ABSTRACT
Apart from the carnage at the time of partition, the transfer of power was a peaceful affair. The freedom movement had come to an end without a dramatic triumph. There was no revolution. The institutional heritage of British India was taken over as a going concern. The major heritage of the freedom movement was the National Congress itself, which Gandhi had organised with such great skill and devotion. Now that freedom had been achieved, Gandhi advised that the National Congress should be dissolved because he had never thought of it as a party but as a national forum. Free India should now have political parties with their distinct programmes, Gandhi argued. His advice went unheeded and the National Congress survived as a large centrist party, though other parties did emerge on its fringes in due course.
