Historiography of India’s Partition: An Analysis of Imperialist Writings

An attempt has been made in this book to examine the writings of the Oxbridge scholars who have based their studies on different assumptions and have tried to cover various issues related to the partition of India. The author has made a serious effort to trace the course of the British historiography of India’s partition. In the light of new research and facts, several age-old, deliberate but fallacious assumptions and constructs have been deconstructed. In the process of this analysis several gaps have been detected and the underlying aims of the imperialist efforts have been exposed. On the top of it, various sophisticated versions of the theories of ‘civilizing mission’ and ‘whiteman’s burden’ in the post-colonial context have been challenged on several counts. In spite of several changes in the imperialist writings, it has been found that even the neo-imperial historians have been extending their support to the several myths, deliberately created by the orthodox imperial ideologues about India’s past and present. The only difference is that the former have been more delicate and sophisticated in their presentations. Thus, this book opens up new areas for further research and will generate more curiosity among the students of Indian, Pakistani and British history and those who are concerned with the problems of nationalism and decolonisation.