This book place the partition of India in an international perspective to show how reasons of state and religious, ethnic or cultural division have been inextricably intertwined in creating the situations that have led to partition in different parts of the world. The partition of India was one of the most cataclysmic events in world history. The transfer of power to India and Pakistan in August 1947 was the first major act of decolonization by the British, with far-reaching consequences on their international power.   This book show how and why British interests and political division between Indian parties combined to bring about the partition of British India, ostensibly on a religious basis in August 1947.