The Man Who Divided India
The Man Who Divided India
Author:  Dr. Rafiq Zakaria
ISBN:  81-7154-892-X
Format:   Hard Cover
List Price:   275.00/-

Even after the lapse of over fifty years, the question of how and why India was divided remains unresolved; various theories are propounded; not all historians are agreed. Some blame Gandhi and the Congress for not having been realistic enough to settle the Hindu-Muslim dispute amicably; others hold the Muslim league guilty for vitiating the atmosphere by its pernicious Two-Nation theory and taking the hostility between them to a breaking point. The British no doubt played their divisive role and all through kept the two communities apart.

Nevertheless, there is unanimity that, irrespective of the causes, it was Jinnah who finally brought about the division; Nehru and Patel failed to resist him. Why did Jinnah do it? What was his motive? He galvanised the Muslims to take the separatist path in the name of Islam. He convinced them, that unless and until they separated themselves from the Hindus, they would forever be under the latters subjugation. Why did he do this? Did he do it because of his love for Islam? Was it indeed to free the Muslims from Hindu domination? Although he got Pakistan, he put two-thirds of the Muslims permanently under the Hindus.

Then, was it his ego which drove him to carve out an independent kingdom for himself? The celebrated author of international repute, Dr. Rafiq Zakaria, traces the chequered career of Jinnah from his birth to death, probes every aspect of his political life, and gives a lucid and penetrating insight into his relentless pursuit of power which eventually resulted in the division of India and the bloody and disastrous aftermath that followed in its wake and which has continued to destabilise South Asia ever since.