A Bridge of Transition to the Postcolonial

This book is focused on a critical period of contemporary South Asian history. It attempts a micro-history of the extraordinary 11 months between September 1946 and August 1947 during which an “Interim Government,” with both the Congress and Muslim League as partners, held office in New Delhi. Rakesh Ankit’s aim is to analyse the context, course and consequences of the Interim Government’s policies. He also seeks to delineate the processes, experiences and structures that shaped the transfer of power and partition.

Ankit argues that the regime at the helm was made up of a “strange amalgamation of individuals and institutions, structures and processes, and networks and agents” (p xi) and, as such, deserves to be studied on its own terms and not treated cursorily as an epilogue to empire, or a prelude to partition. His work raises several important questions: How did the Interim Government impact the emerging Indian state? To what extent did its policies and interventions affect sections of Indian society?