India in the Interim
The 1947–1951 Government

This archival history shows aspects of governance in India from August 1947 to October 1951 that highlight its interim nature.

Rakesh Ankit (Author)

9781009525268, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 January 2025

266 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.2 cm, 0.55 kg

This book looks at the governmental interregnum from August 1947 to the start of the first general election in October 1951, and is a narrative of some of its intermediate moments in light of contemporary politics. It is a multi-track chronicle, which draws attention to its discrete, if not determining, impact on the following decade of consolidation. While it is also a map of the prime minister's words and actions, drawn as it is mainly from his papers, it is embedded in the government. It describes a time of transitional governance in independent India's early political history and gives a glimpse of its multiple individual traits, identity tensions, and institutional trends. The Nehruvian gaze traced here shows what a constant flux governing in those unsettled post-partition years was.

Acknowledgements
1. June 1948–March 1949
2. April–December 1949
3. 1950
4. 'Captain who…steered India…'
5. 1951
Epilogue
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]