The struggle for India’s independence occupied much of the first half of the last century. The result, when it came, was tragic; India got its independence but the country was also partitioned in two—something that the leaders who fought for freedom had not expected. How and why it happened are questions that have intrigued historians ever since.  

In Mohan and Muhammad: Gandhi, Jinnah and the Break-up of British India, Meghnad Desai has taken the two principal personalities—Mohandas Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, now thought to be two principal antagonists of the struggle—to bring out the similarities and parallels in their lives, their views and their interactions. While they struggled to win independence for the country they had grown up in, for which they gave up their lives, but all of that culminated in their beloved country getting divided. It is a moving, and ultimately heart-breaking, story.