Nagarkar’s book is yet another example of the heart-searching of the troubled generation that witnessed Partition. His motives, as stated in the preface, are admirable—to cut through the syndrome of the search for the ‘Guilty’, to discard ‘simplistic’ and ‘inadequate’ analysis, and seek an ‘objective’ answer. His reading is extensive and includes the latest seminar papers on communalism, the voluminous papers entitled The Transfer of Power, and Wavell’s The Viceroy’s Journal. His book is lengthy, and covers a very wide area, stretching from references to the Wahabis, the Arya Samaj, and early Indian nationalism, right upto 1947.
April 1976, volume 1, No 2