Partition Observed

These volumes reprint the accounts sent by British diplomats to London on the evolving situation in South Asia following Partition. U.K. diplomats were well placed to report on developments because of close links with Mountbatten's staff and also because many senior administrators and army officers in the new governments were either British nationals or had been former colleagues of the diplomats in pre-Partition India. Included here are accounts of Indian and Pakistan Cabinet meetings as well as of the proceedings of the Indian Cabinet's Emergency Committee set up in the wake of the Delhi disturbances of September 1947. Reports forwarded from the Deputy High Commissioners in Lahore and Peshawar include striking descriptions of the communal and refugee situation in those places. Of particular interest are the notes of discussions with Mountbatten, Jinnah, Nehru, Liaqat Ali Khan, Vallabhbhai Patel, Suhrawardy, Rajagopalachariar, Mrs Sarojini Naidu and other Governors and high officials. The last months of 1947 came to be dominated by events in Kashmir. The documents reproduced contain important background material on the insurgency and fighting including extracts from reports sent by diplomats in Afghanistan.