The shadow of the great game - Narendra Singh Sarila

Historians and political analysts have not paid enough attention to the crucial link between India's partition and British strategic interests: fears about the USSR gaining control of the oil wells of the Middle East; and the importance of continued access to the Indian Ocean. Once the British leaders realised the Indian nationalists would not join them to play the Great Game against the Soviet Union, they settled for those who would. In the process, they did not hesitate to use Islam as a political tool to suit their purposes. The use of Islam for political purposes has since been making itself felt worldwide.

The top-secret documentary evidence unearthed by the author sheds new light on several prominent figures, including Gandhi, Jinnah, Mountbatten, Churchill, Attlee, Wavell and Nerhu. The book also brings out little-known facts about the pressure the USA exerted on Britain to give India independence and examines the roots of the Kashmir imbroglio. This radical reassessment of one of the key events in British colonial history is important in itself, but its claim that many of the roots of Islamic terrorism sweeping the world today lie in the partition of India has much wider implications.