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Borders and Conflict in South Asia: The Radcliffe Boundary Commission and the Partition of Punjab

Assistant professor of history and international affairs Lucy Chester’s Borders and Conflict in South Asia is the first full-length study of the 1947 drawing of the Indo-Pakistani boundary in Punjab. The book uses the Radcliffe commission as a window onto the decolonization and independence of India and Pakistan, and examines the competing interests, both internal and international, that influenced the actions of the various major players. It highlights British efforts to maintain a grip on India even as the decolonization process spun out of control and also demonstrates that it was not the location of the line but flaws in the larger partition process that caused the mass violence and chaos of 1947.