Independence Years: The Selected Indian and Commonwealth Papers of Nicholas Mansergh

This volume consists of a series of articles and lectures that offer a historical commentary on the events leading to India’s independence and subsequent developments. Decolonization and the replacement of the British Empire by a multi-racial Commonwealth may now seem foregone conclusions, but Mansergh shows how difficult and uncertain these were at the time. Some of the essays were written immediately after the events they describe; they therefore carry freshness and immediacy. Others analyse partition and membership of the Commonwealth by the new republic. These issues are related to Irish parallels which influenced the thinking of Indian and British leaders of that period. As well as discussing the process leading to independence and partition, this volume includes essays on the influence of new Asian members on the Commonwealth in the 1950s and 1960s, when that body was still an active vehicle for decolonization. The volume concludes with reappraisals of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, and retrospective views on partition and its consequences.