Muslims Against Partition of India — Revisiting the legacy of patriotic Muslims

Dr. Shamsul Islam has written the most neglected chapter in the history of the Indian freedom struggle: on Muslims who were opposed to Partition. Based on ground-breaking research, it is an outstanding contribution which should set the record straight in great measure.—Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Professor Emeritus, Stockholm University; *****"This important study on the Partition of India, based on contemporary original sources, suggests that in 1940-2 there was more support among Muslims for an undivided India than for the Pakistan option. The failure to remember voices, such as that of Allah Bakhsh, who opposed two-nation theory vehemently and paid with his life, has helped the Hindutva camp to divert attention from its own commitment to the two-nation theory".— Dr. Richard Bonney, Professor Emeritus, University of Leicester; ***** "Dr. Shamsul Islam’s book is a very timely intervention in the debate about the role of Muslims in India’s Partition. Relying on contemporary documents, he quashes the popular myth that India’s Partition was due to Muslims. He deserves all the credit for demolishing the two-nation theory and upholding the values of composite Indian nationalism, which majority of Indian Muslims adhered to." —Dr. Ram Puniyani, Chairman, Center for Study of Society & Secularism, Mumbai; ***** "Muslims against Partition, who paid with their lives for Hindu-Muslim unity, have been written out of history in official Pakistani discourse for obvious reasons. More shockingly, they were written out of Indian history as well. It is this glaring missing chapter that Shamsul Islam’s matter-of-fact, meticulously researched and immensely readable book, gloriously fills." —Anand Patwardhan, renowned author & film-maker.