Quotes from Rajmohan Gandhi

Punjabi political leaders who finally joined the Muslim League' apparently 'hoped that that the concession of Pakistan in name' would somehow preserve 'a united India in fact'.

Ambedkar viewed the pact as a compromise benefiting everyone, including the Dalits, an inference confirmed by the fact that only two years after writing his 1945 text Ambedkar began the process of steering the passage of a Constitution that incorporated the pact.

If the price of peace on India's streets was capitulation to the Empire and its threats, Gandhi was not willing to pay that price.

Every Indian election in the eighty-two years since the pact— whether nationwide or in a state, town or village—has been conducted on the basis of that pact, with reserved seats for Dalits but without a separate electorate.

John Lawrence also announced 'the severest penalties' for sati and another tragic practice: the destruction of 'leprous persons by burying them alive or throwing them into water'.

Goods and cash worth crores of rupees lie buried to my knowledge in the palace of my late father-in-law (Qamruddin) besides heaps of gold and silver stored inside the ceiling. Complete disagreement exists among the emperor, his wazirs and nobles. If you invade India this time, the Indian Empire with all its riches of crores will fall into your hands.

one who breaks an unjust law, must do it openly and lovingly

The British had four distinct armies in India. The smallest consisted of the purely British 'Queen's Regiments'. The other three were the racially mixed 'presidency' armies

In the 1840s, these three armies contained around 40,000 whites and 250,000 Indians. No white served under an Indian, and the highest paid Indian earned less than the lowest paid Briton.

the speed with which the British left after announcing Independence and Partition may have been, in his words, 'the most contemptible single act in the annals of the Empire' (p 77).

Maharani Jindan evidently approached the British with the suggestion that 'they may destroy the [kingdom's] army' and take the boy-king under their protection.

Tej Singh had scrupulously 'refrained from attacking [Ferozepur] and secretly informed the British of his goodwill'.

Gulab Singh had kept in close touch with the British. Unlike many of the others, the Dogra chief had also ensured that his personal coffers were full.

Khaliquzzaman suggests that if Jinnah had responded positively to Gandhi in 1944, a peaceful separation might indeed have replaced the 1947 tragedy.

the address urged the Empire through its Viceroy to remember 'not merely' the Muslims' 'numerical strength' but also their 'political importance', their service 'in defence of the Empire', and their past position, lasting until 'a little more than a hundred years ago', as India's rulers.

the Empire had enabled Sayyid Ahmed's ideological successors to walk off with the prize of a separate Muslim electorate in India as a whole.

Dheedo says: 'Moments that sail past do not return; fortunes lost will not come back; a word uttered cannot be recalled; the released arrow does not revert to the bow; the escaped soul does not re-enter a dead body.

despite the clashes we have been recording—amity 'among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs… subsisted in the eighteenth century' in Punjab.

a minority community would have 'weightage', i.e. a representation larger than what the population ratio warranted

Churchill's keenness on dividing India, his instruction to Viceroy Wavell in 1945 that he should not leave India before splitting it into 'into Pakistan, Hindustan, Princestan etc.'

Timur again crossed the Indus in an attempt to join up with the emperor. But the Sikhs once more blocked his path

the essence of a reliable and stable military lay in a contented peasantry.

On his way back, however, 'the Sikhs plundered [Abdali's] baggage, and cut off the stragglers of the Afghan party'. Evidently the Afghan king was 'much incensed

As Ochterlony moved up towards the Sutlej, chiefs welcomed him in several places, including Patiala, Nabha and Jind.