A densely written and laborious book with a huge amount of ground level detail. Purports to examine the growth of Muslim (and Hindu!) nationalism in the Indian subcontinent during a particular phase in the 1920s. Constitutional reforms introduced in 1920 bring to the fore differences in the interests of Muslims and the Congress; Jinnah's lack of success, by 1928, in getting Congress to agree to safeguards desired by the Muslims, brings to an end the possibilities of their working together. Thus the book argues that the seeds of Partition were sown during this early phase of constitutional reform, and the main reasoning seems to be that communal interests were the best vehicle to gain political advantage. Subsequent to the period dealt with, the main feature happened to be the alienation of the Muslim interests from the Congress ministries elected under the Govt of India Act 1935. The analysis throws up a larger question with ominous portents for the fate of our polity today: is the logic of electoral politics bound to accentuate communal and ethnic divides? ( )