«This book is at its most powerful in its month-by-month narrative of how Partition tore apart northern and eastern India, with the new state of Pakistan carved out of communities who had lived together for the past millennium’ Zareer Masani, BBC History Magazine

Between January and August 1947, the conflicting political, religious and social tensions in India culminated in independence from Britain and the creation of Pakistan. From September to December, the euphoria surrounding the dream of independence dissipated into shame and incrimination; nearly a million people died and countless more lost their homes and livelihoods as Partition was realized. The roots of much of the violence in the region today, and worldwide, are in the decisions taken that year.
Not only were those decisions controversial, but the people who made them were to become some of the most enduring characters
of the twentieth century. Gandhi and Nehru enjoyed almost saint-like status in India, and still do, while Jinnah is lionized in Pakistan. The British cast, from Churchill to Attlee and Mountbatten, find their contribution praised and damned in equal measure. Yet, it is not only the national players whose stories fascinate. Many of those ordinary people who witnessed the events of that year are still alive, illustrating the story of 1947 with their experiences – what independence and Partition meant to the farmers of the Punjab, those living in Lahore and Calcutta, or the soldiers in a divided and largely passive army. Partition will bring to life this terrible era for the Indian subcontinent.