Spirals of Contention: Why India was Partitioned in 1947

This study examines the social and psychological processes that led to the Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. It recognizes the long-term continuities in the idiom of conflict (as well as cooperation), and shows that, by 1900, the conflicts and animosities were gathering a self-aggravating momentum. The book moves back and forth between evidence and general, or theoretical, understanding.

Separateness between Hindus and Muslims grew reciprocally, with hardening religious identitie...