ABSTRACT
In the year preceding independence/partition on 15 August 1947, India experienced a continuous stream of Hindu-Muslim riots across the country. It was a civil war in a not very civil society. The war climaxed in the partition of Indica into India and Pakistan.2 The partition, an event which was unforeseen as late as the end of 1946, was hastily decided upon within weeks of the arrival of Mountbatten as the last British Viceroy in March 1947. In the aftermath of partition and the flood of fleeing families-Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs who managed to cross the recently drawn borders alive-there followed even more riots. Nehru was appalled at these events (see Gopal 1979, chapter 1), and so too was Gandhi, who eventually died trying to stop Hindu-Muslim violence. Communal riots and the forces that may eventuate in them-communalism-have been for ever the nightmare of the Indian polity.
