00 Prelims 1559 31/5/07 16:57 Page vii Contents List of Illustrations viii List of Maps x Acknowledgements xi List of Abbreviations xiii Glossary xv Timeline of Major Events, 1945–1950 xvii Introduction: The Plan 1 1 In the Shadow of War 11 2 Changing Regime 23 3 The Unravelling Raj 40 4 The Collapse of Trust 63 5 From Breakdown to Breakdown 81 6 Untangling Two Nations 104 7 Blood on the Tracks 128 8 Leprous Daybreak 143 9 Bitter Legacies 167 10 Divided Families 186 Epilogue 205 Notes 211 Select Bibliography 233 Index 243 00 Prelims 1559 31/5/07 16:57 Page viii Illustrations 1. Communist delegates marching during the Punjab Provincial Delegates Conference, 1945 © Sunil Janah, 1945, 2007. From the web archive at members.aol.com/sjanah (email: [email protected]). 2. Royal Indian Navy mutineers, Bombay, 1946 © Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. 3. Muslim League leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah holding a press confer- ence, Bombay, January 1946. Photograph by Margaret Bourke-White © Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. 4. People in Bombay lining up to vote in the general elections, 1946 © Sunil Janah, 1946, 2007 ([email protected], members.aol.com/sjanah). 5. A co-educational zoology class at Aligarh Muslim University, May 1946. Photograph by Margaret Bourke-White © Time & Life Pictures/ Getty Images. 6. Lord Pethick-Lawrence, member of the British Cabinet Mission dele- gation, looking over papers, 1946 © NMML. 7. A peace procession after the riots in Calcutta, 1946 © Sunil Janah, 1946, 2007 ([email protected], members.aol.com/sjanah). 8. Villagers in boats fleeing under cover of darkness from their burning villages during riots in Noakhali, an eastern district of undivided Bengal, 1946–7 © Sunil Janah, 1947, 2007 ([email protected], members. aol.com/sjanah). 9. Crowds look on during Gandhi’s visit to encourage Hindu–Muslim unity in Noakhali © NMML. 10. Muslims and Hindus attempt to promote peace by jointly flying the flags of the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress, Calcutta, 1946 © Sunil Janah, 1946, 2007 ([email protected], members.aol.com/ sjanah). 00 Prelims 1559 31/5/07 16:57 Page ix ILLUSTRATIONS ix 11. Nehru and Gandhi with refugees from West Pakistan at Haridwar, India, 1947 © NMML. 12. Nehru votes for Partition at the Congress Working Committee Meeting, 1947 © NMML. 13. Meeting of the Indian leaders with Mountbatten at which the plan to partition the subcontinent was agreed, Delhi, 2 June 1947 © NMML. 14. ‘A Happy Ending Indeed!’, cartoon from Hitavada, 15 August 1947 © NMML. 15. The departure of British troops, 1947 © NMML. 16. Muslim refugees on the roof of a train near New Delhi, 19 September 1947 © Associated Press/PA Photos. 17. ‘Battles Ahead’, cartoon from the National Herald, 15 August 1957 © NMML. 18. Refugees at a shelter near the border between West Bengal and the newly created East Pakistan, 1947 © Sunil Janah, 1947, 2007 ([email protected], members.aol.com/sjanah). 19. Men near the Indo-Pakistani border in Punjab placing bodies in a mass grave using a bulldozer, October 1947. Photograph by Margaret Bourke-White © Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. 20. Nehru addressing the crowds the day after Independence Day 1947, Delhi © NMML. 21. Lady Mountbatten touring riot devastation at Multan, Punjab © NMML. 22. News of Gandhi’s assassination reaches Calcutta, 1948 © Sunil Janah, 1948, 2007 ([email protected], members.aol.com/sjanah). 23. Nehru at a refugee township in Ludhiana, Punjab, 1949 © NMML. 24. Jinnah’s sister Fatima Jinnah surrounded by women during their weekly Saturday meeting making clothes for refugees at the Government House, Karachi, December 1947. Photograph by Margaret Bourke-White © Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. 25. Refugee children at Kurukshetra camp with Nehru and Lady Mountbatten February, 1949 © NMML. 00 Prelims 1559 31/5/07 16:57 Page x Maps 1 India before Partition xxii 2 India and Pakistan after Partition xxiii 3 The Radcliffe Line in Punjab xxiv 4 The Radcliffe Line in Bengal xxv.