids adjudicating the disputes between the various contending groups to show how nationalism preceded and followed the great partition, how women and children suffered the most, and how defense spending and war continue to the present. Throughout, Khan demonstrates her skill as a historian: lively writing, careful analysis, perceptive interpretations, and an even-minded control of sources and evidence. Highly recommended."―Choice

"This is a gripping and readable book that the reviewer would recommend for any course dealing with the Indian freedom movement, independence, partition, and the bitter legacy of those traumatic times."—Gail Minault, Historian

A 2008 Top Seller in Asian History as compiled by YBP Library Services

"Mahatma Gandhi called the traumatic experience of Partition 'the vivisection of India'. In this book, Yasmin Khan shows how this operation was performed. She describes the suffering of the victims with great sensitivity, and traces the perceptions of contemporary observers, most of whom were at a loss when trying to imagine the contours of the new states. To a country that took its territorial unity for granted, the partition of India came as a rude shock; its impact reverberates through the pages of this illuminating book."—Dietmar Rothermund, Professor Emeritus of South Asian History, Heidelberg University, and author of The Routledge Companion to Decolonisation and (with H Kulke) A History of India

"This is a compassionate and devastating book. It charts the long, complex and often brutal processes that engulfed millions of unsuspecting people in chaos. Few among the South Asian and British political elite could have imagined what they were letting loose, while many of those swept up even tangentially had no clear idea of what it might mean. Its long aftermath still scars the subcontinent, as India and Pakistan see each other through the lens of carefully constructed nationalist history which feeds on the partially understood history of Partition. This is a book for all who wish to understand attitudes on the subcontinent today."—Judith M Brown, Balliol College Oxford, and author of Nehru

"Yasmin Khan makes a significant contribution to the ongoing study of the Partition of India in this lucid account. Her eye for detail strongly evokes the issues, personalities and events at this crucial moment in the subcontinent's modern history. Narrative and sharp analysis go hand in hand in a work which bears all the hallmarks of a first-rate scholar."—Ian Talbot, University of Southampton

"Yasmin Khan's The Great Partition vividly and memorably portrays the sheer turmoil of decolonisation. In turning the spotlight away from high-level politics to bitter personal experience, she exposes the bewilderment, brutality and mayhem that followed the hasty British decision to 'divide and quit.' This book will be a touchstone in the retelling of one of the twentieth century's greatest calamities."—David Arnold, University of Warwick and Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Asiatic Society

"This is an exceptional book. Yasmin Khan has written a vivid, authoritative and accessible account of one of the greatest human tragedies and dislocations of the modern era. Her particular achievement is in weaving the lived experience of Partition - the agony, the uncertainty, the conflicting identities and loyalties - into a broader account of the turmoil and confusion which so gravely soured India's and Pakistan's achievement of independence."—Andrew Whitehead, editor of History Workshop Journal and former BBC South Asia correspondent

About the Author

Yasmin Khan is associate professor of history and Fellow of Kellogg College, University of Oxford, and author of The Raj at War: A People’s History of India’s Second World War.

Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press; 10.6.2008 edition (November 5, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0300143338
ISBN-13: 978-0300143331
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Customer Reviews: 44 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,050,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #171 in Pakistan History
- #1197 in India History
- #823 in Nationalism (Books)

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dmiguer

At the End of Empire

June 28, 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a short history of South Asia's partition, written in 2007 by Yasmin Khan, a young Oxford history professor born in Britain. At barely over 200 pages of text, it focuses on the years 1945-1950. As the British retreated, India and Pakistan were formed. Framed as a social history, there are many passages about both private and public individuals. There is a lesser look at political history, chiefly on the machinations of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. It works well as an introduction to a topic where mountains of specialized material can be climbed.

Khan maintains the brevity of this book by giving little background material leading up to 1947. The history of the Congress party is taken forward from the release of Gandhi and his associates from prison, at the end of WWII. If you want know about Jinnah and earlier League politics you also won't find it here. As independence approached the Congress party had grown to a great size, and more members joined to take part in the future leadership. Competing factions had ideas that varied from Gandhi's ideals, and he had less ability to avert communal rioting and deaths.

In the spring of 1946 a delegation was sent from Britain to negotiate with the independence leaders and plan British withdrawal from the rapidly dissolving empire. Khan makes a point that if the resulting Cabinet Mission Plan had succeeded, Pakistan as a separate country may not have existed. Opinion was divided on all sides whether a strong central government or a loose confederation of Hindu and Muslim states was the goal. It wasn't a foregone conclusion that only separate sovereign nations would suffice. After the plan collapsed street violence exploded.

Although the mayhem that ensued is described in some detail, I still have difficulty grasping how it happened. Perhaps simple revenge and retribution played the greatest role in the escalation. Ultimately between 500,000 to 1,000,000 lives would be lost, on the scale of a civil war, although an unorganized one. None of the parties would remain free of guilt. As a scholar of the British empire, Khan delves into the disorganized and deficient way the former colony was turned over for self rule. Crippled at the end of WWII, Britain hadn't the means nor the will to help.

Much of this book was culled from previously published primary and secondary sources. Khan doesn't indicate new material was researched from archives or agency reports. This isn't an intrinsic fault. Written material on the subject is vast, and to present it succinctly is a worthwhile effort. However the book's structure is a problem. It is organized chronologically, but moves randomly between locations and topics. Personal anecdotes and stories describe the dislocation, violence, famine and disease. The chaos of the events seems reflected in their analysis.

'Midnight's Furies' by American journalist Nisid Hajari (2015) covers much of the same ground in a somewhat more expansive and gripping way. Both books provide a balanced overview of a politically fraught period. Perhaps of interest to some, Hajari is from a Hindu-Indian and Jewish-American family, while Khan is of Pakistani and Anglo-Irish ancestry. I mention this as aspersions are often cast at the background and agenda of anyone who writes on the subject. 'The Great Partition' takes an unbiased approach, but the focus on vignettes falls short of a theme.

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A serviceable survey of the subject

November 5, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

One of the more sizeable holes in my knowledge of twentieth-century history concerns the partitioning of the British Raj -- the dividing up of the British colonial territory on the Indian subcontinent into two countries, Pakistan and India (and, later, yet a third, Bangladesh). To address my ignorance, I turned to this book, THE GREAT PARTITION: THE MAKING OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN, written by a professor at Oxford. I learned a lot, but can't say that I am wholly satisfied with the book.

THE GREAT PARTITION contains the basic facts: In 1946 and 1947, Great Britain, worn out and broke after World War II, abandoned the Raj; it cut its losses and ran. On June 3, 1947, it announced that the Raj would be partitioned and the constituent parts would be given their independence ten weeks hence, on August 15, 1947. As matters developed the lines of partition were not released until August 17, two days after the independence (and simultaneous birth) of India and Pakistan. Before partition, there had been widespread violence, primarily Muslims against Hindus and vice versa, but some of it involved Sikhs. That violence intensified after August 15th, and ethnic cleansing was conducted in many areas. One of the largest migrations in history ensued -- Muslims within the territory of India fleeing to East or West Pakistan, and Hindus fleeing from the two areas of Pakistan to India. About twelve million people were displaced. Hundreds of thousands died, in some accounts as many as a million.

Britain's drawing of national boundaries, on both the east and west of what became India (a total of 3,800 miles of border determination), was hasty and arbitrary. The imperial mapmaker, Cyril Radcliffe, had never been to India before he arrived on July 8th, and in six weeks he and his assistants had finished the job. Their line drawing was done remotely, working with maps and dubious census figures. It seems farcical.

One might naturally wonder whether an alternative to Partition was ever explored. The answer, as I learned from the book, is yes. In May 1946, a high-level British "Cabinet Mission" presented a plan that would have devolved power to Muslims within a united India. There would have been a central government to handle matters of foreign affairs and defense, but otherwise individual provinces would have enjoyed considerable autonomy, including the ability to join together on certain matters, thereby allowing large Muslim blocs to act in concert within the Indian Union. But diehards and extremists on both sides of the Muslim/Hindi religious divide rejected the plan, after which the more moderate leaders didn't fight against partition. As Nehru later admitted: "The truth is that we were tired men and we were getting on in years . . . The plan for partition offered a way out and we took it."

The book covers all the above and considerably more factual territory. In a way, it packs quite a bit of history into its 210 pages of text. Supplementing that text are a glossary, a timeline, four maps, and about two dozen photographs.

Nonetheless, I am not enthusiastic about the book. First, there are problems with the written presentation. Khan's prose is very smooth, but the text seems to have been written in discrete paragraphs, almost as if each was envisioned to stand alone. As a result, there is a choppiness to the presentation and, worse, considerable repetition of many points.

Second, I would like to have been given some idea of how things might have been handled differently. Near the end of the book, Khan writes that "[t]here was nothing inevitable * * * about the way that Partition unfolded." But never in the course of the book does she discuss how the former Raj could have become self-governing without hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of people transplanted, and a continuing state of religiously-based tension and hostility between abutting nations.

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Rajiv Chopra

Good... But Could Have Gone One Step More

March 16, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A well written book on the whole. This book takes a relatively unusual tack, in that it does not focus very much on the 'great leaders' of those times, but focusses a bit more on what happened on the ground, so to speak. It is the telling of an awful tale, a tale in which hundreds of thousands were killed and mutilated; a tale of the times when millions were displaced.

People do not often think that freedom can sometimes be an awful thing, and this is exactly what it must have been for many. What could have made the book stand out, for me, is if she had analysed the factors - and the effects - of the social transformation of the time. People identified themselves with their region, and not so much along religious lines. This changed. There are lessons in this, which we would do well to remember.

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The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan 10.6.2008 Edition