Changing Homelands

While much of the literature on the partition of South Asia into India and Pakistan has focused on the activities of Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Muslim League and the decisions of the British colonialists, Nair (history, U. of Virginia) here shifts the focus to the role of Punjabi Hindus in shaping events that were far from inevitable in her view. Focusing on key events and developments from the 1920s onwards, she identifies the operations of a form of Hindu nationalism that worked at odds with other anti-colonial movements that united the concerns of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs and unearths the competing political proposals for protecting the interests of various communities. While she places more emphasis on the responsibility of Hindu nationalism for the emergence of partition over a united India, she blames the horrific violence that accompanied partition on political breakdowns that had been foreseen by the British and not on religious fanaticism. Finally, she addresses the issue of memory and current Indo-Pakistani and communal relations. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)