An American Witness to India’s Partition

In 1938 the New York-based Institute of Current World Affairs awarded 23-year-old Phillips Talbot a fellowship with a mandate: visit South Asia and learn about the intricacies of life in India. Till 1950, Talbot graphically recounted the buildup to Indian and Pakistani Independence and the early experiences of the new states, in the form of several letters to the institute. Talbot’s reports from the field, presented here in the original, offer a Kaleidoscope of first-hand observations: on student life at the Aligarh Muslim University, local life in a Small Muslim Community in Kashmir, a Vedic Ashram in Lahore, Tagore’s Shantiniketan, Gandhi’s Sevagram, crucial sessions of the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League, the Kodaikanal Ashram Fellowship, Hindu and Muslim Urban Communities in Lahore and Bombay, Afghanistan, a walk with Gandhi in Noakhali, the parties’ negotiations with Mountbatten that led to independence and more. Written with flair and insight, An American Witness to India’s Partition, provides a perceptive view of South Asian Society in its decisive decade.